Lemmings 2: The Tribes
| Developer: DMA Design | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Psygnosis | Sound: |
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| Year: 1993 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Unclassifiable | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
8/10 | |
I had a real struggle trying to get into this sequel to Lemmings because of all the new abilities and the complete lack of explanations.
The first game, I taught myself how to play it at the age of ten. It was easy, each “power” was introduced with a little tutorial-like level.
Here, I had to make a few attempts spaced out over time, sit there dumbfounded by the “spinning” or “sand-blaster” lemming, for example, then get frustrated, as usual, and end up pounding my keyboard while shouting…
There was also another issue: a bug that repeated the first level in an endless loop. I honestly thought it was intentional. After all, why would the menus be any clearer than the rest?
Today, I decided this would be the one! Took a day off, popped an antidepressant, grabbed a working version of the game, and even found a manual (a rather strange concept for someone raised on pirated copies). Anyway, I’m ready, you filthy rodents, bring it on!
It gets complicated straight away when they announce that there are twelve tribes of lemmings to save, each based around a theme (beach, sport, espionage, caves, space, North Pole, Scotland, circus, classical, medieval, Egypt, and nature). Each tribe consists of 60 members and progresses through a distinct set of ten levels with increasing difficulty. You carry over the remaining lemmings from one level to the next, so try not to lose too many.
The good news is you can switch tribes mid-game. The game saves your progress and lets you pick up where you left off with your previous tribe, or even revisit old levels to improve your score. This gives a sense of accomplishment and prevents the player from getting bored too quickly. By the way, the vertical screen scrolling leads to somewhat more complex and varied environments.
What might put some off compared to the previous game is that the levels require more reflexes and dexterity, and less thinking. The new abilities are numerous and fun (pole-vaulting lemmings, archers, bazookas, kayakers…) but are pretty underutilised. Finally, I’m not entirely sold on using the fan to alter the trajectory of certain lemmings (and thus, the mystery of the “spinning” lemming is finally solved).
In any case, we can say that the concept has been refreshed, and in the end, I think it’s a pretty solid success, even if it took me over fifteen years to actually appreciate it.
Where to download it?
I didn’t bother listing all the versions you can find on the web, but at least I found one that actually works. On Planet Emulation, search for the following three disks:
Lemmings 2 - The Tribes (1993)(Psygnosis)[cr FLT](Disk 1 of 3)
Lemmings 2 - The Tribes (1993)(Psygnosis)[cr FLT](Disk 2 of 3)
Lemmings 2 - The Tribes (1993)(Psygnosis)[cr FLT](Disk 3 of 3)
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