Another thing I quickly learned to pay attention to was the timer. For some, three minutes may sound like a sufficient amount of time to make your way to the end of the stage, and it is for the first several sets of levels. And yes, there are items that increase the amount of time you have. But the increasing cunning in design of each successive level means that you’ll be challenged to find your way to the exit before the clock reaches zero. There were often times when I’d realized that I only had 25 seconds left to get through the other half of some obstacle-heavy stage, frantically looking around for a clock item to buy me more time. Sometimes I would end up speeding through a section at the risk of taking too much damage along the way and getting killed in the process. In some ways, it makes the game feel a bit unbalanced, since you’re forced to either try to take it slow and die, or run through everything, barely making it. Unfortunately the original Genesis cartridge has no save feature on it, so it only adds weight to the daunting task of finishing the game in one sitting.

The graphics are on par with what you might expect from most Genesis games that were out in 1992. The color palette and backgrounds are decent, even downright beautiful in some instances. The first area, Blue Lake Woods, is nicely detailed with mountain peaks and green treetops overlooking a lake which reflects the forest in a wavy fashion. Kid Chameleon in his normal form looks a little odd though. To me, he looks like a guy in his late 20′s more than he resembles a “cool” kid. It’s probably that t-shirt he wears. It just looks so…adult. His other personas were nicely created though, and are always fun to play with and see what they can do. The enemies range from looking bland to being pretty bizarre. In particular, I’ll never be able to forget the second boss in the game that is quite literally three big heads on a floating stick. Freaky things like that appear in the game often enough as well. For the most part the game won’t fail to at least keep your attention for the duration that you’ll be playing.

The game’s audio aspect teeters between good and average. On the one hand, most of the music tracks are bass-heavy and keeps your mind in the game. On the other hand, the experience doesn’t last that much at the end of the day. After playing though roughly 20 levels, the only tunes that come to mind are the title screen theme and the music for the Under Skull Mountain areas. That’s it. Most of the other tracks faded from memory as soon as I passed through those particular sections. I can remember the names of the areas more than I can recall what was playing in the background. Most of the sound effects aren’t much more impressive, except for the times when you come across a helmet or mask. Each transformation comes complete with its own unique sound bite. That seemly minor detail made that game come alive more so than it would have without it. Overall, the audio quality isn’t all that bad; just don’t go into the game with lofty expectations like I did.

Despite its faults, Kid Chameleon is still a decent game that’s fun to play since you essentially get to control 9 characters with one person. While other games like the Mega Man series featured a similar idea, nobody could do it quite like Sega. As mentioned before, if you plan on owning the original cartridge, be prepared to invest a lot of time in trying to beat the game in one session since there is no save or password feature available. You’d think that Sega would have built that feature into the game, but nobody’s perfect, right? However, you do have the option of downloading it on the Wii’s Virtual Console. Thankfully, you to save your place if you want leave and come back to it later. If you’re a fan of early 90′s platformers or just looking for some good old Genesis nostalgia, Kid Chameleon is there to whet your whistle.

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