Author Topic: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]  (Read 5948 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Crane

  • Posts: 1078
    • View Profile
Hi everyone!

I got an early Christmas present for everyone... a showcase of the Challenge rating, which will be a bit of a break from the normal flow of things in Lemmings Cranium.  This rank consists purely of subset levels, ranging from relatively straightforward to fiendishly difficult.  See just how well you can use the original 8 skills.







For those who plan to play the pack on YouTube, note that the music for level 15 is from Streets of Rage 2 and also reappears in Streets of Rage 4... just in case anyone is worried about getting into trouble (it's a separate attachment... expander.mp3).  The rest of the music is from the Sega MegaDrive version of Lemmings and stock tracks used in custom levels.

SEE THIS POST FOR DOWNLOADS
« Last Edit: January 08, 2022, 01:18:38 AM by Crane »

Offline Apjjm

  • Posts: 118
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2021, 01:03:57 AM »
I had a play through of these this evening and enjoyed solving the first 15 so far :) - I ended up getting stuck on 13 for longer than I should have because I mistakenly thought the save requirement was higher than it was :forehead:!

I have got all the talismans with the exception of 14 which I might re-attempt to optimise for time later.
My Level Packs: Quartet

Offline Armani

  • Posts: 548
  • :D
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2021, 01:14:24 PM »
my solutions attached below 8-)

comments on several levels:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
My newest Neolemmix level pack : Lemmings Halloween 2023 :D 8-)

About Armani: Armani's Blog
My NL level packs(in chronological order):
  Lemmings Uncharted [Medium~Extreme]
  Xmas Lemmings 2021 [Easy~Very Hard]
  Lemmings Halloween 2023 [Easy-Very Hard]

Offline Crane

  • Posts: 1078
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2021, 11:29:02 PM »
I plan for some updates/fixes eventually, but I'll probably wait for the full pack to be released.  In the meantime, I've updated the music ZIP download as I forgot a couple of tracks.

Offline Crane

  • Posts: 1078
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Easy/Very Hard]
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2021, 12:53:20 AM »
Had to update the music ZIP file again, sorry.

Offline Apjjm

  • Posts: 118
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Easy/Very Hard]
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2021, 01:01:46 AM »
I solved up to level 23 on my latest play session. I only managed the talisman to level 17 this time, I at least have some ideas for other talisman solutions (which may or may not be correct) with the exception of 21 where I have no idea, so that one seems like a really hard one to solve.
My Level Packs: Quartet

Offline Crane

  • Posts: 1078
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Easy/Very Hard]
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2021, 10:27:47 AM »
And after all that trouble, I forgot to include the music for level 15 - it's the "expander.mp3" download in the first post.  I'm so glad I'm doing a preview first to iron out my errors!

Offline Apjjm

  • Posts: 118
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2021, 12:41:21 AM »
I have attached the replays to the last 6 levels - Level 29 is a very tricky one!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: December 10, 2021, 12:46:49 AM by Apjjm »
My Level Packs: Quartet

Offline Crane

  • Posts: 1078
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2022, 01:17:54 AM »
Made some updates since it was playtested.  Enjoy!

Main changes:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 08, 2022, 11:48:49 AM by Crane »

Offline WillLem

  • Posts: 3315
  • Unity isn't sameness, it's togetherness
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2022, 04:01:00 PM »
The Crystal remake of Mary Poppins' Land looked so gorgeous I just had to play it immediately :lemcat:

Great level! I'll get some replays for the rest of these over soon.

Offline WillLem

  • Posts: 3315
  • Unity isn't sameness, it's togetherness
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2022, 05:39:08 PM »
Played through the first 15 levels today. Managed to solve 9 of them, but the others were a bit out of reach for a quick session.

A nice mix of limited-skillsets and open-endeds. Some of these might be backroutes or perhaps just tasty alternatives, you decide! :lemcat:

Offline WillLem

  • Posts: 3315
  • Unity isn't sameness, it's togetherness
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2022, 02:19:04 PM »
Played through the rest of the Challenge rank. Some real tough cookies in here, I was only able to solve a handful of them. I have an idea of how to solve Hell's Kitchen, so this is one for me to come back to at some point.

Some real gems in amongst this lot, and the re-styled levels are all very nicely done. Perhaps a few too many "limited skillset" levels in here for my taste, but then I'm always complaining about that so don't take it too personally ;P

Great work so far Crane, looking forward to the finished pack :thumbsup:

Offline Crane

  • Posts: 1078
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #12 on: January 20, 2022, 01:46:52 PM »
All the solutions are pretty good.  The one for Abandon Ship is quite creative, and I did worry that you had found a backroute that would reward you the talisman, but thankfully it looks like the spacing in the level is just right that you can't save a blocker, so thankfully the talisman solution is still unbroken!

