I initially thought that the reason I didn't enjoy Lizard was because I've become too accustomed to incredibly well made 8-bit inspired games that have seemingly flooded the market over the past decade or so. While there may be some truth to this, it doesn't make up for the fact that when compared to its NES peers, Lizard just simply isn't a fun or even interesting experience. If anything, I'm slightly disappointed it's not horrifically bad because at least then I'd have something a bit more colorful to say about it. Even a bad game can be entertaining in a morbid way, but Lizard manages to be almost as bland and gray as possible. It almost doesn't even feel like a game at all sometimes but just a "move a sprite across the screen simulator". While that fundamentally may be what all NES games were, the good ones at least disguised this well with enjoyable gameplay elements and pleasing visuals.
To begin, the controls have a major design flaw in that your character always moves, or lands from a jump, as if he's on a solid sheet of ice. What makes this worse is that it's one of those "My character is wearing rocket boots" type of movement where you move way too fast to the point where it's too easy to overshoot where you want to land. Furthermore, the way the physics works is that doing a standing jump wont get you nearly as far as a running jump will, so you'll almost always be in a position where you have to do a running jump to reach certain small ledges or platforms where enemies are waiting just mere pixels away from the edge. When you combine all these factors together, it makes for a pretty miserable control system. This is antithetical to a game that has an extreme reliance on platforming and indeed has since become a classic staple of bad control complaints when people speak of retro gaming.
It has since been confirmed that this was purposely done by the developer so if his intent was to re-capture the feeling of sloppy controls that plagued so many NES games back in the day, well, mission accomplished. This, however, ignores the games that had great controls and that aspect is one of the primary reasons we still hold certain NES games in such reverence even to this day. To purposely design a control mechanic like this seems to be pandering to the small group of people who felt that overcoming a game's bad control physics was just as much a part of the challenge as the rest of the game and that this was a legitimate feature. For the rest of us, solid and responsive controls were a necessary vehicle in order for the player to interact with the game itself through the character and not an obstacle one had to overcome in order to find enjoyment. Your mileage may vary.
Aside from that, the actual gameplay is lackluster. There's honestly not much to be found here. You play as a lizard (or rather someone 'wearing' a lizard) while navigating a non-linear world. From time to time you come across other lizards that you can then swap bodies with, thus granting you a new ability. These abilities are (mostly) a necessity to reach certain areas of the game but they're not particularly fun in and of themselves. For example, you can take control of a lizard that can move certain blocks. While this removes specific barriers you need to proceed, it doesn't exactly make for engaging gameplay. What should have been a set of several unique features come off as feeling like keys in an inventory you use to unlock doors. This is a fine game element, but when it's the main hook of your entire game mechanics then you're not in for a exceptionally fun time.
As for the obstacles you encounter, its mostly a grab-bag of standard enemy sprites that don't do much but either move slowly or in erratic patterns. This really isn't a big deal but what truly damages the game is that these enemies and other hazards feel as if they're just randomly placed throughout the game rather than inhabiting a painstakingly constructed set of locations designed to interact with the player in such a way where he or she doesn't know they're being manipulated by the developer in order for the player to have a fun interaction or to even play a sequence that looks or otherwise feels "cool". Checkpoints are sparse and placed extremely far apart. This might be a good time to mention that your character dies after getting hit once. The spacing of checkpoints in a game, or even the very existence of them, is something that's highly subjective so I mention this only for those who hate backtracking long distances of challenging areas over and over again. It's essentially a given that you will die many times, although aside from the backtracking there's not much in terms of punishment for dying as you have unlimited lives.
In terms of graphics, the world layout of Lizard is such a hodgepodge mess of randomized locales and sprites that it comes off as a digital 8-bit Dadaist nightmare. There's no rhyme or reason to this disjointed landscape and virtually none of it is appealing to the eyes. On the other hand, this doesn't detract from the absolute lack of any narrative whatsoever. There is no story to be found here and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Virtually every NES game of this type consisted of one simple non-complex plot point: "You are the protagonist, stop the antagonist from doing antagonistic thing." So as a matter of personal taste, I really think this is one of the strong points of the game. It doesn't waste your time with the same boringly cliché recycled plots of the 8-bit days.
The fact that it was made as a purely authentic NES game is more of a piece of interesting trivia rather than a feature. In no way does this enhance or otherwise add to the gameplay. With that stated, to think that the extremely basic feel of Lizard is due to the limitations of NES hardware is to ignore the existence of games such as Legacy of the Wizard. Lizard attempts to do what this 30+ year old game did but falls catastrophically short of doing so in every single aspect. The only exception here is the music, which is actually quite good. In fact, it's the only true great aspect of the game.
The overarching disappointment of Lizard is that it's not only boring to play but rather it's simply not noteworthy to any degree whatsoever. Every gameplay aspect that it hints at has not only been done before but done in far superior ways by the multitude of great classics that served as its inspiration. The controls aren't terrible but they do remain awkward and inhibit a decent platforming experience, the world is visually unappealing and small (albeit very open), the gameplay is uninspired and about as bare-bones as you can get, the lizard switching mechanic isn't intriguing or compelling, enemy placement feels too random for good level design, and perhaps worst of all there is simply no drive to continue after you've seen most, if not all, of the world which doesn't take long for the average player. If anything, Lizard comes off as an unfinished tech demo for a game that's only 50% complete in terms of content and needs a considerable amount of polish. Lizard attempts to capture the feeling of the adventure genre which the NES originally set the gold standard for but doesn't manage to get quite off the ground. It lacks depth, substance, and even charm. While it shows promise in certain areas, it ultimately ends up a simulacrum that generally leaves you feeling empty and let down in regards to what you were expecting if you were expecting anything resembling the halcyon days of the NES. The kindest thing I can say about Lizard is that out of all of those NES games that I've played, this is certainly one of them.
