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When you think about some of the most historical figures, who comes to mind? Maybe it is someone such as Albert Einstein, who was very smart, maybe a statistician, such as Julius Caesar, or maybe someone with detective skills, such as Dr. John H. Watson, who was as complementary as Sherlock Holmes. When you think about it, we can learn a lot from history and how they would handle certain situations if it came down to it. But do publisher, Numskull Games, and developers Gregarious Games, Robot Circus, and Hyper Luminal Games show us how to use the knowledge of the past in hopes of saving the world for tomorrow? Let’s find out with Reptilian Rising for PC.
Reptilian Rising is a retro-style, turn-based strategy RPG where history’s greatest heroes take on the most ridiculous crisis time has ever seen. Assemble a squad of legends – from Cleopatra and Robin Hood to Einstein – and fight across randomly generated battlefields, from prehistoric jungles to dystopian futures.
Harness time-based powers to clone your troops, summon reinforcements, or open time gates for rapid deployment. Face bizarre reptilian foes, including dino-cyborgs, Manborgs, and the ultimate villain: the Dictatorsaur.
So, before going into summoning backup from history and before humanity is prepared for extinction, there are a few things that you may want to check on. First, once you have your game file named and can get into settings, you will notice a few things, such as some slider options for the camera. You will want to adjust these to your liking. Playing on a mouse and keyboard works extremely well, but there is also the option to play with a controller. So pick the control scheme that works best for you. Second, don’t try to skip through the tutorial as quickly as possible. There is some fantastic information here, and if you mess up, you will have to learn from your ways. And finally, have some fun. With that said, let’s continue…
When the game starts, you will notice some items on the table. You have the board, a retro T.V. that is used for the shop (more on this a little later), a retro cassette player, and a figure at the top of the board. You will also notice there is an indicator for gold and obsidian, which we will get into a little later.
The columns on the board, starting with purple, are the different levels followed by the missions. You don’t get to select where you will start, as it is selected for you. The very left column provides an update for the situation thus far. We learn that to battle Reptilians, we need to build a team of heroes, aka the champions from history, who are ready to join your cause. This is where the tutorial comes in to get a grasp of the strategy needed to play.
Before each mission, you have to select your difficulty: easy, medium, or hard. You will also learn who the recruits are and how much gold and obsidian can be collected. The selection of heroes that are available will provide their actions, weapons, and additional information about them. The first hero you can interact with is Matilda McFly (yes, either she has the same last name, or Marty and Jennifer had a third kid that was never mentioned), who is the figure that is shown above your board from the start, but is a hacker for the 21st century. With her, she travels on a hoverboard and can use it as a weapon.
When you deploy your heroes, you will see two cards; these show your main mission as well as your side mission descriptions. You do not have to complete the side mission to move on, but you must complete the main mission to do so. You will also notice something on the top of the mission card, and that is the number of rounds that you have to complete your main mission.
There are four main classes for the hero: scout, warrior, elite, and heavy. Each character has a certain number of blue square spaces that they are allowed to move. This is part of the strategy in the missions, as when more enemies show up, you can get away from the danger, hopefully. For the movement, playing with a mouse and keyboard, you hold down the left mouse button to move the camera up, down, left, and right, the mouse wheel allows you to zoom in and out, and the right mouse button allows you to rotate the camera.
You will come across Time Rifts that allow you to recruit more heroes. These rifts will also allow heroes to go back when they are running low on health. Being that this is still the tutorial, your first recruit is Sir George from the Crusade Era, wearing knight armor, and he does come in handy, as he has a shield. But one of the cool things is that when you recruit the heroes, they appear as a toy in a package.
I mentioned strategy earlier, and there is a reason for that. Yes, your mission is to take out all the reptilians and other enemies, with bonus points for the dinosaurs with laser beams, including the reptilian eggs that have not hatched yet, while trying to claim the Time Gates. You also cannot be defeated at any time before beating the main boss battle for that mission. That means if you are one mission away and all the heroes die, you must start over with the first mission for that era. But keep in mind that you can also have the game run at 2x and 4x the speed if you would like, when you hit the challenge of not winning the mission.
