I haven’t played lemmings in well over ten years. Thinking about it brings back good memories of my 486, of great design, and primarily of that one level which I could never beat. Some where in my house are sheets of scrap paper with the level codes frantically written down in print only I could read. Before I decided to writing about Lemmings I figured to do a search. The first thing to come up was link to DHTML Lemmings, which I found out emulates the game exactly with codes and all. I decided that before I could really comment on Lemmings I should replay it from start to finish (we all know the real reason behind this is to see if I could beat that one level).
By tricky level 2, “We all fall down,” we see the first time they really challenge the player. This level challenges the player’s ability to be patient and focused; forcing the player to be perfect in repeating the same task forty times in a row. It is not a difficult task, but I doubt many players have beaten this level the first time. From here on it gets no easier, the next level focuses on a mechanic that may not have been intended; in that the player must wait for a visual cue that the lemming is done building steps before issuing the command again. It may seem intuitive or even practical to have to wait until the lemming is done, but then why did I find myself spam clicking at first? I took awhile before I remember that I needed to wait till the ‘done’ animation, which involved the lemming shrugging, then clicking on it to start the process again. I may be picking at straws, but I find this interesting. Also, from my recollection this mechanic comes up in other areas later on, which may also mean it was intended to include such animation to cue the player.
Another thing with stairs that commonly reoccurs is stair stacking and can occur when trying to continue the building process or by having another lemming build stairs on top of already created stairs. Stair stacking can help reach a platform that wouldn’t be reached by continued building. Since this is not intended stair stacking doesn’t always work and frequently lemmings will just build one or two stairs and stop.
The scope of this review has changed, so I will be releasing it in sections over the next couple weeks.
To be continued; Lemmings: Levels...
To be continued; Lemmings: Levels...
