Level Review Topic

[Proxima]

Genesis - Mayhem 14 - Climb and fall. Fall and climb.


50 lemmings
Save 84% (42)
Release rate 1
2 minutes

4 builders, 1 basher

Good: Interesting sequel to "Don't follow me" with different skills to force precision in a few more ways than just judging the safe fall distance correctly.
Bad: It's a precision-placement level. Once you've done it once, it's irritating doing it again to reach later levels, and there's almost no puzzle element to it.
Better than DOS Mayhem 14? No kidding, "Pea Soup" was my candidate for the single worst Lemmings level ever.

[Clam]

Genesis - Mayhem 15 - Two ponds


60 lemmings
Save 60 (100%)
Release rate 30
6 minutes

1 bomber, 16 builders, 1 basher, 1 miner

Good: A couple of difficult elements, and just a touch of multitasking. Good use of traps to make the level more difficult (rather than just more annoying, as traps often do).
Bad: In the end it reduces to the "long bridge plus safety net", which appears to be prevalent in this version of the game. It would be nice to have something different.
Better than DOS Mayhem 15 (The Fast Food Kitchen)? Ask me about the Amiga version, which actually forces multitasking and accuracy, and I'll say no. But is it better than the lame DOS version? I'd say yes.

[Minim]

Genesis - Mayhem 18 - Two different worlds

Lemmings: 50
49 to be saved (98%)
Time: 7 minutes
Release rate: 1

Skills: 1 bomber, 1 blocker, 10 builders, 3 bashers, 1 digger (I think).

Good: Good name for a title, a nice and challenging Mayhem level plus a trap to make this more difficult.
Bad: Too much time (I did it in 4 minutes), the DOS level is better, as it has more entrances, more skills and more steel to tax your brain.

[Proxima]

Genesis - Mayhem 23 - A group of entrances


50 lemmings
Save 96% (48)
Release rate 20
5 minutes

3 climbers, 2 bombers, 2 blockers, 6 builders, 4 bashers, 1 miner, 1 digger

Good: Two neat miniature puzzles, linked by the clever idea of using one group of lemmings to release the other. Requires some accuracy to make the most of the given skills.
Bad: The wrong way round with its own repeat! At that, both versions are too easy for late Mayhem.
Better than DOS Mayhem 23? Yes, by miles. It lacks the tediousness of a long build followed by a long bash followed by a long walk.

[Minim]

Genesis - Mayhem 26 - Lemming eater


50 lemmings
100% to be saved
Release rate: 50
Time: 4 minutes

1 floater, 5 builders, 3 bashers, 1 miner, 1 digger

Good: Good solution and much more thought provoking than the DOS version, a nice colourful approach of a level, with pillar cutting, water, steel and planks of wood.
Bad: The one way block is not much use, a hidden trap forces you to have a second go. The pillar on the left looks a bit messy.

[Minim]

I'm still obeying Dullstar's rule here.

Genesis - Mayhem 28 Leftovers are not always a waste


Lemmings: 50
88% to be saved
Release rate: 1
Time: 3 minutes

Skills: 1 bomber, 5 builders, 3 diggers

Good: Lots of steel to remove backroutes, good position for Mayhem.
Bad: Too much steel and too many traps make the level plain and bland, some hidden traps which people hate. I like "Mind the step" better, because it's a good clean challenge for a single lemming compared to this one.

[Clam]

Genesis - Mayhem 29 - No hurry, Relax.


100 lemmings
Save 83 (83%)
Release rate 10
5 minutes

1 climber, 1 floater, 4 builders, 8 bashers

Good: Visually imposing with the large empty region below the trapdoor. Many places where it looks like you could use the bashers to get down from the top corner, but (apparently) only one way that actually works - and finding this is not simple to do. Definitely a worthy challenge for this stage of the game. Plus I just noticed the "alternate route" that turns out to be too slow to reach the falling lemmings.

Bad: Some parts of the terrain look messy, especially the diagonal cut out of the pillar. Nothing much else to say here, really.

Better than DOS Mayhem 29 (Save me)? Yikes, that's tough, but I'll have to go with the original. "Save me" captures the end-of-game "final boss" feeling better, IMHO, and looks much nicer. (I know it's not really the final boss, but it looks very much like it could have been.)

[Proxima]

Here's the link to Planet Lemmings again, to save everyone having to look five pages back as we move on to the Present levels:
http://www.deveria.com/alexis/lemmings/lemmings/gen/gencodes.html

Genesis - Mayhem 30 - Lemmings' Ark


50 lemmings
Save 100%
Release rate 40
4 minutes

3 climbers, 4 builders, 1 basher, 2 miners, 1 digger

Good: A neat little puzzle making economical use of skills. Once you've got over the feeling of "I have to get from... here... to there?" it's clear where to use the skills but less obvious what order to do everything in so that no surplus skills (which you don't have) are needed to get lemmings facing the right way for their tasks.
Bad: Ugly layout, with just one type of block and the large one-way walls. The final build to the exit requires annoying precision.
Better than DOS Mayhem 30? No way.

[namida]

o_O I definately disagree with you on that one. DOS Mayhem 30 is just an annoying worker lemming level with a lot of building, Lemmings Ark is actually a fairly clever puzzle.

