Kid Chameleon is 1-player platforming game for Sega Genesis that was developed by Sega of America's own division: STI – Sega Technical Institute. Kinda funny to think that STI was supposed to create IPs when none of their games ever got a sequel, ha. It was released in 1992 and came on 8 Megabit cartridge, quite standard by that time.
And yep, I just called it 1-player, despite the game having 2-players option. That's because it's not real simultaneous multiplayer, instead it's old-school “taking turns” one, where game switches between two separate game sessions.
The game that you have here is nothing more than emulation of Sega Genesis version.
Now, technical part about Sega's emulation here:
The Sega Classic games that you purchase on Steam count as DLCs for "Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics" game that should appear in your library.
It has Bedroom HUB which is the one with many features yet lags for many and Simply Launcher which lacks Workshop and Online but at least it works just fine for everybody.
However, Simple Launcher has it's fair share of glitches as well. It can crash. And it does the second time you go to main menu, so always quit after saving there so it doesn't crash when you want to save next time!
Emulation itself, mostly sound, isn't that good but it does it's job. Also, yes, emulator supports quick saves.
As alternative, you can use external emulator to run games that you purchased. Sega kindly placed in all games that you purchased in "uncompressed ROMs" folder that program itself doesn't use, just change file extension to ".bin" or so. The file for this one being "KIDCHAM_UE.68K".
I also demand you to read digital manual of this game first. You can find it here on store page or go to "manuals" folder of game root and open "KC_PC_MG_EFIGS_US_150ppi.pdf".
There is no online function for "multiplayer" of this game. This hotseat isn't working as online always forces second controller on someone while it requires the first controller for both players. Can still do local.
Heady Metal, aka Plethora, the boss AI, has escaped it's scripted existence and is now trapping kids in West Side game machine which uses top-awesome hologram technology to create reality not of our own. Since it's not time for System Shock 3 yet, our savior is Kid Chameleon, the toughest kid around in black jacket and sunglasses, being all 90s. He can fully into powerful hero when wearing masks.
Indeed, as said it's a platforming game. And your first impression will be that it's very Mario-like. Getting to the end of the level, jumping onto enemies, the boxes that hang in the air that you can crush from below by jumping. Items get dropped from said blocks. Kinda like Sega's more direct answer to Mario, like Alex Kidd, but this one is actually fun. It's also a very block/tile based game in level design. It has this western PC DOS games feel to it, as if developers first developed level design tools and only then tried to quickly make lots of cool levels with them, with all the various blocks they had available. They sure aren't that predictable, sometimes they give you a challenging path only to have disappointing rewards. Or opposite.
Protip: Hold down to see what's below. Use it often.
Still, I wish the base physics were implemented a bit better. Sliding over the needed block or missing ahoy! Especially when you are in Red Stealth, samurai form, who has biggest jump but slides the most. Also, the speed impacts your jump height, remember that.
And yep, imagine this. Kid Chameleon has not one, not three, not eight thousands, but nine powerups. Nine helmets, upon picking which you transform into different characters, restoring your health bar as well. All having their own special abilities, like knight who has 5 health pipes and can climb up the wall. Of course you get them from the blocks that level designers put for you, but you can keep the one that you are wearing. And if you lose all health while transformed then you go back to your usual puny kid form, who at least can flip up the blocks.
Protip: I bet that you think that diamonds that drop from most of power blocks act like coins, giving life for collecting 100 of them. Wrong! Instead, if you press Run+Start you will use diamond powers, which depends on what character you currently are. 20 or 50 cost. Most interestingly, Knight gives 1 additional health pipe until death on 50 diamonds use and Maniaxe gives extra life for that. And some transformations just have a really cheap attack. I just wish they weren't so grindy, having to smash power blocks one by one. Ah, if only diamonds were already pre-placed in stages.
Also
It's a platformer game with 100+ levels.
That many.
Without saves or passwords. A marathon!
Well, emulator-side savestates aside.
Actually, you don't have to play all of those 100+ levels. Around 1/3 of them are just Elsewheres – tiny bonus levels between wraps. Furthermore, the game isn't completely linear. The levels usually have flag exits that sends you forward. But levels later on often include teleporters that aren't quite so predictable. Some will teleport you back to the start of the levels. Or they will teleport you few levels forward. Or maybe it will sends you to longer alternative path. Who knows.
Well, alright, the levels are still placed in fairly linear way, most of the time, but there is quite a few alternative paths. Like, if you would rather play three levels than some hard one. Maybe you just hate levels where you are getting chased by screen-tall murder drill wall. There are also no bad warps that send you to the beginning of the game, so thank god for that. You can even find wraps that will let you skip quarter of a game.
Not to mentioning that the more you play the faster you are going to pass the stages. Learning about secrets wraps. Learning which power boxes contain useful items like lives and helmets. It's a kind of a game where at some stages you are going to lose 30 lives, cursing at the game, as you try to beat this stage, with game having no checkpoints. But the more you play it the easier it will become until it gets to the point where you can one-life said stage, maybe on the next walkthrough. Plus, the fact that there is no saving or password means that you really get to learn all the stages. And yea, you can find a huge amount of lives and continues if you explore the levels.
None the less, I still wish it was overall 25% shorter. Still takes too long. But hey, you can always use emulator-side saves. Even if you are vanilla-mode only player you can still use it instead of pausing and leaving program open.
And yep, game got options. Nothing much there. Can swap controls. Can set if you run or walk by default. And can set if 2 player mode would use one controller or each players has to use their own.
And as said, 2 players mode is just old-school “taking turns” between two unconnected game sessions. Some old games had those, used to be pretty fancy for families with two kids. It takes turns everytime one player beats the level or loses life. But it's probably nothing interesting for nowadays gamers, time have changed.
Also, graphics are quite simplistic, yes. Music is also not too much, albeit fancy. I just wanted to comment on voice samples. Apparently, they were so happy not being Nintendo that they went ahead and overused “DIE!” to the maximum. Especially on bosses. Only four there, and they are similar. No special boss music. Ending is very simplistic, almost “you win”.
Overall, yep. It's a simple game. But with all the powerups that you can also keep between levels and the way that levels are designed and interconnected with each other and with many hidden blocks, it sure becomes quite an interesting, even complex, game when viewed as a whole.
