DireKrow's Playthroughs & Reviews

[grams88]

Yeah it probably wouldn't be that good a level if you see the exit but I really liked this level when the exit was invisible, I have a good tactic for exploration type levels is what you do is flood the place with lemmings. (Get lemmings bashing climbing over, things, digging, look for the open spaces as the clue was in the title) (Episode X the phantom exit) I did that at first and found the exit quickly, it made a break as the other levels felt more puzzle wise but that's lemmings. I like Mazulems, it's a really good pack. My Dad still has to complete this one, my Dad got to the china syndrome level back in the earlier days of this pack.

If it was the crystal maze that would be your mystery game or level, (Episode X the phantom exit)

[WillLem]

MazuLems is turning out to be an awesome pack, looking at these reviews. I was put off it quite early by a massively difficult level: would anyone be up for doing a MazuLems Redux which re-orders the levels into general difficulty order? This might be a good idea for this pack...

[DireKrow]

Holiday Lemmings Plus — Part 1 (Review)



Holiday Lemmings Plus is the christmas themed entry into namida's Lemmings Plus series. Although it's a small pack of only 12 levels, it's significant as one of the first packs to feature the new skills in NeoLemmix. The swimmer, platformer, stacker, glider, stoner, walker and cloner all make an appearance here. It starts quite easy, but apparently the last couple of levels are real doozies.

I played through all 6 levels in the Glimmer rank. This one will be a review, distinct from my Mazu playthrough. The full playthroughs with all of the screenshots and me describing my thought process as I go takes a lot of work, so I've decided it's not realistic to do that for every pack I play. Instead, some packs will just be these reviews, where I'll write up my thoughts on each level after I played them. Maybe I'll mix the two formats occasionally as well - I'm still figuring things out - but we'll see how it goes.

Review:

Spoiler

Glimmer 1 — Holiday Island

An interesting start to the pack. The terrain seems positioned so that it's slightly inconvenient to get the lemmings up to the exit using only your builders. Being a couple of pixels short of something can sometimes feel bad, but I think it's alright here since the level is so small and focused; the inconvenience is the point. Really, the reason it works is because it forces you to use some of the new skills. I could be wrong, but it seems like this pack came out shortly after NL introduced new skills for the first time? Any excuse to make the player engage with them is a good thing then, in my opinion. The talisman was my favorite part of the level for sure. It taught me a couple of new things I hadn't considered before regarding stackers and stoners. Good inclusion. The fact the central pillar is off center is key component of the puzzle, but it does bother me when I focus on it. I also think this level is somewhat tougher than the next three levels, especially Glimmer 3. I probably would have swapped 1 and 3's position in the pack.

Glimmer 2 — The Northern Lights

This is a good intro to gliders and swimmers. I like that you have one obstacle and are shown two ways to overcome it. Plus, if you choose to solve the puzzle that way, you're forced to engage with both methods, because you only have enough skills for half and half. It also shows off the swimmers ability to negate long falls. Great tutorial, but... then there was old skills added which let you completely skip engaging with the new skills at all. Not sure how I feel about that. In these early X-of-a-bunch-of-skills levels, I like solution variety, but I think this one works better as a new skill showcase rather than a raw do-it-however-you-want level. Aside from that, the lemming and skill counts probably should have been halved to reduce the amount of clicking. Also, the texture on the block in the lower left is pretty ugly.

Glimmer 3 — Lemmingmallows

Very easy. It's certainly not a bad level, but there's nothing remarkable about it either. Doesn't make much of an impression. Even the talisman is fairly straightforward and didn't require me to change my original solution that much. So instead, I'll take the opportunity to mention that while the holiday tileset isn't amazing, the pack does a good job of making the levels decently festive. They're more visually appealing to me than a lot of the Holiday Lemmings levels. Probably because they're denser. Also, the music is a lot better than the original holiday level music. The music choice in packs means a lot to me, so this makes a big difference.

