Forgotten Secrets - Competitive History of Chameleon/Khameleon

[Music] when we think of mortal kombat a lot of us instantly think of the ninjas scorpion and sub-zero are a legendary set of characters from 1992 and after their debut in the first game we would gradually see more and more of the ninjas become playable characters as palette swaps of one another their moves would be different but their visuals were using the same sprites with different palettes this was to maximize playable characters while saving on memory at the same time no character in the entire franchise embodies this more than chameleon a mysterious yet secret character with no official law at the time and made absolute minimal appearances yet chameleon somehow still has fans and people that have fond memories of the character he's even my second favorite mk character of all time why because to me this character embodies many things that i adored about classic mk and is all around a really enjoyable character to play in every official appearance the fact he's a super secret character the mystery surrounding his lore to play chameleon and maximize his gameplay you had to be serious because there's a lot to learn and adapt to however this chameleon is only part of the chameleon idea there is a female chameleon too which is spelled with a k and is even more secretive with even less commonly known about the character two secret fighters with the same gameplay ideas behind them this episode of competitive history is a double whammy exploring two characters that many people to this day might know very little about with gameplay that only the most hardcore could maximize welcome to a deep dive into the gameplay mechanics of the chameleons for both versions of chameleon we have to go back to 1996 with the release of mortal kombat trilogy the game that try to gather as many characters as possible place them into one game with the mechanics of ultimate mortal kombat 3 and a new aggressor bar mechanic but aggressor was often turned off in competitive play so we won't be covering it here most people likely remember seeing male chameleon in a secret fight once you've defeated xiao khan select the correct option and the game tells you that your reward is the chance to face one of shao khan's deadliest warriors then just like that boom chameleon fight most people myself included as a kid thought this was it but you could 100 pick this character and use him in a match male chameleon could be found on the pc sega saturn and playstation versions of trilogy but he's a secret character with an input required to select him to select chameleon select any of the male ninjas and then hold back high punch high kick run and block just like that chameleon appears and you're good to go gameplay wise this is where things will be a bit different from other episodes because we don't have any specific moves to go over as chameleon has no original moves in the game chameleon will constantly change between the different ninjas gaining their moves while appearing as that character this chameleon can become the following ninjas scorpion irmak reptile rain noob cybot human smoke and classic sub-zero that's quite a lot and here's what's always made chameleon so interesting to me from a gameplay standpoint some communities would outright ban noob cybot because he's busted in trilogy but you can become noob cybot by chance as chameleon the thing here is that you become noob cybot for such a short time that from conversations that i've had with trilogy community members it's never really been long enough to make chameleon a ban worthy character as well you change so fast that there isn't really time to do the usual noob cyborg mayhem that makes him the best character in the game additionally you can become rain and rain is also a super top tier character because he has an infinite in this game with his roundhouse scorpion is better in trilogy than he is in umk3 thanks to a forward moving teleport on top of his regular teleport irmak is still amazing in trilogy just as he is in umk3 human smoke another top tier character you see where i'm going with this chameleon can become a number of insanely strong characters this alone would in theory make chameleon some kind of super character but the biggest setback that you always face is the small duration of being any of those said characters you have to constantly react to changes and by the time you've really done anything you've morphed again if the morph timing adds up at just the right moment you can combine them for combos as well although this is as you'd expect highly situational but there are ways that you can somewhat influence whether you morph or not for example some attacks if active during a morph will nullify the morph and keep you as that ninja for another cycle it does give you some extra time to get used to whoever you've become although sometimes you might want to morph because you might not like that character as much and it might be out of your hands if you're just trying to play the game the point is you need to know how to play every single one of these characters at a good level because once you become them you're stuck as them for at least one cycle it might not be very long but not knowing even one of these characters leaves you at quite the disadvantage if you become them the fact you can become so many strong characters makes chameleon incredibly fun to play but even with these considered the random factor makes chameleon an unreliable pick if you don't know who you're going to be you can't really forge much of a game plan around this and the changes are so frequent that the character is just inconsistent i've genuinely never seen this character picked in tournament and i've watched a lot of competitive trilogy in my time south america which by far has the most hardcore trilogy community