Lemmings is a series of video games originally created by DMA Design and Psygnosis. DMA Design developed the first installment of the series, Lemmings, which was published by Psygnosis for the Amiga on 14 February 1991, to wide commercial success and critical acclaim. Several sequels to the game were created by various developers in collaboration with Psygnosis, and later Sony Interactive Entertainment after the former was folded into the latter.
The Lemmings series primarily consists of puzzle video games centered around characters named "Lemmings"; the Lemmings continuously walk straight forward, and are meant to be led to an exit by the player by being given abilities. Beyond this, each installment features variations to the gameplay style and mechanics. The series has few spin-off titles; some of these encompass other game genres.
Contents
Gameplay
The Lemmings series primarily consists of puzzle video games. The games feature characters named Lemmings, who are anthropomorphic lemmings with green hair and blue robes. The objective in these games is to guide a portion of the titular characters across assorted landscapes to reach an exit.
The player does not have direct control over the Lemmings; instead, the player controls a cursor that is used to assign skills to the Lemmings. Each Lemming starts out walking forward in one direction continuously until it runs into a wall (in which case it turns around) or is assigned a skill. Some skills cause Lemmings to change their behavior; for instance, Lemmings given the Blocker skill will stop moving entirely.
In most games of the series, each level gives the player a certain quantity of each skill, limiting how many Lemmings can be tasked with a particular skill. Each level also has a certain number of Lemmings, requiring a specific portion of them to be led to the exit in order for the player to be allowed to progress.
History
The first installment of the Lemmings series, titled Lemmings, was developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis, having been launched for the Amiga on 14 February 1991. It quickly became commercially successful, with multiple ports being created in the following years. Lemmings became one of the best-selling and most well-received video games of its time.
Psygnosis was acquired by Sony Electronic Publishing in 1993, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. Subsequent games in the series continued to be published by Psygnosis to competing platforms, however. Psygnosis (later renamed Studio Liverpool) was closed in 2012. The Lemmings IP is currently owned by Sony.
Sony licensed the Lemmings IP to Exient, who developed and published the game Lemmings: The Puzzle Adventure.
Games
Main series
Lemmings is the first entry of the Lemmings series, originally published for the Amiga on 14 February 1991. Since then, it was developed and released for several other platforms.
Lemmings established the series' gameplay formula, with each level giving the player a quantity of each of eight skills: Climber, Floater, Bomber, Blocker, Builder, Basher, Digger and Miner. The player must use these skills to allow the Lemmings to navigate to the exit.
An expansion pack for Lemmings, Oh No! More Lemmings, was released in December 1991. Some later ports of Lemmings included the content from Oh No! More Lemmings, such as the PlayStation version.
Lemmings 2: The Tribes is the second main entry of the series, originally released on 26 February 1993 for the Amiga, MS-DOS and Atari ST platforms.
Lemmings 2: The Tribes introduces a story to the series: the Lemmings have divided into twelve groups named the Tribes. Each Tribe occupies a portion of the world map, with each portion representing a set of ten themed levels available to play. The game introduces numerous additional skills, giving a total of 50 skills.
All New World of Lemmings (named The Lemmings Chronicles in North America) is the third main entry of the series, originally released on 25 November 1994 for the Amiga and MS-DOS platforms.
All New World of Lemmings continues the story established by Lemmings 2: The Tribes, but focuses on only three Tribes. Unlike in previous games, skills such as building, floating, digging and swimming are consolidated into a single control, available when a Lemming picks up a corresponding item.
3D Lemmings is the first game of the series to not involve DMA Design, being developed instead by Clockwork Games and published by Psygnosis. It was released for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and MS-DOS platforms.
3D Lemmings adapts the gameplay of the series to take place in three-dimensional world layouts. The game features nine skills, with eight of these being analogous to the skills featured in the original game and one being new to the series: the Turner, which turns Lemmings 90 degrees clockwise or anti-clockwise.
Spin-offs
Holiday Lemmings is a series of spin-off Lemmings games released from 1991 to 1994. These games share similar gameplay to the original game, but include levels with designs themed around the holiday season. The first two installments, released in 1991 and 1992 respectively, were four-level demo games, while the latter two installments were full retail releases with a larger number of levels.
Lemmings Paintball is an action video game developed by Visual Science and published by Psygnosis in June 1996.
Lemmings Paintball has the player control one to four Lemmings armed with paintball guns, which can be used to shoot enemies. The goal is to lead these Lemmings to all the flags present in the level. Lemmings Paintball portrays levels over a three-quarters perspective. The game has 100 levels and also features a network mode.
The Adventures of Lomax (named Lomax in Europe) is a side-scrolling platform video game developed and published by Psygnosis for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. It was initially released in North America on 22 October 1996.
Lomax is centered around the character of Lomax, a Lemming who is tasked with saving the other Lemmings from being transformed into monsters by the villainous Evil Ed.
Love a Lemming is a virtual pet simulation video game developed and published by iFone in November 2005 for Java-enabled handsets. In it, the player must care for a Lemming and train its skills by playing six mini-games, with the goal of eventually releasing it into the wild. Once it is released, the Lemming can be accepted into one of six of the Tribes, and the player is given a unique code which was intended to be used in a future game in the Lemmings series.