317 · Disney's Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
The rescue rangers are tiny heroes. Consisting of two chipmunks, two mice and a fly... these heroes may be small but there's no case too big for them to take on. This game starts out simply enough, with a mission to rescue a small kitten, but soon escalates into a wider plot that pits the rescue rangers against their arch-nemesis, the feline kingpin, Fat Cat.
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is Capcom's second Disney game for us, after DuckTales, from the same Capcom people who made Mega Man. Mike, Sean and Joe were on this one. Fat Cat has kidnapped Gadget and you play Chip or Dale, chipmunks small enough that a tree is a whole level. We came away happy, and it felt good to say so about a licensed game.
What makes it essential
- The hook arrives at the right moment. At first you can't attack, and mechanical mice chase you, which can feel like a baby game. Then a gate stops you until you pick up crates and stack them into a ladder, and the game opens up. Picking up and throwing boxes feels like Super Mario Bros. 2, but with smoother scrolling, and you can hide under a box.
- Enemies that behave differently. A kangaroo swings tennis balls from its pocket. A toy store has jack-in-the-boxes that work like piranha plants. Some enemies take two hits and act differently after the first, and pelicans swallow what you throw and spit it back. Each level brought new behavior, not just new sprites.
- Levels you can touch. Faucets to jump on and shut off, switches that stop a projectile stream and turn it back on if hit from below. Joe loved this. We argued over whether the backgrounds could be livelier (the books are just blocks, the ceiling fans don't spin), and agreed they could.
- Zipper. He is a great invincibility item, taking down enemies before you reach them.
- It controls well, and we beat it. All three of us finished it, as with DuckTales. We compared it to Spider-Man 2 on PS5: you aren't supposed to struggle against street thugs.
Worth knowing
- Chip and Dale play the same. Joe expected Dale to be a juggernaut. The only difference is the hat, and Chip has it.
- The red ball. The unlimited throwable that shows up for bosses. We thought each boss should get its own object, like a loose bolt for the robot.
- The map has no payoff. It looks like forks, but the optional levels give nothing for taking them. Joe played them all, and Mike beelined.
- A clean license. A Disney producer reportedly called it Capcom's least troublesome project, with no guns, apart from a plunger gun on a mobster lizard.
The bottom line
Essential. Mike voted yes, saying it is okay that the game is easy and that he would rather put it on now and take it off later than repeat the DuckTales mistake. Joe started with doubts, said they all melted away, and thinks it is at least on DuckTales' level. Sean voted Play it. He enjoyed it, but doesn't think it has the lightning in a bottle DuckTales had. With two votes, it goes on the Essential Games List. Joe even floated that with Mario-and-Luigi-style differences between the two, it might beat Super Mario Bros. 2.
Written from our conversation in this episode.
Found automatically from the transcript and checked, but it can miss things or pick the wrong page. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Games
- Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers mentioned at
The episode's game: Capcom's 1990 two-player NES platformer based on the Disney cartoon, where you pick up and throw objects.
- DuckTales mentioned at
Earlier Capcom and Disney NES game, added to the Essential Games List at a later best-of episode.
- Mega Man mentioned at
Capcom's action series from the same development team, used for a difficulty comparison.
- Super Mario Bros. 2 mentioned at
Main comparison for picking up and throwing objects instead of stomping enemies.
- Shovel Knight mentioned at
Indie platformer whose pogo-style movement the hosts compare to DuckTales.
- Kingdom Hearts mentioned at
Series where a host knows Chip and Dale as minor, slightly annoying characters.
- Super Mario Bros. mentioned at
Compared with its sequel when discussing this game's pace and platforming.
- Super Mario Bros. 3 mentioned at
Its overworld map and shortcuts are compared to this game's optional lettered stages.
- The Witness mentioned at
Puzzle game joked about as the cerebral comparison for this one.
- Ghosts 'n Goblins mentioned at
Punishingly hard Capcom NES game, said to be by the same designer as this easier game.
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2 mentioned at
PlayStation 5 game compared to this one: powerful hero, easy common enemies, tougher bosses.
- Kirby's Dream Land mentioned at
Very easy Game Boy game used as a difficulty comparison.
- Castle of Dragon mentioned at
Last week's NES game.
- Dragon Spirit: The New Legend mentioned at
Next week's NES game, guessed to be a shooter.
- Karate Champ mentioned at
NES fighting game suggested as a comparison for Dragon Spirit.
Companies
- Capcom mentioned at
Developer of the game, as well as Mega Man and DuckTales.
- The Walt Disney Company mentioned at
Licensor of the game; a Disney producer said it was Capcom's least troublesome project.
People
- Bob Iger mentioned at
Disney's chief executive, jokingly suggested as the villain of the Chip and Dale movie.
Film, TV and music
- Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers mentioned at
The Disney animated series the game is based on, about chipmunk detectives and their friends.
