Attic of the Underdogs

Lemmings 2: The Tribes is a great sequel to Psygnosis’ famous puzzler Lemmings, although it never was quite as popular. Everyone’s favorite furry critters are back, and this time, they come with all new abilities and much more varied terrain.

The basic premise remains the same as in Lemmings: you start out with a certain number of lemmings. Then walk in a strait line, and your goal is to command them to do certain tasks that will help them to get to the exit without dying. Instead of one big happy family, Lemmings 2 features 12 different "tribes" of lemmings. Your goal is to escort each tribe though 10 levels so you can win a talisman for each tribe (you win gold, silver, or bronze depending on how many lemmings you are able to save). There are now 60 instead of 8 skills that you can assign to the lemmings, but fortunately they are limited to 8 per level, so the simple elegance of Lemmings is kept intact. Lemmings 2 is also more forgiving than its predecessor in that you don’t have to rescue every lemming in a level to proceed. You have 60 lemmings at the start of each tribe, and any lemmings you rescue come over to the next level. However, since you can only finish a game after you have all pieces of the talisman, you have to try to save as many lemmings as possible on each level.

Although most new skills are variants of the old ones, there are some fun additions, such as hanggliding, that require both precise timing as well as planning. With more devious level designs, more skills, and more lemmings antics than the first game, Lemmings 2: The Tribes is a strong sequel that deserves no less notice than its famous ancestor does. Two thumbs up!