also doesn't seem to have these characters on show after brief discussions with umk3 and trilogy legend by speed he mentioned to me how the characters are considered pretty low tier the random nature of their transformations being absolutely the biggest issue even though to this day chameleon can be quite a question mark for some high-level players because honestly he just wasn't really played i say characters by the way because the female chameleon can be found on the n64 version of trilogy this character sporting a grey costume and will become either jade katana or molina significantly less morphs than the male version but that's just due to there being less female ninjas in these games right to unlock this chameleon you have to wait for the story to show up on game startup then press in this order c right c up a b c down c up c right you will hear and now you can pick her from the character select screen unfortunately this version of chameleon definitely suffers the most from the random factor to know which character you've become your name on the life bar will change color blue for katana pink for molina and green for jade but as you can clearly see these changes are much much faster than the male chameleon on playstation making the character even more random in effect the female ninjas have the benefit of a small hurt box so you're generally a bit harder to hit and some combos can't be optimal on you but the massive unpredictability factor and the sheer speed of your transformations can be quite a problem indeed these two characters were really interesting and fun to play but their random element made them hard to master and unfortunately not very reliable as we move into the 3d era of mortal kombat armageddon was where male chameleon made his final official appearance this version of the character though was pretty good for a number of reasons in this game chameleon has his own colour scheme but he keeps the gameplay mechanic of shared moves but those shared moves are specials that will change his colour during the activation it's a cool effect and i always liked it a lot that said chameleon has his own fighting stance and weapon so by all means he's a standalone character this time special wise here's what we're working with green wave is irmax fireball not much to say about this one lizard lightning is rain's unblockable thunderstrike speedy serpent is the running elbow dash belonging to reptile vanishing kick is the teleport taken from scorpion freezing charge is sub-zero's cold shoulder all of these moves have a place which is good because it makes chameleon feel more complete as a character the two charges are great surprise attacks or combo enders teleport can reposition a fireball always helps and the unblockable lightning is a combo starter his normal throw is the boss throw that characters like meat also have and it's great for damage and sends the opponent far away making them vulnerable to lightning strike although it's reactable an issue that rain and chameleon both share fighting style wise chameleon sports the crane style and has quite a few attacks from it some of the longer strings in the game in fact here are some important moves that you definitely use often down 4 is an incredibly good sweep with range and knock down the tracking's not terrible either standing 2 is your main launcher great after parries or just to punish things up 4 is a cheeky mid that does great damage on its own many of your other buttons are tied to strings that aren't really terrible and do good damage 1-1-1 leave standing 3-3-4-4 is a decent 4-hit again for good damage 3-3-3 as you'd expect hits three times a large and quite deadly string is 3-3-3-1-1-1 up four and finally three three three one one stance change launches and changes to ninja sword now the ninja sword is where your damage comes from it's pretty unsafe to use on its own with a lot of attacks here but the main key is that these attacks after a launch bag massive damage when all put together and it makes chameleon by all means a combo character standing 3 and 4 3 are both launchers and can be used to punish things 4-4 and 4-1-1 are both good combo linkers he has some very forgettable low pokes that you might use at ranges but generally this sword is all about damage and combo potential chameleon in a very practical way can take advantage of an advanced tactic known as parry cancelling by doing a parry and instantly pressing an attack button just at the right moment you still move forward with the parry a small amount but can attack out of it this technique can be used to link more than one of your 4-1-1 together multiple times and although an extremely difficult technique gives you large damage as a reward [Applause] oh chameleon was focused on mostly hand to hand stance and when a launcher takes place swapping to the ninja sword for the big damage enders he has the easy air infinite set in weapon so air juggles are much simpler for him and they bag even larger combos than before you can combine air juggles and the sword combos to make some flashy high damage stuff chameleon's final use is that should players ban the use of air infinites which was definitely common chameleon still has some of the highest practical combo damage in the entire game he doesn't need air juggles to get damage he was a solid character and the damage helps a great deal in a game with this much crazy business in it this was the game that made me really fall in love with the character design and i've been a fan for many years chameleon in armageddon is a lot of fun to play now things get even more rare with the next version of female chameleon she was a new character to the game and was exclusive to the nintendo wii version she like male chameleon had her own stances but specials that belonged to other characters she is definitely not a character