Lemmings is one of those games that you likely played, or at least heard of, sometime when you were a kid. I first played it on the Amiga, and later on an Apple II GS. But you may have seen it on any number of 30-some platforms. Originally developed in 1991 by DMA Design (who went on to create the Grand Theft Auto series, and is now Rockstar North), Lemmings was a radical game for its time. Not following general convention has paid off, and PSP owners get an updated classic.
As the saying goes, lemmings will mindlessly follow one another to their death. It is your job in the game to prevent this from happening. This makes the rather easy task of getting from Point A to Point B all the more challenging.
The best part of the game is that each level has different sets of challenges - always something new. You must assign any of eight jobs to specific lemmings to move the tribe to safety. These include functions such as climbing, digging, and building, to name a few.
To prevent every last one of the little guys from falling over a cliff, you must designate one to be a "blocker," who becomes a stopgap and forces the rest to walk the opposite direction. Lose too many lemmings, and it's game over!
Even though we have seen countless ports in the 15 years since their first suicidal leap, the PSP version does contain enough new material to make it worth your time and money.
Lemmings on the PSP features the 120 original levels, plus 36 new levels. Developer Team17 (Worms series) has given the game a full makeover. Not only is the game now presented wide-screen, but also is rendered in 3-D. You still play the game in the 2-D perspective of course, but the updated visuals are pretty slick.
The only problem is that gamers have played those 120 levels to death, pun intended. Thirty-six new stages don’t amount to much, as they go by very quickly. Thankfully the developer had the foresight to include a robust level editor, as well as an online portal to upload/download user created levels.
Just like with Mega Man Powered Up, this creates an endless number of possibilities, and extends the life of the game greatly. Downloading new level sets in Infrastructure Mode is seamless and quick. Once you have downloaded a set, you can rate it to let others know if a level is good or bad. This simple interface works great.
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