A Wizard's Lizard
- June 16, 2014
- Lost Decade Games
- 28h median play time
Don't expect anything overly special or substantial, but do expect a good time.
Get on Steam"A Wizard's Lizard" is a nostalgic, pixelated metroidvania-style game where you play as a lizard wizard's familiar. Navigate through diverse environments, defeat enemies, and solve puzzles to find your master and break the curse placed upon you. With its tight controls, challenging gameplay, and retro aesthetic, it offers a satisfying and engaging experience.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Charming graphics and adorable characters that enhance the overall experience.
- Offers a unique life/death mechanic where players can continue as a ghost, adding depth to gameplay.
- Provides a sense of progression through rescuing villagers and unlocking blueprints for better starting gear.
- Gameplay can become repetitive and lacks significant item variety, leading to a feeling of monotony.
- Difficulty spikes can be frustrating, with some rooms presenting unavoidable damage situations.
- Performance issues, especially in later levels with many enemies on screen, can hinder the overall experience.
- gameplay109 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "A Wizard's Lizard" is characterized by its smooth controls and charming graphics, but it suffers from repetitiveness and a lack of depth, leading to a quick sense of staleness. While the game features interesting mechanics like a unique death system and a variety of items, many players find the overall experience to be grindy and lacking in variety compared to its competitors, particularly "The Binding of Isaac." Despite these criticisms, some players appreciate its accessibility and the fun, chaotic nature of the gameplay, making it a decent choice for fans of the genre.
“I also like the death mechanic in this game; after you die, you enter the spirit world which has more enemies and you have a reduced amount of HP, but you also get more rewards.”
“The gameplay is fun, unique, and interesting enough to keep me coming back for a round every now and then.”
“There are loads of different items and artifacts to find of varying abilities, and every single one of them alters your gameplay just enough to change up your playstyle on every consecutive run, keeping you on your toes each time.”
“The gameplay gets stale pretty quick; content is repetitive and not much of it to add.”
“Collisions are kinda jank; enemy projectiles will fly behind objects so you can't see them coming, and there's nothing new after the first few screens to keep you wanting more.”
“The game was interesting on the first run, but once I realized how little the items added to the gameplay and the repetitive nature of the levels, it got boring pretty quick.”
- graphics63 mentions
- 41 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics of "A Wizard's Lizard" are widely praised for their charming, cutesy art style and colorful visuals, which many reviewers find delightful and fitting for a roguelike game. While some players appreciate the cartoonish design and smooth animations, a few have noted performance issues, such as lag and freezing, which detract from the overall experience. Overall, the game's aesthetic is considered a strong point, appealing particularly to those who prefer a lighter visual tone compared to similar titles like "The Binding of Isaac."
“The graphics and characters are delightful, and the advancement is at a good pace.”
“I absolutely love the art style of this game.”
“With great animations, the artwork is a perfect 10/10; everything is very beautiful.”
“The graphics look nice, but the game ran very badly on my machine.”
“There is no reason for graphics this simple to be lagging on an i5-3570k/GTX 660.”
“Minus the lag and I'd give it an altogether positive review, but with the lag it's really just beyond frustrating given the level of graphics and such; the loss of performance when things get hairy is just a really big hangup.”
- music30 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally well-received, with many players appreciating its joyful and engaging qualities, though it is often noted to be repetitive, which can detract from the overall experience. While some find the soundtrack charming and reminiscent of classic games, others feel it doesn't always fit the game's environment or becomes annoying over time. Overall, the music contributes positively to the game's aesthetic but may not hold up during extended play sessions.
“Good music, good art, love the sense of humor as well.”
“It feels and plays the part, has great music, and is presented in a graphical aesthetic that feels all its own.”
“Right out of the gate, this game has a lot working in its favor - an adorable protagonist, a creative premise (which informs its dual-natured gameplay), a great degree of challenge, a decent soundtrack, and a style and humor all its own, with references to Final Fantasy, Zelda, and even The Wicker Man.”
“The only negative point is the music that can become annoying.”
“I rapidly pressed the button to pull up the map and the music looped over itself and got so loud that I just had to shut the game off.”
“The game tries to go for a Link to the Past vibe with its music, although it gets redundant after a while.”
- story22 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The story revolves around a lizard on a quest to rescue his wizard master from the clutches of death, presenting a simple yet charming narrative that blends lighthearted fantasy with darker undertones. While some players appreciate the nostalgic feel and the cute premise, others criticize the lack of depth and clarity in the storytelling, suggesting that it could benefit from more detailed quest design. Overall, the narrative serves as a light justification for the game's mechanics rather than a driving force.
“The story follows a wizard's lizard as his master is abducted by death, and you as the lizard have to save your master from the evil clutches of death.”
“The story of this lovable reptile begins with the tale of your wizard attempting to cheat death with you by his side by making a potion that will make both of you live forever, but as we all know, death is not to be crossed and takes him, and so your bone-breaking, flesh-ripping adventure begins here.”
“The story is very straightforward, very effective, and is perfectly reminiscent of the best titles of the 80s and 90s.”
“This game is weird, its mechanics are bad, the story is even worse; there is nothing that keeps you addicted in this game.”
