Squirrel King is a platform/action video game produced, without license from Sega or by Disney, by the Taiwanese developer Gamtec for the Mega Drive console. Gamtec is also responsible for the development of a number of other games, including many for the Gamate handheld system. A version for Super NES was released later, under the name of Squirrel.
It appears to be loosely based upon Capcom’s Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, sharing its gameplay mechanics, although it is not licensed by Disney. As in the aforementioned game, the main character must throw crates at the enemies in order to defeat them. Sometimes crates have helpful things like extra fireballs, extra lives, and health boosts. Other times, they have “power-downs” that reduce the player’s health. Despite some animation issues, this game is considered to be of professional quality. Players are given a limited amount of lives and continues to beat the game with; it takes half as many games to gain an extra life in two-player mode as opposed to the single-player mode. This video game is divided into seven acts; with an elephant denomined Barnett as the final boss of the game.
This game was eventually used as the basis for the unofficial Mega Drive Super Mario World game. Two of the levels in Squirrel King have their background music based on that of the video game Donkey Kong Country, while in Squirrel, all of the game’s sound effects and soundtrack were taken from Super NES video game Bonkers.
A hack version of Super Mario World, also known as Super Mario Bros. (both titles appear in-game) also exists, which is a copy of Squirrel King and uses ripped graphics from Super Mario Bros.. Newly drawn sprites to make the Squirrel King characters look more appropriate are used as well. Despite its overhauled appearance, the gameplay was unchanged, so, unlike the original Super Mario Bros. game it resembles, Mario and Luigi are unable to stomp on enemies and must instead throw crates at them. Instead of the rabbit and the monster, bowser is the replacement of them as the first and second boss, and in the hack, the bird on the machine is the forth boss and the pig is the third boss.
