From: rothberg@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Edward Rothberg)
Subject: Lemmings for the Genesis: a review
Originator: rothberg@Xenon.Stanford.EDU
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 17:09:56 GMT



A review of Lemmings for the Genesis

Ever since around 2 years ago when my friend John showed me Lemmings
on his Atari ST, I've desperately wanted a version for a machine I
own.  This is truly an addictive game.  At the time, I owned a
Macintosh and a Lynx.  When I heard sometime last year that Sunsoft
was doing versions for both the SNES and the Genesis, I decided to
take the plunge and buy a home console.  Since Sunsoft was doing both
versions, I figured that as far Lemmings was concerned, I'd be no
better off buying one or the other.  For various reasons, I opted for
the Genesis.

I was quite pleased when the SNES version came out.  It's a very nice
port.  The graphics are very smooth, and the music and controls are
actually much improved over the Atari ST version.  Although the
Genesis version wasn't due out for several months, I figured that I
could wait, especially when I heard that the Genesis version would
have 180 levels.

Well, the wait ended yesterday.  When I heard that Lemmings for the
Genesis was out, I rushed out to the local Electronics Boutique,
plopped down $50, and went straight home to try it out.

How is it?  In a word, it's awful.  I played it for about an hour
before I couldn't bear to play any more.  Here are a few of the
things I hate about it:
  
  The controls are extremely sluggish.  Lemmings relies heavily on
quick and precise selection.  When a Lemming is about to walk off a
cliff, you need to be able to stop him.  This is tough when it
frequently takes two or three tries to get the program to do what you
want.

  Extremely poor scrolling.  It's extremely slow, and it causes large
amounts of flicker (especially in the two player version).  Very
distracting.

  Emasculated levels.  It appears that they have a two-screen width
limit on all levels.  The levels in the Atari ST and IBM PC versions
typically span four or five screens.  I would rather have the 100 big
levels from the PC version than the 180 wimpy ones they've included
here.

  Bugs.  This is the first Genesis I've bought that has serious bugs.
In the hour I played, the program hung twice!!  Once the background
scenery got so screwed up that I couldn't even tell where I was.
Another time, when playing two player, the screen said that Green
rescued 30 and Blue rescued 20, yet it said that Green had won 0
games.  Extremely sloppy.

  Poor color choices.  In the two-player game, the currently-selected
action is highlited in light green, a color that is virtually
invisible.

  Mediocre sound.  Those of you who have played Lemmings on other
machines probably know how much fun it is to sing along with the music
when you've built all the right bridges and bashed all the right
pathways and all that's left to do is sit back and watch your Lemmings
go home.  It's even better in the two-player version, when I sing
along while my opponent's Lemmings are plummeting to their death and
there's nothing he can do about it.  Maybe I'm the only one who does
that.  In either case, the sound in the Genesis version makes me want
to turn the volume off.

To sum up, I should say that I can't give this game a zero like I'd
like to.  If you have never played Lemmings on another system, then
you might enjoy the Genesis version.  I think you'll be able to see
that there's a great game trapped inside this terrible implementation.
As for me, I'm returning my copy today.  Maybe I'll use the money as a
down payment on an SNES.


Ed Rothberg
rothberg@cs.stanford.edu