Chip N' Dale's is a sidescrolling arcade game you play with other people. You walk, you jump, and you press down, and almost everything in the game comes out of that one key. Here is the whole of it.

Moving

The arrow keys walk your character left and right, and Space jumps. Let Space go early and the jump is shorter, so how high you go is up to you. The view follows you as you go, left and right and up and down, and stops following when it reaches the side of the room.

Down is the action key

Down ducks, and one press does exactly one thing, in this order: put down whatever you are holding; else, standing on the ground, save at a save point, or pick up the nearest player, box, trophy or dazed enemy within reach, or take the nearest pickup box; else fire whatever you are carrying. Firing comes last, so you never shoot when you meant to grab.

A press with nothing in reach and no weapon does nothing but duck, and ducking roots you to the spot. That is the game: two players walk at each other, both press too early, and now they are both crouched there waiting. Whoever presses down first while touching wins, and the server says who that was.

Getting around

The sides and the top of a room hold you in. The bottom kills you, so do not fall down a hole unless it is marked with an arrow, which is how the game tells you a drop is meant to be taken. Arrows also point the way to bosses and to teleporters, and signs beside them say what is down there.

Save points

Save points are the grey houses standing about the world. Stand at the door and press down; when you die, or when you come back another day, you start again from the last one you pressed. If you have not used one, you start where the world starts.

Boxes and balls

Press down on a box to pick it up, and down again to set it back down at your feet. A box you set down is a platform, so stand on one and drop the next to build yourself a way up. A ball is not carried but thrown: it flies flat and fast the way you face, and whoever it hits is dazed for four seconds and can do nothing about it. You can jump over a ball, or duck under it.

Weapons

Press down on a pickup box to take what is inside. A weapon is worn, not held (you can see it in your hands whenever your hands are empty), and taking a new one replaces the old one, ammunition and all. Face the way you want to shoot and press down. Some weapons fire one shot a press, some keep firing while you hold down, and a blade swings all around you. Every shot costs one, and the weapon is gone when the last one is spent. So does dying, and so does walking through a no-gun beam.

A shot at another player dazes them for four seconds; it does not kill. A shot at an enemy is a different matter.

Shields, jetpacks and wings

Pickup boxes hold more than weapons. A shield takes a set number of hits for you (each one costs it a point and stuns you for a moment instead of killing you), and nobody can pick up a player who is wearing one. A jetpack or a pair of wings goes on your back: hold Up to thrust against gravity, or tap Space in the air to flap. Both run on a tank of fuel that nothing refills but another box, and a death takes the lot.

Enemies

Most enemies kill you if you touch them, and some can be jumped on instead, which hits them and bounces you up. Shoot one enough and it either dies outright or is dazed: it stops, turns round, and for a few seconds you can walk over it, press down to pick it up, and press down again to throw it. Some die the moment they are thrown; the rest have to be thrown off a cliff. Do not take too long (they come out of the daze), and do not hang about afterwards, because they come back about a quarter of a minute later.

Some enemies carry weapons of their own, and they will stop, wind up and fire at you. Their bullets kill, unless your shield takes it.

Bosses

A boss is an enemy too big or too strong to pick up. You can tell one by the name written over its head and the row of red squares beside it: those are its hit points, and every hit takes one. When they are gone the boss dies where it stands and leaves a trophy behind. Bosses guard the parts of the game worth reaching.

Trophies

A dead boss drops its trophy where it fell. Pick it up with down and carry it like a box, but be quick, because a trophy nobody takes is gone after a minute. Some teleporters will not work until the trophy they ask for is standing on them, and using the teleporter uses the trophy up. Keeping trophies of your own, and showing them off, is still to come.

Teleporters

Stand on a teleporter and press down. It takes a few seconds to charge, and everyone standing on it when the charge runs out travels together, so wait a moment if you want company, and step off if you do not. You arrive with empty hands and nothing on your back: whatever you were carrying is set down where you were, and your weapon, your shield and your pack are left behind.

Your house

In Housing Communities the teleporters marked FOR SALE lead to empty houses. Stand on one, press down and say yes, and that house is yours: free, one to a player, and it stays where it stands. A house is furnished by setting things down in it: a box goes where you leave it, and a trophy out of your inventory stands where you put it. Only you may pick a trophy up in your own house.

Other players

You can pick up other players the same way you pick up anything else, dazed or not, as long as they are not shielded. A carried player hangs upside down over your head, can do nothing, and is thrown after three seconds whether you meant to throw them or not. Throwing does not kill, but throwing someone off a ledge or into the fire certainly does, and the game knows it was you who did it.

If nobody else is on, send a friend the address and they can play straight away, without an account. The game is at chipndales.io.

Points

Killing enemies earns points, and bigger and better-armed ones earn more. Killing the same thing over and over earns a tenth as much, so go and find something new.

Still to come

This is a remake, and it is being built one piece at a time. The mini-games and the tools for building your own worlds are still to come. The F.A.Q. has more.