While Chameleon Twist came out in America and Europe, I played a Japanese copy with an English translation patch. The western versions seem to be based on an earlier build, perhaps sent off to the localisation teams before the game was fully ready. The Japanese version has some more challenging rooms (for example, the screenshot above is just an empty room with collectables in the other versions), the multiplayer powerups added into the main game and some unlockable characters.

The story is pretty much non-existent. A regular chameleon sees the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland jumping into a pot and decides to follow, turning into the big headed thing in the game. From there, you go through the levels, killing everything in your path.

When you start the game, you’ll test out the moves. The tongue is very impressive as you can move it as it extends. I was expecting lots of puzzle use with it, but unfortunately the game isn’t very inventive.

The tongue is used for four moves. The first lets you swallow enemies to spit them out as bullets Then you can latch onto poles, from there, you can pull yourself towards it or spin around. Finally, you can push yourself upwards for a high jump that’s very awkward to use. You don’t gain any extra abilities and it doesn’t have the usage of Mario’s move set to keep itself interesting across the game.

Being able to move the tongue seems more like something added just to combat the terrible aiming in the game.

The biggest difficulty in Chameleon Twist is the camera. Moving it twists it in really strange ways and it’s very difficult to judge jumps and to target where you’re shooting. The game itself is quite simple – especially due to how few moves you have – although to get the boss rush mode, you have to find lots of the crowns hidden throughout the levels.

Chameleon Twist is a nice start for a game. The game needs a bit more variety and a much better camera – hopefully these are fixed in the sequel.

Fine

Ocean reckon that Chameleon Twist is aimed at ‘the younger player’, but we know children of five who can complete Super Mario 64. Chameleon Twist is not only too short, but at its hardest it’s never more than mildly taxing.

Jonathan Davies, N64 Magazine #10. Review Score: 70%

Remake or Remaster?

An enhanced collection of the two games would be nice.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Chameleon Twist