Was Lemmings not as big as I remember it was?

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

I've been thinking a lot about Lemmings recently without really knowing why and I basically have one question:
In my mind, Lemmings was fucking HUGE when it came out. Not Super Mario World huge but maybe one tier below it. Was that......not the case?
I'm mostly asking because not only have we not seen a new game in the series for ages (Like, what is "DMA Design" up to? I don't believe they have anything better to do, not like they are rockstars or anything) but what's even weirder to me is that we have not really seen a lot (if any) Indie games that try to emulate the Lemmings gameplay.

So.....was Lemmings only "huge" because me and my three friends loved it when I was five year olds and so I kinda extrapolated that it was big everywhere else as well?

 

[Bomblord]

Today is the first day I've even heard of it so my anecdote is yes OP.

 

[KDR_11k]

I think a lot of reporting on what's big or not is based on the US and ignores what was big in, say, Europe.

Technically Sony owns the rights to the Lemmings name, right?

 

[Thiago]

I loved it as a kid, but had completely forgotten about it. Someone mentioned it today in the Sony's first party thread and I was like "wow, Lemmings".

 

[tusk]

It was massive and ported to practically everything. There have already been 5 reset-era topics comparing it to Dark Souls.

 

[Ryce]

It was huge in Europe and popular enough in America.

 

[Druffmaul]

In its day it was a very popular PC game. What was a "very popular PC game" in 1990 is a fart in the wind now. The PC gamer base was relatively microscopic in those days.

 

[ciddative]

Lemmings was massive in the UK, largely thanks to the Amiga and Home Computer scene, which was less of a thing in the US.

 

[Wood Man]

I never thought it was huge but it had decent following. I love Lemmings and played all the different games even Lemmings 3D for PS1 which I still own. But outside of me I didn't know many people who played it.

Heck I even loved Lomax for PS1. Now that's a hidden gem

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

It was huge in my social circle back in the early 90s in Germany. Friends, schoolmates and even some adults played/knew it.

 

[Roarer]

(Like, what is "DMA Design" up to? I don't believe they have anything better to do, not like they are rockstars or anything)

Click to shrink...

DMA Designs is busy making GTA.

 

[manustany]

Lemmings were big here in Europe. Also, the last game was published by Sony 7 years ago or something on PS Vita (and it was pretty good!)

EDIT:

I forgot the smartphone FTP app released a few years ago.

 

[eXistor]

In my experience it was pretty big. It was released on just about every platform and everybody I knew had at least heard of it. That's all just anecdotal, but I'm pretty sure it's a very well-known ip and was probably a sizable hit back in the day.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

According to Wikipedia:

"Lemmings is also one of the most widely ported and best-selling video games, and is estimated to have sold around 20 million copies between its various ports."

So yeah, it was fairly big.

 

[JamesQuall]

It was one of my absolute favorites as a kid. I Played the hell out of my GameBoy copy, along with PC releases and Tribes on SNES, but the impression I have was that is was a much bigger deal in the UK on the Amiga.

 

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

I never thought it was huge but it had decent following. I love Lemmings and played all the different games even Lemmings 3D for PS1 which I still own. But outside of me I didn't know many people who played it.

Heck I even loved Lomax for PS1. Now that's a hidden gem

Click to shrink...

Dammit, you beat me to a Lomax reference. Great game - good platforming and interesting powers.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Shame Lomax was the only spinoff. The IP could have been as big as The Rabbids if better managed.

 

[Ravelle]

Man, Lemmings was pretty great. The family here played a lot of that.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

According to Wikipedia:

"Lemmings is also one of the most widely ported and best-selling video games, and is estimated to have sold around 20 million copies between its various ports."

So yeah, it was fairly big.

Click to shrink...

Oh
So why the hell is nobody making a Lemmings clone?!
Stop making Metroidvanias and Dark Soulses and make a Lemmings
Lazy developers!

 

[QuinchoOsito]

Yeah I definitely have always thought of it as a huge game.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

Lemmings was fuckin' huge! And it brought in all the money DMA needed to become Rockstar Games.

 

[BordyDogue]

DMA Design is Rockstar North now lol, I would like to see a new game tho

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

Over the years it's faded into the background but it was pretty big back in it's day, with multiple sequels and spin off's and ports to pretty much every system out there.

 

[Creed Bratton]

I loved Lemmings so much! My brother and I would spend hours playing it as kids.

 

[Meatwad]

I had a lot of fun with it on the SNES back in the day

 

[Ebnas]

Lemmings was the shit. I'd love to see what a 3D, physics-rich version ala 'bridge constructor' tech would look like.

 

[Deleted member 9932]

my parents, uncles, older cousins etc all knew about it and they barely have any idea what the hell is super mario. So, yes it was big.

 

[Pirateluigi]

It was big, just computer gaming was a lot more niche back then.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

There were even a few clones back in the day, like "The Humans" which is kind of a mix between Lemmings and Gobliiins:

The Humans (video game) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Menome]

I bloody love Lemmings, the sequel and the slightly off-kilter 3D version. What's ridiculous is that you can't buy any of them on PC nowadays, so the only choice is an unofficial updated-source port or hoping to dear god your 30-years old floppy disks still work to install it via DOSBox.

 

[julian]

I sure as hell remember it being big - not European.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

It is genuinely a relive to see that I was not, in fact, crazy and that Lemmings was rather big back then.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

DMA Design are quite literally rockstars. Like, in the most literal sense. They are Rockstar games. The make GTA and red dead and such.

Sony owns lemmings, that's why you don't see it ported everywhere anymore. They took the rights when they bought Psygnosis. Like almost all Psygnosis properties, Sony is just sitting on them and never uses them.

 

[apocat]

It was a big deal back when. An absolute classic.

