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When their next door neighbour's cat goes missing, Chip and Dale, the Rescue Rangers instantly volunteer to get her back. But what seems like a routine mission swiftly turns to disaster when Chip and Dale discover that their evil arch-enemy Fat Cat took the cat to keep them occupied while he kidnapped their good friend and inventor, Gadget. Now the two rodents have got to rescue Gadget before Fat Cat forces her to invent something really evil...

The one or simultaneous two-player action takes place over a series of platform levels, with Chip and Dale being guided through the hazard-laden environment. Not only are there traps a-plenty, each level is also inhabited by hordes of Fat Cat's minions all out to thwart Chip and Dale's heroic antics! Can they rescue Gadget and teach Fat Cat a lesson he'll never forget, or will it be the obese feline who wins the day?

Chip and Dale aren't alone in their mission. Their pals also join in a myriad of ways. Gadget has managed to leave behind handy items around which can be picked up to help defeat key enemies or pass certain traps, such as the rubber ball which can be used to avoid the deadly clean-o-match brush and polish guardian!

More help is at hand courtesy of Zipper the insect who insect who hides away in large boxes and grants temporary invincibility to anyone who finds him. Finally, there's Monty the mouse. Find him and feed him some cheese and he runs ahead of you in a mega cheese trance, smashing a hole in any unpassable piece of scenery!

It's not all reflex-related action in Rescue Rangers - there are also puzzles aplenty. For instance, to pass one part of the Laboratory level, a giant beaker must be negotiated. This piece of glassware is far too high to jump, but eagle-eyed players will notice the line of three blocks next to it. The trick is to pile the blocks into a tower, thus making passage simple!

Other puzzles include such terrors as learning how to turn off a multitude of traps by the use of skillful jumps.

Crates are very useful for defence purposes, but there's more to them than that. Secreted in many of them are bonus-giving icons. Flowers grant extra points at the end of the level, acorns replenish your energy and stars grant extra lives should enough be collected.

If you're really jammy, you might even run across bonus twinkly stars! These items float across the screen at random times and reward the collector with a handy 1-up!

Although it hardly pushes back the boundaries of console gaming, Rescue Rangers is tough and enjoyable. The action is fast and furious and there's a huge playing area to explore.

The idea of incorporating simple puzzles into the game is a good one, and while they're hardly taxing, they help add variety to an otherwise pure platform game. The graphics and sound are of the usual Capcom high quality, particularly the sprites, which although small, feature nice detail and animation. If you're a platform game fan, this is well worth checking out.

If there's one thing the NES is definitely not short of, it's platform games. Nearly every licensed game converted to the Nintendo - be it TV or film - is a platform game. Still, Rescue Rangers is good enough to stop it getting lost in the crowd.

The graphics are quite good, with small but detailed sprites and cartoony robots. The sound is adequate too, with a decent rendition of the Rescue Rangers theme playing throughout the game. But what sets Rescue Rangers apart from other NES platformers is the speed of gameplay and the level of challenge.

The game is really fast-paced with Chip and Dale zipping around the screen at a great rate of knots. It's also one of the most difficult Nintendo platform games to date; the action never lets up and keeps you constantly on your toes.

Chip And Dale: Rescue Rangers is a recommended purchase, providing you're not yet tired of platform games.

Presentation 76%
Character selection and lengthy story unfolding between levels, but no options.

Graphics 81%
Small but detailed cartoon-style sprites. The scrolling is very smooth and the animation is pretty decent.

Sound 72%
The theme tune is accurate and true to the original cartoon series but tends to grate after a couple of sessions.

Playability 88%
Fast moving and very addictive from the start, with lots to see and do.

Lastability 87%
Each of the many levels is long and packed to the gills with the challenge - platform fans should be in their element.

Overall 88%
Not groundbreakingly original, but very good nonetheless. Fun to play and long-lasting.