Posted by zdw 17 hours ago
There's an open-source engine for it called Loap that comes with a custom level pack, and I think the block-based design holds up better than the fiddly Revolutions.
Appeals to all groups, released on every platform. Then come the sequels, special editions (like Christmas Lemmings), and then it just kind of faded away.
Lemmings just didn't get a movie and merchandising.
The Commandos series also parallels a bit of the history, fizzling out very quickly after Commandos 2, when it might have seemed that the sky was the limit for the series.
I wonder if anyone brought up Fraggle Rock [1] during these discussions. The Doozers, a race of tiny creatures whose whole purpose in life is to build structures, feels like a perfect fit for the lemmings.
Apparently it’s called “Twang” or “Tenlem” depending on the port. I had the DOS version: https://youtu.be/Z2zN6ljRNnU?t=3523 (timestamped)
https://www.camanis.net/lemmings/music.php
Such a classic sound! Reminds me of the similarly brilliant Star Control II soundtrack (which was also tracker music)!
DMA Design later created the GTA series and was rebranded Rockstar North when they were acquired by Take-Two. So they did end up creating a giant franchise (though "perennial" could certainly be debated given the gap between GTA 5 and GTA 6).
In any case the principles involved have probably been too busy sleeping on mountains of GTA 1-6 money to lament the untimely death of Lemmings too much.
That said, as a gamer I personally prefer Lemmings.
I can also still hear "First there was Menace... Now, Psygnosis presents... a DMA Design game... Blood Money. (there's a whole lot more coming...)".
DMA had very good sound design for the time.