Disney's Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (1990)

Preliminary: Great intro tune. Very intuitive so far, I like the pick-up-box-and-large-apples(?) to throw at enemies mechanic. I do wish you could pick up boxes from above like in many prior games, but it's quick to get used to the limits. The jump is nice, the controls are responsive, etc. Nothing spectacular, and a bit innocuous feeling, but I love the 90s innocuous licensed SNES platformers era so why not this.

Welp already done with the first boss. There were a few clunky moments like when trying to grab boxes mid jump, and the puzzle element was a bit gimmicky (piling those white blocks), and the usual NES platformer issue where sometimes it was hard to tell what was jump-on-able and what wasn't. But still cute and nice enough, thanks to good tunes and enjoyable gameplay.

Day 1

I know I'm bad at videogames, but I particularly like this game because it's finally an NES game where I don't need to use savestates (at least not yet). It's so relieving to feel proud of myself and manage with the lives provided, and it's short enough not to fret along the way.

I'm loving all the different level themes like the bookshelves and the faucets. As always I like the idea of being "mini in the real world" a la Honey I Shrunk the Kids. There were better level themes but I was too enthralled with the quick gameplay, I took a moment to take a screenshot of this moment heh

And I'm loving the music and purple colors and jazz jackrabbit esque enemy here

Omg it wasn't until level E or so that I realized while carrying a box you can duck down and hide in it lol super cute with the eyes. And I noticed in level 1 but it's cute that you sweat and your jump is weighed down with heavier objects. Finally, also cool that you can re-grab the boss red ball things you used to damage them in mid-air. Helped a lot with the first somewhat difficult boss, the robot one around level E too.

I feel like this game really loads you up with level ups lol. Especially when you know the trick to the bonus stages (the top center box seems to always have a 1up...). But I'm not mad at it.

I like how it keeps adding new game mechanics, tho none are super innovative or game changing, just cute little touches like the hammer.

Oh lol I started screenshotting it as the Ending screens but turns out there's an additional area. These extra 3 levels are the first parts that slightly repeat level designs and enemies, otherwise each level was almost entirely fresh it seemed like! Still, it's forgivable to do the Mario 3-type "final world" region where they surprise you with substantially harder final levels and onslaught you with all the enemies. However, this one is still quite forgiving tho I did use savestates a few times here, I likely could've been fine without them since I have so many lives lol. And omg I love this new enemy, the bird stork thing

And welp I was wrong. Not just new enemies but indeed new mechanics too tho I didn't love the fans blowing you one way or the other, it was undeniably a new mechanic.

Ok I def had to start using savestates on that final level. I think it's level J. The conveyor belts would be manageable over time, but again instead of dying and using lives I just savestated at each "door" of the level (basically new area). I really like the tune for this level tho.

Good ending tunes too.

Look: 8.5/10 In many ways it's just another NES platformer in terms of its look but it has some neat enemies, is based on a franchise (tho I don't have much attachment to Chip n Dale), and most of all it has a neat variety of level settings that boosted this up.

Sound: 8.5/10 Nothing moving haha, but some really good catchy fun tunes, on par with the 80s C64 expectations, compared to my usual meh-ness toward NES music.

Play: 8.5/10 Nothing spectacular, but fun from start to finish and a very straightforward pick-up-and-play action platformer. I'm a sucker for that. Sometimes it felt like it was missing something but whatevs, I just played it in one sitting and it was short enough to never debate about dropping it (and it really wasn't that short)

Feel: 8.5/10 Great Look and Sound supplement a somewhat lackluster, but thoroughly enjoyable, Play to culminate in a great Feel!

Attachment: 8/10 When I want a straightforward NES platformer, this will definitely be up there! No need for a guide or the usual Metroidvania puzzles (tho the puzzles in this were so simple they felt a bit redundant at times). If this had some sort of oomph, it'd be a definite replay, but just on my list of fun pick up and play NES platformers, like the old pick up and play arcade games of the 70s and 80s!

Overall: 8.4/10

Completion: Main Story

Playtime: 1 hour

(This is the 14th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

I've just beaten Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, a platformer for the NES developed and published by Capcom. Its producer was Tokuro Fujiwara, who was also the producer for the Mega Man series and the Gargoyle's Quest games. It released on June 8, 1990 in Japan and in NA the following day.

The game is based on the kids TV show with the same name, and one that I used to watch a lot as a child myself. It was a nice flash of nostalgia whilst looking up info on this game and I was surprised to recognize some of the characters despite me not having watched the show for at least 15 years.

The game starts with an image of Chip, Dale and their friends and a little text of Chip talking, who says that a neighbor's kitten was lost and needs to be found by them. From there, the 2D platforming gameplay begins. From my count, there are about 10 levels if you decide to do them all, but at least 2 can be skipped. Levels have multiple stages and conclude with a boss fight.

You get 3 hearts and 3 continues, after which you have to restart the game. The game is very short, I beat it in roughly 2 hours, and I'd say it's the best introductory platformer to late 80s / early 90s gaming that I have played so far. To put it simple: It can be beaten relatively quickly and it has pretty basic features.

