Good: There seems to be an interesting puzzle with making sure the weasels head out ahead of the lemmings into the teleporter that leads straight into a lava trap, and there seems to be an interesting puzzle involving a careful navigation to hit the correct switch on top to open up the platform to get into the exit.
Bad: But I stress the word "seems" a lot under the Good explanation because there is a horrible backroute where you basically just build to the exit from the right side after the weasels have fallen. You skip the entire level like this! Even if this backroute didn't exist I'm not even sure if the intended way is possible as I remember always running out of builders and having no idea what to do to converse them in that tight space that the switch needed to open up the platform to the exit was.
I too wondered for a long time if the apparent intended solution was even possible; and I can say it is. :D It is quite a challenge though. It was a fun to figure out how to conserve builders but at the same time sort of feels like it wasn't intentional...
I think you must sacrifice the lemming that flips the switch on top.
This is a case where it almost seems to me like the level was designed as a ruse and the 'backroute' was actually intentional. It's just another one of many levels here where I really don't know what to make of it; or what they were thinking when designing it.
in regards to "Walk the Plank or Join the Crew"
Wow: I never thought of that meaning for the title of that level!
Teleporters always work this way in the game: whatever direction a lemming is facing when entering = that's the direction it will exit. And left facing always comes out on the left side and visa versa. Still doesn't explain if this was an oversight on this particular level or not. My guess is like many other things; the production rush prevented them from making cleaner teleporting mechanics.
9-2 Can't get there from here
50 Lemmings
49 Save
6:00 minutes
Good: Tough puzzle especially for beginners. The main trick is climb bombing
. But it also offers a decent builder preservation challenge and a turn around challenge yet still has a few different possible solutions.
Bad: For veterans of L1 and older games there's not much of a challenge as that trick is first used in Mayhem of L1.
This was one of the hardest in the game for myself at this point on my first playthrough and stumped me for a long time. I had not yet solved said Mayhem level at this time either. (I hadn't even gotten to that point in Mayhem).
11-7 Don't Let Them Out!
50 Lemmings, save 40
5:00
2 climbers, 2 floaters 5 bombers, blockers and builders, 1 basher, miner and digger.
Good: This level is quite notorious for me and super tough as well. This one remained unsolved for a long time and I saw that Kaywhyn also had difficulty with it. The apparently intended puzzle of 'going the backway' or working backrwards and getting around the weasels (or killing the weasels) AND climb bombing, a trick used rarely in this game
AND containing the crowd; there is a lot going on, and a lot to figure out. I'd say it's one of the hardest in the game. and the solution of having the weasels walk into the saw is pretty clever imo
Bad:
1) The title is silly as whichever solution you do, you absolutely have to 'let them weasels out'.
2) There's a pool up top that drains immediately for no reason then never refills. Until you figure this out you might worry that one of the switches refills it. There's also some other minor glitchy stuff like the way the bottom pool is partially walk-overable.
3) the switch/door near the beginning is completely pointless.
4) this level has a 50-50 fall near the beginning
5) Until Kaywhyn's LP demonstrated the 'intended' solution I honestly never knew about it. It is as mentioned above. There's some annoying timing on getting the weasels to be facing the right way to kill them, the bottoms ones that is. And bomber timing. There's another new trap that only appears in this level but fortunately isn't a big deal, but makes no sound.
But then of course there is the horrible backroute of bashing/building under the one-way-wall. This solution still isn't easy, mind you but it's the only one I knew about, and also the one in pirohiko's LP.
6) The timer is way too tight and overall the intended solution seems to be way too precise, if Kaywhyn's almost 2 hour long attempt is any indication.
Despite the flaws; this level actually inspired a lot of my custom content over the years :D
^^Interesting! I had always thought the "clever" solution was to
just sacrifice a lemming (took me a while to figure out he dies but still trips the gate).
12-6 Last One to the Top.....
30 Lemmings Save 29
5:00
10 of each skill
Good: Similar to Green With Envy you get a arbitrary skillset (though much reduced) and the puzzle relies instead on navigating the complex level, and some timing. There are weasels continually closing and opening the doors to the exit area and there's a shredder below to avoid. There's essentially two separate laser gates to get to. I like how the level looks and feels very intimidating at first. Lots of craziness going on.
