Licky the Lucky Lizard Lives Again is an endless runner, or more accurately, an endless climber. It was released for the PlayStation Vita and while it originally cost money, the developers made it free. The player controls Licky, the lucky lizard, who is unfortunate enough to be placed in a tough spot with lava rising up. There are a bunch of platforms above him and he must climb as high as possible, and as quickly as possible, to not die (but alas, he will never escape due to the genre).
As you’d expect, touching the lava will kill you and end the current game. As time goes on, the lava will rise faster and faster making it harder to keep going. The moments just before you die as you see the lava quickly rising up can be tense and frantic. To aid in his escape, Licky has some acrobatics up his sleeves. He an jump but more importantly, he can extend his tongue to attach onto the platforms above and swing himself up. Building up momentum this way is key to lasting longer. The game auto selects based on proximity the platforms his tongue will shoot to but you can manually aim using the right analogue stick. Since you use X to jump, this isn’t the ideal control scheme.
When you begin the tutorial, you will at once notice that the physics are weird. Licky’s jump is too floaty, and his swings are hard to get used to. Once you have played enough and can compensate for this, and once you get your momentum going, then the game can be a lot of fun and makes him feel like Spider-Man. The aim of each round is to gain a high score. You build up your multiplier if you don’t let Licky’s feet touch a platform. You gain the points based on the height you’ve swing to. The platforms are all randomly generated so beating your high score will eventually depend on luck.
There are some other simple mechanics to improve the variety of the game. Landing on a geyser will shoot you up fast. You can throw rocks to break platforms that are in your way, preventing you from gaining momentum to swing past it. While breaking blue colored “flood” platforms will slow down the rising lava. By achieving the requirements to unlock the trophies, this will also give you additional helpful abilities. These abilities include the double jump, gain an additional hit point, or being able to throw as many rocks as you’d like without collecting more. These abilities are helpful in allowing you to last longer and get better scores.
One of the downsides is the simple graphics. While the game plays well enough, the color palette chosen makes the game seem a bit too drab and bland at times. Overall, Licky the Lucky Lizard Lives Again is passable as a free game. To be honest, if you had to pay for the game then it’s probably not worth it and the money will be better spent on other games. It only takes around five minutes to see everything there is, and something like 30 minutes to an hour to unlock all the trophies so there isn’t that much content. It’s fun for what it is but won’t be able to hold your attention for too long.
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