So today I decided to do a friend a favor. She had requested I put up a game dating all the way back to 1991. Lemmings games have been seen on almost all gaming platforms, from the original Amiga personal computer all the way to the PlayStation 3. This highly addictive game is what we will look at today.

While this version of lemmings isn't actually a flash-based game, it was the only version I could find that was a close port of the original.

And it is still just as mind-numbingly painful to play.

For those new to the genre it can be said that lemmings is the predecessor of the modern RTS(Real Time Strategy) game. Amiga Power said it best, "[Lemmings] was the first major game to introduce the 'indirect-control' concept", something common to almost all RTS's.

Indirect control is what Lemmings is built on. Once a level has been selected, game play begins with a trapdoor opening, and lemmings begin falling at a user-controlled rate.

An individual lemming will simply walk, oblivious to the dangers around him, until he hits a wall and turns around, reaches the goal and can return home, or finds his impending doom in one of the many traps that mark the landscape.

Players must save a designated number, sometimes as few as 1 to as many as 100, by brilliant creativity, ingenious planning, and nimble fingers.

The user can give each lemming an ability, be it tunneling through a barrier, or building a bridge across a gap, however each level places a limitation on the number of times you can assign the ability, as well as removes the use of some abilities altogether.

This makes you go insane.

Nothing is more devastating then planning a beautiful strategy to navigate the mindless lemmings home safely, only to realize you miscalculated and can't finish your bridge, and all 100 of the lemmings plummet to their doom, forcing you to restart the level and try again.

This version has options to disable sound and music separately, and saves your progress via a client side cookie. 40 levels are divided into the 4 original categories: Fun, Tricky, Taxing, and Mayhem.

And let me tell you, some levels are HUGE time wasters, spending an hour or more for a level that has a time limit of 4 minutes is not uncommon. And with at least half of the levels falling into that category, this addictive classic will make you want to go back for seconds...or thirds.. or fourths..

I encourage all of you to try your hand, play through a couple levels and see how fun a blast from the past can be, and let me know if you want me to review a specific game, or something from a particular genre.

Play Here - make sure you have java scripting enabled, as that is what the game is written in.


Rating:

Longevity: 5.0/5
Interface: 3.5/5
Addictiveness: 4.5/5
Sound: 3.5/5
Simplicity: 3.0/5

Overall: 3.9/5
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