Lemmings (1991)

Preliminary: Lol ok, the Look isn't great, but it's cute how they just sorta walk until you have them do something. And it reminds me of Oddworld with the portal they walk out that you guide them to. The music is a bit tacky but cute and playful enough. But most of all I like how you can control the difficulty (gasp! a fun setting!), and many other settings, and the level design so far definitely eases you in. We'll see how long this holds my interest, puzzle games usually don't for long, but this definitely deserved the praise it got even if the Look isn't great and the Amiga UI is subpar.

Funny deaths too (like in Oddworld), cute voices too, and doesn't necessarily feel like a puzzle game (again, I'm playing Fun so far though). At least they let you ease in rather than just throwing you to a Nintendohard first level without any chance to learn. The music for the, was it, Fun-3 was cute. Only complaint so far is, I wish there was a fast forward option once you have it all set (maybe there is?)

I'm stuck on the beautiful crystal-vibe level though. Gonna take a break from it tonight and revisit it tomorrow, but this really is great. Even if not my preferred genre/a game I will finish. (turns out I had the right idea, just wasn't using Bash entirely correctly. Let's try this again and then take a break :-p Yay I figured it out! And I got 100% even tho only needed, I believe, 10%. Loving it

Day 1

I like how you move around your "view" of the map and it's indicated what portion is visible in the minimap. Lol harsh that you blow them up to get the others farther! "Oh no" they squeak :(

Oh I thought there were only 10 Fun levels and then I would move on to next difficulty/stop for the night, but then I got to level 11. Def time to take a break. But still really enjoying this. (Ah, okay, I misread that. It's 30 of each style. I think that if I play all 30 Fun levels, this definitely deserves a 4 or higher, and if I play even one of the Tricky levels, gosh that could even be a 5 or a Favorite! The level settings/Looks are getting more interesting, and the characters Look--as poor as they are--are oddly becoming endearing.

Day 2

Welp I really wasn't sure again because it's a puzzle game, how much longer I'd engage with it. But so far, I'm still bopping to the music, laughing at the ridiculous deaths, and proud when I solve the situations. It's definitely getting more frustrating and more time/precision based with my clicking, which I don't love. Kinda wanted to see it involve less stressful, more "here's a bunch of different skills you can use, figure out the right combination without stressing". But that's just me. Always preferring chill stuff :-p

Alright yea I'm still laughing and having a good time but I'm burning out on Level 15. Nothing wrong with that. I got a full hour of gameplay, and it all flew by! What a great game! Definitely will return to this time to time when in the mood, however like always puzzle games don't hook me like RPGs and action-adventures and platformers do, especially the time-based/waiting parts in this and the once-you-figured-it-out-time-to-repeatedly-be-that-precise-again factor of Fun Levels 14 and 15. Still, great stuff.

Look: 8/10 Some of the backgrounds were great. Otherwise, a bit meh for 91.

Sound: 9/10 Great stuff. Not sentimental necessarily, but really entertaining and was a big part of the overall game. The voices especially, but also the music just had this cute, playful vibe to it that helped make you laugh when you got frustrated with a level, rather than rage-quit heh.

Play: 8/10 By far, the best of the puzzle games so far. Still, not my genre of choice, but great stuff.

Feel: 8.5/10 A series I had always heard about, and then it surprised me with how much I did enjoy it despite its genre. Deserves recognition for that.

Attachment: 8.5/10 I definitely will be returning to this just to play around some more and show my brothers etc. However, I doubt I will ever fully complete it so can't give it a 9 or more.

Overall: 8.4/10

Completion: Fun Level 15

Playtime: 58 mins

(This is the 37th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

I'm going to guess and say that the majority of you have played this game or, more likely, a game that is pretty similar to the idea that Lemmings puts forward, a puzzle(-strategy) game by DMA Design, initially released on February 14th, 1991 and ported to dozens of systems after its success as an Amiga game. I played the SNES version for this review.

FUN FACT: DMA Design, the developer, today goes by the somewhat known name Rockstar North and are creators of the GTA series.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS

You control Lemmings, which do exist in real life (small rodents). In this game, they are anthropomorphized, meaning they walk upright and can do human tasks like digging, climbing, jumping down whilst holding an umbrella etc.

There is a misconception in pop culture that Lemmings commit "mass suicide", something the devs seem to have chosen as inspiration for creating this game.

In this game, all lemmings are identical copies of each other, you simply can change their behavior by equipping them with a certain task/skill like the ones mentioned in the previous paragraph.