- The Sopranos mentioned at
Crime drama referenced in a joke about the mobster enemy with a plunger gun.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022 film) mentioned at
Live-action and animation Disney+ film that parodies the show, with Dale having had CG surgery.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit mentioned at
Film the hosts compare the 2022 Chip and Dale movie to.
- The Office mentioned at
Sitcom referenced in a joke about stepping on a George Foreman grill.
Articles, videos and sites
- NEStalgia Essential Games List mentioned at
The show's list of essential NES games; DuckTales is on it and this game is voted on.
- Disney+ mentioned at
Streaming service where the Chip and Dale movie premiered.
- Nintendo Power mentioned at
Magazine that ranked the game 79th on its list of the 100 greatest Nintendo games.
- IGN mentioned at
Site that in 2009 placed this game 71st on its list of the 100 greatest NES games.
- GamesRadar mentioned at
Site that ranked this game sixth on its list of the seven best Disney games.
Other
- Chip 'n' Dale mentioned at
The Disney chipmunk duo, who exist outside the Rescue Rangers show too.
- Chippendales mentioned at
The male dance troupe the hosts joke is what the title refers to.
- Mickey Mouse mentioned at
Disney's mascot; Chip and Dale are separate from him but appear alongside him.
- April O'Neil mentioned at
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reporter, mentioned alongside other cartoon characters people had crushes on.
- Lola Bunny mentioned at
Space Jam character mentioned in the same joke about cartoon crushes.
- Piranha Plant mentioned at
Mario enemy compared to the jack-in-the-box enemies that pop out of boxes in the toy level.
- Luigi mentioned at
Mario's brother, whose taller jump is an example of different player characters, unlike Chip and Dale.
- Ghostbusters mentioned at
Franchise cited as one where fans wanted to run the business, unlike the Rescue Rangers game.
Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.
Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers! Join Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers to thwart Fat Cat's evil attempt to control the city.
And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Chip and Dale. Uh, this will be about the Disney cartoon, not the, um, popular, uh, male dancers. Although that would have been a totally different kind of video game. Probably would not have gotten the official Nintendo seal of quality. Um, enough about that though. Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. Do you guys watch the show at all? Are you familiar with Chip and Dale? Or do you just think of them as like, uh, Mickey Mouse sidekicks? I, for a while, I thought that, that there was no such thing as like, Disney's Chip and Dale and it's always just been male strippers. Um, but this game reminded me that there was a cartoon.
But like, they were separate from Mickey Mouse. Like, they're not like, they're not like Donald and Goofy and Pluto levels of Mickey Mouse. They were like their own. No, yeah, yeah. They're like Geppetto in a sense, you know? Yeah, they're from a different property. But he like, they like show up with Mickey from time to time. Does Geppetto show up with Mickey other than in like Kingdom Hearts? Absolutely. Yeah. He, he was like, um, or rather he just shows up in Disney things outside of Pinocchio, I guess. It's like Chip and Dale exist outside of the Rescue Rangers. Gotcha. So I, I know them mostly from Kingdom Hearts and even in Kingdom Hearts, my, one of my favorite games of all time, I didn't really care for Chip and Dale.
They are, they are a bit annoying, aren't they? Uh, and, and specifically in the show too, uh, it sounds like you guys didn't watch the show, but in the show, I would say that, um, you know, they're not even, I don't know how many characters there are, so I can't make this joke, but they're not even like top four of the Rescue Rangers. Uh, they're, they're the bottom of the Rangers in my opinion. And obviously everybody knows Gadget.
Um, I've never heard of Gadget. I've only heard of Chip and Dale. You don't know Gadget? I mean, now I know Gadget. I don't know what kind of, I don't know what kind of show this is, but I will say that for a lot of people in that time, you know, Gadget was a bit of like, people had, uh, an awakening with, with, uh, yeah. They had a crush on a mouse? They had a crush on a mouse. It's a known thing. It's the, basically, um, it's the start of something, you know, the pink ranger.
Like I understand, uh, what's her face from T.J. between Mutant Ninja Turtles because she's human. April. And I even understand, uh, the, you know, the, the bunny Lola, Lola. Lola Bunny? No, no. Well, not Lola, whatever, from, uh, Space Jam because she was incredibly sexualized. Yeah, Lola Bunny. But this? She's just like a squirrel thing. Mouse squirrel. Well, you know, Sean, you know the rules, okay? If it exists.
All right. Um, but yeah, obviously, yes, there's a, there's a thing for everything, but I was joking anyway. She's. I don't know. She's a mouse. You're right. I'm just saying that it's a known, it's a known thing. Okay. All right.
