If you have been gaming all of your life, then Lemmings is a franchise whose name you know even if you haven’t played it. Lemmings has been around since the eighties, and since then has been ported to most of consoles before this current generation. While it is exciting to see an old franchise brought back from the dead and reborn on the PSP, one has to ask whether or not this is a worthy PSP release, or just another re-hash of an old concept.

The concept behind Lemmings stems from the stories of their real-life counterparts—rodents known for jumping off cliffs and falling to their deaths because they don’t know any better. This concept of cute, cuddly, not so smart creatures was developed into the game where the player must guide these lemmings to safety from one portion of the map to the other. The catch is that the lemmings cannot do any independent thinking, and need to be assigned specific abilities in order to get to safety within the time period you are given. There are eight special abilities available which are; Climber, Umbrella, Bomber, Blocker, Builder, Basher, Digger, and Miner. You must use these eight abilities to help your Lemmings navigate around the environment to safety. It would be a wise suggestion to not get too attached to your Lemmings because they will die, as you will choose a brave few to take one for the team. While these are all interesting abilities, the most practical and widely-used abilities are the Builder and Blocker, especially in unison. As an example, you will have to make it across chasms with your lemmings so you must use those with the building ability. But, this is a lot trickier than it sounds. What you must do is set up two blockers to keep your lemmings trapped, and send your builder on a solo mission. While your fellow lemmings are being blocked, your builder creates steps to help your lemmings make it to higher platforms and to go across chasms and water. The catch with the Builder ability is that you have to master when to have your Lemming continue its staircase so you can make it across large gaps, but make sure your staircase doesn’t go too high because you will not be given enough umbrellas to watch your lemmings float down safely; you will watch them all fall to their humorous, if not cute deaths. It is this kind of gameplay that makes Lemmings a fun and entertaining game that is perfectly suited for the Playstation Portable.

Lemmings for the PSP was developed by Team 17, best known for their well-received series of “Worms” titles. Luckily, if you are a fan of their games, especially the 2D “Worms” games, you will be in for a treat when you play. In this rendition, the graphics are the best looking in this series to date, due to the great level design by Team 17, who took a page out of the 2D “Worms” series to make Lemmings prettier. The backgrounds are pre-rendered 3D, which range in theme between Crystal, Earth, Egypt, Hell, and Rome. All of these backgrounds differ from the dark and mundane levels of the previous renditions for the good of the franchise. The character models are the most clear of the series, due to the fact that all you saw in the past editions of Lemmings were 2D blobs with green hair. At least this time around, you can differentiate their hands from their feet even on the PSP’s small screen. Also, the camera angle gives you a wider view of the level you are on, which strays from the claustrophobic feeling of the past Lemmings games. While this wide camera angle is helpful, you might strain your eyes because you are following such small models moving across an already small screen. This problem can be solved by pressing the zoom button, but once you do the claustrophobic feeling from the originals are brought back into play. It would have been great if there was a happy medium between the two camera angles, but this complaint is not worthy of docking points from the game.

At first, the cursor and camera controls seem awkward. This is because the d-pad controls the cursor and the analog stick controls the camera, which seems to be the opposite placement of what anyone would imagine. It seems that the analog stick would rather be suited for controlling a cursor than the d-pad since you spend most of the time panning left and right when you view the level. Luckily, the d-pad isn’t very hard to adjust to for controlling the cursor. You assign abilities to lemmings by cycling to the ability you want with the L and R buttons, and pressing X when you have the cursor lined up on the Lemming you want to assign the ability to. To zoom in and out with the camera, you press the Triangle button and you have a choice of a very wide shot or a close camera that is similar to that of the older games. Luckily, when you zoom in, the picture actually gets clearer and you can appreciate the level design that Team 17 made with the game. The start button pauses the level, as if it is on a video tape, so you can assign tasks to multiple lemmings simultaneously. And if the lemmings are moving too slow for your taste, you can hold down the circle button to fast forward, but be weary of the countdown timer on the bottom right, because it can easily sneak up on you. When first looking at Lemmings, it seems easy to be intimidated by the gameplay, but after a couple of rounds and utilizing the great controls, it is as simple to play as it is for one of the lemmings to meander.

From an outsider’s perspective, this rendition of Lemmings appears to be a classic puzzle game that has just been re-hashed for the PSP to make money off of a popular gaming franchise that we have come to love and cherish. Luckily, Team 17 did a great job enhancing the appeal of the old property by giving it a graphical overhaul and tossing in goodies like a map editor and over 150 levels, including 36 spanking new levels. While 120 of these levels were from the original, the new backgrounds, portability, and extra modes like the robust map editor help this rendition to overcome the shadow of its predecessors and claim the title as the definitive version of the franchise. If Nintendo can release a new rendition of Tetris every couple years and people love it, why can’t a new rendition of Lemmings come out every couple years? The PSP version has proven that there is more than once franchise that can be revamped and released to the praise of its fans while not entirely milking the cash cow. Perfect for both long and short bursts of play, Lemmings is one of the best puzzle games you can own on your PSP.