The goal of every level is to rescue at least a certain percentage of all Lemmings that are present in a given level. Once you do that, you can try to rescue the rest or have them blow themselves up and end the level.

Every time the puzzles go up in difficulty level, a little cutscene plays showing the Lemmings move across the screen.

I feel like there was some potential here for these little guys to have a bigger name across gaming than they ended up having because they do offer a certain charm.

But as far as storytelling goes, the game doesn't offer anything beyond the basic goal of each level.

GAMEPLAY

There are up to 120 levels depending on the port you play that are spread between four difficulty levels. In each level, a door opens that releases a set number of Lemmings. The game tells you how many of them you need to save to beat the level.

The lemmings move forward at all times, no matter what, and if there is something that blocks their path, they simply turn around and go the other way. You are equipped with a bunch of "tasks" that you can give to the lemmings and your job is to choose the correct ones, at the correct times and in the proper order to successfully send enough Lemmings to the exit.

For example, in the first level, you have to give your Lemmings the "digging" task, which makes them start digging up the ground beneath them. This opens up a path to the exit once they're done.

With each level, it starts getting more and more complicated of course. You need to mix multiple tasks up at once, figure out how to make a lemming cancel his task to help him escape as well, and well, ultimately decide how much you value your time.

Because as creative as the game design is, and as much fun it is to figure out the solution, it often is not the path to the solution that is hard to figure out. It is the wait.

Once you have the solution, like for example digging open the ground beneath your lemmings, you now have to wait. and wait. and wait until they all slowly make their way to the finish line. I am not joking if I say that it takes minutes a lot of times for things to play out like you already know it will.

I've played for a few hours and a too significant amount of that was spent waiting instead of solving puzzles or applying the correct strategy. That made the game significantly less enjoyable that it probably would be in a more modern release where your characters would probably start moving much faster once the game knows that you opened up the winning path.

It doesn't help that later on, levels often became repetitive and, when checking a YT playthrough, I realized it just ended up being more or less the same over and over again, so I decided that I saw enough after a few hours.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE

Voice acting is limited to some high-pitched noises and a few words. "Yippie", "Let's go", "Oh no" are things you will hear quite often, but generally the Lemmings remain pretty silent in this one. The soundtrack features some nice music, including a remix of Jacques Offenbach's "Infernal Galop".

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN

The graphics aren't anything special in this one, but the animations are really good for its time. The way the Lemmings hair flies from side to side as they keep digging for example is really detailed.

ATMOSPHERE

Nothing special that I want to mention in this regard. The artistic design of the levels, the kinda cutesy Lemmings, the noises they make, the music, it all combines to make a game with a cozy enough atmosphere but one that can stress you out pretty fast if you ever are stuck with any particular level, especially since it means you will have to blow everyone up to restart.

CONTENT

120 levels, gets repetitive. Too much time is spent waiting on the Lemmings to walk around, too little on actually doing puzzles. It's an effective brainteaser but doesn't translate to a whole lot of fun at too many times.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN

You have all those skills I mentioned at your disposal and try to figure out which ones to use and at which point. Some levels only allow you to use specific skills and all require you to get a certain number of Lemmings to safety on each level. It's fun, but the design does get a bit repetitive over time. More skills obviously would mean more variety. The amount available here doesn't really seem to support 120 levels whilst keeping it fresh.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION

Obviously very innovative in its design, even if it doesn't always translate to a lot of fun. Especially once you figure out how to do a puzzle and are stuck waiting for minutes for your Lemmings to get a move on, the design shows its cracks. But the design could have been taken a number of different directions from here on out, and I'll be honest, as of now I don't know what happened to the series and if there are any spiritual successors.

REPLAYABILITY

Pretty high. You can keep replaying to try and get more Lemmings out of a level, and you can even try your hand at figuring out how to get 100% of them out each time. It involves some advanced techniques that I didn't figure out myself, and one that adds a lot more waiting time to your playthrough, but it may be a worthwhile reward for people with plenty of patience and resilience.

PLAYABILITY

It works well from start to finish.

OVERALL

I can appreciate the game for its innovation. Unfortunately the way this is designed makes for a slow affair because a lot of the time playing this game is spent waiting for the Lemmings to go from A to B. More QoL improvements in later versions maybe have resulted in cleaner and faster experiences, but as it stands, this game was definitely way more enjoyable in the past than it is today, at least if you're a newcomer to this type of puzzle game.