Nothing beats the satisfaction of nuking an entire level of lemmings. "OHNO!" *pop**pop**crackle**pop*
Controls (15%) - 8
Variety (25%) - 10
Replay (25%) - 7
Sound (7.5%) - 10
Depth (15%) - 10
OVERALL – 8.7
Graphics – 8
Understandably, the graphics aren’t that great in lemmings. You have to keep the design of the lemmings pretty simple when you have upwards of one hundred of them on the screen at once. Even in their current state, it still lags the game up a little when things get really busy. But level designs are very colourful and creative.
Controls – 7
Control in Lemmings is fairly easy. They walk by themselves. All you have to do is intervene to keep them from killing themselves, and get them to the end. You do this by clicking various skills at the bottom of the screen, and then clicking a lemming of your choice to apply it to them, one at a time. The problem here is when you have a crowd of 50 lemmings all crowded together and you want to single out one specific one to give the skill to. There are also some problems when you want to apply multiple skills to a single lemming. But overall, it is an easy interface, and it is also easy to scroll your way around the map using the L and R buttons.
Variety – 10
With over one hundred levels that vary from being underground, to in a level apparently made entirely from diamonds, to in some sort of mill, to literally in hell, to in some spooky kind of forest, and so on, Lemmings offers a nice variety of levels and layouts that always keeps you interested and on your toes.
Replay – 7
Once you beat a level in Lemmings, you pretty much know how to do it exactly the same every time. The fun part is figuring out all of the levels. Once you do that, there isn’t as much to get out of re-playing Lemmings. Although that isn’t to say that it isn’t fun the second time through.
Sound – 10
In my opinion, the sound in Lemmings is perfect. It features an amazing soundtrack, which has a different song for nearly every level. I personally would attempt to play along with the music using the skills at the bottom of the screen, which each is a note on a musical scale as you select them. The lemmings “eek!” when they fall and “oh no!” when they explode is also a nice touch. And it’s always good to hear lemmings popping like popcorn when you nuke the whole level.
Depth – 10
with over a dozen different skills you can apply to the lemmings, it is always interesting trying to figure out what you are going to have to do to beat a level. The occasional thrown in bear trap, gallows, or flaming pig’s head keeps you on your feet as well. The levels have a nice build-up in complexity and challenge, the further you progress in the game.
Overall – 8.7
It takes quite a good puzzle/strategy game to interest/please me, as I tend to dislike the genre as a whole. Lemmings is a creative, fun, and interesting way of making you use your brain. And as I have already said twice, the fact that you can blow up an entire level at will just makes it that much better.