It is similar. I used to see one Simpsons joke that was remarkably similar to another Simpsons joke in every episode. I wish I wrote them down because now I don't see them. Or maybe it was a reference to something else. But at the time, it seemed so obvious that I didn't see a need to write them down. Maybe it's a good sign that I no longer see these psychitzophrenic hidden messages in the Simpsons.

Recently downloaded: Oh No More Lemmings. I was watching some Lemmings videos on Youtube and realised that I never played Oh No More Lemmings, which was an add on (although, I think it was playable on it's own). I also realised that I never played the Christmas levels.

I did play Lemmings 2, though. This was many years after it was released. I downloaded it. God, that thing's terrible. They added a bunch of new shit that the Lemmings can do and I don't remember what they are but I just remember that I hated them.

I got the original Lemmings a few years after it was released, though. Way before I had the internet. I was probably 10 or 11 years old. I played it a lot. Never finished it, though. That's why I was watching the Youtube video. I was trying to figure out which level I stopped at.

Back to Oh No More Lemmings. It's the same as Lemmings. No new mechanics. Just new maps.

The first 20 levels are ridiculously easy. You never have to use a climber, a floater, a blocker, an expolosion, nothing. You can easily beat all the levels with diggers, miners, and sometimes you need a builder. That's it. Every level releases Lemmings at the rate of 1 (the slowest) and every level requires you to rescue 50% of the Lemmings. You also get 20 of every ability, although you'll only use 3 miners and 1 builder at most.

I blew through every level with 100% clear rate. Not because I'm awesome but because the levels barely even count as levels. They're set up so that the Lemmings never fall off a cliff and never fall from too high a distance. The only way the Lemmings will die is if you really fuck up bad.

So I'm going through the levels and saying, "When are they going to ramp up the difficulty?"

Then after you finish the first 20 levels, it takes you to the next set of levels starting at level 1. Now it's ridiculous.

You get one climber, four digger, two blockers, and 1 explosion. And you have to rescue 96% of the Lemmings.

It's set up in such a way that if you don't solve the puzzle exactly the way they want you to, you won't win. You need to use that climber to climb up a high wall, make him dig through four barriers, have a second guy block the Lemmings from falling into the lava, then turn this guy who was doing the climbing and digging into a blocker right next to the interior wall and then blow him up. If he's not right next to that wall, pixel-perfect, he won't blow up enough of the wall to let the Lemmings in. You'll get exactly 96% saved.

It's ridiculous. The game goes from stupid easy to painfully unfun difficult.

Then level two. It took me about ten minutes of looking at the level before I could even figure out how this was solveable.

You need 100% of the Lemmings saved. All the Lemmings drop...wait, let me see if I can find a screenshot. Well, here's a small one:



All the Lemmings drop in that pit up there. When the level starts, there's no hole in the ground. By the way, they drop at 99% (the highest rate).

What you have to do, and as as the screenshot shows, is turn one Lemming into a climber (you only get the one climber) and then make him dig so that he's far away from the wall not to dig through it. So he'll dig all the way down and not die from falling too far.

But then he's going to be walking toward the exit. So you have to use an exploit of sorts to make him build in that split second when he's in the lowest pixel between those bricks at the bottom so he'll stop building and turn around. If you play the game, you might know what I mean. Then you have to build the long bridge, as is shows in the screenshot.

But I got stuck because my bridge placement was the same as in the screenshot. That guy isn't going to complete the level. Because when you set somebody to be a digger, the Lemmings walking to the left up there will be able to complete the level but the Lemmings walking to the right will all just fall into the abyss. I guess you have to build your ladder...I don't even know. And remember, you have to save 100% of them.

Well, here's a Youtube video showing the solution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxcY0iXnnbo

So it turns out that I was wrong and the guy who made that screenshot was wrong. I would never think of that solution in a million years and it requires quick reflexes, pixel-perfect precision, and a deep understanding of the game's little quirks.

This is level 2 after 20 ridiculously easy levels.

It's just poor game design. You go from 20 stupid, boring, easy levels to maximum difficulty with only one solution requiring absolute perfection.

No fun to be found here. You can safely skip Oh No More Lemmings.