Glimmer 4 — Comin' Down For The Holidays

Maybe to some people it's corny and on-the-nose, but I actually really like the level name. It's festive, it paints a familiar scenario through a phrase most people have heard in casual conversation, it's inviting (appropriate for a Fun-rank-style level) and it ties into the level itself in an amusing, punny way. Although still a fun-style level and still pretty easy, I like this more than the previous three. There's more obstacles, slightly trickier obstacles and more room for some the new skills to shine. Especially stoners. Wow stoners are strong here. The lack of diggers and miners was smart, as it makes the last part more interesting. Terrain is aesthetically appealing to me as well. A contender for my favorite level in the rank and something I'd happily slip into the early levels of any beginner or intermediate pack.

Glimmer 5 — Snowflakes Enterprise

The preplaced lemmings were a surprise. They also feel a bit unnecessary, since even without them, the level is perfectly solvable and not difficult. If this was meant to showcase preplaced lemmings, I don't think it does a good job of that. I do admit it does help save time, because there's a lot of building and digging involved. I think slightly down scaling the level would have been good, keeping the same puzzle elements but reducing the lengths of the builds and digs. The puzzle itself isn't groundbreaking, but it works as an early navigation exercise. With no way to dig up, the exit's position added a nice extra element when it came to figuring out how to get the right-hand crowd up to it. Neat.

Glimmer 6 — A Package For Mr Lemming

The song is funny. Christmas hoedown. As for the level itself, this was a good way to end the rank. It borrows elements from puzzles earlier in the rank and puts them together in a sort of final test, which is something I really like to see. The option of using gliders or swimmers for the same obstacle returns, which is cool. The terrain either side of the water seems deliberately designed to make climbing up to the exits more difficult than it looks. The slope on the left eats up your builders, the island on the right is too low to bounce a builder off of and still reach the exit, and the platformers aren't very helpful for gaining height. Not to mention you need to catch the crowd somehow. So in the end, you're forced to really think about how you want to build, or often encouraged to engage with some of the new skills, like the walkers, to make it work. If I'm being nitpicky, I'd say the 38/75 requirement is overly generous. The talisman was a nice addition. When I first saw it, my reaction was "how the heck do you do that?", but then I discovered the trick. Sneaky. This is the other contender for my favorite level in the rank.

Overall, Holiday Lemmings Plus is off to a good start. It's easier than I was expecting, considering the creator listed it as being harder than Lemmings Plus I, but that's not a bad thing. For the most part, it maintains the tight and focused feel that I really enjoyed about the puzzles in LPI. Also for reference, this is only the 2nd finished pack (after Lemminas) I'm playing that includes any of the new skills. Keen to get into more of that.

Replays attached.

[ccexplore]

In its current form, that hidden exit level is probably a prime example of the kind of level that would cement a strong dislike of hidden stuff for some people here, in case people are still wondering how that might've come about.

Do you mean the remix level I posted or the original one...?

The original one.  Edited post to clarify.

Not that I think it will make a big difference if the multiple exits are all truly invisible rather than just buried.  Truly invisible exits are not expected given that there are no invisible elements in the original games (whereas buried stuff are at least present from time to time), plus the player is prone to accidentally missed them (particularly in the buried case if they are also invisible) due to taking out too much terrain that the exit's trigger no longer sits on any ground.  Relying on the title to mean anything is dicey at best; plenty of official levels feature titles that are nothing more than clever puns or random pop-culture references, with little to no relation to whatever's in the actual level.  (And it had been confirmed from Mike Dailly's online writings on history of Lemmings that indeed, many level titles are just that, no hidden meanings in relation to the actual levels.)  A player who read the level's title could still believe it's just about exits being buried rather than literally invisible, something that never occurred in any of the official games.

[DireKrow]

Lemmings Plus II — Part 1 (Review)



Lemmings Plus I was the first finalized, non-DMA level pack that I completed. It's an achievement I'm actually quite proud of, but only the first step on a long journey to play through as many of the level packs out there that I can. But even before considering the World Tours and Destinations of the Lemmings community, LPI itself is only the first entry in a long series. Many more levels await.

Lemmings Plus II is the second mainline entry in namida's Lemmings Plus series. It still uses the classic eight skills that LPI did, but wraps it up with a set of completely original styles. To my knowledge, this was actually one of the first - if not the first - packs ever to build levels entirely out of custom graphics (EDIT: on a DOS-based Lemmings Engine). What an exciting piece of Lemmings history!

