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Sony FINALLY brings Lemmings to mobile devices (iOS/Android)

Krvavi Abadas

Krvavi Abadas

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
1,254
Videoland
Lemmings, for those of you who missed out on it's initial wave of popularity. was a huge puzzle game released back in 1991 on basically everything available back then. It spent several years getting a series of sequels and spin-offs. Until Sony bought the publisher, Psygnosis, in 1993, and once the Playstation began to hit it's stride, the franchise would gradually be pushed on the wayside. With new releases trickling down to pretty much once per Sony Console. (The most recent installment prior to this new mobile game, "Lemmings Touch", was released on the Vita back in 2014. Itself being released after a 8 year gap from the last trio of Lemmings games on PS3/PSP/PS2.)

The concept is something that would worked perfectly as a mobile game back when they getting off the ground, but Sony never tried it....
until now.
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Thanks to the efforts of Sad Puppy Limited, we finally have a proper Lemmings game on iPhone and Android. It's free to play, and uses an energy system that may or may not prove to be a pain to deal with (I've only played a bit of it so far). But still, it's something that should have existed years ago.

Screenshots
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Tregard

Tregard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,221
This calls for a celebration!



Lemmings should be a way bigger deal that it currently is, I look forward to the inevitable Lemmings MOBA.
 
elektrixx

elektrixx

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
1,923
I'll give it a shot, but I don't think my memory of those games will comply with what I'm into today. And that's before I run into the paywall.

[edit] Oh boy, that didn't take long...

2018-12-20%2023.37.47.png



[edit] It didn't save my progress while I edited this post, so that's the end of my time with the game.
 
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Deleted member 1726

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,661
Where can you get the original for PC these days? I see it's available on the Windows store but reviews say it's totally broken, my GF wants to play it again.
 
Jazzem

Jazzem

Member
Feb 2, 2018
2,684
So happy for this, took way too long as you say OP. Love the new art style, really nice mix of the official art and the original sprites :)

Tregard said:
Lemmings should be a way bigger deal that it currently is, I look forward to the inevitable Lemmings MOBA.
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It really should! It's a strange case of a humongous hit in its day not gainingstaying power in popular culture as much as other retro classics. May be down to it not getting that many re-releases due to the Sony exclusivity as the OP noted, though the PSP remake was a noble attempt. I suspect the vast majority of fondness comes from people who played it when it was new.

Daffy Duck said:
Where can you get the original for PC these days? I see it's available on the Windows store but reviews say it's totally broken, my GF wants to play it again.
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Incidentally, for anyone who wants to play the original or Oh No More Lemmings, Lemmini is the best way to do so . You do need to provide the files from the Windows Lemmings release but once you do it's tremendous, is how I finally beat the original myself! There's also a terrific DS homebrew port
 
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tyfon

tyfon

Member
Nov 2, 2017
3,680
Norway
Daffy Duck said:
Where can you get the original for PC these days? I see it's available on the Windows store but reviews say it's totally broken, my GF wants to play it again.
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I don't think you can buy the original PC version anymore. I have it on floppy disks somewhere but I'm sure they must have bad sectors by now.
I've been playing the PS3 version a bit and while it's easier with a mouse it's not "totally broken" at least.
 

Deleted member 1726

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,661
tyfon said:
I don't think you can buy the original PC version anymore. I have it on floppy disks somewhere but I'm sure they must have bad sectors by now.
I've been playing the PS3 version a bit and while it's easier with a mouse it's not "totally broken" at least.
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Well that sucks, she wants to play the original as that's what she grew up playing.
 
pswii60

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,677
The Milky Way
Love me some Lemmings.

Shame Sony has completely mishandled the IP since they acquired Psygnosis. The PS3 game was awful with terrible level design.
 
aerie

aerie

wonky
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
8,037
Shame to hear it's rather crap, looked like it could be fun. I'll check it out anyway just to see.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,792
Oman
Jazzem said:
So happy for this, took way too long as you say OP. Love the new art style, really nice mix of the official art and the original sprites :)



It really should! It's a strange case of a humongous hit in its day not gainingstaying power in popular culture as much as other retro classics. May be down to it not getting that many re-releases due to the Sony exclusivity as the OP noted, though the PSP remake was a noble attempt. I suspect the vast majority of fondness comes from people who played it when it was new.



Incidentally, for anyone who wants to play the original or Oh No More Lemmings, Lemmini is the best way to do so . You do need to provide the files from the Windows Lemmings release but once you do it's tremendous, is how I finally beat the original myself! There's also a terrific DS homebrew port
Click to expand...
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Umm my windows defender is warning me against the lemmini.jar file, is that a false positive and the file is indeed safe? Sorry for asking such a silly question :X
 
Gelf

Gelf

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,314
I really hate that Sony owns Lemmings, it would be far more suited in the hands of a PC developer and then they could actually sell the originals on GOG. This looks terrible.
 
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,699
Boston, MA
Quote from Reddit:

Brackwater said:
I don't know why games still have unskippable sloooow tutorials. Let me access the game options before I have to play 10 minutes, please. And I don't need 5 seconds to read a short sentence until I can finally do the simple task you're making me do to progress when it's clear already.

edit: and they dropped the pause function the old games had... I guess if placing things costs the time gated energy resource you don't want people to have time to plan ahead to not waste any. Pausing brings up a screen that hides the level completely.

edit 2: after playing until my energy ran out I can basically say this: if you liked the old games for more than the actual lemmings themselves, don't bother. If you like modern micro transaction shenanigans and have no nostalgia towards the old games, this may be perfect for you, though.

