Reptilian Rebellion

Some games take an hour or two to get going. They'll slowly ease you into the complex mechanics bit by bit, making you patiently wait for an hour or more before you know what to think. But not Reptilian Rebellion. With a simple premise and arcade-style action, you'll know within the first minute if this retro-inspired shooter is for you. Whether or not you'll still be playing the game an hour later is a whole other story.

Playing out like a cross between Root Beer Tapper and Defender, Reptilian Rebellion sees players stuck in the middle of a horde of advancing aliens. It's your job to shoot them, making sure none of them make it to the center and gobble up our poorly-protected hero. This is a job that only becomes harder as the enemies grow stronger and more aggressive the longer the round goes on. It's a suicide mission where your only comfort will come in earning a brand new high score.

Beyond simply walking up and down shooting at enemies, our hero will be able to pick up a number of power-ups that will make the shots faster, stronger and more spread out. We're also able to recruit computer-controlled characters to handle some of the overflow. But it's not the upgrades and power-ups you'll be thinking about, because we only have a limited amount of shots and picking up each ammo dump is vitally important.

This is the kind of arcade-style action game where our points go towards unlocking the many extra characters. This gives you incentive to keep playing, even when you've seen the same predictable enemies and locations. There aren't extra modes and we're stuck playing the same background every time, so the developers hope you'll want to extend the length of the game by earning every hero.

I'm not saying that's a bad plan, but I do wish there was a little more to Reptilian Rebellion. This is a $1 game, and it often feels like it. It would have been nice to see a variety of locations, even if it's just cosmetic differences. The same can be said about the lizard horde. While the formations are always different, it definitely seemed like there was a progression that started to feel familiar over time. This is not the kind of game you play for hours on end.

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Beyond its simplicity, I'm not a big fan of the loose gameplay. I found it a little too easy to miss attacking reptiles because I was standing just slightly outside of the line. This is not the kind of thing you would have seen in old arcade games, and I never warmed up to the way Reptilian Rebellion handles. The same can be said about the visuals, which opt for simple Minecraftian 3D pixels instead of a more authentic retro look. I like the simple premise, but the execution left me cold.

If this were an old school arcade game, I'm not sure I would have spent more than a quarter or two shooting at those pesky lizards. That said, the price is right for this type of action game, and I can see some people getting into the grind to unlock all of the extras. I found some of the mechanics to be a little spotty and yearned for more backgrounds, but there's enough charm in Reptilian Rebellion to warrant the one dollar asking price.