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Lemmings. Aren't they stupid? Famed the world over for throwing themselves off high places for apparently no reason whatsoever, they're the losers of the animal world.

Unfortunately, in the game of the same name, you've got the task of rescuing them. You do this by endowing certain lemms with special powers. If, for example, there's a hole in their way, you have to get one of them to build a bridge over it, or otherwise the rest of them blindly stumble over the edge because they're so brainless. The aim on each level is to get the specified number of lemms home safely by any means possible.

Hazards are many: fire spews from the walls, chasms yawn on every side, poison goop threatens to engulf the unwary lemming that falls into it (lemms, as any fule kno, can't swim) and time is running out. But soldier on - the lemms are depending on you.

Considering the size of the lemmings sprites it's quite amazing that they're so well animated - literally only a few pixels high, they display more character than most silicon heroes ever do, even down to the way their hair flies about when their heads turn. Keeping them small means being able to animate more on screen at once at a reasonable speed, though there is some doubt whether it's possible to see them clearly enough if you're playing the game on your grandad's 1952 televisiongram - only a good monitor really does them justice. Some of the backgrounds are quite spectacular too. It's the same old story, though: sound has sadly been forgotten. When you play the game, you get the option of choosing between moronic repetitive tunes or simple beeps and clicks - the latter is preferable if you want to retain a modicum of sanity.

Lemmings is damn near perfect. It has all the ingredients of a classic game: simple rules, massive playability, enjoyable graphics and that indefinable something that draws you back again and again. The only major drawbacks are the lack of sound and the potential illegibility of graphics, but neither of these makes the game unplayable. Get into the world of Lemmings and you'll never want to come out again.