@ccexplore:
Being a huge Mario fan, I'd have to agree that, of course, a game like
Super Mario Bros. is way more action-oriented than
Lemmings.
I'm not wrong about precise clicking being a big part of the original game, though: try solving levels like
Save Me,
Mind The Step,
No Added Colours or Lemmings, the non-backroute solution of
Stepping Stones,
Pea Soup,
Livin' On The Edge and
The Ascending Pillar Scenario without the aid of Assign-Whilst-Paused, Framestepping and Skill Shadows: it's still a huge challenge long after you've figured out the puzzle's solution!
Regarding the latter of these examples, the Prima Publishing
Lemmings: The Official Companion (from which the 16 Prima levels originated) states:
"This level may take you a couple of tries to complete successfully, as the positioning of the bridge-builder is critical."
And for Tricky 16
Luvly Jubly, which requires precise timing of the bombers:
"Since they fall a tiny bit further each time one explodes, you'll want to time the bomber slightly later... Make sure you move the pointer to the right slightly each time!"
Heck - even some of the Fun levels like
Smile If You Love Lemmings,
We are Now At LEMCON ONE and even something as innocuous as
Origins and Lemmings all become a lot harder when played as originally designed, simply because you
have to get the clicks just right, or you're nuking the level and starting again.
It's easy to forget this aspect of the game. Granted, when it comes to action,
Lemmings is no Mario; I'd hesitate to ever make such a comparison even with the recent inclusion of wall-jumping. But, it did originally have
some element of action even before the infamous
Lemmings 2 and all of its various acrobatic skills, and my point here is that the SuperLemming idea was a way of exploring the possibility of making that action element all the more frantic.
The bottom line under all of this is that, of course
Lemmings is improved vastly by the ability to assign skills whilst the game is paused, use direction-select to make sure you're clicking on the right (or left!) lemming, and the various conveniences afforded to the game by NeoLemmix are nothing short of miraculous! These allow the player to concentrate on the puzzle, and - as you've pointed out - that's the main thing players enjoy about the game as time goes on.
But this post is really about celebrating that other part of the game, which I believe the SuperLemming level epitomises: click at the right moment or fail the level! I may be wrong about this, of course. I may have missed the point. But... probably not!