Enough of that. Enough of the show because I can't even talk to you people about the show because you didn't watch it. Ever since that one question we had in the Patreon mailbag. Everything's gone wild since then. Yeah, this is. We were talking about the Chippendale male strippers. Disney wouldn't want us to talk about that. Can we get more smooches in this game? Yeah. Disney would not want us talking about that. So instead we're going to talk about the kind of things Disney wants us to talk about. And that is the fact that they are having, uh, some pretty good NES games here, uh, with the assistance of Capcom.
If you recall, we played DuckTales and that had a, uh, controversially, uh, great review on the episode, but did not make it to the essential games list until we got to the best of episode where we were like, yeah, what were we thinking actually? Like this is just as worthy as anything else. And so, uh, Chippendale has, uh, has the DuckTales thing going behind it, but it also has like,
you know, these are the same guys who make the Mega Man games. Like it's that same development team. And so, uh, first do you feel, uh, any form of DuckTales or Mega Man in this game? And then second, is this game, if you do notice some similarities with those games, is this like the baby version of a Mega Man game where like, you know, Mega Man games are famously like a little challenging, especially in the Wily stages. Is this like, um, a beginner's approach to getting better at those kinds of games?
So I, I didn't, I didn't associate this so much with Mega Man while playing it, but I did associate it with DuckTales at least in the level of creativity, not in the types of creativity. Like it is not super similar to DuckTales, but I was just impressed because they're both, they're both games that like could have easily just been like clones of every other platformer doing the same thing. And like, you know, DuckTales has the sort of like the sort of like movement mechanic that's like very different and like kind of that like proto shovel knight feeling, uh, thing.
But this is like got, as I'm playing, I just keep discovering like more things you can do, more ways you can play it. Like, you know, you obviously like that you, you can't attack things head on, which is different to think about for a platformer like this compared to most platformers. Because you're, you're kind of Super Mario Brothers 2 style picking up things, but like, frankly, it, the lack of like, it's like the more smooth scrolling rather than screens make this like a little more fun of movement than Super Mario Brothers 2. And it, um, I don't know, there's like things that you can pick things up, throw them, you can hide underneath the boxes. There's all kinds of like, there's all kinds of create, creative gameplay designs here.
Yeah. And one thing that I'll also give them credit for is, um, when I started playing the game, I didn't even know what the hook was because I didn't know you could pick anything up. Cause again, I didn't read the manual. Um, but they did do the correct like tutorialization thing where they, where they set up a gate and you cannot get any farther in like the first episode, the first level, unless you finally pick stuff up and like stack some blocks together to create like a ladder.
And then I was like, Oh, and then I was much more excited about the game because up till that point, it kind of felt like there was nothing to it. And I would have agreed with Mike saying, this is a baby game. And I'm not saying that like everything gets super complex and difficult from it, from that moment. But, uh, there was a lot more room to just enjoy stuff. Once you, once you actually know what the hook of the game is. Yeah. It's funny that you mentioned, uh, that moment where you have to stack the blocks, Sean, because there is a moment before that too, where, uh, you know, you are without, uh, any sort of ability to attack.
And yet the enemies, uh, get seemingly more aggressive. It's those, um, mechanical, um, mice that are coming after you. And you're like, okay, well, how, what am I, am I just supposed to be dodging everything in this game? Like if you didn't figure it out by then, right?
Like then the very next moment where you have to pick up stuff is like the aha moment. But, uh, you know, the, the ability to pick everything up as, uh, Joe mentioned is very, feels very Super Mario Brothers 2, maybe because this is a, you know, this is a platforming game. And that is definitely like the notable switch from Super Mario Brothers 1 to Super Mario Brothers 2. But, uh, I would say that I didn't mean to call this a baby game in the sense of like, it's so, um, it's so unchallenging. It's just definitely easier than the usual Capcom output that we get. And I think that's a welcome change here. Yeah, it was, it was a lot more relaxing.
Yeah, but I definitely wouldn't call the game easy, at least by, at least by my skill level. It was cozier. Yes. A little confused about the scale though, of the world that Chip and Dale live in.
Um, are they like really, really small? Like, uh, you know, they're chipmunks, right? Like, are these the biggest trees ever? Or, uh, did they walk into the biggest diner ever? Like the, the scale is a little off, right? Yeah, because you're, you're not even like a quarter of the height of a book. So, uh, I think that's not really how the game works, you know? Do you mean like, do you mean like a book that is flat on its, or is it like on its, is it laying on its spine and stacked up? I don't remember, but like, this chipmunk's pretty small.
Yeah, but like one tree, one tree is like the whole level, Joe. Okay, well then. You know what I mean? Probably too small. Yeah, and those boxes are too small, even. Well, this is also me who hasn't seen the show, so I shouldn't be complaining. I'm taking it at face value. You should be complaining.
