The Super Nintendo, and Game Gear ports of Disney's Aladdin are drastically different to ports on other consoles. SEGA had rights to publish Disney related video games and had a collaboration with Disney's animation studios. SEGA tasked Virgin to program the game. This version ended up on most systems (including the NES and Game Boy). The Game Gear port was programmed by SIMS instead of Virgin Interactive, so gameplay and level design is slightly different. The Super Nintendo version (and by extension the GBA port) was developed by Capcom. Capcom still had rights to develop Disney related games on Nintendo consoles, so they made their own game with different gameplay and levels.

A long-standing debate exists over which of the two Aladdin ports - one for SNES made by Capcom and one for Sega Genesis made by Virgin Games - is actually the better version. Game designer Shinji Mikami, who made the SNES version, actually claims the Genesis port is better:


Mikami cites other problems for the SNES port besides the lack of bladed weapons. The cover art also did not include the "Genie" character, who is the most iconic member of the cast. This upset a lot of fans of the movie. Mikami said:


According to Polygon and game director Dave Perry, who created the Genesis port of the game, the lack of Genie on the front cover could have had something to do with actor Robin Williams and his annoyance at the way Disney was using his character's likeness in promotional materials, such as video games:


Dave Perry was happy to hear about how Shinji Mikami felt about his port of the game. Ironically, his opinion was opposite of Mikami's about both Aladdin games: