Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that “Lizards” are one of the hottest creatures at this very moment.  After an end-credit scene from Elio, the Lizard meme became the hottest meme, just ahead of the Radio Active Shrimp from Walmart.

Because of this meme, when we got the invite to preview Terrible Lizards, there was no way that we could say no. Even if it turned out to be comedic or a play on the meme, we knew that we’d be in for a good time; what’s the worst that could happen? “We get a murderous Barney the Dinosaur?”

When the demo first started, we found ourselves stranded on the side of the road. With no mechanic nearby and a smoking engine, all we could do was wait for a tow to the nearest autobody shop. In the middle of nowhere, the only thing available is a Dinosaur museum/entertainment facility. What’s the worst that could happen at a creepy, seemingly abandoned attraction?

When you are in a museum, you would think that there is at least a curator or some kind of staff around to keep it clean and safe. Upon entering the facility, there is not a living soul in sight. When going to the front desk for assistance, there is a bell you can ring for help. At this point, you can reenact the lizard meme by ringing the bell multiple times, but no staff member comes to see what the problem is. 

At this point, we decided that we would just need to explore the museum to figure out where everyone is and if we can stay there until our car can be towed. While exploring, things start to get creepy when one of the animal suits started to move around; oh God, not another Five Nights at Freddy’s/Willy’s Wonderland. After only catching a glimpse of the mysterious person or being, we knew that someone or something was in the museum, but why was it ignoring us? What spooky stuff was about to happen?

Determined to get an answer, we chased this mysterious figure as if we were Scooby Doo in the gang with a mystery to solve. This introduced us to the platforming and puzzle mechanics of the game. Like other platforming games, the game did have the yellow marker, but it wasn’t as obnoxious, with it slightly blending into most areas where you would need to jump.

Due to a limited amount of time (Expo Hall Closing), the developers jumped us forward in the demo to an escape sequence where we were being chased by one of the costumes, make the wrong move, and whatever was chasing us would catch us. Would we die if we were caught? Who knows, we didn’t get caught, but there was still a surprise in store for us. 

After seemingly escaping whatever was chasing us, we found the lizard suit in a mysterious cavern, but where was the person who was in it? Just as we turned to double back, we got the big surprise of the demo. What was the thing we just saw?

Now, Terrible Lizards has a cool concept and pays homage to other horror games like Five Nights at Freddy’s and Resident Evil. The controls did take a bit to get used to at first, but once we got the hang of them, we were able to successfully jump from one platform to another. The horror elements were slow to build, but felt like that with enough time could be rather exciting. 

If Terrible Lizards can be even a fraction of what those two games are, then we could be in for a fun but spooky experience that will have you saying Lizard, Lizard, Terrible Lizards. Honestly, it was a fun experience that you should try out for yourself when the demo releases during Steam Next Fest.