“There are no goals or story to make you move forward.”
“While in theory it is rewarding to give the player an extra mission on top of 'beat the game', in execution all it does is make the game grindy.”
- replayability19 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 37 % neutral mentions
- 16 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed among reviewers. While some praise its engaging gameplay and variety of unlockables that contribute to high replay value, others criticize the lack of item diversity and synergies, leading to a more limited experience compared to similar titles like "The Binding of Isaac." Ultimately, it seems to offer decent replayability, but not enough to compete with the best in the genre.
“What it comes down to is that this is a Zelda-like game that is easy to learn, fun to play, has lots of replayability, and isn't quite so soul-crushingly difficult as most of the roguelikes on the market today.”
“It's compelling, easily replayable, engaging, and has a great soundtrack and refreshing art style; it's not one of those lazy pixel art games.”
“There are at least six different vast rooms in the museum all full of empty podiums for you to fill up with items, enemies, and a vast array of other unlockables that you find throughout your journey, just another telling sign of the incredible amount of content and replayability that you will find with this game.”
“I would recommend picking it up on sale as there are a lot of games that offer much more replay value.”
“It's an okay game, but sadly it's missing interesting synergies by combining items, which drastically reduces the replayability.”
“Not much in the way of actual replayability; there's not much item variety, pretty much all are just a boost to a certain stat, with only the equipables actually offering variety.”
- grinding17 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Many users find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessive and tedious, particularly towards the end, leading to a monotonous experience that detracts from overall enjoyment. While some appreciate the game's mechanics and item progression, the repetitive nature of grinding can make it feel frustrating and unfair, especially for beginners. Overall, while the game has redeeming qualities, the grindy gameplay is a significant drawback for many players.
“But as it is, it is just kind of boring, samey, and grindy as hell.”
“Every room becomes a tedious nightmare, making the game difficult for all the wrong reasons.”
“Progression in a roguelike is nothing new, nor is giving players abilities, but none of it seems to matter in A Wizard's Lizard, and that combined with the grinding makes the entire experience feel like a slog.”
- optimization12 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with players reporting severe performance issues, especially in larger rooms and during intense combat scenarios. Many users find the performance unacceptable, describing it as some of the worst they've encountered, leading to frustration and making the game nearly unplayable in later stages. The lack of widescreen support and other drastic measures taken to manage performance further highlight the game's optimization shortcomings.
“The trend of HTML5 and other similar mediums for newer games is swell; it's great to see accessibility and flexibility, but a lot of them seem to sacrifice performance.”
“As soon as you get a few levels in and start having a decent number of enemies and projectiles on screen, you'll start seeing some serious performance hits.”
“Minus the lag, I'd give it an altogether positive review, but with the lag, it's really just beyond frustrating given the level of graphics; the loss of performance when things get hectic is just a really big hangup.”
“Awl's optimization is quite subpar.”
“An incredibly fun and addictive game which sports what has to be the worst performance of any game I've ever purchased.”
“In the late part of the game, the performance is so bad it's literally impossible to play.”
- humor5 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's humor is characterized by a whimsical charm, featuring funny-looking characters and a unique style that includes clever references to popular culture. While players appreciate the humor and creativity, some feel it could be more pronounced and lasting throughout the gameplay. Overall, the humor complements the game's colorful art and engaging premise, contributing to its appeal.
“Good music, good art, love the sense of humor as well.”
“It has a very charming, colorful art style with many funny-looking characters.”
“Right out of the gate, this game has a lot working in its favor - an adorable protagonist, a creative premise (which informs its dual-natured gameplay), a great degree of challenge, a decent soundtrack, and a style and humor all its own, with references to Final Fantasy, Zelda, and even The Wicker Man.”
- stability5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability has been a significant concern for players, with reports of frequent bugs, random freezes, and a lack of graphical options contributing to frustration. While recent updates have improved the experience, many users feel the game should not have been released in its current state without an early access label, especially given its $15 price point.
“Overall, while a nice game that would have done well as a free flash game, it quickly becomes very repetitive, and has enough buggy quality issues to make me sorely regret paying the full $15 price.”
“This is actually a good game, besides the fact that it doesn't let you change the graphics to low, medium, or high resolution, and it also freezes randomly even though the music is still playing.”
“Hopefully the devs will be able to get it patched fairly soon, but it's pretty frustrating that this is for sale on Steam as is without a 'beta' or 'early access' tag, considering how buggy it is.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of "A Wizard's Lizard" is characterized by its family-friendly visuals and polished gameplay, contrasting sharply with the darker themes of similar games like "The Binding of Isaac." The cute graphic style enhances the overall ambiance, allowing for lighthearted interactions such as sleeping on rugs and playing with balls in the town.
“Polished gameplay, cute graphic style that fits the atmosphere perfectly. You can sleep on a rug and kick a ball around (two if you get lucky and find an extra in a barrel) at the town.”
“The gameplay is heavily inspired by The Binding of Isaac; however, A Wizard's Lizard takes a more family-friendly visual approach rather than The Binding of Isaac's dark atmosphere and theme.”