I actually wanted to play the Lemmings Plus series in chronological order, however namida strongly recommended I skip a couple to get to the packs featuring new skills. In the end I settled on a compromise where I'll continue with II and III as intended, while simultaneously playing through Holiday, then Omega, to get a taste for the new skills. The best of both worlds! I thoroughly enjoyed LPI and LP3D, so I've been pretty excited to do LPII.

This first update, consisting of the first half of Nice rank, contains a lot of easy X-all-skills levels that aren't overly interesting. I may actually do playthroughs rather than reviews of later levels in this pack. For the first rank or two, though, I do plan to keep things brief.

Spoiler

Nice 1 — Holding Out For A Hero

Perfectly fine early fun level to warm up the player and introduce the tree style. Simple and easy, but that's what it wants to be. I really like the talisman, becuase it's not immediately obvious how it's done. While the trick it uses wasn't exactly new to me, it's not one I readily think of. It makes me want to keep it in mind from now on. Also I wanted to mention that I like the continuously scrolling arrows for OWBs in this style, as opposed to the ones that jiggle back and forth.

Nice 2 — Acidic Lemming

I'll be honest, I find this style to be incredibly hard on the eyes. It's loud enough that it makes the layout harder to discern sometimes. The steel blocks don't stand out enough, and conversely the water draws my eye too much. Would prefer if the OWB arrows were easier to see as well. I won't harp on about it past this point unless it's prudent, but yeah, not my favourite. The puzzle itself is okay, though I'd argue even simpler than the last one while also lacking a talisman to spice it up. Nothing to write home about.

Nice 3 — The Downwards Mission

This style too has an issue with its steel blocks not standing out. I see them now, but it wasn't obvious at all until I checked via CPM. The puzzle itself is a step up from the first two. It looks simple, but when I realized lemmings can become trapped in the bottom corners, it became clear that this 'beginner puzzle' is surprisingly nuanced. You can't just blindly bomb through. I enjoyed the talisman and learnt that you can do a dolly dimple style one-way pit using bombers if the terrain is right. Great inclusion for an early rank. My favourite among the first 10 levels, actually.

Nice 4 — Now Figure This One Out...

This level is very Lemmings 1. Deceptive though, because it looks trivial until you try it and see you're required to use things like spiral staircases, bombing through ceilings and plugging 1 pixel gaps. The layout is inconvenient enough to add interest, but not to the extent that it's annoying. It's a decent first rank level. I actually think it's trickier than all of 5-10, so I'd have moved this after them.

Nice 5 — Get Your Lemmings' Worth

The purple style is very purple. Too purple for me. Could really use another colour to break it up, even if it was blue or gray. Some additional decorative pieces would also have helped. It's particularly noticeable when you have large sections of terrain. Aside from the shade, I get Half Life 1 Xen vibes from this style. Alien cave system. In terms of the puzzle, it's another Lemmings 1 design, though it's easier than I was expecting. Underwhelming.

Nice 6 — Capsule Run

Whoa, force fields! This is my first time seeing them in a finished pack. Not the best introduction to them, because I feel like their presence doesn't make a big impact on the solution. It makes you go around, sure, but I feel some people might have solved it that way even without the forcefields there. In fact, I could see some not realizing they're forcefields and just assuming they're decorations telling you where to go. I'll be curious to see if such objects will be strongly tied to particular styles, or if they'll show up in every style.

Nice 7 — Together We Sand

Cute title. A little too similar to Nice 1 maybe, but that level was decent for an early rank level and this level is also decent for an early rank level. Not a lot to say. I like that you naturally end up using all of permanent, constructive and destructive skills. I know this style has some decorative things like palms and cacti, so it would have been nice to see a couple tossed in here.

Nice 8 — Evolved Lemming

Oh snap! Bombers make the crowd fall through the floor. Aside from that twist, it's pretty boring. Probably should have been before some of the previous levels. Reminds me of "A Beast of a Level", but without the special music and style. Something I would have considered doing to jazz up these early levels would be to remove or limit certain skills. Only two or three bashers here, for instance, rather than 10, would have been a nice twist.

Nice 9 — No Need To Think Too Hard

Lasers appear! So I've caught on by this point that some of these levels are probably going to reappear in later ranks as actual puzzles with limited skills. With that in mind, this one makes me nervous, since it seems mildly elaborate. As it is though, it's very easy to shortcut with the two diggers alone, which is disappointing. Would be more fun if I was made to go around the long way. Having said that, the name seems to imply this was definitely intended, so... success? Going around the long way does seem difficult with no builders, anyway. This level, along with the two tree tileset levels, are the best looking levels so far, in my opinion.