The cuteness factor is definitely there, but that's about it. The levels are square based with hardly any details that made the old levels special. The lack of precision raises the difficulty artificially and on a puzzle level most levels have been excrutiatingly easy. It doesn't look like you can replay finished levels, and why would you, it costs energy to put down each order.

If you run out of energy during a level, tough luck, can't put down anymore things without it, so better explode all your lemmings. It doesn't look like energy recharges while you're in a level, so it's basically wasted energy in this case. But you can always watch adds to get more! Or to spin the wheel another time, or buy a special wheel for one time for 2,59€! There's also the typical "use this to skip the bullshit we put in so you use this" stuff, with "stairs don't cost energy to build for one level" or "keep your spent energy when you restart a level" etc included.

At least it's free so I'm not mad at myself for having installed it... but sometimes I wish there were more people making games who want to make games and maybe earn a lot of money with it, rather than people wanting to earn a lot of money and picking games to achieve that.

edit 3: the energy (maximum 60 I believe) recharges at a rate of 20 per 90 minutes. I had a level that needed 16 energy to get all the lemmings to the goal, to put that into perspective. But you can pay 6€ to play for 2 hours without energy. About the amount of money I would have considered paying for this game without all the bullshit as a one time investment, but instead for only 2 hours with most of the bullshit still present.
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Source:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/a7wfox/lemmings_comes_to_mobile_devices_today/ec6bn4p/

TL;DR - This Lemmings mobile game is a poorly executed clone, with annoying mechanics that would dim your enjoyment.
 
lemming

lemming

Member
Oct 27, 2017
219
Lemmings is a weird case, specially considering it's popularity back then and the total lack of adequate follow-ups (either remakes or spin offs) at this period!

Maybe I am biased and overstimating it's popularity though :)
 
Jazzem

Jazzem

Member
Feb 2, 2018
2,684
Tizoc said:
Umm my windows defender is warning me against the lemmini.jar file, is that a false positive and the file is indeed safe? Sorry for asking such a silly question :X
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bahaha nah it's a fair question, I think I came across the same thing myself though it has been a while. If I recall Windows Defender can be a bit funny with innocuous JAR files. There won't be anything to worry about in this case :)
 
BennyWhatever

BennyWhatever

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,801
US
This looks like a game that would have been better as an upfront $2-5 for a full game instead of F2P with energy based microtransactions.
 
JMTHEFOX

JMTHEFOX

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
888
Brooklyn, NY
*sees article about new lemmings game*
Hell yeah! There hasn't been a new lemmings game since the Vita one. So hopefully thi-

*It's a mobile game*
Oh.... Maybe lemmings might work well as a game for a ta-

*Sees three types of currency and energy system*
Oh God no....
 
Temascos

Temascos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,527
Why couldn't we be charged per number of levels you want to buy and just let people play the damn game? Lemmings deserves better than this.
 
pswii60

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,677
The Milky Way
lemming said:
Lemmings is a weird case, specially considering it's popularity back then and the total lack of adequate follow-ups (either remakes or spin offs) at this period!

Maybe I am biased and overstimating it's popularity though :)
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No, it really was huge back in the day. The problem is purely down to Sony owning the IP since they acquired Psygnosis. Lemmings didn't fit in to their 3D-obsessed output during the PS1/2 era, and then they finally got Team 17 to do a PSN game for PS3 but it was a complete bag of shite with abysmal level design, offering none of the joy of the originals.

.. And now this crap. Lemmings deserves better, so much better. It's a crying shame.
 
Velezcora

Velezcora

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Nov 16, 2017
3,124
I don't see why Sony doesn't put the original Windows release on GOG. It's not like it would hurt the Playstation brand at all like porting God of War would be.
They really should just sell off all the Psygnosis stuff excluding Wipeout since they don't care for it. Maybe THQ Nordic could buy it up and actually use it.
 
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,699
Boston, MA
lemming said:
Lemmings is a weird case, specially considering it's popularity back then and the total lack of adequate follow-ups (either remakes or spin offs) at this period!

Maybe I am biased and overstimating it's popularity though :)
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It may be a weird case, but it is actually one of the more common "one-hit wonders" cases found in creative fields.

F-Zero series and Mother series also belong in this set.

(There is no such term for 2-hits wonders, or "nth-hit wonders" in English, as far as I know, but you get the idea.)
 
saenima

saenima

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,892
Heh for a moment there i thought it was a port of the original or something, not... this.

They can shove their timers and their energies. And that art is hideous.
 
Jazzem

Jazzem

Member
Feb 2, 2018
2,684
Played a tiny bit of this, is a shame the monetisation apparently gets cynical. I actually do think the grid system is a clever way to adapt to a smartphone touch screen, though I can see how that would limit level complexity somewhat.

Tizoc said:
Thanks, just needed to check.
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S'all good, enjoy! :)
 

SpokkX

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,495
Lemmings! Love the originals

*dowloads*

Lets g... wtf is this shit?? I regret downloading the abomination even though it was free
 
apocat

apocat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,063
Lemmings? Awsome I had so much fun with it back in the day! I'm definitely picking this u...

elektrixx said:
I'll give it a shot, but I don't think my memory of those games will comply with what I'm into today. And that's before I run into the paywall.

[edit] Oh boy, that didn't take long...

2018-12-20%2023.37.47.png



[edit] It didn't save my progress while I edited this post, so that's the end of my time with the game.
Click to expand...
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Ew. Never mind.
 
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