The Nintendo 64 was severely lacking in terms of third party support. Most developers simply sat it out, but the ones that did contribute released some pretty interesting games. Where the system excelled was in platforming titles for which Super Mario 64 laid the groundwork and brought the fans in droves. Most third parties tried to cash in on this, but most of their efforts have been long forgotten. Chameleon Twist is one of these such games. I remember reading about it in magazines when it was released, but it was never on my radar. My interest was recently piqued in finding some of the hidden gems on the platform, and that’s why I decided to add this quirky title to my collection. It introduces some unique ideas for sure but there’s a good reason it has been forgotten. Chameleon Twist just isn’t a very good game to be honest.
Chameleon Twist begins with a curious chameleon following a rabbit into a magical portal. At the end of this is a new world wherein the reptile is given humanoid form, and must complete six stages in order to return home. Normally I’m not one to really care about this aspect in a video game, but Chameleon Twist is absolutely barebones plot wise and it’s not a good thing. The game itself is a typical 3D platformer. You maneuver throughout the environments using the joystick, move the camera with the C buttons, jump with A, and more. The trademark ability of your character in this title is his tongue. Holding B causes it to stretch out, and you can alter its direction using the analog stick. This serves a few different uses. First of all any enemies that come in contact with your character’s tongue are inhaled when it is retracted. You can then spit inhaled foes and items to damage other opponents or hit switches. This is your only method for attack.
The more interesting ability of your chameleon’s tongue is to grapple on to certain elements of the environment to pull yourself toward them. It functions in a similar fashion to the hookshot in the Legend of Zelda series, but you have way more control over the trajectory of your path here. After grabbing on to a wooden stake you can even rotate yourself while maintaining elevation in a full circle. While these abilities are unique and even interesting after just a few levels in they feel vastly over-used. Nearly every obstacle you face uses these mechanics, and it feels forced and gets entirely too repetitive very quickly. Chameleon Twist feels like a one trick pony. Even a simple mechanic such as being able to jump on enemy heads to dispatch them would have added more gameplay diversity, but alas you’re stuck playing through areas that are far too similar to one another. It makes me all the more thankful that this game is a short one.
Chameleon Twist is a pretty challenging game. The enemies rarely pose a major threat (your life bar is huge) and the difficulty is caused entirely from falling down pits during the many intricate tongue latching areas. As I mentioned earlier these sequences are unique, but soon overstay their welcome. Level Design in general is cumbersome with most areas in this game consisting of enclosed rooms. There’s very little exploration in this title, but to alleviate the linearity of it all the developers included collectible crowns. I’m not quite sure what happens when you get them all, but I guess it’s a decent inclusion. In a rather odd choice you can switch from one of six different characters to play as. Unfortunately their abilities do not differ in any way which makes the choice completely redundant. The only real fun I had in Chameleon Twist was during the boss encounters. The developers did a great job designing these with interesting attack patterns and mechanics. Unfortunately it’s just not enough to save the experience here.
The graphics are decent, but other games released within the same time frame blow it out of the water. Your chameleon, as well as the boss characters, are rendered in polygons but most of the enemies and several objects are composed of simple sprites. The contrast between the two rendering styles is actually a little jarring in this case. The worst offender is the texture work. This is one of the worst cases of the classic Nintendo 64 blur I’ve seen. The floor in each area barely has any texture to it as well unfortunately. The camera is really bad as well. You can switch between two modes, but neither are very intuitive. In addition you can move the camera using the C buttons, but it generally pushes your character out of view and snaps back just seconds later. It really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to be honest. At least the game is colorful. The soundtrack is completely forgettable. The music is bouncy and fun, but it’s very limited in composition and just all around generic. The audio isn’t terrible, but it feels like the composer didn’t care.
I had high hopes for Chameleon Twist. The gameplay elements I covered earlier sound really good on paper, but it doesn’t feel like there was any passion behind this title’s development. The game just tires itself out way too fast, and it’s a short lived affair. I simply cannot imagine how anyone would have ever paid full price for this title back when it was released. There was potential, but a few good ideas does not a good game make. This is one of the all around most forgettable platformers released on the Nintendo 64.