Nice 10 — Lemming Snack

Cool traps! I wasn't expecting a completely unique animation and everything! Suitably alien too. Aesthetically, the fact there's three different shades makes this the best looking purple style level so far. Aside from that, the level is easy, but it can be forgiven since it seems to exist more to introduce the new traps. I appreciate that the requirement is 19/20 with a release rate just high enough that building straight over the traps without containing the crowd doesn't work.

Simple start. Bit too easy for me overall, but with some really nice talismans. I think if I had returned from a break, or just wasn't in the mood for a challenge, I'd be appreciating the gradual ramp a lot more. I don't mind. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this all goes.

Replays attached.

---

I have already solved Mazu 13-15. I just need to do the writeups and image editing. Expect the next update for that sometime tomorrow.

[Proxima]

To my knowledge, this was actually one of the first - if not the first - packs ever to build levels entirely out of custom graphics like this. What an exciting piece of Lemmings history!

Very likely the first full pack with custom graphics for a DOS Lemmings-based engine (although I think there were custom VGASPECS, i.e. individual custom-graphics levels, before this). But custom graphics had a lot of history on engines that were more receptive to them, especially Cheapo.

[DireKrow]

MazuLems — Part 5 (Playthrough)

MazuLems 13 - Lemming in a Cone

Spoiler

Skills: 10 Floaters, 10 Bombers, 2 Blockers, 6 Builders, 10 Bashers, 10 Miners, 10 Diggers
Save Requirement: 27/30
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 80

Playthrough

There's a mountain to climb over and two water gaps to build over. It looks easy enough... or so it seemed, until you stop and really think about it. The steel wall prevents going through the mountain. The mountain is too thin to mine down and too tall to build over. Even if you do go over the mountain, the trap on the other side blocks the way. There's no climbers and only a limited resource of builders.



Is the way forward by digging under the mountain, then? How would you dig up, though? Most perplexing. I decided to take a look in clear physics mode. Maybe there's a gap between the trap triggers and the wall.



There is. So lemmings can actually fall down past the traps, provided they're right up against the inside wall when they do. I have a feeling this isn't intended, though. Check your traps, people!

Just to confirm my suspicions, I tried building over the mountain. The visible mound at the base of the mountain is too close for the builder bridge to gain enough height before it crashes into the mountain itself. So, I have to start the build from further back...



Getting up there uses 5 of my 6 builders. Way too many. I'd need at least 3 or 4 more to make it over the remaining water gaps.

What about going under the steel wall? I can dig up by repeatedly canceling bashers or miners with builders. This will eat into my supply, but maybe it uses less than 5?



Well... one less. Still not enough to even make it over the first water gap, let alone the second. This one's a stumper.

It seems like a stretch, but maybe I need to dig even lower and go under the first water gap, coming out below the bottom most trap. I thought there was no way this could work, but looking at it more closely...

I see two approaches. Either going under the exit and wrapping back around. Or building a zigzag around the trap and entering the exit from the left:



Option A uses 1 blocker and Option B uses 2 blockers. Either way, this makes managing the crowd more challenging. I'll worry about how to trap the crowd later, first I need to see if either of these routes are going to work.

One of them can be quickly ruled out:



Even starting at one of the lowest points, I can't stretch the bridge out enough to make it all the way under the exit's platform without crashing into the ceiling.

From this testing, I think the other route might actually work. Thing is, how will I contain the crowd? With no blockers, I'll need to use digging skills to hold them in place. What makes this even more complicated is that I eventually need another lemming to be the first blocker. How do I release one lemming without releasing the crowd? It'd be easy with climbers, but I have none.

Regarding the 2nd worker, what I opt to try is this:



I have a lot of extra digging skills. I can just leave the extra worker bouncing around in the tunnel and control the timing of their arrival at the bridge by making them dig:



A couple of miner-basher delays later and we have our second worker arriving just as the first finishes their job. Looks like this approach will work. What about the crowd, though? In that little test, you can see I used a blocker. That's unacceptable, since I need both to build the bridge to the exit. I could bomb in the snow to trap the crowd, but that alone isn't quite enough. The 2nd worker will eventually walk back and get stuck too.