More on that down below.

STORYTELLING

The game revolves around the cast of the TV show with the same name. There are Chip and Dale of course, but also their friends, namely Gadget, who in this game scouts ahead and gives players clue on upcoming levels once they finish the previous one, Monterey Jack, who finds "secret doors and pathways" for Chip and Dale (manual) and Zipper, who can be found as a special item and flies around you for a short while to kill every enemy in sight.

The intro dialogue between the friends reveals that the Rescue Rangers have a new job: Find the neighbor's lost kitten. During your search, the shows main antagonist, Fat Cat, introduces himself as well and will have to be bested to win the game later on.

Characters don't show up or talk apart from this intro until the end of the game. In between, only Gadget shows up to leave tips on upcoming levels, and Fat Cat has one little speech as well, but that's it. There is no storytelling beyond that. So it was pretty basic, which was more than fine for a game of this year of course.

GAMEPLAY

You can choose to control either Chip or Dale or even play with someone else. In each level you play, you must walk and jump for most of the game and either avoid enemies or kill them by throwing crates at them. There are cacti, electric wires and of course gravity that you can die to, but all of these deaths can be avoided by simply timing your jumps. There is nothing creative that you need to do to make it through this game. There is no jumping and slashing in mid air, climbing walls or stacking power ups that you need to worry about, especially since none of the latter are even available in this game.

All collectables are there for you to get "1 Ups". Collect 50 nuts, get a 1 up. Collect 10 stars, get a 1 up. Collect a 1 up item, get a 1 up. The only additional gameplay element that is provided in the game world are metal crates, which you can use to stack them up and access higher platforms.

Other than that, what I describes is pretty much it. There are 4 or 5 boss fights where you need to collect a red ball and throw it at the enemy whilst dodging their projectiles. This was very easy for most of the game, only the final boss gave me some trouble there.

After every level, an overworld opens up where you choose the next stage to go to. You can sometimes go one of two directions and pick different levels, but I haven't really tried going back and doing the level that I had missed, so I don't know if you are stuck with the direction you go in. Anyway, this offers tiny bit of replayability in a game that otherwise doesn't offer much depth.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE

No voice acting. The music was good as per usual for games of this time period, there is a remix of the theme song of the TV show here too and the sound design was solid as well, or at least in line with how most games of this time made everything sound.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN

I liked the graphics here. Good use of colors and despite the technical limitations at the time, the devs did a good job of creating detailed environments that all had an interesting theme. There aren't many enemies here, but they look unique and have clean sprites. There are few animations here and no special effects, so the game did well on the artistic front outside of those two areas.

ATMOSPHERE

Does it feel like a Chip 'n Dale game? I can't really say, it's been a while since I watched the show. I assume the enemies have some relation to the show, maybe, and all the characters do of course, and there definitely is relation to the show in the soundtrack but I can't judge it too much beyond that. As its own thing, I liked how the levels mixed up its themes, had bright colors, detailed environments and multiple unique assets included.

CONTENT

There are about 10 levels with bosses at the end of multiple of them. Almost every level adds new enemies, however there are a total of 10 enemy types overall, so variety is pretty limited there. The game is also very short at 2 hours or so based on someone with my ability, which I would call average. There is little filler, so I'll take 2 hours of this over 10 hours of some of the other, more unfair platformers, but at the end of the day 2 hours are pretty short and apart from themes and some new enemies, levels don't really mix it up in any other noticeable way.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN

Artistically pleasing as levels are, they are not different enough in terms of gameplay challenge. I'd put this on lack of gameplay variety rather than the lack of puzzles, lack of environmental hazards and low enemy variety, but overall it's a combination of all those things.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION

There isn't really anything the game does that stands out over the rest or moves the needle. Graphically I thought this game was above average, but if you just look at gameplay, you'll notice that it is pretty simple. There are no power ups in this game. You can't climb. You can't run faster, you can't double jump and you can't fly, you pretty much can't do anything apart from three things. Walk, jump and throw. Throwing is limited to apples, bombs and mostly, crates, which one hit enemies and clear your way forward. It's not a bad gameplay hook and the game doesn't need all of the things I mentioned before, but a bit of mixing up or one more feature or two would have served the game well. As it stands, it feels like a solid entry into the genre if for nothing else.

REPLAYABILITY

There isn't really any variety here, so the only reason for replaying this after winning would be to beat your high score AND to choose a different path in the overworld when you select stages.

PLAYABILITY

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL

Here is a game that uses a license and the platforming experience of its developers to be an enjoyable, albeit extremely average platformer. Due to its basic features, yet good soundtrack, solid graphics and short game length, it combines to make for a solid game to introduce newcomers to late 80s / early 90s platforming games. But unless you're the biggest Chip 'N Dale fan or have played this when you were young, it is unlikely that this makes for a game you will remember for long, which may be fine depending on your expectations.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME

• Gary Barth for GamePro Issue 9 (Apr 90): "Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers boasts the same fast action and detailed Disney graphics as [...] Mickey Mousecapades and Duck Tales."

