Ultimate Lemmings Title Screen
Before they became Rockstars, DMA Design was an Amiga development house working primarily with Psygnosis. While it wasn’t their first title (that would be the shooter Menace), arguably their most famous game and game series was the puzzler Lemmings.
For the uninitiated, Lemmings’ goal was deceptively simple: guide your hapless group of lemmings from the beginning of the level to the end. Of course, being lemmings, they follow each other without a care in the world, into any number of traps, chasms, and ledges. Fortunately, you can assign each lemming a job that can help the rest exit safely. Build bridges, bash walls, dig holes, and even block lemmings from moving forward, forcing them to turn around. Use the available tools to plan a route to success.
Lemmings was a massive success for both DMA Design and Psygnosis. It spawned an expansion, Oh No! More Lemmings, two Amiga sequels, and four smaller Christmas-themed games. The original Lemmings was ported to nearly every computer and console available at the time, from the Atari Lynx to the ZX Spectrum, and later received ports to the PlayStation, Game Boy Color, and even a version for Java-based phones. You couldn’t throw a floppy disk without hitting a version of Lemmings.
Ultimate Lemmings Level Select
The last official release was in 2018, when a free-to-play version with in-app purchases launched on iOS. But the original series’ popularity has never really gone away. This year, Australian developer Erik Veland dropped what is possibly the most comprehensive Lemmings release ever. Ultimate Lemmings, released for macOS and iOS/tvOS, collects every Lemmings game originally released on the Amiga. It is also so, so much more.
For starters, it includes all the mainline Amiga games, from the original Lemmings to the Christmas Lemmings releases, all the way up to All New World of Lemmings. Beyond that, Ultimate Lemmings includes 60 levels derived from the two-player levels and levels exclusive to the Mega Drive version. It also includes 6000 fan-created levels, plus levels from the NeoLemmix modernized version. Add to that a Classic journey with 227 lessons, teaching everything from the basics of the game to advanced strategies for conquering the toughest levels. Months of content, all free. Preview and select levels from a CoverFlow-style interface, then bookmark favorites, revisit levels, and create custom playlists to puzzle your way through.
Ultimate Lemmings Color Screenshot
Probably one of the most interesting aspects of the collection is the ability to change the graphic presentation of the games. While the original Amiga graphics are iconic, the presentation did change over the course of the series. Lemmings 2 kept the basic lemming design but added more detail, especially when they were assigned abilities. Lemmings 3 significantly updated the lemmings’ look. Ultimate Lemmings lets you mix and match art styles for all of the games. Use modern, high-resolution art, use the original Amiga assets, or the graphics used for the Windows releases. You can even use versions of the graphics that mimic the 1-bit monochrome graphics used on the original black-and-white Macintosh computers. Last, but not least, the “nuclear option” has been updated with actual explosions, should you choose those instead of the flurry of pixels from the original games.
The memorable background music has also been overhauled. DJ LEM provides the soundtrack experience during the game, serving up the original MODs from the Amiga game, new recordings, and remixes. The music is adaptive, responding to how you progress through a level and how successful you are. You can even request a new track mid-level if you choose. If you have limited disk space, you can download the slim version of the application, which includes the basic backing tracks, and add libraries as you see fit.
Ultimate Lemmings 1-bit Screenshot
On top of all that, Ultimate Lemmings includes many quality-of-life improvements. Fast Forward allows you to increase the game speed incrementally, so you’re not forced to wait all night for your lemmings to make their way through the level after you’ve set the solution in motion. You can rewind single steps or retry a level. The modern pointer gives you more options for selecting the right lemming, ensuring you assign the job you need to the lemming you want. You can even see info on the selected lemming, including its name, what it’s doing, and background details. It doesn’t affect gameplay, but it adds to the game’s immersion.
Worldwide community leaderboards are available for truly competitive Lemmings players. You can even record your level attempts for review, bragging rights, or a personal archive of successes and failures. Levels are saved if you exit paused, allowing you to pick up where you left off, or you can restart from scratch.
Whether you’re a Lemmings fan or you’ve never played the game, Ultimate Lemmings has everything you need to deliver the ultimate Lemmings experience.
Lemmings GitHub page – https://github.com/ErikVeland/Lemmings
You must be logged in to post a comment.