Beauty and the Beast - Belle's Quest

a game by The Walt Disney Company, and Software Creations

Adventure/RPG, Educational/Kids, Platformer /  

"Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest is an arcade/quest game, based on the story from the movie."

Screenshots

  • Beauty and the Beast - Belle's QuestBeauty and the Beast - Belle's QuestBeauty and the Beast - Belle's QuestBeauty and the Beast - Belle's Quest

Sunsoft had a great idea-take the Beauty and the Beast license and create two games, one that appeals to girls and the other two boys. In Belle's Quest, gamers play as Belle, the heroine of the classic animated Disney movie. Although the game is beautiful to behold and closely follows the plot of the movie, its game play isn't exciting enough to hold the interest of any gamers.

ProTip: Belle needs help from Gaston to successfully leave the Village.

A Rose by Any Other Name

To find the Beast and save him, Belle must venture through four areas, solving puzzles, working through mazes, and finding missing objects, or completing other adventure-game tasks. Some of the movie's characters, like Gaston and Lumiere, make brief appearances during the game, but they don't figure largely in the game play.

To get out of the Forest safely, Belle has to go North whenever she sees a Yellow Rose, East when she sees a White Rose, and Northwest when she sees a Red Rose.

The game's challenge is geared for younger gamers, but it's too advanced for children who cannot read well (you have to read to solve the puzzles). Older kids will find that the puzzles and problems Belle has to solve in each stage are few and far between -- a lot of time is spent just walking from place to place, creating repetitive and monotonous game play. Even worse, when Belle's lives run out, she returns to the beginning of the game.

You can't drop more than five books in the Village's Bookshop.

Be Our Guest

Belle can walk, jump, duck, and pick things up. The three-button controls are simple, though novices may take mucho damage by mixing up duck and jump (a big frustration for little fingers). Belle moves slowly compared to other video game characters, which can be very annoying when you're trying to retrace your steps for the umpteenth time.

In the West Wing, pull drawers open to look for hidden items.

On the bright side, beautiful graphics capture the Disney animation well, and a lot of energy was spent on cinematic screens that retell the "tale as old as time." Unfortunately, the text in the text boxes is tiny and difficult to read. The Disney tunes, though, help to enhance the ambiance, and they're guaranteed to make fans of the movie sing along.

The West Wing contains a room with a Mirror, and it conceals a 1-up in its far right comer.

Provincial Game

Belle's Quest is a great idea, but it's poorly executed. Kudos to Sunsoft for trying to make a game that appeals to girls, but unfortunately this beauty is a beast.

Other games by The Walt Disney Company

  • Aladdin Aladdin is one of the finest platformers ever. It combines pick-up-and-play gameplay with one of the smoothest game engines out there, as well as some of the most detailed graphics ever.
  • The Lion King You think you want to be King? Get real. You're starting life as Simba, the cub. To survive and grow into a powerful adult lion, you must perfect your savage pounce, reckless roar and master fighting with all four paws. If you survive the challenge, you'll grow into a strong, ferocious adult lion. So prepare to scrap with hyenas. Blast through an elephant graveyard. Battle an in-your-face stampede of trampling wildebeests. And you'd better quit hanging with slackers like Timon and Pumbaa, unless you want to be scarfing bugs the rest of your life! Are you sure you want to be King? Then it's time to cut loose in the deadliest one-on-one brawl ever. Defeat your evil Uncle Scar. Recapture the Pridelands. And reclaim your rightful place in the Circle of Life!
  • Ariel - The Little Mermaid You control either Ariel the mermaid or her father, King Triton. Friends like Flounder and Sebastian can also be summoned for a little helping hand.
  • Jungle Book Your job is to guide young Mowgli, the man-cub, through the dangers of the jungle, defeating some of Africa's vilest villains, leading up to, and including, the tiger, Sheer-Kahn.

Game Reviews

Beauty and the Beast -- Belle's Quest is a Disney video game which follows the story of the very popular movie series called Beauty and the Beast. The game was released in 1993 for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and along Roar of the Beast is one of the two Beauty and the Beast franchise games for Sega’s platform.

The story from the game is exactly the one from the movie. Belle and the Beast fall in love though they are very different. And yes, the Beast becomes a prince at some point in time. There is nothing new in the plot. Sure, the story from the game is not as detailed as the one in the movie, but you will get the same idea from both of the productions. There are also some cut scenes from the movie in the game, which offer the story more credibility and remembers the players about the great movie Beauty and the Beast was.

The gameplay was not very popular in this game. Belle’s Quest is a side-scrolling game, but not really a platform one. There are several levels in the game which the player has to finish in order to move on to the next stage. For getting to the second level you have to talk to Gaston and answer his questions right. According to several reviews, the game is fine until Gaston allows you to move on. From there it becomes bad.

Though the game looks simple, some of the actions you are required to do are not that simple. Jumping on water-lilies over the lake to reach the other side is not as easy as it sounds. Finding the right path to exit the woods is not a joy either.

The gameplay was considered boring by some of the reviewers, though I am pretty sure children enjoyed it. However, as you will see in the last paragraph of this article, the game was never mean to be a hit.

The music in the game was fine. It was actually the exact same music as in the movie, but it does not matter as long as it fits with the action and plot. The music is different from a level to another, which makes this game a bit less boring.

Beauty and the Beast - Belle's Quest, which was released in the beginning of the 90s, was not as popular as the movie was. Small kids enjoyed the game and played it often, but at some point in time it got boring for them as well. The action is repetitive in some of the levels and getting to the next stage will drive the players crazy.

Critics on GameSpot rated this game with 6.2, while the users rated it with 6.5 out of 10, which is not that impressive. GameFAQs users were even harsher, offering this game a disappointing 3.0 out of 10. The average from GameRankings was 6.3, but none of these feedbacks shows the game was popular. It was just meant to be for Beauty and the Beast fans; I do not believe any other users would enjoy this game.

reggie posted a review · View
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