It has been a long-held view of mine that Lemmings is long overdue a comeback.
I played most versions of the game on the Amiga back in the day and spent a long time playing it.
The Lemmings were controlled using a series of icons along the bottom of the screen which allowed them to perform various tasks. The idea was to guide as many of the little green floppy haired creatures to a defined exit as possible. Some of the levels were particularly fiendish, requiring a lot of mouse movement in order to get from the icons to the Lemmings in time.
Sometimes, the wandering critters could be cramped in a small space making it difficult to assign individual tasks. Indeed, I believe the intention was to create times when Lemmings would be burrowing/bashing/digging/building in the wrong direction – a mistake generator, a further problem to solve. It was never a fault of the system, but the fault of the controller – if you miss clicked these things would happen.
I understand there was a version of the game where you could apply skills to Lemmings while the game was paused. This twist of events would utterly ruin the game and I would be very much against it…
Anyway, getting on to how the game could be revived.
I firmly believe that, with touch screens, the game would be a huge hit once more. It would still be a challenge to get the correct Lemming. It would still allow players to progress at a reasonable rate. There could be a social aspect with fastest time league tables – something I personally detest, but I’m making a business case here! What else… user levels? Weekly challenges? New skills? A mix of the old and new – cherry picking the best levels from the various incarnations?
Team 17 I believe last made games in the franchise. I, for one, would certainly purchase the app if it ever came into being.