Online kaywhyn

  • Global Moderator
  • Posts: 1842
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #13 on: April 17, 2022, 09:40:55 AM »
Hi Crane,

I have solved all of the demo. Here are my replays. Also, the link to my LP of it, although you already know and have seen all of it ;)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJtkOPSJSaJrlaKatn16ihtx

General Feedback

This is a preview/demo of Crane's upcoming level pack. It consists of 30 levels which are subsets of the original levels from OL, ONML, or a Genesis exclusive level. Because I have played all of them, all the levels are familiar, although I don't know the Genesis exclusive levels too well, as I haven't spent too much time with them as I have with the levels that are found in both the Genesis port and Dos, the latter which I grew up with. It was really nice to revisit the levels from the official games and see what solutions Crane managed to come up with them that are different from solutions that you might find in the original versions of the levels. Some of the levels are remakes, where they're made in a different tileset than the one they're originally created in. A good example is Challenge 1 - Lemming Pattern Baldness. The original is in the Marble tileset, but for this demo it's been remade in the Fire tileset.

Challenge Rank Feedback

The first 10 levels were fairly easy, although Challenge 9 - Une houleuse aventure took longer than it needed to, since I was a dummy especially in regards to the building section. Challenge 11 - Hex is essentially the first very hard level of the demo, and it certainly shows in the LP. However, from what I've read, it sounds like it will be a problem for people in general. After that one, the next hard one for me was Challenge 18 - Ring of Fire, followed by Challenge 20 - A Simple Plan. I also consider Challenge 23 - Somebody call the exterminator! a hard one. Finally, Challenge 27 through Challenge 29 are all considered to be quite difficult. Challenge 30 - Tribute to the master isn't anywhere near the hardest level of the demo, but it can still be challenging. It is quite a nice level to finish off the demo, and as Crane mentioned on Discord a great "full circle," especially since it uses the exact same layout as Challenge 1 and is tributed to Richard Diaz, one of the best solvers of the official Lemmings games when it came to challenge solutions.


Despite just being levels from the official games, I still enjoyed this preview very much. I am very much now looking to the release of the full pack when it's done and ready! LPing this preview got me very hyped up for your eventual pack! :thumbsup: Thanks a lot for this, as well as for watching my LP and the comments!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMqwuqZ206rBWJrUC6wkrA - My YouTube channel and you can also find my playlists of Lemmings level packs that I have LPed
kaywhyn's blog: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5363.0

Online kaywhyn

  • Global Moderator
  • Posts: 1842
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #14 on: April 18, 2022, 07:48:15 AM »
Even though I don't care for talismans in general, I decided to go for them for this demo just because they're original levels from the official games and hence I thought they would be very doable. I was able to get them all, so here are just the replays where I didn't get them on my first pass in my LP. I think I will have to agree with both Armani and Apjjm here with the gold talisman on Challenge 21, that one was a very hard one to get. My solution for it is quite messy too. As a matter of fact, the time limit ones I barely got, with just a second to spare for the requirement :laugh: I love the time limit ones, though. I also found the gold talisman for "Misdirection" to be hard, but I really love the solution for it. It has a very clean solution, although there's a couple of very pixel precise assignments, especially for the top entrance. It just simply took me a while. I also attach two talisman solutions for it, one of which uses a very fiddly trick and thus saves 1 over the requirement, while the other one is the clean solution that avoids using it.

Finally, the one for Challenge 27 was a bit difficult as well. It required a lot of thought to figure out how to get it. It's a nice one, though!   
« Last Edit: April 18, 2022, 02:01:12 PM by kaywhyn »
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMqwuqZ206rBWJrUC6wkrA - My YouTube channel and you can also find my playlists of Lemmings level packs that I have LPed
kaywhyn's blog: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5363.0

Offline Crane

  • Posts: 1078
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #15 on: April 18, 2022, 01:04:42 PM »
Heh, nicely done.  You forgot the Challenge 25 silver talisman though, but that's very similar to the one in your video playthrough. Nice one on saving an extra lemming on it though - the clean solution is the intended one for the gold talisman, hehe!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Online kaywhyn

  • Global Moderator
  • Posts: 1842
    • View Profile
Re: Lemmings Cranium Preview - Challenge rank [Difficulty: Easy-Very Hard]
« Reply #16 on: April 18, 2022, 02:02:21 PM »
You forgot the Challenge 25 silver talisman though, but that's very similar to the one in your video playthrough.

Ah, you're right. I've fixed that and added it to the zip file! ;)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMqwuqZ206rBWJrUC6wkrA - My YouTube channel and you can also find my playlists of Lemmings level packs that I have LPed
kaywhyn's blog: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5363.0