Zone 0
This is the tutorial level, and you'll have to play this level in order to get to the rest of the stages.
Anyway, the Rescue Rangers find out that Mandy's kitten has gone missing, and it's up to them to find the kitten and bring it back.
There's no real gameplay between Chip and Dale, really. Just choose whichever one you want. They're both technically the same character. Makes sense, since a lot of two-player simultaneous games were like this (ahem, Super Mario Bros.).
Just walk into a crate and press B to pick it up. You can throw it in any direction (including diagonally) to beat the bad guys. If you grab one and hold Down, you can hide in it. Hold Down to keep hiding, and any enemy that runs into you will instantly be taken out of commission. (Of course, you'll lose the crate.)
The apples can also be used as ammo, too, but you won't be able to jump very high if you're holding one. They don't show up that often, even though there's a Power Potion in the game that makes a "P" appear next to your character's "name" and allows for you to jump normal height.
Always check the crates for both flowers and stars. You need 100 Flowers for a 1-Up, and getting 20 Stars also does the same thing. When you get enough of these two items, the 1-Up will be flying around in the air, and you'll have to catch it. Some of these things will be out in the open, but there are more hidden in the crates. Look around and collect everything!
If you find an Acorn and you have less than three hearts (which is your maximum health), pick it up. You'll regain one heart. The flashing ones completely refill your health.
The cacti do act as spikes. You'll probably be having too much fun at the beginning to notice, though, but they do.
The Mechanical Dogs just charge towards you. The Mechanical Rats do the same thing, but they're slightly faster and they can jump pretty high. The Rats will also chase after you if you're close enough to them. The bee dives downward, but it'll probably do that before you can even come close to it.
The steel boxes can be used to jump to previously unreachable platforms. You won't be able to throw them very far, but that's for the better. You can also use them more than once, which can be useful at times.
Be careful on the frayed parts of the wires, as the sparks can damage you if they touch you.
The big boxes can contain some interesting power-ups. Sometimes they have stars, sometimes they have 1-ups (the flashing stars, as opposed to the plain silver ones), and sometimes they have other things. To find out what's inside, just run into it. If you find Zipper, you'll be invincible as long as he's flying around you. You'll be able to move around with complete impunity (bottomless pits still kill you) while Zipper kills anything that moves by simply flying into it. Nice. Too bad the invincibility effect doesn't last long, as Zipper flies away after a few seconds.
The entrance to the boss has a box near it. Run into the box to uncover a piece of cheese, and Monty will run through the wall to open up a passage. Enter to fight the boss.
The boss is some weird machine with gloves and brushes. Pick up the ball and throw it upward at the green globe at the top while avoiding the lightning bolts that the gloves toss at you. It goes down after five hits. Like the steel boxes, the balls can be used over and over again. A word of caution with the ball: don't let it hit you on the way down. Otherwise, you'll be stunned for a few seconds and unable to move.
After every stage is a bonus level. The crates contain some interesting stuff, and the faster you are, the more stuff you can get. Always get the crate at the top center of this screen, as you'll be able to get a 1-up star nine times out of ten. You only have a few seconds here. Make them count.
When you beat the level, you'll find out it was all a trick for Fat Cat to lure you here. Even worse, he's kidnapped Gadget!
Zone A
When you complete Zone 0, you'll finally get the map. You can complete any of the zones here in any order, provided you follow the path the game forces you to take. Once you complete a zone, you can't do it again. You can move around and do them all if you want, but you don't have to. But you'll be able to make this game easier than it already is if you go through all the zones. It's a hell of a lot more fun, too. Trust me on that one.
This zone takes place in a forest. Why there are handmade wooden platforms on one of the trees is beyond me, as there's really no hinting at the fact that there's a treehouse here.
Anyway, the worms just move back and forth, stopping to look around when they reach a wall or the edge of a platform. Sometimes, they'll go a little lower on a tree branch when they go the other direction. The flying squirrel ninjas fly out, stop, then slowly divebomb you.