Now, do you think it's weird that everything in the game, or we're saying everything, but like, uh, common sense everything, that you can pick up in this game, and then at times they just give you like a red ball to throw at, at like bosses or, or, you know, um, the shiny red ball to be like, hey, use this. Do you think that's necessary? Should they have just figured out a more like real world object? Cause the whole idea of like, you know, oh, like they're so small and they live in this human world. Like, it feels weird that this red ball always like shop, shows up at the end and not like something relevant to the theme of the world.
I mean, I guess the, I guess the explanation that they might give is like, oh, well, you know, you might run out of boxes. Um, so we're just going to make this like the unlimited thing you can throw, but you could have also made other items an unlimited object that like will land and you can pick up again. Um, but no, they just decided that that was going to be the, that's going to be the boss item. I feel like what, yeah, what it should have been. Yeah. It's like each boss should have had their own item. Like, you know, like the, the robot could have had like a bolt or something that's just like loose and sitting there. You throw up and, you know, it would have been a nice little, nice little touch.
But is there, is there something to like the red ball? Is that like a thing in Chippendale or is it just, because they use apples in other parts of the level. Why not just be an apple? Well, I guess that's what I was saying too, right? Is like, why not just make it any other object other than just like, yeah, yeah. The levels, uh, as they are, you know, um, Capcom obviously has proven themselves by now to be great at designing platforming stages and, uh, not have like cheap tricks or whatever. Uh, but you know, the whole thing is, is that it's supposed to be a little more playful, both in theme and in enemy design and in the world that you're walking through.
So how effective was that? I, I am jumping right to that, like kangaroo who has a bunch of tennis balls in his pocket. So he swings them at you. Like that's the kind of clever, creative, funny stuff that like you want to see more of in this style of game. Yeah, I think the boss, the boss design, the, the enemy designs, like they, they were unique in each level and some of them had like different aspects like, oh, like there's one where you're, I think you're just in a toy box or maybe a toy store. And there's a bunch of jacks in the box. Um, if I believe that might be the correct plural. Um, and you know, they, they function like this one box, there would be a bunch of jacks in one box. Okay. Jacks in boxes.
Thank you. Um, and like that sort of helps, uh, kind of be the like piranha plant. Um, if we're going to make a, a, uh, we're going to make this like a, a Mario comparison. Um, and then you got enemies that have different sizes and they take more than one hit and there's like different, uh, like if you hit them once, they act in a different way. If you hit them twice, then they disappear and you got stuff that's sort of interactive in the background, whether they're faucets or switches, like there's a lot going on in the level design here.
Yeah. And then even like in one of the later levels, there's those pelicans that will like, if you hit them in the face, they will like swallow whatever you threw at them and like spit it back out at you rather than like, yeah. Like the first enemy that does that. Like I was, I was impressed with how each level did, didn't just reuse all the enemies. Like they kept introducing new things that weren't just new, new sprites. They were also like, they behaved in totally different ways that you had to think about slightly differently.
Yes. But there were some moments, uh, specifically in the themes of the stages, other than just like character, small world, big, uh, style, uh, tropes. There wasn't, sometimes the backgrounds weren't, uh, to life, you know, like the, the, there's a, you're walking through that library of books, but the books don't do anything other than just act as new different kinds of platforming blocks. Or there were those ceiling fans that you jump on, but they don't spin, you know, uh, light bulbs that don't light up that like, if they were lit, they would be too hot to stand on. Uh, most of the diner stuff is like, yeah, there's, there's dials and stuff, but it's not like the dials spin around as you're walking on them.
I, I would have appreciated some more lived in, uh, dynamic environments. I think this is where, like, I really disagree with that because I feel like, I mean, any game is going to have platforms that are just platforms. But I felt like this game was riddled with things like you're describing where it's like the faucets that you can, that you have to jump on the faucets to turn. And that one level to shut the faucet off to, to make your way through.
Or there's like the, um, there's something that spins when you go by them. I don't remember what the, I guess it's not fans, but it's like, there's like top like things that spin as you jump by them. Um, I mean, there were like tons of little, like environmental platforms that you have to eat. There's like on and off switches that like you have to jump on the switch to turn it off to like stop the flow of some sort of projectile. And then if you hit it from below, you turned it back to the ons, you know, these platforms where it's like just jumping on them affects the whole environment in a totally different way.
Like I thought there were more of, there was more of that in this game than I had seen really in any game we've played. I kind of agree with both of your points here where like, I think that there's a lot of interaction here and they are, the levels are dynamic. But I also agree that there are some, I'm not going to call it a missed opportunity, but like they had the opportunity to make it even more dynamic.
Um, but I'm not going to fault them for not having it just be a bonanza, you know? Yeah, I guess I'm seeing it more as like they have all these, they have all these like interactable objects. Plus they have just regular platforms and rather than just making the regular platform something mundane, they also made those designed in like a level specific interesting way.
