Friday, August 30, 2019

PrinceWatercress plays Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2 - Part 1 of 5


Yay! A sequel! This is one of the rare Disney-Capcom games to get a direct sequel. It doesn't have all of the charm of the original, but the original gameplay premise is still there.

Once again, you get to choose between Chip and Dale, and once again there's no gameplay difference between the two.

Anyway, this time around, Fat Cat breaks out of jail after he was sent to jail following the events of the first game. (Never saw anything like that on the show!)

Meanwhile, Chip hears about a bomb threat in a restaurant on the television. How they have a television in their clubhouse, I have no idea. Chip and Dale are on the case! But after they leave, they miss the news bulletin that Fat Cat has escaped from prison.

That reminds me...why would the humans even care about Fat Cat or know that he would have the same intelligence and criminal ideations of a human being? It definitely wasn't clear to his owner in the pilot (who was seen only in the pilot), that's for sure.

[title][center]Restaurant[/center][/title]

Unlike the last game, where you didn't have to beat all the stages before going through the last three, you're mostly on rails the entire time. Also, you'll be able to throw crates diagonally, and the large items such as the apples are gone. While it makes the gameplay a little simpler, it was the little details that came with these things that cause the sequel to lose a bit of the charm that the original game really had going for it. Interestingly, holding Left or Right with a crate in your hand for long enough will make the crate flash, and if you throw a flashing crate, it will go clear across the screen and hit all enemies in its path.

At least you get cutscenes between levels, like you saw at the beginning of the game. You got them last game, obviously, but these are a little better.

The flowers are replaced with the orange "R/R" Rescue Rangers logos, but they still serve the same purpose: collect 100 for a 1-Up.

Just so you remember, the health meter is now in the bottom corner rather than the top. I feel this should be mentioned since a good amount of games put the HUD on the top rather than the bottom. It's just a matter of aesthetics, but I think HUDs were placed on the top of the screen more often in NES games. Maybe it's just me?

The flies carrying the jars of honey will fly forward, stop to drop a gloop of honey down then fly around and stop again to attack once more. They're pretty easy, as is their pattern.

The rats that carry the forks around move back and forth and swing their forks like staves. If they hit a crate you throw at them while they're swinging, they'll send the crate back at you. You won't take damage if you get hit, but you are stunned for a few seconds. Holding Down before throwing will get rid of them.

In the second section, you won't have to deal with the bottomless floor that the first one had. You will, however, have to deal with rats carrying spoons. You'll have to hit them from below, as these guys have AI and will instantly batter up and smack your crate back at you if you throw one directly at it. When you hit them, they'll be stunned, leaving you free to perform a direct assault with another crate.

Some of the crates that you'll pick up in the game will make a harsher throwing sound when you toss them forward. You'll be able to tell them apart when they start flashing after you pick them up. These things can be pretty powerful and take down more than one enemy, so take advantage of them when you know where they're at. They'll go into a spiral pattern sometimes, too, so take advantage of that as well.

Some of the crates will have enemies in them. You'll be able to spot them by the brown outline of a box instead of a white one. From there, hit them with a crate or just jump over them when they start walking towards you when you're a short distance away.

The acorns will refill your health. The stars give you extra lives whenever you pick one up every single time. No need to go for 20 stars like last time; you'll just get the 1-up.

The box in the sink contains Zipper...and a gravy boat. Just stand on the gravy boat while Zipper turns on the water, and you'll be able to float to the top without taking unnecessary damage.

In the next room, Monty will throw you some cookies. If you're low on health prior to the boss, you'll be full now.

The boss here is Water Rabbit. You'll find out he set the time bomb to create a diversion...and it worked! Chip and Dale will finally find out from him that Fat Cat broke out of prison last night. Fat Cat is hunting down a treasure known as the Urn of the Pharaoh, and he probably already has it now. When Chip and Dale ask where the bomb is, Water Rabbit tells them to find it themselves.

You'll then face Water Rabbit in a boss battle. The water flowing off the stacks of dishes will push you towards the pit at the bottom. Wait for a crate to drop down from the top of the screen, then grab it and throw it at Water Rabbit. Watch out where he goes, since he shift between the three levels of platforms whenever he can, even though he doesn't move very fast. If a crate falls on Water Rabbit before it gets picked up, it will count as a hit. Don't let them fall on you, or you'll be stunned. Water Rabbit has a water squirt attack, but it doesn't go very far and is only of concern if you're at close-to-mid-range.

At the end of every level, the number of Rescue Rangers logos you've picked up will be tallied. For every fifty you have at the end of the level, you'll get a Rescue Rangers badge (which acts as a continue) as well as an extra life. Collect enough badges to increase your health meter.

You'll also get a bonus game at the end of every level. You'll have ten seconds to grab a ball and try to get a prize. The gold star will bring you two extra lives, the silver star gives one extra life, and the heart gives you health.

You'll cut the wire on the bomb after this. Cutting either wire will deactivate the bomb, but the red one will give you some extra flavor text.

Sewers


The pink fish jump in and out of the poisonous sewer water below. They're pretty easy to avoid, but they can easily be taken out from a distance.

The bats will fly at you when you wake them up. Hiding in the crates by holding Down on the Control Pad works well against them. Some of them walk back and forth on the ground instead of hanging upside-down on the ceiling, and they'll come after you if you're close enough.

The slightly darker-hued crates contain snakes. Throw a crate at them to stun them, then you can grab and throw them (hopefully into the nearest enemy). You can also kill them with a second crate if you stun them.

The boss here is a vampire cat. Whenever he flies around, he'll blow you back. Jump over the rocks that come down and then towards you, and avoid him when he comes down on the way to the other side. If he simply flies down, get away. If he slides onto the floor near the other side, jump over him. When a rock is able to land on the floor, pick it up and throw it at him. Standing near the center as he flies helps with getting a rock on the floor, but if he skids into the rock, it will be knocked off and fall through the bottom of the screen. After a few hits, the vampire cat will go down.

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