Never has a game been so aptly titled. Barely has the world settled down and stopped wibbling over the software phenomenon that was Lemmings, than Psygnosis release further 100 levels. New traps, new layouts, new strategies. And again, the world puts on a blue jumpsuit and goes "Wibble".
Well, to get this out of the way, this is not Lemmings 2. Not in any way, shape or form. No no Nanette. It's merely another 100 levels for the original. There's no new lemming skills, no new sprites or anything like that. It's only to keep you knee-deep in Lems until the proper Lemmings 2 and the Lemmings Construction Kit are ready. They just won't let it lie, will they?
Now I'm sorry about this next bit, but there's always the faint chance that there's someone out there who doesn't know what all this Lemmings palaver is about. So I'm going to have to explain it all again aren't I?
OK, you have to make sure that a certain number of lemmings make it from one end of the level to the other without falling foul of traps, pits and their own crass stupidity. You see, lemmings have slightly less intelligence than a small pile of mung beans. They're utter twonks.
You, the gorgeous gamesplayer, can help them overcome this natural intellectual bypass by endowing individual lems with special powers. These powers allow them to dig, climb, build bridges, block, float and explode. You will, however, only have a set number of powers that you can bestow per level. For instance, the way forward might seem obvious if you had some bridge builders, but the chances are you won't and you'll have to think your way around the problem. I know all of this is almost written in computer folklore, but some people seem to have spent the last few years hiding behind the sofa when it comes to games.
So, these new levels. What are they like? Well, they're good. It's a bit like finding out that they've just made a whole new series of The A Team. More of the same, but just what you were waiting for anyway.
We were a bit stuck to begin with as we were having trouble getting past the Tame levels (it's not "Fun" anymore, it's "Tame"), but then out of the blue came a letter from Robert Phelps in Stroud. Good ol' Bob had sent us all 100 level codes. Staggering, or what? The flamin' thing hadn't been on sale five minutes and he'd done the lot! A right smarty boots and no mistake! So, thanks to Robert we were able to have a good look at any level we wanted. And they're all cracking.
The Tame levels are, as you can guess, fairly tame. Yes, I had trouble with them but then I never was any good at the original. These levels can be breezed through by yer average Lemmings supremo, and so they're best for people who've bought the standalone version and don't know what they're doing yet.
After that, things get harder and some of the levels are destined to go down in history as complete bar stewards of our time. The Superlemming level, for instance, looks really easy but the timing needed is phenomenal. Scary stuff. And the others pose similar seemingly impossible tasks that kept us from the pub for many lunchtimes. Well, almost. There's not much else to say, really. If you're a Lemmings fan then this is just the thing to keep you awake until God knows when, and if you've never played Lemmings then you've got two options. Either buy the original and this as a data disk, or just buy these 100 levels as a standalone version.
My only reservation is that the price is perhaps a bit much for a data disk, but I guess Lemmings addicts will go to any expense for more of those green haired japesters.
A worthwhile addition.