Lizard

The amount of work that has gone into this is insane. Also, it's exactly what it looks like. What you see in the trailer is what you'll get, so if that's your thing then this is a must-buy.

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 traditional sense. Instead, you control a human who dons different lizard skins, each granting a unique ability essential for progression. Some lizards can swim, others can push objects, and each transformation plays a crucial role in overcoming the game’s many environmental challenges. Acquiring the right lizard skin is a vital part of the game. First, you need to locate them, which can be tricky in the game’s interconnected world. Second, skins aren’t interchangeable at will. Once you commit to a new form, your previous one is left behind, often requiring backtracking when you encounter an obstacle that demands a different ability. To avoid unnecessary frustration, finding an online map might save you a lot of headaches. With six different lizard types to find, each tied to one of the six bosses you must defeat, the game offers a non-linear structure that lets you tackle objectives in any order. However, don’t be fooled into thinking this freedom makes things easy—the world is very dangerous. This game doesn’t pull any punches. There’s no health bar, no second chances—one hit from an enemy and you’re instantly reduced to a pile of bones. Birds, dogs, and even small blue frogs—deceptively difficult to spot—are all lurking threats. Worse yet, jumping on them isn’t an option. That said, the game does offer a few modern concessions. Scattered sparsely throughout the world are special stones that act as save points. These points alleviate some of the pain of constant deaths, though they are few and far between. While your death counter steadily climbs, at least you retain any collected coins—though they seem to serve little purpose beyond unlocking an achievement. Defeating bosses in this game is less about combat and more about avoidance. Rather than direct battles, boss encounters revolve around dodging attacks until the enemy tires itself out or utilizing environmental elements to trigger a victory. Once a boss is down, you’re treated to a short ending before being booted back to the main menu. You must restart the game six times to defeat all the bosses before finally unlocking the portal to the true final confrontation. This game is an unapologetic tribute to classic platformers, demanding patience, precision, and a willingness to embrace its sometimes punishing design. While its rigid mechanics and frequent deaths might deter casual players, those who relish a hardcore retro challenge will find a rewarding experience beneath its pixelated surface. If you’re ready to test your skills in a world where every mistake is costly and every victory is hard-earned, then this throwback adventure might just be for you.

Remember those days when you'd go into a store and see a NES cartridge on a shelve with attractive art and no manual, then rushing home all excited to play it not knowing if what you had in your hand is gold or junk? For me buying this game a few days after release, with only 3 or 4 reviews visible and going in blind to play it, was the closest I've had to feeling that once again! If you owned a NES at all I highly recommend this! I wont say anymore so nothing is ruined!

Very nice and good. To write more would be to ruin the joy and surprises that await ~ if you're looking for a easy to pick up but challenging NES platformer, look no further.

This is the first game on Steam that I buy full price (that is to say, not when it's on sale, and not received as a gift from a friend). And it's worth every penny, maybe more. If I could also buy it again on itch.io and get the NES ROM I would (but alas, online payment shenanigans have always failed me for one reason or another). I consider LIZARD to be an absolute gem of a game. The atmosphere. The quirky concept, that you might not find anywhere else. The sense of exploration that it evokes, making you wonder if you've explored every single nook and cranny of it even as you revisit an area for the 5th time. The SOUNDTRACK! But well... I was already aware that the soundtrack was gonna be a masterpiece of chiptune as I'm very much acquainted with Brad Smith's works - but the way it accompanies the game turns the experience into a dream. I'm very much annoyed by games with difficult platforming and dangers around every corner, but when I play this game and keep losing in a section, it still keeps me hooked, pushing me to try again and again, I simply can't put the controller down until I realize a lot of time has passed and I have other stuff to do! Yikes! So if you haven't gotten tired of the 8-bit aesthetic and wanna try a game that succeeds at delivering a tough challenge but also a relaxing good time, I wholly recommend this game. And if you're already tired of the 8-bit aesthetic, I'd say you should still try this - go out of the retro trend with a bang with a legitimate NES game that's well made and remembers why the games of long ago keep captivating players.

My lizard is the lizard of good, engaging platformers.

This game really scratches that classic NES platformer itch! Very enjoyable and well crafted. It's like a missing piece that should have been during the NES era. The UI and options are great. I have not seen any bugs yet in my 7 hours of play. Making progress is super satisfying. (So far, I've found 2 endings.) I only wish I knew what the cryptic runes mean. If you like getting lost in a classic pixel adventure, I highly recommend Lizard.

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.

My Lizard is the Lizard of a Great Game. Please keep in mind that this is a real NES game, and not your run-of-the-mill faux-retro PC game. Keeping with the limitations of the NES hardware, Brad Smith was able to craft an immersive, seamless world for you to explore. You don many different Lizard skins, and explore the massive world as you solve puzzles, master the platforming controls, and square off with some great bosses. The fact of the matter is that this game features some of the best gameplay on the NES (even compared to the original classics on the system), as well as more love and charm than many other games could dream of having. Do yourself the favour of trying it out -- as far as actual NES games go, this is one of the best the console has ever seen.

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 will more than likely get locked out of being able to do certain things, which feels unnecessarily annoying. But I do still think the game is more fun than not, overall. See if you can find more coins than I did! I got 124. ːtobdogː