Lemmings review - Super Nintendo

What exactly is a Lemming? Someone who failed the audition for an Australian soap opera? Perhaps the brains behind the waterproof sponge? Maybe the inventor of in-coffin stereos? Well, while these are certainly possibilities, they do tend to understate the sheer stupidity of this strange species.

Lemmings are in fact thicker than the big print version of the complete works of Charles Dickens! As cuddly as they might be, these guys are a life insurance salesman’s nightmare! But every cloud has a silver lining and, for this bunch, you’re it!

The player assumes the role of the benevolent Lemming god upon which these furballs depend for survival. It’s his duty to guide them through, over, under or around a whole variety of obstacles in order to get them safely to the next level. Quite naturally, a Lemming god possesses supernatural powers which enable him to induce a sense of purpose into these otherwise vacuous creatures. By picking out a Lemming with the cursor, it’s possible to make them a climber, floater, blocker, builder, basher, miner, bomber or digger! If things are going downhill fast, with Lemmings buying it left, right and centre, there is the option to nuke the lot of them and start the level again.

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Be warned, Lemmings can seriously screw you up! I’m currently enduring agonising withdrawl symptoms from this highly addictive game. The SNES retains all of the elements that went to make the Amiga version so popular. You soon find yourself developing a schizophrenic relationship with these animals. One minute you’re determined to save their furry little lives, and the next minute, nuking every one of them fills you with malicious glee. Difficulty settings range from fun to mayhem, and later levels become mind-numbingly tough. The two-player facility is good fun, giving you the opportunity to sabotage your opponent’s efforts while trying to preserve your own. Lemmings is a very clever game and you’ve got to be clever with it, otherwise you’re as dead as a… Lemming!

I really enjoyed the Amiga version of Lemmings – when I first saw it I personally ranked it as one of the most brilliantly original games of all time. It’s not the graphics or sound, I think it must be something to do with the fact that the task you are charged with is mentally stimulating and taxes your brains in different ways in each level. The two-player mode is truly superb; inflicting various forms of hideous death on to your opponent’s Lemmings is a real laugh! Although audio/visually it could be better, Lemmings has the gameplay and the challenge to make it a very worthwhile buy.

Have your say about this review

Dan - 31 Mar 2009, 09:57 GMT

Ace game, frustrating as hell on the later levels and very gay in parts, but it was often just as much fun disasterously failing a level and watching all the Lemmings meet an unfortunate end as it was conquering a level. Worms owed a lot to this little baby.

Leave a comment