Pros:
+The way all the different power ups have their own unique abilities is really neat. They're not just extra hit points or extra powers (mostly), they really add unique ways to get through a level.
+There's a lot of great designs, from the various power ups to the enemies. The stages look quite nice too.

Cons:
-Controls are slippery as hell and make any kind of platforming on small blocks impossible.
-It's got that unfair old-school difficulty, with many terrible game design choices.
-The level layouts are pure ass. Each stage is like a huge labyrinth with multiple dead ends. A game with multiple paths is great, especially when you can tailor each one to the specific power ups. What isn't great is making like 50 paths in a level and having 49 of them just lead to nothing.
-Enemy placements/bottomless pits and the like are placed in often unfair positions, making a lot of blind drops or sliding down a hill straight into a row of spikes.
-Many times the game requires you to progress via a random hole in the wall that is indistinguishable from a normal wall.
-The game is very unintuitive. I got a power up that sent huge lasers from my mask, so I figured it'd be a damaging thing. Turns out they reveal hidden blocks. That costume with the giant knights helmet? It lets you climb walls for some reason.

Mixed/Not important enough to be a pro or con:
~This goes in with the unintuitive, the first obvious assumption for the collectable gems is that they grant an extra life at 100 like all platformer collectables that are everywhere. Then I got 99 and the rest just kind of disappeared...weird. Turns out the gems grant you a bonus power that changes depending on your costume. That's such a neat idea, but why to activate it do you need to press a button combination that makes no sense? It isn't even mentioned on the controls screen in the options.

Note:
•So I was planning on completing this, but my save state got ruined. Probably fair to call it abandoned though since there's no real in-game save so you're supposed to complete it all in one sitting, despite the fact it has over 100 levels of pure BS.

got sucked into the wiki for this game and started having a little too much fun reading it... it claims kid chameleon is "the iliad" of the 16-bit era. I guess it would make sense that there were some players at the time enamored with its sense of scope, enough to look past the absolutely wretched level design. even with 103 levels and a variety of alternate routes through the game, each bite-sized challenge tastes far too sour to enjoy the variety. level design is often immature and confusing, with dead ends, blind jumps, hidden spikes, and invisible blocks scattered no matter where in the game you are. this is compounded by handling inspired by sonic's momentum without the carefully tuned parameters behind it; our protagonist casey awkwardly quickly accelerates and is slow to deccelerate as if the ground lacks friction, and his ability to move in the air is incredibly touchy for a game replete with single-tile platforms to land on. it's hard to forgive a platformer that's this utterly shitty and never seems to end.

where the game does succeed is with its power-up system, more or less. to curb the aforementioned difficulty each mask/costume for our protagonist to wear can be esaily found strewn through each level, and each one gives a full reheal as well. between them all there's no real standout either: each one has some major positives, even if they're not immediately apparent. enemies generally will die from a bonk on the head but also can be easily dispatched with the samurai's katana or Jason Voorhees's throwable axes, and other masks like the knight or the hoverboard offer enhanced mobility options. all of this feels clunky (especially when it comes to the samurai's ducktales-esque downward stab or the extra-wide skeleton tank), but it at least makes wallowing through each level less of a chore. this is especially the case when the devs offer an actual bespoke challenge suited towards one of the masks rather than simply plopping interactables into the world.

the game is somewhat ugly for a '92 genesis title, particularly when the backdrop is a cave or something similarly dull. minor parallax effects when bodies of water are present in the background somewhat rectify this. the level themes themselves are also noticably drab, and you'll rarely remember that you're actually a radical kid running through a holographic world outside of the neat level transitions at the end of each level. the branching pathways and multitude of areas would have benefitted well from a world map, or absolutely anything beyond the silent splash screens introducing each locale. music is surprisingly good given that it's a GEMS title, as beside for a couple grating clown synths it's overall got a nice groove to it and doesn't attempt any out-of-place rock stylings. otherwise there's just little to differentiate it from other mid-tier genesis title of its era.

played around 25 levels I think? maybe a little less or a little more, I don't know exactly what route I took. I quit at madmaze mountain for those curious, near the halfway point of the game.