Bad:
Or you can backroute it by just building over the doors. [though this can be more difficult and finnicky than it appears] There's also a weird staircase near the bottom from the balloon area that is deceiving, lemmings can walk down it but not up; making the large retractable wall down there also deceiving, at least to what its supposed to do.
I've never had a weasel be set free and not die from the shredders but that seems like a remote possibility.
It's perfectly fine with me if you want to add more comments to any level; I've been doing that after all :thumbsup:
@Lemsteven Aww, I wanted to review 12-5, but well, that's my fault for being too slow, as well as not speaking up about that. There is something I wanted to add, and that is IMO I probably consider it the best level in the entire game, especially as it uses something very unique, where the enemy that is usually very well-known for killing the Lemmings can actually be super helpful. Other than that, I agree with every point you brought up in your review of the level.
@mobius Not sure what you mean in the spoiler, as the fall apparently is not survivable even though it looks like it's kind of borderline of survival and splatting. Unless you mean the glitch of saving a bomber?
Agreed; this is also one of my favorites.
no I was able to solve the level before even knowing about the glitch or LemSteven's solution Just build up to a spot directly but high above the laser gate then let the builder fall and die. He splats but his dying body still trips the gate and opens the door to the exit. You still have to deal with the weasels but I usually lead them to the water.
:D
And correct the fall from the tall block, I'm pretty sure, is not 50-50 splat-live. its 100% splat.
I've never had a weasel be set free and not die from the shredders but that seems like a remote possibility.
It simply kills the weasel (see my LP). Essentially, think of them as the equivalent of zombies in NL, where they're moving traps and subject to the same dying to traps like Lemmings, although I guess technically they're more like classic zombies than non-classic, since they can interact with objects (laser gates, levers, etc), while the latter cannot. In addition, another difference is that weasels are always permanent floaters.
Oh yeah I understand. No I meant how the "device" intended to kill the weasels is this whacky super fast shredders. Occasionally I've seen a weasel gets very near the ground before getting deaded. I just wonder if the timing could ever be just so to actually let one escape. :D
12-7: The Long and Winding Road
Oh interesting, maybe I don't remember but I hadn't thought of this level as being backrouted; and maybe there is actually a hard/long roundabout solution. I thought it was just *super* misplaced. I want to boot up the game now and take a look at this level... but I don't feel like playing through the whole damn game just to do that :XD:
I'll wait just a bit before reviewing again to give someone else a chance. [I already have reviews of the rest of the game pre-written up.... because I use my time wisely. :D
^ I don't know how you solved the level, but here I was able to solve it
without activating the retractable floor beneath the teleporter leading to the exit.
You also forgot the level number :P
12-9: Turn on! Tune in! Switch on!
Number of Lemmings: 100
Save: 94
Time: 3 minutes 45 seconds
Release Rate: Two entrances both with a RR of 50. Left entrance has lemmings go out to the right, while the right entrance lemmings go out to the left.
Skills: 3 climbers, 1 floater, 6 bombers, 5 blockers, 4 builders, and 2 each of bashers, miners, and diggers.
Good: Nice challenging level and puzzle whose solution is not easy to figure out at all. I really like how you have to get around the problem of the splat heights without the use of the floater, as it doesn't really help much in getting the others down safely. Requires multiple workers, some upside down, and at least one to be upside up to prepare the route ahead. Makes very good use of the anti-gravity pads in what I think is the intended solution to get make a splatform for an upside-up lemming to go to the left past a retractable door to activate a series of levers to open up the way to the exit later on. It's definitely up there with one of my favorite puzzles, except
Bad: Unless I severely overcomplicated the solution and easier solutions exist, there is the extremely annoying timing element where you have to release the crowd at the right time with where the upside down scout is who activates a series of levers. Not so early that the first retractable floor doesn't activate to catch the crowd on time before they arrive, but not so late that the scout activates the next retractable floor while deactivating the current one the crowd walks on that they haven't had the chance to be over the next one. I often had the timing too late or too early and not just right.