In each mission, there are also collectibles such as cassette tapes that will play different music, which can be changed in the pause menu at any time, and a card pack, which, once collected, will show new heroes that will be added to your list, such as Bert, aka Albert Einstein, to even Robin Hood with his arrow-firing self, to name a few. But I think my favorite heroes are Hoopi & Bok, where a dropkick can be performed, as well as being able to throw a hornet’s nest at your enemies. This comes in handy when you need to be able to hit enemies from a distance. Each hero also has their own power that they can use, which can be upgraded as well. And as you get further into the missions, you will be able to recruit even more heroes and have up to 6 active heroes at once.
Earlier, I mentioned the gold, obsidian, and the shop. Once the shop has unlocked, you can use all that gold and obsidian you collected on some worthy upgrades. With the obsidian, you can upgrade your time tech that includes such items as the number of lives for your healing tank and your starting team. With the gold, you can upgrade items, such as increasing your scout slayer damage and even transfuse, where you can use a certain percentage of a hero’s max HP on another hero.
I also mentioned how the game can be played with a controller, but I also wanted to test the game out and see how it would run on a portable device. I installed the game on the Legion Go S, and I have to say, not only did the game run beautifully, but the controls also worked equally as well. For this type of game, some may think the controls would be somewhat clunky, but not here. A great thing about Reptilian Rising being on Steam is that you can pick up where you left off, thanks to the cloud saves.
Let’s talk about the graphics and sound. Of course, with everyone having possibly different specs on their PC, I experienced no glitches with the playability, graphics, or sound. With the graphics, you are getting a retro look where the surroundings and the content complement each other. Now, were there some items that looked better than others? Yes. For example, some heroes and enemies had a little more detail than others, such as the T. rex, where you could see the scales. This very well could have been due to the T. rex being bigger than most, but in a game such as this, when the action can get crazy, one may not be looking at the details of every angle of every character on the board, as that could become a distraction. Every card I opened, and every new hero that showed up in that toy-like feature, was a welcome surprise and made me feel like I was sitting at a table playing the game back in the day.
With the sound, you are getting some pretty fantastic nostalgic synthwave music going on, which, again, based on the amount of cassette tapes you collect, can be changed at any time. Also, you can hear those tactile, toy-like sound effects as you move the heroes and use their abilities, such as Bert’s plasma pistol, as well as some funny voice acting that you just need to hear and enjoy. Yes, Winston, I hear that you are reloading.
There are a few things that I would love to see. First, even more characters and eras. There are quite a few eras and missions to be had. Still, since we are dealing with time travel and are able to recruit heroes, it would be fun to see different time period eras added, as well as even more characters, both from the hero and enemy side of things. It would be fun to see someone like Abe Lincoln being able to use his top hat as a weapon, for example. Second, the ability for online PvP. This would be a great experience to play with your friends. Third, virtual reality. This would work so well here that it’s almost a missed opportunity for it not to be included. And finally, more of this concept. I can see using the same basics of this game and having a sequel with even more to experience in the future. There are so many places in time that almost anything could work.
Reptilian Rising reminds us that creativity and open-mindedness can unlock incredible possibilities. It invites us to explore different genres and imagine alternate realities—to ask “what if?” and discover where those questions lead us. In our everyday lives, we often find ourselves caught up in the routine, asking, “Why me?” without stepping back to see the bigger picture. Sometimes those challenging moments aren’t just obstacles—they’re actually lessons in disguise, opportunities for us to grow. When we take the time to learn from those lessons—and from history—we don’t just avoid repeating past mistakes, we become wiser, more resilient, and more hopeful, not just for ourselves, but for everyone around us. And shouldn’t we all strive to become the best version of ourselves?
Reptilian Rising is out now for PC via Steam and the Nintendo Switch on the Nintendo eShop. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Numskull Games, please visit their site, follow them on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
To learn more about Robot Circus, please visit their site, follow them on Facebook, Instagram, & X, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
To learn more about Hyper Luminal Games, please visit their site, follow them on Facebook, Instagram, & X, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I have more reptilians to take care of — and until the Rift opens again, know that you are appreciated.
