Homemademech - PSP Lemmings reviews

Competitions

Affiliates

Lemmings for the PSP

Riddle me this, readers. How does a game franchise about one track minded, maniac obsessive to the point of being suicidal little green hair bipedal rodents with an E.T. obsession to go home without taking the time to call and say they’re coming in advance become a cult classic game series? If you know do let me know, will you? I’m still not sure.

But whatever the case may be, ever since that loveable lug of a bloodsoaked Spartan named Kratos threw himself off of those cliffs of suicide in God of War (twice, once in the start and once in the end of the game) we have been thinking of things that look good falling to their deaths… or is it just me?
Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean) did fall to his death well enough, though mostly because of the kinda gimpy control schematic over me doing that one purpose. I couldn’t get my character in Dungeon Siege : Throne of Agony to go cliffdiving though in a way that equalled splatterage, and you can only get so much joy hurling Bilbo Baggins off a tall cliff before it becomes old.
So it’s back to Lemming-cide for me I guess, thankfully the people at Sony have provided me with the latest means to dispatch “accidentially” the little things in Lemmings, for the PSP.

First thing you’ll notice is that the creators of this game apparently were sick from school when the whole subject of Darwin-ism, survival of the fittest and evolution was talked about because this game has not done one thing to even attempt to evolve. Sure, the backgrounds (though few) are now animated (but you quickly see the same animated backgrounds over and over again almost immediately), and there are some cuts of music here (but this in turn offers a promise of how to make Lemmings better if only Sony would take a lesson from Nintendo’s new Wii system and one particular game on the Wii, but more on that later) but for the most part it is the same game you know and love (or don’t love depending on your opinion of the wee green haired bastard children of Fraggles meet Star Wars Episode II cloning facilities.
The Lemmings’ work “options” for getting through the level are the same. The levels for the most part are the same (more on that shortly) and even the Lemmings themselves have not changed, sporting the same look they’ve had for countless years. Nostalgia and all being well and good, yes, but this is relentless nostalgia that borders on the maniac obsessive (another thing that is maniac obsessive in regards to this game). Some evolution in this game would have been welcomed, in fact it would have been embraced… of course then again the purists of the franchise would have cried foul if the game received any change so hence we come to the crux of the game’s problem. Keeping the fanbase happy while evolving, which this game didn’t do. Yes, I like me happy braindead suicidial Lemmings as much as the next perp but there has to be some evolution to bring the game into the 21st Century other than the fact that it moved to the PSP!

Otherwise if a lack of innovation is the game’s bad point, the nearly endless potential for content is the game’s strong point. You start off with 120 “Classic” levels (hence levels that may look familiar to you if you are a true Lemmings fan), and 32 new “Special” levels unique to this outing. That in and of itself is already 152 levels, with 5 trophys going out to you for beating each (4 trophies split into 4 categories in the Classic level, 30 levels apiece and one in Special) to show that you have mastered each of these challenging categories, each (in Classic mode) with a particular theme that challenges you in different ways.

But once you get through those then the true potential of the game comes into play. The ability to not only make your own levels, but also to import/export levels and swap them amongst other players. With a vibrant level creator, and the ability to go online to download new content as well as upload your levels for other people to download, this game has the ability to possibly be endless… of course that is assuming lots of people bought this game, are making a ton of levels, and swapping them either person to person or via the internet and the website the game offers for doing such (all info is on the game so once you get it you’ll have no problem getting started downloading and uploading levels… if you can find a hotspot to get online though) then this option extends the game’s lifespan considerably.
Of course is NOBODY is doing any of the above then… well… so much for that idea.

One idea, and this would have also expanded lifespan, was to take a page from the playbook of ExciteTruck (Wii) and offer up the ability to download off the web (or from your own playlist loaded onto the PSP) musical tracks to form a playlist for Lemmings, complete with your own personal music picks to replace the generic music already on the game. This further ability to customize the game would have expanded lifespan of the game more, and I think it would have lured more people into buying the game if they knew they could custom burn a soundtrack all their own for the game and listen to it while playing.

Otherwise this addictive puzzler is still addictive, and the game is still solid. If you loved Lemmings in the past then you should have no problem getting this one too. Yes, the Lemmings are really really small (while if you are just watching them go it’s not so bad it gets worst when you have to pick one out of a large crowd to do a specific task like build a staircase or be a stopper or something) and the game lacks any real innovation between releases of this franchise, not to mention the generic-ness of the music… but still, at the end of the day, it is still a puzzler worth considering if not for full price. I’d wait for this one to get into the bargain bin before I’d purchase it (which I did).

No need for a breakdown, that is all I have to say about Lemmings and all I will say.
Now cliffdive my little Lemmings, cliffdive away.

PSP - Lemmings

PSP Lemmings Reviews

Lemmings for the PSP

PSP Lemmings Images