3D Lemmings Winterland 3D for MS-DOS 3D

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Welcome to the Third Annual Meeting of the Creepy Christmas Clones!

We are delighted to have you all here today at our meeting, and I would like to take a moment to get some paperwork out of the way. The attendance for this year's event is looking great, with Harblenargle, that is me, in attendance. As the host, I am pleased to report that my presence is confirmed.

Next up on our guest list is Flarbnorp, who has arrived with an unmistakable enthusiasm for Christmas! I can see we have a live one here, folks!

And finally, we also have Kleebneeb joining us today, spreading holiday cheer. It's wonderful to see everyone so excited about the festive season.

Now, let's take a quick moment to locate Bob. If anyone knows where he is, please let me know. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of his whereabouts at this time...

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enMmkay!Well welcome, everyone, to the third annualmeeting of the Creepy Christmas Clones!Uh let's get some paperwork outta the way,we got the attendance,just gonna get that on the record.Harblenargle, that is me.Obviously I am here so, check that off.Flarbnorp?-Christmas!Okay, Kleebneeb?-Christmas!Mmhmm.And Bob, where is Bob?-\"Christmas!\"He's still out in the hallway, whatever.That's pretty mucheverybody I guess, so.Eh anyway, yeah!How's it been going?Y'know it's been a good, good few years ofdoing this.We've had some good camera tricks,some editing shenanigans,and plotlines that are confusingand don't go anywhere.So that's good, good work.Uh. And yeah.I don't even know what elsewe're talkin' about.We're clones.Right so!With that outta the way, does anyone haveany input on where we go from here?Do-- \"Chrismaaaassss!\"Yeah, that's about what I figured.Well. It's time for ChristmasLazy Game Reviews!\"Ahh!\"Lemmings!I honestly don’t know how many of thesegames I’ve covered on LGR over the years,with at least four of them being holiday variants.But who cares, here’s one more!Namely, 3D Lemmings Winterland: a specialseasonal demo for 1995’s 3D Lemmings,distributed through magazine cover discs.There was also a limited retail edition soldin stores in the same box as the full game,just with an appropriately wintry sleeve,or sometimes a sticker, signifying that itcame with new six levels of wintry wonder.As for ‘3D Lemmings’ itself, also called‘Lemmings 3D’ depending on the box art,it was published by Psygnosis in 1995 forDOS PCs,and later the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation.And it’s the first Lemmings developed notby DMA Design, but by Clockwork Games.Prior to this they went by Lunatic Software,and were primarily known for creating 2D shootersfor the Commodore Amiga, like Necronom andCytron.And they ended up being contracted to bringclassic 2D Lemmings into the exciting worldof 3D, a bandwagon just about everyone wasbeginning to jump on in the mid 90s.That meant open-ended 3D environments, a freelymovable camera,and levels that snake around in all directions.And in terms of gameplay, it more or lessignores the detours takenby Lemmings 2 and Lemmings Chronicles.There are no more tribes with unique costumes,flying or musical skills, collecting abilities,or the option to give lemmings multiple tasks.Instead it goes back to the basic Lemmings1 skillset, with predetermined allotmentsof skills available to complete each level.Turner Lemmings are the main addition here,which act like classic Blocker Lemmings, exceptthey force followers to turn left or rightin order to navigate corners.Otherwise the biggest addition is the 3D camera,and you’ve still got the typical on-screencontrols for fast forward, pausing, flow speed,and skills.There is a notable learning curve with the3D stuff, but it’s designed in such a waythat it eases the player in level by level.And if that’s still too overwhelming, 3DLemmings also offers a ♪practice mooooode♫with an assortment of maps dedicated to teachingeach individual skilland 3D block type one by one.And with that, let’s move onto 3D LemmingsWinterland, which kicks off with the sameintro logos and menu screens as the full versionof 3D Lemmings.As is tradition, there’s only one startinglevel available with the rest unlocking asyou play, for a total of six by the end.Though the practice mode is now gone, meaningthere are now no tutorials at all.Heh, so much for easing you into the game.Instead, Winterland drops you straight intothe action, with lemmings flowing out of theentrance with nothing on their agenda buta swift, painful death.Until you do something about it, at least!The lemmings may still be 2D sprites but theydie no less gruesomely without your involvement,and this time around you’ve gotta navigatea 3D world to keep them alive.Each level takes place on an unseen grid ofsquare blocks stacked on top of one another,with individual square blocks hinted at bycertain textures.Some blocks are flat, some are slanted, somehave water textures,some are made of soil or rock.And many are covered in ice or snow, whichcause lemmings to slip and slide until theycome into contact with a walkable surfaceagain.So your task is to provide each lemming withthe appropriate skill at the exact right timeso that they’re able to guide their siblingssafely to the exit.With the skills in this demo being blocker,turner, bomber, builder,basher, miner, digger, and climber.Most levels only require a few skills at once,and your task is to make the best use of themto navigate the map from entrance to exitwithout killing too many critters.Block them from walking off ledges, buildbridges over hazards, dig tunnels under walls,and remove obstacles by strategically detonatingthem as required.In prior 2D Lemmings titles, whatchahad to do and where you needed to go was prettyapparent from the start, with an obvious exitdoor and quickly discernible terrain and hazards.But with Lemmings 3D, it’s wise to pauseand take extra time before each level to floatacross the map, rotate around corners, andsee what’s what.You also have 3D previews before a level loads,but I mean.It’s not