Lemmings & Oh No! More Lemmings

Just when you thought the Lemmings couldn't get any smaller...

Lemmings is an incredibly simple concept with the most basic of graphics... which has nevertheless kept uncounted million gamers glued to their consoles for hours on end.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Lemmings (where have you been?), it's a game with a very straightforward premise: loads of little green-haired, blue-smocked mammals (the Lemmings) pour out of a chute and march determinedly across various hazard-ridden landscapes and your job is – quite simply – to keep them alive and see that they reach the exit. To do this you make use of the Lemmings themselves, giving them orders to make them perform tasks. You can assign nine different commands: climb, float, explode, block, build, tunnel, dig diagonally, dig down and nuke (which destroys every Lemming on screen). The trick is that each level you only get to use certain of the commands – so you have to work out the best way to utilize them to overcome the various hazards confronting your little critters.

They're Not Worms...

Lemmings & Oh No! More Lemmings includes levels from the original game and from the expansion pack which came out later on other formats. The game contains nine sets of 20 levels (so ninety in all) ranging from 'Fun' (easy) to 'Mayhem' (insanely difficult). Control is via a cursor which you use to scroll around the screen and give commands to your Lemmings, and one neat aspect of the game is that you can freeze it with the Start button and use the breathing space to scroll around the level and plan your next move.

Lemmings is a fantastic game, and the only thing we can really fault it for is that to really see what's going on, because of the size of the characters, you have to really focus in close on the screen and this surely can't be good for the eyes! Other than that, it's a tremendously addictive title and definitely one to keep you occupied on long journeys.

Overview

This is a re-release of two puzzle games originally released in the '80s. Other than a flashy new introduction scene and the additional compatibility with analog controllers and memory cards, this is exactly the same game with exactly the same graphics that made it popular when it was originally released. The basic idea is to save the Lemmings from themselves.

Gameplay

In each level, from a door up above drop the Lemmings -- cute, unintelligent creatures that will walk to their deaths unless they are given a few helpful instructions to get past obstacles. This game includes all 209 levels from the original games that were released separately. Each level has a prescribed number of Lemmings that must survive to complete it.

To get through a level, you must assign Lemmings to do jobs that will save the herd and guide them to the goal. All the levels have limited numbers of jobs you can assign a Lemming. The options available will give you a good hint as to how to go about solving the level. The jobs you can give the Lemmings include the following:

• Climbers will climb any vertical surface and keep walking. This ability will not end with one wall; they will climb any wall they encounter after they are assigned as climbers.
• Floaters will survive long falls that would otherwise kill them, thanks to an umbrella parachute
• Bombers count down from five and then explode, damaging nearby objects.
• Blockers will not let other Lemmings pass. These are very useful for dangerous cliff edges or for just corralling the herd while one Superlemming prepares a path to victory.
• Builders lay eleven bricks in an upward diagonal climb. They create safe walkways to overcome gaps. After eight bricks, you will hear three warning blips. This will give you the opportunity to reassign the Lemming to another task before it shrugs and walks off the edge of its walkway.
• Bashers dig horizontally, creating tunnels. Higher levels create some barriers that cannot be dug through.
• Miners dig diagonally downward, again creating usable tunnels to go under obstacles. Again, some higher-level obstacles cannot be penetrated.

Level options include the ability to speed up or slow down the release of the Lemmings or increase the speed of the game. You also have an Armageddon option to self-destruct remaining Lemmings, such as blockers, that won’t be moving towards the goal. The game lets you start from a number of different depth levels; as you play through the game, the levels will increase in difficulty.

Graphics

The graphics are the same as the original and could have used a facelift. By today’s standards, they are very plain and limited in color.

Bottom Line

This is a game that can be enjoyed by people with limited hand-eye coordination or ability. It is a puzzle game that may require you to move the cursor around quickly, but gives you as many retries as it takes to finish each level. If you like puzzles and don’t mind simple graphics, then I would highly recommend the game. However, be forewarned that this game is very addicting and can melt hours and days off your life if you’re not careful.