Did they start off with using real lemmings and then get blocked by Sony after they've gotten most of the game written? Or did that happen pretty early during game development?
According to
the live-blog that they maintained throughout development, they actually had it completed and submitted to Apple, at that point. It was already developed around a decade before - they ported it from code they'd originally made for Palm OS.
(aside: complaining that it has no lemmings is kinda lame and pointless as it's Sony's problem not Mobile 1UP)
Sony's problem though it is, I think that the final comment, written by a chap called "Steviebwoy78", on
this article (and, to some degree, some previous posts of mine in the Lemmings Discussion section, touching on the series' lore, its appeal, and all that stuff) touches on why some folks wouldn't like that aspect;
Sorry, but I just don't like the characters at all, and the icon is horrible too! Much of the joy of Lemmings was that you genuinely cared for your little green haired guys, the cavemen totally lack character. It's a no from me, I'm afraid.
Or, in other words, Lemmings tapped into human instincts in a very distinct way, and the endearing characters and animations played an important part in that. Given this, whilst everyone accepts that gameplay is in general more important, for some the cavemen characters don't prompt the same reaction as the adorable rodents (I'm pretty sure that folks are more inclined toward rescuing cute animals, than rescuing grunting hairy people), which in turn makes it less fun to play.
Their original development plan would not have costed for having to redo animations and music from scratch, and being dealt such a blow late in the cycle likely forced them to deal with those things as cheaply (and with minimal delay incurred) as possible in order for the game to still be worth releasing financially (after factoring in the potential negative impact in sales of not being able to use actual lemmings assets for example).
In fairness, their original plan was just to port old code and Lemmings assets that had already been made to fit it, in a matter of days, and then release it for free.
