The NES version of the game features a hidden invincibility cheat that can be enabled by going through a set of unique conditions. Set the Skill level in the Options menu to Cub. Start a new game, complete The Pridelands, then collect one bonus bug in The Mane Event and complete the stage with exactly 2 lives left. Pause the Timon and Pumbaa's Bug Patrol game and press B, A, Right, Down. If done correctly, the game will automatically unpause. Exit the game, then lose all your lives in the Elephant Graveyard stage and select "No" on the Continue screen. The next time a new game is started, Simba will be invulnerable.

There is an additional secret that can be found after enabling this cheat. Instead of starting a new game, go to the Options menu, select any option except "Exit", hold either Up or Left (or both), and press A. This will cause the skill level to change to "Boy Love". "Boylove" is a term used by pro-pedophilia activists, most notoriously by the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).

What makes the appearance of this term more suspicious is the presence of a pair of Bible verses found within the game's code that with knowledge of the prior secret sound pederastic outside of their original contexts; the first verse listed below can also be found in the code of the Game Boy version of the game:


For reference, the antiquated meaning of "suffer" in this context is "to allow" or "to tolerate", and "unto" is an antiquated way of saying "to".

In the NES version of the game, the wrong song (The Pridelands) is played on the Stampede level.

The Nintendo Entertainment System release of Disney's The Lion King was the last officially licensed game released for the console in any region. The game was released exclusively in Europe on May 25, 1995, around half a year after the North American release of Wario's Woods (the last NES game officially released in that region) and three months before the console's discontinuation on August 14. Meanwhile, it's believed that the last unlicensed NES game to be released before the console's discontinuation is Sunday Funday: The Ride, a Christian-themed reskin of another unlicensed game Menace Beach, but the exact date of this game's release remains unknown beyond the box art having a copyright year of 1995.