exactly the most useful thing tolook at since it’s all zoomed out and spinningso fast at such a low resolution.It does at least show the number of lemmingsyou’re dealing with and the difficulty rating,but that’s about it.So yeah, it’s worth taking time to wanderthe map, see which blocks are in the way,and what skills to prioritizebefore you even leta single lemming begin walking through the puzzle.And even before that, you’ll have to solvewhat is perhaps 3D Lemmings’s toughest puzzle of all:the early 3D camera.Yeeeeah.Early 3D cameras were like the improviseddive bar comedy sketches of mid-90s gaming:you never really knew what you’d get, youfelt a bit drunk, and it often wasn’t amusing.Each early 3D camera played by slightly differentrules, finding unique ways of obstructingthe player’s view while also never quiteshowing enough of a view at any given moment.And Lemmings 3D Winterland 3D Lemmings 3Dlives up to that reputation by having itsown camera that can be an absolute chore todeal with.Each map has four preset cameras to cyclethrough,which are often helpful in pointing out areas of interest.But you’ll still need to take it off thevirtual tripod and float around feely, controlledusing either the keyboard, the mouse, or somehybrid of the two depending on your preferences.There was also support for the Logitech Cyberman3D game controller, which ah.Yeah that’s a device we’ll have to revisitsometime in the future if I think about it.But regardless of your chosen input method,fighting with the camera is a skill as importantas any other in 3D Lemmings 3D Winterland.Not only due to the iffy controls, but becausethe camera is treated as a physical in-gameitem, slamming up against walls, floors, ceilings,and objects.So whenever you’re moving back, forward,left, right, up, down, or rotating, you’llalso have to worry about parts of the levelgetting in the waypreventing you from doing any of that.For this reason, it’s important to makeuse of the new Virtual Lemming, or VL mode,activated by clicking the face in the bottom-left.Looking around in first-person is more thana gimmick here, it’s a necessity in somelevels since the camera can’t physicallyreach inside certain areas that you need tosee in order to apply skills.An alternative is making use of the arrowtool,which lets you select a lemming before applying a skill.This way you can tell them what to do evenif you can’t see them, or you can’t geta bead on the exact one you want in a largecrowd.Chances are you’ll still get the timingwrong pretty often, especially if you haven’tyet nailed down exactly how the unseen gridof blocks works.So thankfully, Replay Mode makes a returnfrom Lemmings Chronicles, which lets you watchan instant replay of the actions you justperformed and failed at, with the abilityto let you take over at any time and continuefrom the point right before you failed.And if it’s still too frustrating, you canalways take a break and pop right back towhere you left off with the right password.Alphabetic level selection is back in themain menu, and it might just be the best iterationof this in the series, visually-speaking.Heck it’s one of the most excellent textentry screens I’ve seen in any game at all.I love watching all the old 2D lemming spritesform whatever 8-character word or phrase you type in.I dunno, it’s oddly addictive.And I spent far longer messing around withthis silliness than I’d care to admit.Less enjoyable is the Nuke option, which in3D Lemmings isn’t nearly as fun to watchdue to the explosion animation used.Compared to the rapid sequenceof exploding rodentfireworks you got in the 2D games?Yeah, there’s no comparison.At least the music is pretty good stuff, withWinterland here using several of the samebouncy FM synth songs from 3D Lemmings,atleast when that one was played without CD audio.Unfortunately there’sno seasonal holiday-themed music going on,which is quite the missed opportunity.Even worse though is the fact that, I mean.Just look at those lemmings.Look at them!They’re wearing blue!Sure it’s their classic outfit, but c’mon.It’s Christmas!Or at least, Christmas-adjacent holiday funtimes,so not putting them in red Santa suits is just unfortunate.Every other holiday Lemmings game had themin cute little Santa getupswith little bouncing hats, and it was perfect.So the fact that these tiny sprites from 1991have a thousand times more personality thanthese comparatively high-res sprites from1995 is downright sad.For that matter, I find the entire presentationto be significantly less appealing in Lemmings3D than I do any of the Lemmings 2D games,wintry or otherwise.I mean it’s really not too bad for 1995,but ehh.It’s simply not ideal for a puzzle gamethat relies on meticulous time-based puzzle-solving.It’d help if there was an option for higherresolutions, but nope.There’s no way I’m aware of to adjustthe resolution, only the texture mapping.Oh and the window size, whichmakes things even smallerso you’d get better performance on lower-end PCs.A fascinating exercise in dealing with oldschool technical limitations and early 3Dgame design, but that’s about it.Ah well, it’s not like it outstays its welcome.Those 6 demo levels pass by in half an hourif you know what you’re doing.And when you do complete it, you’re givena text-filled teaser.Which comes across more like a threat thana tempting proposition.A hundred more levels?!Oh no! No no no.I can only take so much of that camera.And by extension, I can only take so muchof Lemmings 3D Lemmings Winterland 3D.Like, for an early three-dimensional translationof a 2D classic,it’s honestly not that bad.And I appreciate that Clockwork went backto the basics in terms of lemming abilitiesand gameplay structure.But the comfy winter theme, catchy AdLib music,and adorable rodent deaths only help so muchwhen you’re running up against a clunky3D camera and low-res maps that make it harderthan it should be to see what you’re doing.And if you enjoy this ho-ho-holidayretrospective on LGRthen check out all the ones I've done in years past.Or stick around for more videos on more things,I've always got stuff in the works.And as always, thank you for watching!\n"