[Proxima]

It's perhaps not entirely fair to compare the two, since part of what makes "Rendezvous at the Mountain" so good is its appropriateness for the last level of the game, while "Lemmings' Ark" doesn't have to (and doesn't try to) fulfil that role. I already reviewed Rendezvous here so I shan't repeat myself; I think what lets Lemmings' Ark down in my view is the relative obviousness of the moves involved, it's just not clear how to put them together. (With so few builders, there is no way to get the lemmings up so high other than reverse mining; it's immediately obvious where all the builders are used, and then it's not so hard to see how to use the remaining skills.)

[namida]

o_O
How is a long, easy builder-abuse level a good final level? Save Me would've been great as a final level, Rendezvous at the Mountain is not.

Anyway, I guess Sega Master System is next?

The levels that I think would need to be done (due to having a significant enough difference from the originals, if not being entirely new):

Fun 11 (maybe)
Fun 20
Fun 22
Fun 26
Tricky 14
Tricky 19 (maybe)
Tricky 21 (maybe)
Tricky 25
Taxing 15
Taxing 21
Taxing 24 (maybe)
Taxing 30
Mayhem 9
Mayhem 12
Mayhem 13
Mayhem 17
Mayhem 18
Mayhem 21 (this one is difficult because it's not that different, but it's in a completely different position)
Mayhem 22
Mayhem 29

What do you guys think about Fun 11, Tricky 19, Tricky 21, Taxing 24 and Mayhem 21?

Images available here: http://www.smspower.org/maxim/Maps/Lemmings (Note that Mayhem 17 map is WRONG, it shows the Tricky 7 / Taxing 11 map. The correct map to use is the Tricky 12 one.)

EDIT: Forgot about Present and Sunsoft. >_> Still, at least the list's here for when we get up to SMS.

[geoo]

o_O I definately disagree with you on that one. DOS Mayhem 30 is just an annoying worker lemming level with a lot of building, Lemmings Ark is actually a fairly clever puzzle.

Haha, same here, my judgement would be equally as clear as Proxima's, just in favour of the other level.

Actually, I wouldn't even say that the level is inappropriate as a 'final' level (even though Present and Sunsoft follow): If you look at the first and last (and some extend also penultimate) level of Mayhem in both versions, you sort of see how they epitomize the emphasis of the respective version: while the Genesis focuses on skill-efficient puzzles, the DOS version focuses on hero-levels with lots of building.
So both of the final Mayhem levels actually fit for their respective version.

@Proxima: Though I'm surprised you found Lemmings' Ark solution pretty obvious: interestingly enough to me it was the toughest level to figure out in the entirety of Lemmings DOS/Genesis and ONML, while on the other hand I had no problems solving levels like "Fall and No Life (Part Two)" which, if I remember correctly, took you four years?

I guess my view on Lemmings' Ark is somewhat biased by the fact that it took me so long to figure...and also because I mostly just see the puzzle aspect of levels.

Anyway, on to Present:

Genesis - Present 1 - Natural Life


50 lemmings
Save 49 (98%)
Release Rate: 10
5 minutes

20 of everything

Good: Well, at least it's somewhat short; has a variety of possible solutions...
Bad: ...though it's trivial to find one, as you get way too many skills which takes quite some potential out of the level; also, what about that hidden trap? Might punish the player if he decides to come up with a non-conventional solution, which should actually be encouraged.

[Proxima]

Never knew there was a hidden trap on that level. Where is it?

And no, "Fall and no life 2" didn't take me four years, don't know where you got that from I only played the Genesis version for the first time fairly recently, by which time my Lemmings skills had improved substantially through training on Insane Steve's Cheapo levels, and I beat all 180 levels in a fairly short time (except for needing a hint on "Just a Minute" -- yes, the first one! -- because I couldn't get over the fact that the solution I was used to from the Mac version didn't work).

Present 2 - Don't leave my Lemmings.


50 lemmings
Save 80% (40)
Release rate 10
3 minutes

1 floater, 3 builders, 1 basher

Good: A good level to introduce the concept of dealing without 20 of everything. Would have been a good addition to the level set, were it placed at around Tricky 16 instead of three bomber-timing levels in a row.
Bad: Coming after the Mayhem levels as it does, it's just a boring filler level. Also, the title is too similar to an earlier level, "Don't leave any lemmings".

[geoo]

Ah sorry, appears that my memory didn't serve me right...must have been either someone else, or some other level. Or both?
Let me take another guess, 'Steel Mines of Kessel' on the Mac took you long?
And re-reading the old review topic, it seems that someone (an infrequent poster) got stuck in FANL for 8 years.

The hidden trap is, according to Lemmix, in the corner next to that bone.

Thought I could review 'Anxiety' now, but that's Sunsoft 3, not Present...

Present 3 - Let me get out of here!


50 lemmings
Save 50 (100%)
Release rate 50
5 minutes

10 of everything

Good: The simplistic yet varied (in regards to terrain types) design is actually pretty interesting, also the broken chain.
There's at least a shortcut along the top, but I don't really know whether that's good or bad.
Bad: Not really interesting solution-wise, again you get enough skills to not require you to think much about the level (apart from getting 100%). The gap in the chain might make things somewhat annoying unless you send out a single lemming first to close it.

[Clam]

Present 4 - Lemmings standing on the earth


80 lemmings
Save 72 (90%)
Release rate 10
5 minutes
10 of each skill

Good: Many possible paths to the exit, some more viable than others, but no obvious way. Unless you look closely, that is.

Bad: Too many traps make this level rather messy. The trap at the bottom left especially looks bad, and serves no purpose anyway. The level looks much more difficult than it actually is, which is a bit of a let-down.