Lets go! (Lemmings)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Lemmings
Date:	09/08/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Addictive and challenging puzzley gameplay, charming visuals

Disadvantages: Very basic graphics

A simple but ingenous game, lemmings is a 2d puzzle game with a very simple aim- get your lemmings from one side of the game map to another. At the start of each level your lemmings drop through a trapdoor in the ceiling and march relentlessly onwards to the right, turning back again the other way if they hit a wall or should they meet an edge plunging off it to their deaths. In order to prevent this from happening you must give individual lemmings special skills, of which you only have a limited amount, in order to guide your remaining lemmings through the levels and pave a way to the exit for them.

There are eight skill types available, which are as follows-

Blockers- These simply stop your lemmings from travelling in a particular direction, eg turning them back in the direction they came when they reach a cliff edge. A very common and particularly useful skill.

Builders- These build a series of diagonal steps for your lemmings to walk upon, allowing you to cross ravines and the like.

Bashers- These tunnel horizontally through walls and other obstacles, allowing your lemmings to pass.

Diggers- these work much like bashers, but dig diagonally upwards.

Miners- these are near identical to diggers, but diagonally downwards.

Climbers- these guys are able to scale vertical walls, allowing them to reach otherwise inaccessible areas, at which point they can be given another skill to tunnel down and meet up with your main group of lemmings, allowing you them to move forward.

Floaters- these use umbrellas to travel long vertical distances downwards without being killed, at which point they can build ramps for the rest of your lemmings to use, reaching the lower terrain safely.

Exploders- this skill causes individual lemmings to blow up, and can be used to get rid of no-longer-useful blockers or lemmings who have became trapped in certain areas of the map. You can also choose to blow up all your lemmings if you have given up on a map, which is a great way of taking out any frustration the level may have caused!

Lemmings is a game that is instantly familiar after just a few minutes of play, and the challenging level design and varied level visuals give the game tremendous longevity, with the puzzles becoming increasingly challenging throughout the game's large number of levels. The graphics are incredibly basic and heavily pixellated but remain colourful and appealing, with the low resolution forcing the game's developers to position each individual pixel with great care. The sound effects are entertaining too, with your lemmings making cute cries of 'Lets go!' at the beginning of each level and 'Oh no!' just before they explode.

Lemmings 2 and 3 would introduce lots of new and varied levels and skill types, but the original game remains an addictive and brilliantly simple puzzler that remains as fun to play today as ever.

Summary: A classic puzzle game that is still great fun today