that thrives off special moves though because hers aren't as strong but she has the following yellow surge is tanya's projectile serpent's shadow is jade's teleport this is probably her best special in general square wave belongs to katana and venom from above is molina's dive kick none of these specials are moves that you'll use all the time but i think the teleport is the most useful in a general match however she is a character that thrives off her hand to hand stance which is eagle claw first of all regular throw is a side switch and her throw in general was quite useful because there are many ways that you can set it up i'll talk about that later down two is the only uppercut in the entire game that's a true launcher and can easily turn into more damage up 4 is another launcher and it leaves them closer this one is really good for combos and as you might have noticed is reminiscent of male chameleon's launcher as well her pokes are very strong indeed both down three and down four have deceivingly good range on them fast speed and great recovery her main string lies in standing four as four four four and four four four all exist all three of them again have pretty decent recovery so there's somewhat of a stagger game there too four four has other enders in four four three four four two and 4 4 1 1. finally 4-4 stance change goes into weapon and launches this is a nice launcher to transition into weapon finishes standing 4 sets up a free throw on hit which helps her stagger game even more so weapon wise she has the falsion like chameleon a lot of these attacks on their own don't seem that amazing but when used in combos become incredibly high damage she has a lot in common with male chameleon in this respect although her low pokes are not particularly impressive she has some high damage elsewhere and here it is 3-4-2-2 on its own does 26 damage 2-2 can be useful for linking in juggles 1-1 is a basic 2-hit and back 1 launches for a full combo forward 1-1-1 four times and can be good for certain juggles one thing she does a great job on is damage again like male chameleon her hand to hand is by far her superior stance for general play but launches into weapon finishers bag incredibly solid damage for not too bad of execution she has the opportunity to air infinite juggle although you'll need to swap to her falcian mid juggle to get the end version that you can cancel out of using this takes her combo damage and wraps it up significantly but without it she still has enjoyable and good damage juggles either way not many characters in 3dmk have this caliber of juggles but both of the chameleons do both characters have combos that are fun to watch and fun to do i highly recommend you check out some old combo videos from czech the 3d combo master because both chameleon combo videos he ever put together a long time ago are ridiculously [Applause] entertaining [Applause] here's the thing about this version of chameleon she was only playable in the wii version of armageddon right which was definitely not the most popular version of the game at a high level this game also didn't have online play so there was no way in the online days with clans and forums that people could actually grind this character and figure out where she sat in the tier list modern opinions tend to steer chameleon on the side of a mid-tier but it depends on community rules because community rules often liked to ban air infinites sometimes limit them to a single rep these kind of things and without these kind of exploits she still has solid combos good movement really decent buttons and great moves that can set up for free throws like a four or a down four in hand to hand considering she was the final addition to mk armageddon she actually plays armageddon quite well which believe it or not not every character is able to do i'd go as far to say that armageddon chameleon might be one of the hardest to research characters in any mortal kombat edition because of the not so popular console and the fact there was no online play of all the secret characters in mortal kombat both chameleons are some of the more secretive that the franchise has to offer especially female chameleon who was a console exclusive in both official appearances but the two of them stand out as characters that hardcore fans remember and their unique gameplay element of the random swaps in classic games and shared moves of the 3d age has always given them this interesting element fans of hardcore gameplay mechanics would have quite the pleasant surprise giving them a go and even if they wouldn't be the most tournament viable picks in their respective games they do offer a fun experience that keeps you on your toes whether it's juggling multiple characters in 2d or mastering larger combos in 3d if you like what you've seen today and want to show some support by all means consider subscribing to my youtube maybe dropping the video a like or a comment or if you want to go one step further i do have a patreon for those that want to offer additional support and it's always appreciated thank you so much for watching take care and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: PNDK&M

Views: 395,412

Keywords: History, of, kurtis, stryker, competitive, high, level, play, combos, combo, ketchup, mustard, pnd, K&M, meta, tournament, tournaments, mike, metroid, network, grand, finals, tutorial, guide, umk3, armageddon, 2011, 2012, 1992, 1995, arcade, arcades, infinite, how, to, do, game, gameplay, moves, move, specials, Rain, Prince, Of, Edenia, pits, meat, character, characters, episode, wind, god, fujin, MK4, mame, dolphin, gamecub, dreamcast, aftermath, variation, variations, history, chameleon, khameleon, trilogy, MKT, n64, PS1, PSX, Documentary, education

Id: JcraUzjlUmU

Length: 19min 22sec (1162 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2020