Yeah, I wasn't saying that it never happens either. I was just saying that it's, it's a little confusing that it's only like 50% of the time. But I understand what you're saying, Joe, that like sometimes you just need a different, you know, you need a different form of block without just being a block. So the books act as that. Do we care at all about the story with Fat Cat and he's kidnapped Gadget and stuff like that? Are you, are you on the edge of your seat for that kind of stuff? Or are you just like, give me to the next level?
More so that. I mean, I saw the cut scenes. The cut scenes are fun. Most of them are just Gadget saying like, oh, I saw these things. Like, this is how you defeat them. Or here's a, here's a hint. And, but there was like one moment where Fat Cat shows up and then it's the end of the game and you beat him in the casino. So it, it seemed like the game didn't really care that much about the story either. So I didn't either. It felt like the game didn't care about the story after the first cut scene where the game really cared about the story.
It was just like, maybe if you're a, if you're a big Chip and Dale fan, you want like, you want that like eight minutes of them talking about like who they are and like, what's good, what the plan is. And you go do this and we'll all go do this. And it's like, we're only playing as Chip or Dale. So like what everyone else is doing, like, doesn't matter to me. But like, I would have just as easily preferred like, oh no, Fat Cat's on the loose. Let's go get them. The game starts.
But it's like a non-offensive entry in the Chip and Dale Rescue Ranger. Like, it's not like a retelling of a story or whatever, but it's not like changing what you know if you're a kid excited by a new adventure. You know, like I think it's just, it's there. It doesn't deconstruct Chip and Dale like it could have. Not like, yeah, not like that new Disney movie did.
The new Chip and Dale movie that was like. The new Chip and Dale movie? Well, I say there's no like, it's not a sequel to anything, but it was supposed to be like Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, but it's really more like Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2. And it's, it's an amazing movie. I can't recommend it enough. It kind of like went under the radar because it just went straight to Disney Plus. But it subverts expectations in every scene. I really enjoyed it.
However, that's not what I'm here to talk about today. Anyway, what I meant is, is that like, you know, you have to keep mine similar to how I was saying that this game is a little bit on the easy side, whether we like to, whether you guys want to put your foot on that line or not. It is definitely an easier game than Mega Man. And this is also just, you know, it's a game for kids who are watching this as a Saturday morning cartoon.
And I think it gets the, it gets the job done of like, not what Ghostbusters did where Ghostbusters was like, oh yeah, people love Ghostbusters. And they want to have their own Ghostbusters franchise. And they want to feel what it's like to run that business. You know, it's not like, oh, people love Chip and Dale because they solve mysteries. And this should be an RPG where you go around interrogating people and trying to track down, you know, gadget by collecting clues through various parts of town. You know, like they understood the assignment here.
And at least from what I get from the development side is that this was also a very straightforward, like Capcom developed the game. They sent it to Disney and Disney was like, this is great. No notes. Like, that's pretty impressive.
I mean, I guess we're, we're kind of guessing that it was that simple, but I, I would probably agree that that's how it was. Oh, no, I'm saying like, according to a then Disney game producer, they said that this was the least troublesome Capcom project that they had with them. And it was just like, the company was like, yeah, we weren't saying like, hey, I wouldn't have Dale do this. You know, like they didn't give anybody a gun or anything that would resemble a gun, you know, because like, that's a thing that people have to be aware of. It's like how these IPs that they're very precious over, like what they can do.
And so the fact that they're just like throwing red balls, it's like, that's safe, but it's also fine. And it's fun, that red ball when you're throwing it at the bosses and it bounces back on the walls and stuff or it comes back at you. I was surprised by that in a way I wasn't in Super Mario Brothers 2 to use that as a reference of like, they, did they refine the combat from Super Mario Brothers 2?
I'm just surprised that you sort of offhandedly mentioned this as if it was a joke, but that's actually how the development went down. I appreciate that. Well, there you go. And kudos to you for digging, for making me dig deeper. They did sneak in one thing that resembles a gun. There's that, there's an enemy that is kind of like this little like mobster lizard looking thing. And he has like a, like a plunger gun. But this is pre-Sopranos. So the mafia is like funny.
It's not a threat to our society. Chip, are you in the mafia? No, Dale is in the mafia. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up, guys. Because I was going to ask if you think it's a missed opportunity that Chip and Dale don't act or behave differently in the way that like, you know, even as small as Mario and Luigi, like Luigi has a taller jump. Like, should, should that have been under consideration that Chip and Dale have like, I don't, I don't know how you would do it based on their personalities. But like, should there have been a change?
I think that just because, I mean, a single player, you're just playing as Chip. They don't give you the option to play as Luigi. Yes. No, they give you, they give you Dale. Oh, they do give you Dale. They do give you Dale. You do get to choose. But they are. I completely forgot about that. That's okay. You are correct that they don't give you the option to choose Luigi. You did say that. Did I say that? You did say that. And so I just want you to know that you cannot play as Luigi in this game, even if you go to the fountain and read El is Real. That does suck that you can't, that they don't give you that option. But you're right. All right. I don't actually have a point then.
