Almost all of Walt Disney’s cartoons were masterpieces. Mickey Mouse, The Lion King, Treasure Planet… the list goes on and on. But I would like to highlight my favorite animated series about two rescue chipmunks. Of course we are talking about “Chip and Dale to the Rescue”.
I can’t say exactly why it hooked me, but I used to watch episodes of “Chip ‘n’ Dale” on VHS several times a day.
However, the cartoon was really excellent: good art, interesting adventure stories in the episodes, colorful villains and other aspects make Chip ‘n Dale an excellent animated series for family viewing.
Naturally, a game based on the cartoon was released on the NES.
Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers felt great on the eight-bit console. A colorful platformer with interesting gameplay ideas that appealed to most players. But personally, in my opinion, the game lacked complexity. It was possible to pass the bosses with your eyes closed, and the levels were completed the second time. Nevertheless, picking up and throwing boxes scattered around the level at enemies was a lot of fun. And even more so together. Yes, Chip ‘n Dale was more of a co-op game. Playing alone wasn’t as fun as playing with a friend. This is perhaps the best example of an NES game where the co-op is truly done in good faith, and not just for show.
After passing the first level you are offered to go to the next zone. And here another interesting feature comes up: you can change the order of levels, and skip some altogether, thereby building the ideal route for yourself.
In general, it turned out to be a good game based on the famous animated series. And it seems that no one expected a sequel, but three years later “Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers 2” comes out
The gameplay has not changed at all: https://hunkybingocasino.uk/withdrawal/ we still take boxes and throw them at enemies. Naturally, the graphics and sound have improved. But now the developers have corrected the main, in my opinion, mistake: the game can no longer be completed with your eyes closed. It’s still quite easy and goes through very quickly, but now in order to kill the boss you don’t have to stand in one place and throw a ball at him. Firstly, now the ball, which the player had by default when fighting the boss and, in fact, was the main weapon in the battle with him, is no longer there. Now the player has to look for something to throw at the boss. Usually, such items drop out during a battle with him and the main thing is not to miss them. After defeating the next boss, the player is taken… no, not to the zone selection screen, but to the next level. Zone selection has been removed and the game is now completely linear. But I wouldn’t say it ruined the game. On the contrary, now the player will absolutely see all the levels prepared by the authors, which, by the way, have become much better and more elaborate.
After you get tired of playing alone, you can safely call a friend. The second part of Chip ‘n Dale remained true to its traditions almost to the end: the game is still more interesting to play together. Moreover, there are a few more ways for players to interact with each other. If in the first part you could throw a box at your friend, and even drag it around the level above your head, then in the second part, by putting your partner on your shoulders, at certain moments you can throw it so that it will pierce through all the enemies that meet on its way. Some secrets are built on such interactions between players and each other. So, in order to get to the secret room and play a mini-game, the player needs to throw his partner in just such a special way that he can squeeze into a small passage.
The second part is out, maybe the third will be out too? But no, the third part was never officially released. This is where pirates come to the rescue.
Heavy Barrel is a top-down Run and Gun game where the main characters try to destroy terrorists who have captured an underground nuclear missile control complex. What does this have to do with Chip and Dale, you ask?? Don’t know. But the pirates apparently found some elusive similarity and released “Chip and Dale 3”.
"Chip ‘n Dale 3" is, as you already understood, a Heavy Barrel hack. From Heavy Barrel, in fact, everything is there. All except two sprites of the main characters. They were replaced with some strange creatures vaguely reminiscent of chipmunks. Apparently this is Chip and Dale. At the same time, Chip is completely red, and Dale is blue. Actually, that’s all I can say about this hack. Nothing else has changed.
And Heavy Barrel itself is an interesting representative of Run’n’Gun with a top view. There’s nothing more to say, and we’re not talking about her today.
There were no more rescue games on the NES. Neither official nor pirated.
(True, there was also a remake of Tom and Jerry, but I haven’t seen it on cartridges.)
Last stop – Sega Mega Drive (aka Sega Genesis).
Again, there was no official game called “Chip and Dale” on Sega, but there was another game called “Squirrel King”, developed by completely different people who had nothing to do with the creators of the original parts. Actually, it was a clone of “Chip and Dale” on the NES, and the clone was not the best. The game was very easy (even easier than the first part on the NES), completing it the first time was not difficult. The dynamism disappeared somewhere, everything was happening too slow. There was no drive, all the enemies were predictable. Moreover, the game included a feature that only aggravated the imbalance. Now the chipmunk could throw something like a fireball that destroyed everything in its path. There were always plenty of such balls, which made you simply invulnerable. The co-op was on par with the first part on NES. It became more interesting to play, but it didn’t save the game.
This is where I will finish my story about games based on “Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers”.
Yes, I know that in the nineties a game based on them was released on PC, but it, of course, cannot be compared with Nesov’s parts. There also seems to be an official game for mobile phones, but I haven’t played it. Now, of course, no studio will make a remake of an unpopular game based on an unpopular cartoon today. But all is not lost and maybe some enthusiasts will take up the creation of a full-fledged remake.
Good luck everyone, thanks for reading!
In general, one friend told me about an interesting thing. It turns out that a certain company Kudos orders porting of games from different platforms to SEGA Mega Drive. This is how the first “Rescuers” were transferred from the NES almost without changes. Only the music is different and some of the movements look somehow… clumsy. Unfortunately, there is no rum yet (I would like to play this miracle), but there are photos and videos. The same Kudos, by the way, sells Super Mario 64 and Battle City for Sega Genesis.
Also, as an advertisement, I’ll tell you about my blog (this text, to be honest, is copy-paste from there, but I wrote everything myself :3). Maybe someone will be interested. I’m going to do similar articles there about old games and more. In short, if anyone is interested, come in.