Kid Chameleon (video game)



Kid Chameleon was a product of the Console Wars, the Adventure Game that the kids who got the Genesis were blessed with. Despite being a Sega game, it was a shining example of Nintendo Hard.

The plot revolved around a breakthrough Virtual Reality video game system, which goes haywire and starts kidnapping kids who play the game. Turns out the Video Game's boss has gained sentience and it's up to Casey, the titular Kid Chameleon, to defeat the evil computer and save the day, by proceeding from one teleporter in a given play area to another, moving from room to room in a nonlinear progression. His strongest weapon is his Chameleon ability. Scattered throughout the game are blocks containing diamonds, which can be used to purchase powerups, and hats/masks for several of various powerups, each with a different power theme, attacks, and even max hitpoints.

The game, while punishingly difficult, is generally well remembered. It does have a small but devoted Speed Run community, and the multiple exits from any room and multiple paths in level progression provide for plenty of replay value.

Not to be confused with Kid Chameleon, a British comic strip about a semi-feral boy with chameleonic camouflage.

This game provides examples of:

 * Advancing Wall of Doom: 3 stages feature the aptly named 'Murder Wall'. All but one of these stages (the first encounter) can be avoided through teleporters.
 * An Axe to Grind: The "Maniaxe" form uses these as a weapon.
 * Anti Poop Socking: The Virtual Console release helped mitigate the original problem that plagued the Genesis version: that of having to play 100 levels with no ability to stop and resume the game.
 * A Winner Is You: It's a really long game with a really short ending.
 * Captain Ersatz: Several of the powerup modes are Expies of pop culture icons, such as Cyclops and Jason Voorhees.
 * Comic Book Adaptation: A short-lived series based on the game was included in several issues of Sonic the Comic.
 * Convection Schmonvection: A few of the levels take place inside volcanoes, but you don't get hurt unless you touch the lava.
 * Justified considering that it's not real lava.
 * Difficult but Awesome: Look down at Guide Dang It. Each of the "codes" is very complex (so you can't find them with random button presses), but each one is devastating: one summons a rain of damaging gems upon all enemies, another calls an enemy seeking gem snake that hunts down enemies, etc. etc.
 * Extra Eyes: Heady Metal.
 * Goomba Stomp: The attack mode of Kid Chameleon's default form, and usable by most of the others.
 * Guide Dang It: Surprisingly averted for a game of this type. Knowing where to go isn't all that difficult (save for a few stages), it's getting there that's the challenge.
 * Comes into full effect after you're playing a non-genesis copy: you know those gems you pick up? You can use them to power special attacks. But only if you have the original game manual. And the code to activate each power differs from one form to another. Which is a shame, since a lot of those special attacks are very useful.
 * Hat of Power: The hat/mask powerups.
 * Highly Visible Ninja/Samurai: "Red Stealth" form.
 * Holodeck Malfunction: Complete with the orange grid in the background.
 * Hover Board: "Sky Cutter" form.
 * Knight in Shining Armor: "Iron Knight" form.
 * Magical Mystery Doors: Millions of them, most leading to one of the dozens of levels named simply "Elsewhere".
 * Mighty Glacier: Subverted with the Iron Knight. It has the highest HP, his special increases Max HP and if he jumps on a block, it may break the block. But it doesn't slow down the Kid, nor did it increase his speed.
 * Never Say Die: Averted. What? Just about everything tells you to DIE! (In Zelda Cd-i style no less).
 * Nintendo Hard
 * Platform Hell: If not in terms of the actual gameplay (and that's arguable), the game is definitely this in terms of navigation toward the end of the game. Why does this Elsewhere look like the one you saw 45 minutes ago? Because it's the same one.
 * Also, Bloody Swamp is a complete nightmare, to the point where many people who beat the game have only done so because they avoided that particular level altogether.
 * Ramming Always Works: The Berserker's ability.
 * Speed Run
 * Suspicious Videogame Generosity: Lots of easy extra lives in Frosty Doom... You know... That level RIGHT BEFORE BLOODY SWAMP!
 * Tank Goodness: The Juggernaut. It shoots skulls.
 * That One Level: Bloody Swamp is infamously hard amongst those who have played the game, easily capable of eating up every single life and continue a player has accumulated to that point. Not helped at all by the fact that after you've died on it once, you're back to playing it as plain old Kid Chameleon.
 * Wall Crawl: Iron Knight's ability.
 * Warp Zone: There's a cheat-code-like one near the start that takes you to the final boss of the game, and another that skips to the half-way point.