So, Joe, what were you going to say? I was going to say that I started out playing as Chip. And when I was having some trouble, I switched to Dale. And I expected Dale to be like, I was like, oh, this should be totally different than Chip. Like, I thought Dale was going to be like a juggernaut and have like, you know, 80,000 HP and have fireballs and whatnot. But to my surprise, all that's different is that Chip has a hat and Dale does not. And that kind of disappoints me because the hat is so cool. But Dale is obviously the better chipmunk.
So you Dale heads, tell me, do they have like, do they have different personalities in the show? I have no idea. But yes, I would assume. Not only do they have different personalities in the show, but not to go back to the movie, the movie on Disney Plus. But what's funny about that one is that Chip, sorry, Dale, the one without the hat, he, this is funny. He got a like a CG facelift, essentially. Like he went through surgery.
No, yeah. But he went through surgery, you know, like because in this world, like, you know, after the hit TV show, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, you know, to reinvent himself, he went CG the same way that like actors in our world do like Botox. You know, like I think that's that's funny. So Dale is the more like insecure, like cares about his looks type. And Chip is sort of like, come as you are, come what may.
Chip is more of the straight man and Dale's the comic relief. But wait, so is Dale in this whole movie CG while Chip is like traditional animation? You better believe it. That's amazing. This movie also takes place in real life, I should say. So it is. That's what I'm saying. The Who Framed Roger Rabbit part two. Yeah. Because they're also interacting with humans. And the show was just a TV show. And then Chip kind of like retired after that. But Dale kept trying to like make a career out of it. But he's basically a struggling, failing actor. And they have to get together to solve a crime. And you'll never guess, because I mean it, you will actually never guess who the villain of this movie is. It's insane. Tony Soprano. Is it like Bob Iger?
It's like Bob Iger.
so enough about the hit movie chip and dell rescue rangers let's talk about the hit nes video game chip and dell rescue rangers not that every disney game that gets released by capcom needs to be ducktales but since it's on the essential games list is worth talking about that this isn't uh ducktales like other than it being a platformer where you can also just choose which stage you want to go to next it's it doesn't have that whole like um missables and secrets section that uh the ducktales uh levels had where you needed a certain amount of coin or if you uh check this section of
the level chip and dell is a little more straightforward where like yeah there's a section where like oh you see something you might be able to reach so stack up some platforms to to get up there and you don't have to do that to proceed however there's no um uh you know there's no like uh interaction with the other chip and dell uh members or uh trying to um find another exit or something in in the chip and dell game does that make sense that's kind of what yeah i mean the only thing those all those things are rewarded with like one-ups and there's nothing
it's much more simple in what it rewards exploration with and it's not even really exploration just like oh can i go to that high spot right right and i should say that you know other characters do show up it's just in the sense of like uh i think zipper shows up but he's the uh invincibility uh thing which is really cool the way that that works uh in in this game oh yeah it's like that was a character yeah you're yeah you're not you're not just like uh with the superstar or whatever and just run through the enemy zippers like kicking butt which is really cool yeah that was really neat it's like yeah
he just like systematically takes down any enemy like before you can even reach them but it didn't feel as as involved as the levels for ducktales um but it's not trying to be ducktales so i think that's fine right it doesn't feel like they need to be compared we're just comparing them because they happen to both be disney games released by capcom so what is the like is super mario brothers 2 the the comparison point here i think it's i mean sort of but it's also different enough from that that i
don't know it feels like kind of its own thing you know i guess i guess i'd have to like the closest thing i'd compare it to would be a mario game just because of the way it moves and it's a platformer and it's good whereas in like a lot of platformers we play aren't as smooth and good feeling as like these different mario games but like it feels like it has enough of its own identity to like that it's hard to pick a game to to make its contemporary yeah i feel like it's more fast
paced than uh mario brothers 2 as well and uh it's got its own it's got its own vibe it's almost like to me like a combination it's like it's like halfway between super mario brothers and super mario brothers 2 where it's like you are moving fast and attacking things quickly but also you have to be like a little more um you know a little more cerebral about like picking things up and like attacking in that manner rather than just like jumping on stuff i want to see the uh like the the tag list for this game as like you know it would be like third person shooter like uh mystery uh
choices matter and like for chippendale it's cerebral i was just gonna say i knew that's where you were going to yeah this is a very cerebral game it's like the witness oh yeah did we talk about like the optional levels no let's talk about the optional levels in fact let's talk about the fact that levels are selectable at all because it doesn't it doesn't feel that way when you're when you first see the level select screen like it feels like there is a path and you should be going in order but you don't have to do that well so at the beginning there's kind of like two paths and none of them to me seem like there's like a split a fork in the road and none of them seem like the
