Chameneon

This is a chameleon, a natural born hunter that is best-known for its ability to change color based on its environment and for having a tongue that can extended to twice the length of their bodies. Let’s compare this warm-weather loving lizard to Chameneon, the star of the brand-new action game from QuByte Interactive. Instead of hugging trees and eating more than fifty crickets per day, this video game character surfs on neon lines in Cyber Space in order to pick up power icons, save the missing files and dodge the types of bugs that a real chameleon might normally feed on. That sounds like fun, but is this awkwardly-named mascot character up for the job of saving the Internet? That’s what I plan on finding out in this review of Chameneon.

When a nasty virus infects Cyber Space and threatens to destroy everything, there’s only one thing to do. That’s right, install an anti-virus program. But if that doesn’t work, then it’s time to initiate Protocol Chameneon, unleashing a digital character to slip and slide through 80 challenging stages in order to defeat the virus and save the files before it’s too late. This sets up a fun and extremely frustrating action game that never fully breaks free of its overly simplistic premise.

As the titular Chameneon, you slide across neon lines looking for power icons and the secret floppy disc that is hidden in each stage. The goal is to collect enough of those floating power symbols to recharge the battery up to 100%. You do this by switching colors, allowing you to jump between the corresponding lines. For example, switching to a blue body will not only allow you to surf on the blue lines, but you’ll also be able to glide through the red obstacles without taking any damage.

The one thing you need to know going in is that we have very little control over heroic lizard. Beyond switching colors, it can jump around and ... that’s about it. You can make the chameleon go slightly faster and a little slower, for times when that’s important, but don’t expect a lot of depth to the gameplay. The little guy never stops, which forces us to constantly make split-second decisions about which path to take and which color to switch to. Sometimes both paths are equally viable, while other times the red line will lead us to straight off the screen.

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The levels themselves are as bite-sized as you can get with a 2D platformer, with many of them lasting anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds. But let me assure you that just because you can beat a level in 15 seconds, that doesn’t mean you will. With the various lines going in all directions and both the enemies and obstacles becoming more aggressive as you slide through the 80 stages, you’ll end up playing many of these stages dozens (maybe even hundreds) of times in order to get the perfect timing. In that sense, Chameneon reminds me of an on-rails version of Super Meat Boy, complete with a death counter that is always taunting you.

This is a deceptively challenging game that is not for people who get frustrated easily. Personally speaking, I liked the challenge, and felt a real sense of accomplishment after beating some of the more punishing stages. That said, this game won’t be for everybody, and I suspect a lot of people will bow out long before the enemies show up in the second batch of levels. I found it relaxing and easy to pick up and play, while I’m sure others will want to throw their controller through the television. Yeah, this game will make you angry, even with the upbeat (and insanely catchy) dance music blaring in the background.

Unfortunately, Chameneon falls into a lot of the traps so common with this type of game. Part of what makes this game so frustrating is that when you’re stuck on an especially though level, there’s no way to progress until you finally get the timing right. This makes everything worse. It would be better if there were multiple levels open at once, that way you can move on to a different stage and then later come back to the one that was giving you problems. Just taking some time away from the frustrating level can be all the difference between winning and losing, and it’s annoying the way the game forces you to play the levels in one particular order.

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I was also disappointed in the presentation. The character, the lines and the enemies all look good, but the backgrounds all blur together after a while. It doesn’t help that there are only four locations, each with 20 levels to complete. And it’s not like we’re seeing drastically different backgrounds from one zone to another, because the big change is nothing more than using a different color. It would have been nice to see more variety in the backgrounds and locations; something that stands out in a memorable way. As it is, the best thing about the game’s presentation is the catchy music.

The truth is, you can only expect so much from a budget title like Chameneon. Priced at under five dollars, this game does just enough for you to not feel ripped off. Sure, it would be nice to have a few extra backgrounds and maybe a little more depth to the gameplay, but you get what you pay for. It probably won’t make my list of favorite games of 2022, but if you’re looking for a challenge and don’t want to spend much money, then you could do a whole lot worse than Chameneon.