"100+ LEVELS/1850+ SCREENS", Kid Chameleon's boxart/cover proudly proclaims. While SEGA Technical Institute's (SEGA's north-american R&D branch from the 90's) underrated Genesis platformer is quite the massive game for it's time and console, these two quasi-statements are actually false.The (probably intentional) confusion may come from the game's crazy level structure and the warp system that ties it all together.
At first sight, KC is a standard 90's western platformer with a transformation-based powerup system [i[borrowed from Super Mario Bros. 3 and an incredibly high difficulty level, and well... It actually is pretty much that, except the powerup system is really smart (even more so than SMB3's) and the level progression is closer to the japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (yes, the infamously difficult one) and later, three-dimensional platformers. Each level is fairly open, and the prize for exploring each nook and cranny are (besides the typical secret rooms filled with useful items and alternate paths) "warp platforms" that take you to either another part of the level (yellow-tipped platforms), to another level, (red-tipped platforms) or to the mysterious land of Elsewhere, which has no typical end-of-level flags and acts as the game's "hub world" due to it having a portal to every single level in the game and almost no danger. However, it's also completely disjointed, being split apart in multiple sections/screens with the exact same "title card", music and visuals but no way to explore it at your will.
Your objective in Kid Chameleon is to traverse through this warp-platform hell and defeat the game's antagonist, the evil disembodied head known as "Heady Metal" (groan), that normally appears three times through your adventure to challenge you (The Kid). Now, you would have thought that the boss is pre-set to appear every few levels, according to platforming traditions, right? Nope! You'll only stumble with HM if you go through specific stages, and it's entirely possible to only face him/it once (since the last boss fight is mandatory) and beat the game.
It's in the freedom of choice of paths that Kid Chameleon's brilliance truly lies - will you avoid warp platforms and beat Wild Side through the "normal" route? Or are you a speedrunner, always looking for the fastest routes and ways to beat the games you play? You can even get risky and hop on every platform you see, just to check out what happens (although you'll probably take a lot of time to beat the game this way)! It's all up to you!~
"100+ LEVELS/1850+ SCREENS", Kid Chameleon's boxart/cover proudly proclaims. While SEGA Technical Institute's (SEGA's north-american R&D branch from the 90's) underrated Genesis platformer is quite the massive game for it's time and console, these two quasi-statements are actually false.The (probably intentional) confusion may come from the game's crazy level structure and the warp system that ties it all together.
At first sight, KC is a standard 90's western platformer with a transformation-based powerup system [i[borrowed from Super Mario Bros. 3 and an incredibly high difficulty level, and well... It actually is pretty much that, except the powerup system is really smart (even more so than SMB3's) and the level progression is closer to the japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (yes, the infamously difficult one) and later, three-dimensional platformers. Each level is fairly open, and the prize for exploring each nook and cranny are (besides the typical secret rooms filled with useful items and alternate paths) "warp platforms" that take you to either another part of the level (yellow-tipped platforms), to another level, (red-tipped platforms) or to the mysterious land of Elsewhere, which has no typical end-of-level flags and acts as the game's "hub world" due to it having a portal to every single level in the game and almost no danger. However, it's also completely disjointed, being split apart in multiple sections/screens with the exact same "title card", music and visuals but no way to explore it at your will.
Your objective in Kid Chameleon is to traverse through this warp-platform hell and defeat the game's antagonist, the evil disembodied head known as "Heady Metal" (groan), that normally appears three times through your adventure to challenge you (The Kid). Now, you would have thought that the boss is pre-set to appear every few levels, according to platforming traditions, right? Nope! You'll only stumble with HM if you go through specific stages, and it's entirely possible to only face him/it once (since the last boss fight is mandatory) and beat the game.
It's in the freedom of choice of paths that Kid Chameleon's brilliance truly lies - will you avoid warp platforms and beat Wild Side through the "normal" route? Or are you a speedrunner, always looking for the fastest routes and ways to beat the games you play? You can even get risky and hop on every platform you see, just to check out what happens (although you'll probably take a lot of time to beat the game this way)! It's all up to you!~