optimal path or anything i mean one does look like it has one extra level but uh i just picked one i don't remember which way i went but i actually didn't do any of the optional levels i beat the game but i just kind of beelined it um but then as i'm watching footage for it like some of these other levels i'm just like wow i'm kind of bummed i missed out on some of this because they also look unique and interesting i played them all i guess i i i didn't test it but i figured that you had to play them all to to move on or to beat the game i didn't realize there was going to be a second screen um so i just played them all
and it's interesting that there isn't like this isn't the kind of game where there's a reward for going out of your way like even in a even in the super mario brothers 3 map right there's the fast way to clear it but then there's like the oh well toad's house is locked behind uh this level or some you know some cool shortcut thing is locked behind if i if i go this route here it's just like
you know it's just a different it's just a different way to the same path so it's not like you got a new item that you only found in uh i'm not sure why the stages are just have a letter over them um yeah yeah maybe that's the easiest way to differentiate them that they're they're kind of giving you a way to play less of the game like i think like the you know having an overworld is cool and all but if you're not gonna do anything with it and just have have each of them be letters and there's no actual like strategic path unless you're trying to beat the game the fastest way possible
um i don't really know what it's there for yeah i guess i i'm i'm i was confused on like what the what the benefit or the reward is for doing the optional levels and it seems like there really isn't one of them playing more game which is great but like i would like a i would like some context or like a reason to to want to try and go there which goes back to my thought of you know again that this game is first and foremost for kids and so it is just kind of like the illusion of choice but also you know yeah you you should be able to complete this game if you if you try at it i mean
it sounds like we did we all beat this game yeah yeah so this is just like ducktales where we all beat that game too it's like i'm not trying to say that we're terrible at video games i'm probably pretty good at nes games by now but usually we don't beat nes games like we understand them we play them we we know the tropes but we don't usually beat them and now this is the second time in a row and so whether the mandate's coming from capcom or from disney uh these are games that a six-year-old should hopefully with some time and practice beat as opposed to a six-year-old will probably never beat ghost and goblins a game that was also made by the same guy who made chippendale rescue rangers oh wow
see but that's crazy to think about because on one hand it's easier because you know maybe because disney wants it to be easier to be for kids but on the other hand it's easier because it's just really well designed in a way where it doesn't feel broken or unfair at where at times ghost and goblins did so like i was almost gonna say like it's probably a combination of disney wanting it to be easy and capcom being good enough at making games that they're not frustrating in in ways that aren't intended but then i was surprised to to hear or to remember that uh they all you know ghost and goblins was like the same guy yeah yeah but keep in mind sometimes easy means boring right like you
can play any of us could beat those sesame street nes games right but that would be boring yeah right it's like it's like the combination of like make it easy but also have these good developers who know what they're doing and know how to make good game design so it's like because like it is easier than a lot of games but like it's tough you know they're maybe just for me i mean mike come on we can't you can't forget the time me and you sat down and played this like a dozen times as chip and couldn't get anywhere until he finally switched to dale yeah we had trouble it took just dale getting involved to
like wake us up a little bit oh so you guys played this game together huh oh we forgot we didn't invite invite sean to that i mean we did live together for a little while so it was it was while we were living together if it makes you feel better you were playing that far ahead this is before the podcast was even years ahead this is when we this was still no experience necessary days wow right which turns out you did need some experience as chip in order to win as dale um so that was all just really a roundabout way to say that like especially even now like in modern video gaming like it it it's okay
to be easy easy doesn't mean it's not challenging and i would liken chip and dale rescue rangers on the nes to uh spider-man 2 on ps5 where like you're not gonna die very often in that game and the enemies really don't give spider-man much challenge but should they like isn't it just fine that like he has all those awesome gadgets and does all these really cool web abilities and just takes down regular street foes like shouldn't that be how most encounters with spider-man go and so really aren't chip and dale like spider-man aren't they superheroes isn't that how it should go yeah and so like you
know it's it makes sense that like most enemies in this game are just like okay make sure i have an object to throw at them and then when i throw it at them they go away i won't say die because it's a disney game they just go away uh but you know and then it makes sense that like the boss is a little more challenging or a little more involved and has like his own thing going on uh even the first the
very first boss caught me for a loop with that like uh it has like a bunch of different hands and stuff i don't even know how to describe it because is it like that a known thing or is that just like a creation of of the game yeah i have no idea what that i have no idea what that is but it has like hands and um it looks like brushes on some of the others it looks like it'll do your haircut
but also that thing that like has electricity and when you touch it it you know that ball and when you touch it oh yeah yeah the tesla coil looks like a tesla coil with animated hands and that's a pretty challenging like thing that's not really like in your way or whatever but it's definitely more challenging than anything you've faced in the game in the first levels uh otherwise so i appreciate