The boss here is an owl. Avoid the feathers that the owl drops, and throw the ball straight up at it. Avoid it when it drops down (which it will most likely do when it's nowhere near you). After five hits, he's done.
When you beat this level and get through with the bonus stage, Gadget will secret communicate with you and give you some hints: in Zone B, jump on the water taps to shut them off. You'll also find Zipper again in Zone C.
Zone B
Oh, hey! A restaurant!
The first section is full of Mechanical Rats. Thankfully, there are a ton of crates here.
The bears shoot droplets of wine into the air from the bottles they carry and get shot all the way back from the force of the bottle once you're close enough, but thankfully the droplets are easy to avoid and they don't come back.
To turn off the water that blocks your path (and damages you if you touch it), just jump on the tap a couple of times, just like Gadget said.
The flies line up with you before flying into you, but they're easy to jump over when they come your way. Be sure not to jump into the ovens. Thankfully, the knobs for them work as platforms.
The black balls are actually bombs! They do damage to enemies when thrown, but throw them quickly before they explode!
As stated earlier, the Power Potion (the bottle with the P on it) allow you to carry apples and jump at normal height when you collect it. You'll also get a P next to your name.
The green aliens transform into clones of your character when you're close enough. They'll still move back and forth, but it can be a little confusing, especially if you're playing in two-player mode.
The boss here is some alien spaceship. Avoid the little green aliens that it drops, and throw the ball either straight up into the air or to the side to hit the spaceship. You'll be able to throw the ball to the side if the spaceship is at a lower height.
Once you're done here, you'll get hints for Zone D: the enemies get a little tougher there, and hitting the switches will stop the iron balls.
Zone C
This zone apparently takes place in an library...or some guy's house. I can't tell.
The kangaroos take two hits to kill. They have one fatal flaw in their attack pattern: they don't turn around if you're behind them.
The hawks drop the bombs and fly at you if you get way too close.
You'll find Zipper in the second section as expected, and if you didn't get the Power Potion in Zone B, you'll find it again here.
Believe it or not, there's no boss here! This isn't the only zone in the game where you don't have a big battle at the end.
The hint here is the same as Zone A.
Zone D
This zone takes place in a toy shop.
The red crates are fake. If you get close to them, they'll start bouncing up and down. Thankfully, it takes only one real crate to kill them.
The jack-in-the-boxes move around and hide in their boxes every few seconds. Their pattern is pretty predictable, though.
The wobbly guys with the sphere hands can't be defeated, but if you hit them with a crate or something, they'll spin around wildly for a few seconds, allowing you to pass by them unscathed.
The rabbits lifting the carpets up and down damage you with the carpet. If you get close enough to them, they'll run away.
The muscle hawks will punch any crates in their path out of the way. They take two hits to kill, and I have a pretty strong suspicion that if the crates they punch hit you, you will take damage. I've never tried it, though.
To stop the iron balls, hit the switches with a crate so they go back to the "off" position. You can also turn them back on by standing on them when they're switched off. Don't forget, you can flick the switches more than once, which you'll definitely need to do for that last one.
The collapsing purple walls are really easy to avoid. Just keep running. As a matter of fact, you can jump to the left at the right time on the top row to avoid the ones there altogether. The small holes in the floors of this section will slow you down if you land in them.
The boss here is a toy robot. Avoid the balls that he shoots out as they come down, and throw the ball at the lights on its chest. If you throw it at the right time, you can get two hits on it in one shot, making it easier to land five hits.
There's a boat waiting for you in Zone E, and there are a bunch of holes in Zone F.
Zone E
This zone takes place in a garden.
The cocoons move up and down, and the broken fence segments attempt to fall on you when you're under them.
The log is basically this zone's variation of the apple.
The eyes in the bushes are beetles. If you get too close to the eye, the beetle will jump out and walk toward you. You can only hit them after they've jumped out, so be ready to duck into a crate when a beetle comes your way. Don't forget that you can also stand on the bushes and use them as platforms whenever necessary.