I resolve this by having the first worker start their bash before I contain the crowd. Then, once they're past the steel block at the bottom of the level, I establish the crowd-trap. The last lemming to turn around inside the basher tunnel becomes my 2nd worker. They then mine into the steel block themselves, creating a place for them to turn around inside the tunnel:



I build the bridge as before. The second worker becomes the second blocker. At that point, I can free the crowd and they'll remain safe between the two blockers.



Now I just build to the exit:



Success! Used all of the blockers+builders and saved exactly the required number of lemmings. A surprisingly tricky puzzle considering how simple the layout was.

Reflecting on the puzzle makes me appreciate it even more.

Addendum

The walkthrough describes another way to resolve the "contain the crowd + let workers go when they're needed" problem which is cool and I wish I had thought of it. I'm glad I checked it, because it's a trick I'll probably need to keep in mind for future puzzles in other packs too.

Rather than just allowing the 2nd worker to bounce around freely in the the tunnel, you can have all of your workers isolate themselves in seperate digger pits:



Then when it's time for the next one to go, you bash through the side to release them. Nifty!

Review

Pros: Enjoyed the crowd control elements of the puzzle. Enjoyed how limited resources dictated a slightly creative solution. Tougher than it looked.
Cons: Some traps and terrain are misplaced.
Look: It's pretty passable. The snow environment is hard to sell. It's hard to see in the small screenshots, but the lower left corner of the mountain terrain piece is exposed.
Score: 7/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 14 - Mastermined

Spoiler

Skills: 10 Climbers, 10 Floaters, 10 Blockers, 3 Builders, 10 Bashers, 1 Miner
Save Requirement: 48/50
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 62

In original releases of the game, 14 was a completely different level called 'Up, Up and Away!' - that one's since been moved to the Bonus levels.

Playthrough

From the level title and the layout, it's clear that the key to this level is the single miner. I'm guessing I have to use blockers to bounce it back and forth, avoiding holes in the terrain.

I can lose 2 lemmings, which means I can use at most 2 blockers. I also have 3 builders to plug holes and turn around with. Maybe something like this...



But there's clearly 6 places where I need to turn or plug holes. Hrm, well, lets try it out anyway and see what happens...

The first thing to note is that when I mine immediately out of the hatch, one lemming slips past. That's annoying.



I can fix it by changing the start position of the mine to the right, over by the mounds of dirt. I'm worried this will mean introducing another blocker into the miner tunnel, but we'll see what happens.



Alright, perfect. Now I just have to build to turn around the miner...



...Wait

*facepalm*

Yep! Genius here forgot that you can't use a builder to turn around a miner mid-mine. Oof, what a birdbrain.

Well, that actually changes everything. How am I supposed to stop the crowd from falling in holes and navigate the miner all the way down using only 2 blockers? You can't. That means I need to free the blockers. From my perspective, freeing blockers inside of a miner tunnel elbow can be problematic. I might be wrong, but if you tried to bash them free, you would usually need a way to stop the basher, which is not always available.

So I get this point where I've used two blockers, and the question becomes, how do I free them?



The top one seems to be a lost cause, but luckily, I see a way to free the bottom one. I can have the bash run into the steel block.



It's necessary to block the crowd in at the bottom after one lemming slips past. I need time for that worker to build to the exit, after all. Luckily, that blocker can be freed as well. By putting it at the lip of the tunnel exit, a basher can knock them free while going through to the steel in the lower right.

Thus we end up with...



...the solution! While I didn't get stuck, this still struck me as a great puzzle with a cool solution. I've done a few puzzles involving blockers in miner tunnels at this point, but back when this came out I imagine it was a little more novel. I think it still stands up today. Probably my favourite puzzle in the pack so far.