this like this way of making a game that uh makes you feel in charge like you want you want to feel good at video games right yeah i hate playing video games that i'm bad at well i will also just say real quick that like i did die like this isn't the the easiest possible video game like i there were parts that gave me trouble and i did beat the game but it doesn't mean that there was no that there was
like no obstacles um so i just don't want to get that twist yeah i would say that this is not as easy as kirby's dreamland but it gives me a similar like level of difficulty vibes okay i don't know why that's my compare like everybody knows that comparison yeah i was that's what i was gonna say i was like i should just say that like you know this isn't as easy as eating breakfast like everybody eats breakfast for the most part successfully unless you uh step on your um george foreman grill when you
wake up in the morning office reference there you go yes that was an office reference and uh here's a reference to a podcast known as nostalgia it's the essential games list you know i had to think about this one because we did screw up ducktales and i feel confident now that that's on the essential games list that we eventually made the right call and so i think i've got to do the reverse here and i've got to try to get chippendale rescue rangers on the essential games list so that i
then have time to decide if i want to take it off later rather than not put it on like we did with ducktales and the reason i want to put it on is probably for the uh thing we talked about most on this episode is that it's okay that this game is easy i was actually surprised to find out that like reception and video game magazines at the time of its release were like bringing it down for the difficulty but like doesn't it feel good to play an nes game that just controls well can be beaten in like an hour or two uh yes you will die uh as sean pointed out that's fine everybody dies eventually but chippendale live forever on the essential games list at least for me um they're getting my vote sean
yeah i i did enjoy playing this game i i don't think it's on the same level as ducktales though um i think that that that was sort of like lightning in a bottle and i think this is still a lot of fun to play and not as easy as as mike is alluding to but still relatively easy and able to be enjoyed by almost everyone um but i don't know if like if it's the same awesomeness that ducktales was so i i i'm definitely gonna say it's a play it but i i can't say it's a it's a essential game joe so when i
started playing um i was like okay this is like an interesting this this seems this seems pretty fun and i was like okay i'm gonna really have to like grapple with this as we go on like should this go on the essential games because it does seem you know this is like level one i'm like this it it's very charming and it's very like it's very interesting but as i'm playing throughout like kind of all doubts sort of melted away i i i think this game is so well designed like not just in like that like it's accessible or that it's bright and colorful but like there's like a big part of it for me where those
those things i was talking those those environmental things i was talking about earlier like having to turn the faucet off to get through this level or having to just to flip switches on the walls or or like do come up with different little you know it's never puzzly or anything but like it's it's fun and it's it's clever the way that the levels are designed and the way that the game's designed and like i think that as much as i definitely regretted not putting ducktales on the essential games this one jumped out at me a little more quickly and i don't know i'd say it's at least on the level of ducktales
albeit it's doing something very different than ducktales but i i definitely um i landed on this should be an essential game i might go as controversial as to say um because we said it so many times in this episode comparing it to super mario brothers 2 uh that if chip and dale just controlled a little differently right if you could play as uh the mario and luigi versions of them so that the stages felt a little different as you swapped between them or something this game might be better than super mario brothers 2 in that regard so that's kind of crazy to say and super mario brothers 2 is
an essential game sean would it have changed your mind at all if i would have let you know that nintendo power ranked this as the 79th greatest nintendo game of all time on their list of 100 greatest any uh nintendo games i don't know should that should that have bearing should i tell you that ign in 2009 placed this game 71st on their list of 100 greatest nes games or that games radar ranked this game sixth on their list of the seven best disney games it's like what are these lists thank you for pointing that out sean yes it should have no bearing on you you should not be influenced by what other
people think um i do like that last list specifically though uh that's second last yeah second to last on the best disney games but they only chose seven so technically there is no last place right like seventh doesn't seven of seven yeah but when you're covering like if i'm saying like okay here's the here's my top three mario games number three doesn't suck right like you're right you're right it's just it's weird wording i can't believe that five of the kingdom hearts games and then chip and
dale were on this list like that everybody's um everybody's assignment this weekend is to watch chip and dale rescue rangers on disney plus um if you don't have disney plus um maybe pirate uh yeah sure then chip and dale will be sent uh to your house to investigate how you did that because uh bob iger unfortunately not the villain joe uh will i will strike that one down because i did kind of set it up like that would be something cool that they would do they're not that cool but it is it is pretty neat okay it's not cool but it's neat okay neat is it the second time you used that word this
this episode uh i don't think i used it yet yeah last week i get my weeks confused yeah uh but uh speaking of last week last week we played castle of dragon next week we're playing dragon spirit the new legend um i know nothing about that one want to take a guess dragon spirit the new legend is it or is it not an rpg i don't probably a schmup oh see i was gonna say i think it's like a beat-em-up type thing or like like a karate champ yeah like you're using the fist of the dragon right right nice okay uh we'll find out uh what it is next week
