I have hard time fully appreciating Aladdin or any of the other licensed platformers from that era. This was at the point when the genre was as saturated as dudebro shooters are today, and they did not do enough to really stand out mechanically or design-wise. Games like Aladdin, The Jungle Book, Lion King etc. fail to hold my interest past the first 2 levels or so.
This doesn't make much sense, those games have very different gameplay. Sure, they do have some visual similarities, but the gameplay in each of those three games is very different!
Aladdin is the most straightforward and approachable of the three, in terms of design. It doesn't have blind jumps, unlike Cool Spot or Global Gladiators, and does have great gameplay, graphics, design, and everything else. Levels are somewhat open, but you usually have a clear idea of where you should be going.
The Jungle Book visually looks a lot like Aladdin, sure, but play it for a bit and you'll notice it doesn't play nearly as well. Apparently this is because Dave Perry's team left partway through development of the game, so it was finished by other, not quite as skilled, people. The game has larger and less straightforward levels. As much as I like Aladdin, this one isn't nearly as fun.
As for The Lion King, that's a game with great graphics (particularly on SNES), but I've never liked its gameplay. I think it's a clear case of a graphics-before-gameplay title. I might be biased against the game because I got the Game Boy version back in the mid '90s and it's even worse than the Genesis or SNES versions in terms of gameplay and controls (gah, the GB games' controls are so annoying!), but even on SNES, it's just not that great of a game beyond its outstanding graphics. The play controls are frustrating, the difficulty level is sometimes too high, level designs are decent but not great, etc.
Cool Spot... haven't played it as much, but I pretty much gave up early on thanks to being really annoyed by the blind jumps. Global Gladiators I gave a bit more of a chance, but also dislike because of the blind-jumps-over-death-pits design which is central to the game.
So no, these games are definitely not similar beyond the visual level.
They are great games and I'm very nostalgic for them as well, but they would not be on my top 100. Marble and Labyrinth Zone kill this game for me. Golden Axe is a great game, but I prefer the 2nd. As for Aladdin, the Genesis version is amazing to look at, but the overall experience is better on the SNES.
What's so bad about Marble Zone? I don't mind at all that they tried a slower-paced Sonic level. It's the first game, they didn't know what would work... and I like that level, it's fun. Labyrinth Zone is a pain though, sure, but so are all of the classic Sonic water levels, the water levels in 2 and beyond aren't much better...
As for Golden Axe II, yeah, the sequel is pretty good too. The third game and the second arcade game are pretty good too. I do like the first on the most, though. That may be partially nostalgia, but it is also the most original of them, the other two Genesis games are basically the same thing but with new settings and maybe a few new moves and such. They're great, but not something new like the first game.
Aladdin I address above of course, but ... SNES Aladdin, I really disagree on that one. I do have both SNES and Genesis Aladdin, and the SNES game is a bland, average platformer which I lost interest in a couple of levels into the game and never returned to. The Genesis game absolutely crushes it. Of course the Genesis game has better graphics too, but the better gameplay is more important.
Its two sequels are even better, but Sonic 1 is a great classic on its own.
