11th April 2012, 10:24 PM
Quote:Lemmings is one of the most popular and ported games out there, or "was" until Sony bought the rights to it. Tetris is probably the only game that's more ported. (I have played it on a "Smart" TV set, a phone, and a calculator. Eventually I'll be able to play it on a thermostat. Heck I seem to recall a wearable Tetris as a watch several years back.) I've got the SNES version of Lemmings, but if I ever get an Amiga I may try to get the original. I don't really intend to get every last port in existence.Yeah, it was ported everywhere. I first played it on the PC (DOS version), back in the early '90s... great classic. This GBC version is nowhere near as good as the DOS version, though, with worse everything. Of course, the GBC is weaker hardware than even a 386, so that should be expected, but even so, it is disappointing that there's no background or environment animation at all -- only the lemmings animate. Traps just kill you without animation, water or lava or whatever doesn't animate, etc. Also, backgrounds are single-color. Yeah, the graphics are bland, though what's there does look decent enough. Also, the game doesn't have release speed control or a faster-time option, so you have to just deal with the lemming release rate at whatever it's set at, and can't speed things up to make levels end sooner either. And there are usually fewer lemmings in total than there were on the PC. Of course, as far as lemmings or speed go I imagine that the game's probably just not able to because of the significant limitations of the hardware, but still, it's too bad. I wish they'd figured out a way to at least allow a faster-time option.
On the other hand, the battery save is great, makes it much more portable than a version with passwords would be. Also, the game does have ~150 stages, with all of the levels from both Lemmings and its addon Oh No! More Lemmings. In comparison, the PSP version actually has 10 fewer stages, with all of the original stages and 40 new levels. For some reason Oh No! More Lemmings wasn't included in the PSP release, for whatever reason. Of course, it has the speed and drop controls, and better graphics (though it has gone 3d, so it looks different from the 2d look of the older versions), etc, so it's the obvious better version to play... but still, for the hardware, even with its big limitations the GBC version's kind of fun. It is still Lemmings, after all.
I haven't played any of the TV console versions -- NES, SNES, etc. But yeah, as you say, back in the '90s Lemmings was ported just about everywhere. Thank Sony for ending that plague! I mean, who'd actually want more Lemmings games? Crazy talk...