Review

Pros: Simple yet strong showcase of blocker-miner interaction. I like that you need to figure out how to trap and free the crowd part way through, rather than all at the start. Freeing the blockers was a natural extension on the usual longer-miner puzzle concept.
Cons: Would be tedious to restart or pick lemmings out the crowd in a world without NL's convenience features.
Look: I'm not sold on the use of the blue triangles, but the rest of the level looks great. I'm digging the crumbling industrial ruin vibe it has going on.
Score: 8/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 15 - The Leap from the Lion's Head

Spoiler

Skills: 10 Climbers, 10 Floaters, 10 Bombers, 10 Blockers, 6 Builders, 10 Bashers, 10 Miners, 10 Diggers
Save Requirement: 60/60
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 50

In original releases of the game, 15 was a completely different level called 'Lemming Come Back!' - that one's since been moved to the Bonus levels.

Playthrough

Firstly, what's with the 23? Is it a reference to the 23 enigma? Why here in a level that's an Indiana Jones reference?



Y'know, something feels off to me. Are those little black bars I see between those stars?



Well would you look at that!

Like Phantom Exit, this is a level which suffered in the conversion from DOS to NeoLemmix. Well, I say suffered, but that's subjective, considering the original gimmick is that this level contained invisible terrain. Here, it's been replaced with black terrain. It's almost invisible, but if you look closely you can see it against the blue tinted background.

Invisible anything is really anti-fun to me, but to this level's credit, the implementation isn't as ridiculous as it was in Phantom Exit. There's actually logic you can use to figure out where the invisible terrain is. Past a point, there is no guesswork involved. That's a big improvement. It's cool to see them trying something completely different and I appreciate the effort to make it more of a puzzle this time and less trial and error game.

All of the invisible terrain consists of thin lines between two stars of the same shape. By observing the level layout carefully, you can figure out where all of the invisible terrain is by looking for stars of the same shape, on the same row/column, and drawing lines between them.

With that in mind, we see that there's a few barriers blocking the exit on the far right. We have 6 builders... I'm thinking of doing something like this:



But the puzzling thing about this plan is the very end. How will I get over that crystal sticking out of the ground? It's surprising to think it could cause a problem, it seems like such an insignificant obstacle... but if I try to bash through it, I'll just burrow into the mountainside. Mining and digging won't work. I'm not allowed to bomb, since I have to save everyone.



Sure enough, I went ahead with the plan, but once I reached the crystal I couldn't figure out how to get past. Was there a way to save a builder? I thought about it, but couldn't figure out a way to do so. The only way to get past the crystal seems to be taking a route that lands on top of it.

I review the rest of the level closely and notice something actually really clever. The invisible terrain on the left side of the level is positioned such that you can use it to climb up really high.



In fact, it looks like this might work! If so, that's a brilliant little trick, because it forces the player to really engage with the invisible terrain gimmick and use it to their advantage.



It takes 5 builders to get up top. Note that we need to save everyone, so I made sure to put my blockers in spots I could free them. The one on the right with a basher, the one on the left with a digger falling out of the hatch.



It's clear sailing to the finish. I even have a builder spare!



I free the crowd and they walk through the stars, to the exit. Success!

Okay so I admit, this puzzle was more fun than I was expecting when I heard it contained hidden terrain. Does this mean hidden terrain is a good, though? Nope, and I stand by that. I'm not convinced it improved the puzzle at all. I knew where all of the terrain was due to Clear Physics Mode, so I avoided the worst of the gimmick.

Would have I had anywhere near as much fun if I had to figure it out from scratch? Probably not, but especially if I was unlucky and didn't figure out the trick to it. If you had to figure out where all of the terrain was through trial and error? Good luck with that. The solution demands you figure it all out, too.

Review

Pros: Makes productive use of its gimmick in the solution. The gimmick creates a cool aesthetic. Tries something different. Unique.
Cons: Invisible terrain. Trick to finding it may not be obvious and lead to big frustration. Gimmick didn't translate very well to NeoLemmix.
Look: The X stars don't quite as starlike as the + stars. Aside from that though, it isn't bad. I like the orbs half embedded into the terrain.
Score: 4/10

Solution Replay

[Proxima]

"Mastermined" might be the first level ever to use the trick of turning a miner with a blocker. I suspect that Martin didn't realise that you can just assign the blockers inside the miner tunnel; you were meant to drop floaters through the gaps in the top platform, have them climb up and block under the spouts of the flamethrowers. This only requires two blockers, explaining the 48/50 save requirement (although 100% is possible by releasing the blockers afterwards).

Very nice review of "Lion's Head". Despite not being a great level, that was a really entertaining read