“Cartooning is preaching. And I think we have a right to do some preaching. I hate shallow humor. I hate shallow religious humor, I hate shallow sports humor, I hate shallowness of any kind.” -Charles M. Schulz

I stayed up all night playing 8-bit classics such as those in The Disney Afternoon Collection. The first game to go under my knife is Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, originally released by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This was Capcom’s second game based on a Disney cartoon after the very well-received DuckTales. The game is a great example of Capcom’s talent for platformer development and and their dedication to producing a game with presentation identical to the animated show on which Rescue Rangers was based. They even got the logo down!

For those not in the know, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers was a Disney cartoon about the two titular chipmunks who once took pleasure in tormenting Donald Duck recast as unofficial detectives and vigilantes. They solved crimes that went unnoticed by human law enforcement and led an anthropomorphic team consisting of Gadget, Monterey Jack, and Zipper. It was typical high adventure, 90’s cartoon funstuffs. Nobody wore pants. That’s the kind of world it used to be.

Capcom’s Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers is a platformer that lets you play as either of the two sciuridae on a mission to rescue a missing kitten. At the start of the game, the team splits up. Chip, the serious one dressed like Indiana Jones, and Dale, the goofy one in the Aloha shirt, are left with the task of doing the footwork to track down the missing feline, battling back rogue rodents, canine automatons, and other pesky pests along the way. Side note: my wife admitted to me after we’d been married that she had a crush on Dale as a little girl, so I wonder what that means about her choice to marry me? I guess that means I’m the comic relief.

Anyway, Chip and Dale eventually uncover a plot by Fat Cat, a notorious criminal, who used the missing kitten story as a ruse to could kidnap Gadget. Gagdet helps the duo via a homebrew communications device she whips up, guiding them through non-linear stages until they reach Fat Cat’s hideout and return the pudgy mob boss to prison.

Click here to view the full review... https://thewellredmage.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/chip-n-dale-rescue-rangers-1990/

History:
I believe that this is the first game on the list I actually frequently played (and owned!) as a child. I loved this game as a kid, never beat it, but always loved playing it. Whether alone, or co-op with my brother or cousin, this game was a blast. I wouldn't learn until much MUCH later that this was a Capcom title, which helps explain my adoration for the game. That said, I don't remember ever getting passed the third or fourth stage.

Expectations:
I know exactly what to expect as far as gameplay goes. What will be interesting is to see if I'll finally be able to beat it. Either way, I'm looking at a fun platforming experience that "shouldn't" be Mega Man level difficult.

Night 1:

My chipmunk of choice was obviously Dale. Not only is he clearly more interested in Gadget than Harrison Ford wannabe Chip, but he's rockin' the Hawaiian shirt, which is always the correct option.

I cleaned out the first level nice and quickly. I had recently learned that by holding down B you can actually catch Red Rubber Boss Ball which was kinda mind blowing, and extremely useful. Second level was just as easy.

I believe that's as far as I've ever gotten!

Stage F is where things got a little Mega Man on me.

Those blocks even make the same sound as the ones in Megnet Man's level! This stage taught me a lot about crazy hit boxes and timings, and I think I lost more lives on this short stage than any other. Spoiler, I got game over on the final level, and my second time through this stage was an absolute breeze. I can be taught!

Part of me kind of hoped that this was actually the last level, but I should have know better. The stage was much harder than the boss, who had a magic safe zone that I could stand in and deal damage while all his attacks would miss me.

Naturally, not over. Over that we Dr Wiley'd away to the final island. Which immediately proved more difficult than the early stages.

I had a lot of stupid deaths here, mostly due to impatience. My second run through would be much smoother. The crabs were easy enough to avoid, but those damn flying squirrels got me every time!

Luckily this stage had no boss, and it was on to the next.

The second to last stage was really easy once I figured out how to handle the pelicans, but the boss actually caused me some issues. Even on my second playthrough he managed to kill me. I finally caught on that his separation attack thing was based on a timer and not damage, so I was able to start getting in multiple hit before I took damage, and he went down quickly.

Final stage...

Yep, game is officially BS now... Actually those axes are probably the easiest part of the level and it's usually those gun toting weasels who do me in. My first playthrough had me get my final game over with the boss room in view... Second attempt had me blow through this level with no deaths and engage Fat Cat for the final confrontation!

I can haz cigarz? The final boss shoots cigar ash out of his cigar in five different directions, but it's a set pattern, so it should be easy to avoid. Turns out, I'm incapable of avoiding easy patterns. I use two of my many, many lives on this boss and he goes down just as easily as the rest!

Conclusion:
This game was actually a LOT easier than I remember it being, while still being just difficult enough to be interesting. I had a lot of fun actually playing all the way through it, and I think my kids will enjoy it as well soon. It makes a really nice intermediary game between easier platformers and certain other Capcom games...

Play it Again?
Maybe. If someone wants to play co-op, or with my kids. Personally I still prefer other similar games but I can see myself pulling this down from time to time in the future.

Personal Score: