Lizard

This game is an unapologetic tribute to classic platformers, demanding patience, precision, and a willingness to embrace its sometimes punishing design. To truly appreciate this game, you must be willing to step back in time—not just in terms of visuals, but in gameplay philosophy as well. While it runs flawlessly on modern hardware, every aspect of its design is a love letter to a bygone era, eschewing contemporary mechanics in favor of a pure, old-school experience. The developers have gone the extra mile to make it feel authentic, offering settings that enhance the retro aesthetic, such as a classic 4:3 resolution ratio and CRT-style scan lines. While you can stretch the display to full screen, it doesn’t really feel right. At its core, this is a straightforward platformer, and its simplicity is part of its charm. You’ll only need to master a few basic controls—moving left and right and executing precise jumps to navigate obstacles and enemies. The jump mechanics require some getting used to, as air control is limited, but once you adapt, platforming feels fair. One of the game’s most intriguing twists is that you don’t actually play as a lizard—at least, not in the tradition…

Of two minds with this NES homebrew. It's a big, surreal world to explore, learn and get lost in. You'll get the same kind of enjoyment as you'd perhaps get from playing Mooncat from UFO 50. Just like with Mooncat, the controls might seem atrocious at first, but they're really not -- keep at it and you'll soon be hopping from penguin head to penguin head like a pro. Protip: if you're not using the down button, you're doing it wrong! It's an important and useful button both mid-air and on the ground. And don't forget to take advantage of the map in the manual (or find it in-game and take a screenshot), though it has some inaccuracies. What really brings the game down is a couple of unfortunate design decisions: one is the game's password system, which counter-intuitively only saves your position, not your progress. I had to start over from scratch because of this. And it's not like the game can't save your progress -- it does so if you simply quit the game normally. Just be sure you understand that by resetting, you're going to lose everything you've done so far. The other one is you HAVE to reset your game and your progress if you want to do everything there is to do, because you …

Lizard is the NES game released in 2018, both digitally and on cartridges. There's even ROM you can use in an emulator, which is very nice. The game itself offers quite a good graphics and a variety of content for the game on this platform. It also offers a lot of freedom: you can go right and left, go through doors and try different things using different suits. So it's 2024 and I still buy new games for my Famicom.

A genuine retro game that runs on real hardware. I put in a few different play sessions on PC, and found it quite challenging and so didn't manage to get very far in the game. I liked being able to restart at checkpoints. This is the 2nd NES game that I've ever played, and so I felt like my skills were lacking compared to newer platformers that might be considered easier from the get-go. I agree with other reviewers that this game is true to the spirit of the time of the NES.

This a great, weird NES game. As is stated this is a NES game developed in recent years - I have NES cartridge! It comes with a rom to play in your favorite emulator. The steam game (which I think is the DOS version!) Has some quality of life features like autosaving your last save and an extended options menu. The overall flow is platforming and exploring the map and getting new lizard suits. The movement is floaty and does add to some difficulty, but once you are used to it feels at home in the game. In true esoteric NES game fashion READ THE MANUAL! There is a lot of info that isn't conveyed like a modern game, so this is a must. This will show you a blurb of each lizard and other helpful info including a big picture map. Do like old NES platformers that are a little floaty? Do you like to explore a lot? Then pick this up.

Describing this game as mindless exploration might sound like an insult, but the way it's done is actually pretty fun. There's no real goal, but there's tight platforming and fun side stuff/secrets. While playing on original hardware is not a bad option either, the password system is half and half. It keeps track of what lizard you had and which area you were in, doesn't keep track what bosses you beat or what coins you got. Thankfully the PC version saves all your progress.