Alone against the norm

Sony Play Station, £39.99

LEMMINGS ... remember those lemmings, they would do anything asked of them. They were small but their strength lay in their vast numbers.

In this particular adventure all but one of them has been turned bad by Evil Ed, who has turned LemmingLand into a most inhospitable place.

Lomax, not really the guy one would choose for such an arduous task, is the lemming burdened with the responsibility of saving his buddies. Despite his feistiness, the thought of facing monsters, dragons or tigers would have a swarm of butterflies fluttering in his stomach. But despite all that stands in his way, Lomax has no other option.

Being a platformer, this game is far removed from those lemming games that have gone before but it still retains some of the basic elements, most notably the ability to do almost any of those lemming-like things such as digging, building and bombing.

Initially, Lomax can only run, skip and jump his way out of trouble. Soon, by exploring his excellently-drawn world, he gains the ability to throw his rather splendid-looking helmet at enemies. This, like a boomerang, never fails to return once thrown. This is just as well as it also acts as a form of armour. As he progresses, he becomes a sort of jack-of-all-trades and in this action-packed and colourful caper he will need every one of these skills as the challenge increases relentlessly.

Throughout the 40 levels of mayhem, everything one would expect in a platformer of this quality is here. Standard features such as bonus stages and power-ups galore, combined with some other clever features such as rolling barrels, bouncing catapults, swinging platforms and moving branches in worlds inhabited by zombies, pirates, cowboys et al make Lomax a sheer joy to play for gameplayers of all ages.

While it's not the most innovative game to appear on the market in recent times, this doesn't detract from the fact that it is one of the few games available to provide good clean fun of the highest order.

Graphics: 88%, Sound: 92%, Gameplay: 91%