wait. because as much as he doesn't fit our strict parameters for lizard gaming, we can't go on without mentioning the reptile in the room. specifically, reptile from midway's mortal kombat.
while not playable until november 1993's sequel, that would still put reptile in among the earliest playable lizards, if he counted. while reptile takes some time to evolve into his true lizardly form, can the same not be said of many of us? are we any the less for it?
thus, it seems wrong to disinclude reptile from the pack, merely on account of his earlier lack of scales. let's take a look at him.
reptile has the honour of being the first secret character in a fighting game, and possibly the most famous. throughout the game he would randomly taunt the player with clues on how to fight him.
even if you aren't a MK aficionado, if you're of a certain age you may well know how to access him. it only works on the pit stage, in 1P mode, during a specific easter egg that occurs where shadows fly across the moon. (in the SNES version, you don't need to wait for the shadows. here are some other details about the easter egg.)
once you see those shadows, if you can then get a double flawless victory on the stage without blocking, and finish with a fatality, you will fight reptile. you're allowed to lose and continue until you get it, but it's still no mean feat, making this a challenge of skill rather than just knowing the secret code.
if you pull this off, you'll then fight reptile in the bottom of the pit, among the severed heads and impaled bodies of the developers. charming! how you don't get impaled every time you jump around here, i never did figure out.
he has sub-zero's and scorpion's moves, but is otherwise a clone of scorpion - in the arcade version and the MD version, his name on the life bar is actually given as scorpion! he's only called reptile in his occasional taunting messages pre-fight, or when you defeat him.
you also can't play as reptile unless you hack the game, and even then he's just a faster version of scorpion with scorpion's picture and voice.
as for his reptilianness, reptile here is the least lizardly of the bunch. he can do scorpion's fatality where he rips his face/mask off, but under it you'll see the humanoid skull just like with scorpion.
the first occurrence of playable
MK2 was also where we got the first tastes of reptile being, well, a reptile. he now has a different idle animation from the other ninjas, which looks sort of praying mantis-esque (not a lizard, but an easy mistake to make since they are green and adorable), and you get to see his real face during a couple of moves: his acid spit and his eat-your-head fatality.
incidentally, why do the ninja costumes in MK2 have this texture like they were made of upholstery material? were they made of upholstery material?
another fan favourite, liu kang's dragon fatality, got its start here. he turns into a noodle dragon (with extremely little legs) and chomps your head off.
UMK3, like MK3 before it, has animalities - as a special finishing move, each character can transform, animorphs-style, into a different creature.
sadly, reptile does not get a reptile transformation, i guess because he can't have another lizard as his daemon? so he turns into a chimpanzee instead, which feels kinda ironic.
scorpion isn't a scorpion either, but a penguin. the devs were just trolling us at this point. the reptile transformations that do exist are liu kang (dragon), shang tsung (cobra), and stryker (t-rex).
reptile gets a komplete restyle in the series' first 3D entry, though it's not necessarily for the better. snoot is really important to the lizard classification, i'm sure you'll agree. it can be short or long, rounded or pointed, but it has to be there, otherwise it's just sparkling voldemort.
they took away animalities again, too. now we're left only with liu kang's dragon fatality, which somehow manages to look less good than in MK2.
now This. this is what we're talking about. mortal kombat: deadly alliance did many things right, and one of those things is reptile. this is the real deal, the first reptile we can truly inaugurate into our roster of fighting game lizards.
look at him. that pointed head, those big gecko eyes - it's so rare to see a lizard character with large eyes, even though plenty of reptiles have them!
it's the first time i've been able to guess at an actual real-life species that might have been involved in reptile's creation. i'm getting crested dragon vibes, though the tail is more crocodile.
this reptile looks great in motion, too, with very fluid tail movements and a spinning cannonball attack. he still has his old acid spit and his head-eating fatality, and his moves still have that ninja flair, but he's got a whole new feel to him that's just fun to play, and to watch.
for the first and only time in the series, liu kang is not available, so no dragon fatality to look at here.
fortunately, we also get deadly alliance reptile as a costume! that's a relief.
fatalities don't work the same way in this game, so no liu kang dragon here.
yet another look for reptile, as the designers clearly can't decide what to do with him. this one at least looks better than armageddon's version to me, having a somewhat beaky mask that harks back to the classic ninja look while still being unique.
liu kang's dragon is interesting here. coiled up, it takes the shape of the MK logo, which i suppose it always was meant to be based on, then chomps off the opponent's head like usual. it's the most stylish-looking so far.
at this point i am begging the devs to stop innovating. we had it right with deadly alliance, you guys. but no, we get Even More Variations On The Humanoid Model, which is not what we are here for. we are here for creatures that hunch and squinch. if you can't deal with that, you're barkin' up the wrong hootenanny, hoss.
i mean, the rack o' bones thing is nice, and so are the metal gauntlets, though both of them make me think they should be in weaponlord rather than this game. hmm, i need to post that thing i wrote about weaponlord.
i'm just saying it's a step backwards, hoss. you see what i'm saying?
liu kang is also different and weird here, so no dragon fatality. onwards we go.
liu kang is undead! reptile isn't in this game!
surprisingly, there's still a lizard, though this one isn't playable. it's summoned by the boss, kronika. you can see an extracted model of it, as well as a 3D turnaround, here.
i kinda hate that they decided to name it mortal kombat 1, making it hard to search for the first game in the series, so reptile had better be good.
and!! gasp! reptile is good!! not only did they give my boy a new story and personality,
(thanks to mortal kombat warehouse for these sprites!)
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