 

[Doukou]

Lemmings popularity died off

 

[Deleted member 54073]

Absolutely loved Lemmings on the Amiga.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

DMA Design are quite literally rockstars. Like, in the most literal sense. They are Rockstar games. The make GTA and red dead and such.

Click to shrink...

I see you caught my clever little nod

 

[eso76]

,what is "DMA Design" up to? I don't believe they have anything better to do, not like they are rockstars or anything

Click to shrink...

This is a pretty good joke I'm stealing.

Lemmings was huge, yes.

 

[xir]

I'm, 39 and lemmings was a big deal for me. My dad hated me nuking the lemmings! I originally didn't have a mouse (DOS system) so i had to control the cursor with the QA and OP keys, it was awful, so got a mouse for xmas.

I do sort of wonder if lemmings ended up being an evolutionary deadend. It's sort of RTS-sy? Gave DMA money to make GTA I guess? Sony owns the rights now or something?

this makes me smile though

For The Love Of Lemmings

Only '90s kids will appreciate this bronze tribute to the wildly popular video game.

www.atlasobscura.com

 

[Windu]

I mainly remember it because it was on the cover of Nintendo Power once. Other than that, never knew anyone that played it.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

It was big enough for me to remember it being in a ton of magazine ads for a long time.

 

[CackleAndHide]

Are you british OP? Lemmings was huge in UK. I remember playing lemmings, lemmings 2, christmas lemmings and possible some kind of lost levels lemmings on my amiga. I loved it!

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

Are you british OP? Lemmings was huge in UK. I remember playing lemmings, lemmings 2, christmas lemmings and possible some kind of lost levels lemmings on my amiga. I loved it!

Click to shrink...

Austrian but my dad had an Amiga

 

[World B. SkiFree]

Seems it still gets referenced as the alpha in the many games that mimic its concept, like the Mario v DK titles. It seemed pretty big in its heyday; reminds me a bit of Worms in popularity. Somewhat niche but a still large, devoted fan base.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

Are you british OP? Lemmings was huge in UK. I remember playing lemmings, lemmings 2, christmas lemmings and possible some kind of lost levels lemmings on my amiga. I loved it!

Click to shrink...

I'm american, and I played the shit out of lemmings. Together my dad and I beat Lemmings, and Oh No More Lemmings. We also got really far into Lemmings 2 but never finished it. I also have a huge soft spot in my heart for Lemmings 3D. The little voices are so cute. "Buildah! Bashah!"

 

[Eoin]

Lemmings was big in the UK and probably also picked up small pockets of local popularity across Europe. It was quite popular overall but I think it had limited long-term prospects. The game pretty much has four types of level:

1. Levels introducing you to basic abilities. These are the ones where you have, say, a big drop, 20 Lemmings, and 20 floaters. You are already picturing this level in your head. There is no mystery to this type of level, it's just there to show you what the ability does so you know for later.

2. Straightforward levels where you can tell pretty much at a glance how to complete them.

3. Levels with an odd twist that require some degree of lateral thinking.

4. Levels which require you to have figured out the exact limitations of the abilities and the way that they interact with each other and sometimes also near-pixel-perfect levels of precision and/or frame-perfect timing. By standards of old-school game design these would be called "fiendish" or something with similar connotations of cleverness. By modern standards they're kind of a pain.

Once you're familiar with Lemmings, most of the possible levels are too easy and the ones that aren't have a tendency to only appeal to the biggest fans. That's the kind of game that works for a sequel or two but will tend to get stretched thin very quickly.

what's even weirder to me is that we have not really seen a lot (if any) Indie games that try to emulate the Lemmings gameplay.

Click to shrink...

There were several back when Lemmings was popular and they didn't really catch on. With Lemmings itself not selling very well nowadays whenever Sony try to revive it, clones aren't going to take interest.

Technically Sony owns the rights to the Lemmings name, right?

Click to shrink...

Yes. There's even a Lemmings mobile game from them. It's not great.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

I'm american, and I played the shit out of lemmings. Together my dad and I beat Lemmings, and Oh No More Lemmings. We also got really far into Lemmings 2 but never finished it. I also have a huge soft spot in my heart for Lemmings 3D. The little voices are so cute. "Buildah! Bashah!"

Click to shrink...

I still remember buying some sort of Lemmings collection with Lemmings 3D on it and Lemmings 3D just would not run on my PC and I was so, so sad.

 

[Menome]

I'm, 39 and lemmings was a big deal for me. My dad hated me nuking the lemmings! I originally didn't have a mouse (DOS system) so i had to control the cursor with the QA and OP keys, it was awful, so got a mouse for xmas.

I do sort of wonder if lemmings ended up being an evolutionary deadend. It's sort of RTS-sy? Gave DMA money to make GTA I guess? Sony owns the rights now or something?

this makes me smile though

For The Love Of Lemmings

Only '90s kids will appreciate this bronze tribute to the wildly popular video game.

www.atlasobscura.com

Click to shrink...

That's my old University's Student Union building in the background, with that statue now about a ten-minute walk from where I work.

 

[Cbrun44]

I remember playing a whole lot of Lemmings in my 7th-grade typing class (Maybe around 94-95). Basically playing Lemmings rather than typing.

A Lemming as a playable character in Smash Bros. only seems reasonable. Make it happen Sakurai!

 

[Silvergun-Blue]

I do sort of wonder if lemmings ended up being an evolutionary deadend. It's sort of RTS-sy? Gave DMA money to make GTA I guess? Sony owns the rights now or something?

Click to shrink...

Check out King Arthur's World on the SNES, that's something of a Lemmings RTS mash-up.

But yeah, Lemmings was pretty huge back in the very early '90s. Somewhat similar in the way Worms would end up being a few years later. Worms did a much better job of staying relevant though, mainly by actually having games released.