YMMV / Repton

• Breather Level: "The kraken", the last level of Repton 1, is a calm level with no monsters, and other than requiring two uses of the Repton shuffle, its rock puzzles are not very hard either. It comes directly after the most notorious level in the game.
• Difficulty Spike: In Repton 3, the difficulty takes a sudden leap with Finale Screen B and doesn't let up from there to the end. The entire level area must be studied to work out which spirit should be sent where, and the roaming spirits make it hard to get around the level. A couple of rooms require fast action to deal with monsters or fungus.
• Even Better Sequel:
  • Repton 2, in spite of its difficulty, is better regarded than the first game, because its puzzles can get much more intricate. This carries through to the PC remake, which allows the player to save progress at designated points (usually on return to the Hub Level), bringing the difficulty down to a reasonable level.
  • Repton 3 is by far the most popular game in the series, even though its most significant new gameplay element (fungus) is widely disliked. Levels are more compact than those of Repton 2, and each level is self-contained. In addition, this was the first game to include a Level Editor, and the themed scenarios are popular with fans.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Boulder Dash. Boulder Dash came first, and so Repton is sometimes called a "Boulder Dash clone" — which its fans don't like, because the differences in game mechanics ^note (In Repton, rocks fall four times as fast as Repton moves; diamonds don't fall; there is no ability to grab a diamond from an adjacent tile without moving) give the game a very different feel, more puzzle-focused compared to Boulder Dash's action focus.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • In Repton 3, if you finish a level exactly as time runs out, the timer is glitched and you have unlimited time for the next level. This can neutralise the difficulty of levels such as Toccata Screen F, where time is intended to be a major factor.
  • Also in Repton 3, if you call the status screen exactly as you run into a skull, you lose a life as expected, but the skull disappears. This can be used to open up shortcuts in skull mazes, and is particularly effective on Now Screen H.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: Repton 2 is much harder than the first game, since there are no passwords and so the entire game must be completed in one sitting. Some of the sub-levels require the player to guess the correct order to tackle them, and the addition of spirits allows both for tougher puzzles and nastier action segments.
• Tear Jerker: In "OAP", the last scenario of The Life of Repton, Repton is an old man, bent over and hobbling with a cane, and with his eyesight failing (safes are invisible in this scenario until he finds his spectacles). The very last level takes place in a graveyard.
• That One Level: "Giant clam", the second-last level of Repton 1. The upper half (where Repton starts) has three monsters that are free from the start, and no rocks — the monsters cannot be killed as you run around getting all the diamonds, and due to their unpredictable behaviour, it's common to run away from one monster and see another come into view ahead of you. However, if you're okay with losing one life, the level can be made easier by doing the halves out of order, which gets the monsters stuck so they are not in the way when you return to the top.
• That One Puzzle: Avalanche Level 15, in the PC remake of Repton 1. Six rocks block the passage to the key, and you can't shunt them aside, because to get in position to start shunting, you have to take the diamond holding them up. If you do that, they will fall in a heap and can't be moved. The solution? Push an egg above the first rock, so that the falling of the others is delayed while it hatches. No previous level has used this trick. There isn't an egg anywhere nearby — you have to think of the idea and then fetch an egg from the opposite side of the level.