Kid Chameleon is one of those games that I'd play as a sort of "shut your brain off" kinda deal. Sure it isn't the biggest shot, it's more of a dud. The gameplay is there, and it can be fun, but eventually it starts to become a bit too stale, and since the game has 100+ levels, which out of that count, you go through atleast 71 of them, it starts to drag on, and if you're doing a full run of the total 103 levels, you're in for a marathon, because the game doesn't even have a password system, or a save systen if you prefer that over the former. Other than that, I wished they could do more with the levels, you know, make 'em more unique. But I understand that life is hard when you're a Sega Genesis game released in 1992 with over 103 levels (not accounting for the cut "The Crypt" levels). Overall, you can play the game just fine, maybe as a one-and-done, "shut your brain off" kinda deal. Just be ready for some shortcomings and the ocassional blandly designed level.

I really liked this game as a kid, when I played it it was available on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on the PS3. But looking back at it, well... Yeah, the devteam could have used a bit more time and effort to polish it, especially with the levels, so it doesnt feel like it's dragging off forever.

(sonic's ultimate genesis collection 12/40)

i FUCKING HATE THIS TGAME'S LEVEL DESIGN IT'S SO UNFAIR. but also??? everything else about it i began to develop quite the soft spot for. i love all the characters you can turn into and especially their designs, its quite a solid looking game, and the soundtrack is memorable. i usually would not look past level design so, Miserable, but like, a game has to be pretty fuckinh cool to make an exception to that yknow?

(later addendum: nah im lowering but only a little)

An SRAM patch came out so I finally had the chance to play this on a CRT with the benefit of savestates

And goddamn you can tell they didn't actually anticipate that people would try beating this. It feels like once they had the idea for a 100-level game, they went 'no kid is gonna get even close to the end, let's just make everything past stage 7 as evil as possible'. This isn't the hardest platformer of 4th gen but it does everything in its power to misdirect and frustrate you, and with just 3 lives and continues, I don't actually understand how anyone could've finished this before the internet. But despite that, KC's difficulty is like, really well done? Like, none of the challenges here feel like the usual lazy tropes that other mario/sonic ripoffs were using, everything feels intentional and fairly well-designed. It's still fun in a masochistic way, almost like a 'lite' interpretation of what kaizo mario would eventually become.

also this game just has the best vibes. i miss when games would just make their game some bratty-ass teenager who thinks he's hot shit. if someone made this today it would be fucking drenched in irony and self-deprecation.

One of the best games of all time, as far as I'm concerned. There's just so much personality in the level design and art all over the entire game, and it feels so rare to have a game that is actively designed to reward high scorers and speedrunners. Yeah, I wish there was a password system or something to make a single playthrough more accessible, but honestly, the levels are just short enough that 103 of them (of which you're not even playing half of, due to the maze-like layout) isn't as impossible as it sounds.

Gráfico charmoso mas PÉSSIMO LEVEL DESIGN

Além de ser extremamente frustante

As músicas são boas e eu gosto das referências da época

Kid Chameleon is fucking stupid, and that's both what makes and breaks it. Most of the charm is found in how utterly goofy it all is, especially the powerups, while on the other hand it all comes crashing down because of the prominent absurdity, even cruelty, of the level design. This had to have been a heavy influence on those kaizo games and Mario Maker levels you see around nowadays.

And it's got no passwords or saves, either. A major selling point for this one was that it has over 100 levels in total, it's even on the front of the box. You probably won’t see all of them, as some are on alternate routes and such, and some routes get you through the game faster than others. Whatever the case, it's still really long for a 4th gen platformer, so what gives? It even has limited continues, so I have to wonder really if anyone actually beat this when it came out. Difficulty-wise it's just...such a different breed, even for the time.

I really wish I liked this one more, it definitely has a lot going for it, but the length and all around bullshit design just deal a massive blow to the overall quality. Despite being in a bunch of compilations, I sadly can't recommend it.