The first box contains the boat that takes you across the fountain, and the second one contains the hammer that lets you smash through the rock wall by pressing B. You can also use it to destroy enemies, but you'll only have it until you reach the next section.
The green stag beetles can actually be hit with a crate, believe it or not.
The boss here is some sort of catfish. Avoid the lightning bolts that it shoots out as you throw the ball straight up at it.
The pipes in Zone F change size.
Zone F
I'm guessing this is a sewer.
You'll be waiting for the iron balls to drop down in the first part of the first section and dodging them in the second part.
The second section is the one that has the pipes that grow and shrink. Do yourself a favor: don't grab any of the crates in this section in case you have to wait, so you won't fall into a bottomless pit. There are power-ups in them, but they're completely unnecessary as there is no boss in this zone.
Zone G
Finally! We're in Fat Cat's Casino!
There are only two instances where the lizard mobsters jump: when they show up on screen and when there are crates or steel boxes in their way. Other than that, they're extremely easy to defeat.
The rhino quarterback run straight through the crates and knock them away, but they're unusually slow for football players and go down in a single hit.
The box just before the boss contains a 1-Up.
The boss is some gambler cat. Nope, you don't get to fight Fat Cat yet. Avoid the coins he throws (as well as the two spikes on the floor) and throw the ball up in the air at him. Be sure to move around a bit so some of his coins will miss, giving you an extra second to aim.
When you beat this zone, you'll rescue Gadget and take a rocket ship to the last three zones of the game.
Zone H
Finally, a real sewer.
The crabs (which are strangely reminiscent of the crabs from Green Hill Zone in Sonic The Hedgehog) just move back and forth and stop every other second to spit bubbles into the air that have next to no range. That's it. They go down in a single hit.
The flying squirrel ninjas come back with a vengeance in the vertical part of the first section, so be ready to carry a crate and duck into it when one comes dangerously close.
The pits are now full of sewer water.
Also, the bears and the aliens from Zone B come back in this section. Also, enjoy not having to fight a boss.
The fans in Zone I can blow you away.
Zone I
This zone takes place in an office. Love the Mick Foley reference he makes, by the way.
The beetles from Zone E return and hide in the coffee cups this time.
To beat the pelicans, throw the crates at them so that they don't hit their mouths. Otherwise, they'll spit the crate back at you. If they hit you, you won't take damage, but you will be stunned.
As mentioned before, the fans will blow you away. Keep running toward them, jump to the top of the fans and keep going and you'll get past that blast of air.
The thumbtacks are obviously spikes.
After Monty opens the way for you, you'll be dealing with more Mechanical Rats and Bees! Yes, the bees are back, and you'll definitely have to take them on this time. Just carry a crate and prepare to duck into it.
The boss here is a caterpillar. Throw the ball at it, and prepare to dodge its segments when they fall down. The segments always come down when the boss reaches the center of the screen, and you can stand between segments to easily avoid them. They'll then bounce to the center before going back up to the boss. Once you get how the segments move, dodging them will be easy.
Zone J
The music here is really good. Sounds like leftover Mega Man OST material.
The conveyor belts, unlike other platforms, do not allow you to jump down a level with Down and A.
The rhino quarterbacks come back in greater numbers at the beginning of the zone. And with very few crates to arm yourself with, you'll have to jump over them.
New enemy here: weasels with plunger crossbows. These guys take two hits to kill.
To keep from taking damage from the axes, make your move when they're moving away from you.
The mobster lizards throw their hats at you, kinda like Odd Job.
Throw crates at the switches to turn off the axe blades that block your path.
The boss here is Fat Cat. Avoid the ashes from his Cuban cigar, which tend to track you. There's a good amount of space to move around in between ash projectiles, thankfully. Just throw the ball up at his face five times and you've completed this awesome game.
