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unwisely i have been playing Lemmings 2. This game has a difficulty curve like a buzzsaw. What was going on in 1993
my childhood memories of this game are loving the concept but finding the puzzles themselves unplayably hard. this is also how I feel as an adult
I think some of the tribes had different level designers? The Highland Lemming levels increase in difficulty according to some logic that exists, and are mostly smooth and enjoyable to play. But the game starts you out with the (heavily marketed) Beach Lemmings, probably to show
off the new mechanics which require more direct player interaction, which are pretty much the 1993 equivalent of what Wii owners in the 00s called Waggle
much as I enjoy how mysterious the player's involvement with these creatures is - how your main way of influencing them is by blowing them about with a fan, which makes them seem so small and endearing,
it isn't the primary pleasure of Lemmings to interact with the Lemmings directly. The point is that they are blithely obedient, and you have to live with the consequences of however they choose to follow your instructions
The more heavy influence on timing instructions given to an individual Lem, even in situations where they're an impenetrable snake of a crowd and it is impossible to filter who you're instructing, is bad
I'll forgive the game not explaining what the skills do - there's a practice mode, this game was made back in the days when people read manuals, and it's quick and easy to reset - but the game gives the player a lot of skills early that are BAFFLING
In the original Lemmings, you could do everything with 8 skills you got to know intimately. In Lemmings 2, you begin every stage with a random selection of skills you've never seen before, most of which are useless or even red herrings
The THIRD LEVEL OF THE GAME, the first stage in which you have to build a path with a single Lemming (a really important gameplay skill), is called "Cannonball" and has terrain shaped like a ramp over a series of pools. You have a skill to make a Lemming dive into water.
Is this useful? nope. What you're MEANT to do is have it use a hang glider, use a hang glider again, and blow the Lemming using the fan into a tunnel (fan... hang glider...?)
On top of THIS kind of bullshit, there's also a lot of.......... level designers just kind of doing their things, in the same way as those N+ levels that "play themselves". There's a Highland stage which mostly solves itself while Lemmings are bounced to the goal on trampolines
Despite the idea of the game hinging more on player agency, the game feels very selfish. All the new Lemming abilities are extremely cute and funny, and are in there entirely because DMA Designs clearly thought the animations were fun to do!
The player is regarded as a bit of a nuisance, because what's really the focus here is just doing ridiculous things with the Lemmings. There's some fun in that, because Lemmings is sort of about peeking into a tiny little world and failing to control it, but it's not FUN fun
But yeah, all the theming is delightful. The Amiga pixel art is gorgeous. The new trap concepts are grizly and insane, like a pod that hoovers up Lemmings and makes them explode in a vaccuum
A lot of love has also gone into giving the Lemmings character. The fact they're stunned by a near-fatal drop now (saying "ow!" and sitting dazed for a bit) gives them more personality while also providing a break in which the player can intervene.
And I like the differences between the tribes, too - most Attractor Lemmings play a clarinet but a Highland Lemming using the skill plays bagpipes while the other Lemmings dance the Highland Fling!
One thing I was not able to appreciate at the time was how much the wonkily drawn hand cursor reminds me of the user interface to NESticle
At least the Classic Tribe stages are good, because they're the same as stages from the first game. The aesthetic of the first game is also so much less domesticated - the grim humour of the little creatures marching through stately temples, crystal caves, and Hell
Lemmings 2 clearly wants to imagine Lemmings as ordinary cartoon character - I remember them being merchandised a lot around this tribes concept etc (I had a Choose Your Own Adventure book about Lemmings!), but in the original they're much stranger
In the original, all you know is that their home is the place through that trapdoor, where the sky is blue, and for some reason they have to take a stroll through a crumbling land of trials and punishment on their way to somewhere else which might also have a blue sky
there's this almost religious, purgatorial aspect to it, which Lemmings 2 swaps out for more cartoonish, literalist Lore. Yeah, Highland lemmings do Highland-themed stages but why are the Lemmings facing these trials in worlds that are their own homes?
