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Reviewed by Jimmy | 06.05.06

Introduction:Those lovable Lemmings have invaded the Sony PSP and I couldn't be happier. The pitter patter drone like marching of these little green creatures will captive most and annoy others. Find out if the challenge is worth the investment in Sony's Lemmings for the Playstation Portable.

The Game:It's no surprise that Lemmings has finally hit the PSP, the only question is, what took so long? Over the years Lemmings has been ported over every generation of PC along with most of the consoles and portable handheld's, Game Gear included. If you already had the pleasure of playing a Lemming's game then you will already have a concept of what this Playstation Portable adaptation is like. For all those who are in the dark about the Lemming's phenomenon, I'll cover the basics.

A History of Lemmings
Lemmings were first developed for the Commodore back in 1991 and easily captured gamer's harts. The name Lemmings actually is refers to its main characters "The Lemmings". The Lemmings are small green-haired creatures who walk in a zombie like path without fear or thought. The object of the game is to navigate these Lemmings through an assortment of obstacles without having the lemmings die. The charm and cuteness of lemmings is pretty morbid, but it's the fact that they so easily walk into death are half the fun. Saving them is always the main goal, but its still fun running them off cliffs.

Skills.. Like Climbing Skills
The skill to Lemmings is to use their special talents to obvert obstacles in the game. Similar to the worms the Lemmings have a set number of special skills, in this case eight skills which you need timely active to pass certain challenges. Choosing the right skills and at the right time can be frustrating so you need to have a good overview of their talents. Here is a listing of their eight skills. (1) The climber which climbs up walls. (2) The Floater which brings out a parachute umbrella to softly float off cliffs. (3) The Bomber which carries is a kamikaze lemmings with a bomb on his head to destroy walls. (4) The blocker which stops lemmings from going in one direction making them turn around. (5) The basher who tunnels through walls horizontally. (6) The Builder which builds up ramps diagonally to cross gaps or bypass dangerous areas. (7) The Digger who digs down vertically through floors. And lastly (8) The Miner who moves diagonally with a pickaxe through walls and like the digger stops when they hit open air.

The secret to winning the levels in Lemmings is to manage the limited quota of skills in time while these green fellahs are marching on forward. Like any good game the levels start out simple with just two skills being needed to cross the level then up to all eight with numerous dangerous. To successful win a level you will need to save a percentage of the Lemmings. Testing is a nice way to put the aggravating nature of the Lemmings especially when you fail a level by one Lemming, welcome to the joys of a puzzle game.

From Worms to Lemmings
Team 17 the guys behind the fun Worms franchise worked on this one and they seem to push some more fun out of the Lemmings. Although I think the Lemmings could have used the new cartoonish looked that they used with Worms. The graphics are really nothing special and don't seem to take advantage of the Playstations portables power, even though they have made other Lemmings games there is nothing extra special here in the overall design or graphically.

Level Editor!
One cool aspect that they managed to add to this version of Lemmings is an official level editor. If you manage to play through the already provided levels then you can always make your own or grab a few from friends, or from the online community. Nothing could of added value to Lemmings like the inclusion of an editor and it is a definite plus to the game.

Keeping Your Cool
Lemmings isn't for everyone, although the atmosphere is fun it can be taxing at times The controls work well which is a nice to keep you flowing with the Lemmings, so that's covered. The hardest part of Lemmings is keeping your cool. It's not like your typical puzzle games because these little buggers are always moving. No doubt you will be experimenting several times with each level. This is fine if you have the patience because you wouldn't want to be picking up the pieces of your PSP off the floor.

Lowdown:Lemmings from Sony and Team 17 is an excellent addition to any PSP owners library of games. The pick up and play action of Lemmings make it perfect for quick runs, but the addictive nature of Lemmings might keep you around longer. If you have never played Lemmings you should do your self a favor and try it out. Of course its puzzle game so it's not for everyone, but anyone who lemmings you can't go wrong picking this one up.

The Good:Classic Gameplay, Fun and Addictive, Downloadable Levels
The Bad: Only for Puzzle Gamers, Lackluster Graphics

Gameplay: 8, Graphics/Sound: 6, Innovation: 5, Mojo: 7. Final: 7 / 10

FEATURES:

  • Save the Lemmings in 150+ levels of frenetic bashing, digging, building, climbing, mining and bombing!
  • Addictive levels set in puzzling environments include new AND classic levels.
  • Extensive level editor allows you to create your own game levels
  • Share your custom game levels with other Lemmings fans via the Infrastructure mode (wirelessly upload and download levels).
  • Gamesharing allows players to wirelessly transmit via Ad Hoc sample game levels to other PSP system players



Lemmings
 
Publisher
SCEA
 
Developer
Team 17
 
Genre
Puzzle
 
Released
May 2006
 
ESRB
Everyone



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