Lemmings Return

Those cute and rather annoying green haired characters otherwise known as the Lemmings have been a familiar feature in games for the past two decades or so and have made an attempt to conquer the mobile gaming sector with limited success. So how does their latest instalment, Lemmings Return hold up?

Well, actually pretty well! The producers have made the classic Amiga game which I grew up on into a very decent mobile conversion. Of course it doesn’t quite have the same control element due to the lack of a mouse, however the cursor does respond well and scrolling through the various moves e.g. digging, building, exploding etc. is a doddle to do with the keypad.

For those out there who’ve been in a coma for the last two decades or have never come in contact with Lemmings the games objectives are simple. Lemmings enter through one door and leave through another, however they can’t do this without your help as they need you to guide them through each level to overcome the obstacles in your way.

To get you through the level you have a variety of options or skills to use on your lemming at set times. For example your lemmings can’t get over a large boulder in your way so you can use the ‘basher’ option to mine your way through horizontally. For another example, Lemmings can’t climb too well so you may need to click on the lemming and get him to build a bridge at the right time.

Now, you may have played games like Suicidal Squirrels, which basically work on the same principle except rather than rescuing you’re trying to assist their suicide. For me this game is far better. Although it’s frustrating at times and a simple mistake can cost you the game, it’s able to be played at a relatively casual pace and the challenges ease you into the swing of things pretty well for the more difficult later levels.

For every level you’re told the percentage of lemmings that must survive or get to the end gate. This may be as high as 100% but can dip down to much less depending on what you must do to get through the level. The clue that the percentage gives you at the start provides you with an idea as to how to play the level. For example if you have to rescue 100% then you can’t let a single one get stuck or detonate themselves, but in a level where 80% must survive, then you can of course try to get 100% through but it won’t matter if a few don’t make it (which does appeal to my darker side quite a bit – particularly when you’ve grown to hate the lemmings!)

In the end then, this game has all that the original strengths that the larger console games had to offer and very few, if any weaknesses. The cursor issue isn’t really a huge problem as it’s very responsive, as is the cycling through the moves. The graphics are clearly presented and the images of what the moves are when highlighted are very easy to understand and prevent any eye strain. The deviousness of the game as the levels progress, although is quite quick, does allow you to get up to speed with all of the moves very quickly with the practice gained from earlier experience.

Overall then the game is a good balance between logic and puzzle solving as well as a bit of action and fun. This is very entertaining and proves as addictive, if not more so than other more modern games like the Sims.

Rating 94%

Positives

Addictive and highly entertaining

Fun and challenging

Good controls

Decent graphics

Negatives

No new moves or anything added from the original Amiga version

Quite repetitive