Born for Wii: Lemmings
by Wesley Fenlon 
{ Sep 30th 2008 at 1:38PM }
If you're a gamer, chances are you've heard of it, played it, loved it. While not quite as ubiquitous as Pac-Man or Tetris, which have spread like wildfire across practically every platform known to gamingkind, Lemmings is one of the most recognizable franchises of gaming history, thanks to the endearing titular characters, inventive design, and brain-straining puzzles.Before the proliferation of real-time strategy games in the mid 1990s, DMA Designs (who would later assume the name Rockstar North and go on to develop a little-known game named Grand Theft Auto) unleashed the irresistibly cutesy lemmings onto the unprepared gaming scene. Their target? The Amiga. And from there the tide surged forth onto a dizzying number of platforms. Nintendo's systems have played host to the lemmings many times, but never before has a console offered the series a perfect control setup. Lemmings is this week's pick for the series that deserves a restorative breath of life courtesy of the Nintendo Wii.
Gallery: Born for Wii: Lemmings
Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Mega Man Legends, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bVork @ Sep 30th 2008 1:56PM
Never going to happen. Lemmings is a Sony property, thanks to their purchase of Psygnosis in the mid-90s.
Bones3D @ Sep 30th 2008 2:11PM
Yes, Lemmings would have been great on the Wii but it's kind of old news. Pikmin and the later Mario vs Donkey Kong games both managed to cover this area quite well.
One thing we could hope for is maybe a version of Pikmin for either WiiWare or the DS where the gameplay is closer to what Lemmings used to be. Something like a side view of the action where you point at a Pikmin with the Wii remote and then push a button to have olimer blow his whistle at it from the sidelines.
Stephen @ Sep 30th 2008 2:32PM
I really enjoyed SNES Lemmings multiplayer mode. I don't get to play it anymore, because I dug out to many bridges.
(01) @ Sep 30th 2008 2:33PM
Pikmin IS Lemmings, and they need to bring it to the Wii. Lemmings was good at first, but 3-D and too many squeals made it stale. Pikmin is where it's at these days :-)
Xoviet chiK @ Sep 30th 2008 2:47PM
Owned by SCE: Lemmings
I wouldn't mind seeing a lemmings-alike though. Toki Tori is nice enough for now. Capcom could easilly port Flock over, and The Humans is being resurrected on PC and NDS so that's possible too.
Of course, Nintendo could always do another Pikmin...
Gewurztraminer says: Shinkuu Gadouken! @ Sep 30th 2008 7:28PM
Ah Lemmings. Good puzzles and classical music.
Makes me want to play it again; it's one of few PC games I actually own. Along with Warcraft (i.e. the first one) and a ST:TNG Technical Manual for the Enterprise D (which seems to hate Windows XP).
yeah --- not a PC gamer much.
Char6296 @ Oct 1st 2008 1:56PM
Mmm... Lemmings.
Damn, I played this at too young an age on my PC. About the age of 6. XD I never understood half of it.
It was good fun, though. Might add it to my new-at-Christmas-PSP-themed Christmas list.
Ethd @ Oct 2nd 2008 3:58PM
Well, we won't ever see an official Lemmings for a Nintendo system nowadays (unless Sony decides to pull out of the console market in a Sega-esque fashion) but the homebrew community has proven that Lemmings works for the DS quite well. So hey, maybe homebrewers will make a Lemmings Wii?