Lemmings (SNES) - Quick Review
Lemmings was a puzzle game on the Super Nintendo in which you gain control over a bunch of furry little creatures (called Lemmings) which wander around aimlessly until you give them direction. Each level tasks you with getting a certain number of them from the start point to the finish, by utilizing any of their abilities to get through or over any obstacles. Without your help, they will all just walk around whatever space is available to them. If they come to a wall, they'll walk into it and turn around to walk in the other direction, or if they come to an open edge, they'll just walk right off it, potentially to their death if it's a far enough drop.
Within the levels, you can assign different tasks to them which you must use to meet your objective of saving the minimum number required. These include Climber (will scale any vertical surface they walk into), Floater (if he walks off an edge he'll pop open an umbrella to safely float down instead of going splat), Bomber (a bomb appears in their hands that explodes after five seconds destroying a portion of anything it comes into contact with), Blocker (will stop other Lemmings continuing past the point where you select them and turn them back in the other direction), Builder (begins building a bridge/ramp in an upward-diagonal direction, and will stop after completing 12 steps), Basher (punches his way horizontally through a surface to get through), Miner (opposite of the Builder, will take out a pick-axe and chip a path diagonally down through the ground to gain access to a lower level), and Digger (will dig straight down through any surface that can be dug through). So with all that out of the way, let's see how this game is and if it's worth it.
The Good
- Helping hand. For the first handful of stages, you're only allowed to use specific Lemmings to achieve your goal. This let's you find the best ways to use them and learn exactly what they can do and how they do it. It's a great way to learn them all and gets you ready for creating "strategies" with them in the later stages where all options are available and it's up to you to figure out the best ones to use to get to the end.
- Varying degrees of difficulty. You start on "Fun" levels, then progress through "Tricky" "Taxing" and "Mayhem", and each label is absolutely correct. The Fun levels are pretty easy, mostly acting as an introduction to the game and the mechanics. But once you get to Mayhem, you'll start on levels where the Lemmings can die just as soon as they drop in the entrance gate.
The Bad
- The sound. Honestly that's the only bad part about this game. The soundtrack is extremely simplistic and repetitive, and after just a few levels you'll be muting your TV and putting on your own music to play to.
Is it Worth it?
Like I said above, the only downside of this game is it's "soundtrack". But silence while playing this game is a small price to pay, the moment you pop it in you'll get hooked. At any point you can press "Select" to change the difficulty of the levels, so you can just play casually or really try and twist your brain around some of these puzzles. No matter how you like to play, this game is made for just about everyone. Lemmings floats around for anywhere between $10 and $15 and you'll definitely get your money's worth picking this one up.
Within the levels, you can assign different tasks to them which you must use to meet your objective of saving the minimum number required. These include Climber (will scale any vertical surface they walk into), Floater (if he walks off an edge he'll pop open an umbrella to safely float down instead of going splat), Bomber (a bomb appears in their hands that explodes after five seconds destroying a portion of anything it comes into contact with), Blocker (will stop other Lemmings continuing past the point where you select them and turn them back in the other direction), Builder (begins building a bridge/ramp in an upward-diagonal direction, and will stop after completing 12 steps), Basher (punches his way horizontally through a surface to get through), Miner (opposite of the Builder, will take out a pick-axe and chip a path diagonally down through the ground to gain access to a lower level), and Digger (will dig straight down through any surface that can be dug through). So with all that out of the way, let's see how this game is and if it's worth it.
The Good
- Helping hand. For the first handful of stages, you're only allowed to use specific Lemmings to achieve your goal. This let's you find the best ways to use them and learn exactly what they can do and how they do it. It's a great way to learn them all and gets you ready for creating "strategies" with them in the later stages where all options are available and it's up to you to figure out the best ones to use to get to the end.
- Varying degrees of difficulty. You start on "Fun" levels, then progress through "Tricky" "Taxing" and "Mayhem", and each label is absolutely correct. The Fun levels are pretty easy, mostly acting as an introduction to the game and the mechanics. But once you get to Mayhem, you'll start on levels where the Lemmings can die just as soon as they drop in the entrance gate.
The Bad
- The sound. Honestly that's the only bad part about this game. The soundtrack is extremely simplistic and repetitive, and after just a few levels you'll be muting your TV and putting on your own music to play to.
Is it Worth it?
Like I said above, the only downside of this game is it's "soundtrack". But silence while playing this game is a small price to pay, the moment you pop it in you'll get hooked. At any point you can press "Select" to change the difficulty of the levels, so you can just play casually or really try and twist your brain around some of these puzzles. No matter how you like to play, this game is made for just about everyone. Lemmings floats around for anywhere between $10 and $15 and you'll definitely get your money's worth picking this one up.
