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Spooky but true fact: Lemmings is now over three years old. Spooky but obvious question: why has it taken so blimmin' long to arrive on the C64? I mean come on, it appeared on the Speccy about a year ago and that computer's as dead as a doughnut. What have Psygnosis been doing all this time? Breeding lemmings?

Oh well, it's here now and just in time for Christmas too. Something tells me that one or two of you will be finding a Lemmings-emblazoned box under your tree, right next to the Mars sweetie collection, the large tube of Smarties, the calculator, the sweater, the torch, the WWE figurines and the football.

This is the deal. There are these little furry rodents who for some reason (this is game plot land) keep getting dropped into danger zones. The idea of each of the levels is to get the lemmings to safety, by utilising some very special talents. Deploy your lemmings correctly and you can get most of them (or all of you're really hard) to the end-of-level portal. Then you try the next level and the next until you reach level 100. Or not. Only super-humans have ever made it to that glittering level.

Of course, it's not that easy. There are some downright vicious obstacles littered around the levels including tar pits, mashers, crunchers, grinders, drops, cliffs and whiskers. One bit of wrong timing and your lemmings will happily trundle straight into the obstacles where they'll be pured to a bloody mess. Lemmings is not without its grim moments.

To save the lemmings from a fate worse than Country Practice repeats. You've got to endow them with the right talent at the right time. Transform an ordinary walker lemming into a climbing lemming at the right moment and you can save lemming-kind from the big cliff-top in the sky.

There are two control methods for Lemmings. Firstly you can plug your favourite lump of joystick into port one and use the keyboard or secondly you can finally make use of that AMX mouse by plugging it into port two. Of these two options, the latter is infinitely preferable; Lemmings was designed to be played with a mouse, use anything else and you're putting yourself at an immediate disadvantage.

So why am I being so hard on joysticks? It's simple really, joysticks are digital, mice are analog. All of which means that you can move between point A and point B far quicker and with greater ease with a mouse. (I can see the Buy-A-Rama adverts now: Frustrated Lemmings player seeks AMX mouse urgently). What's crucial is that you manage to get the pointer over the appropriate lemming at the right moment. More than any that's gone before it, this game requires split-second timing: get things wrong by even one lemming and you'll have to start the level all over again.

I'm happy to report that Lemmings plays well. Once you've got to grips with the control method, it's easy to get sucked info the game. This situation is helped immeasurably by the fact that you've got infinite lives; you can carry on attempting a level until you crack it.

Moving around the screen's easy and the scrolling (though a little bit on the juddery side) is fast enough. What's more, even when there are loads of lemmings on-screen there's no visible slow down. Basically, the programmers have done a great job retaining all that Lemmingy playability.

Thankfully, the programmers have also retained the learning curve which was pioneered on the Amiga version. This means that there are different kinds of level ranging from fun through tricky to downright difficult. While you're familiarising yourself with the controls, you can try the fun levels with their easy objectives and low lemmings quota.

If you've played our Lemmings cover demo (and if you haven't then why not?) then you'll know that the programmers have done a great job on the graphics. They've managed to make the levels look sufficiently different to retain your interest. On the odd level, though, the graphics are too busy for the C64 to cope with, especially the metallic griddy levels. The lemmings themselves are well animated, even though they're only made up of about nine pixels.

On the tuneful front, Lemmings sounds great. All those irritating ditties are in there, so if you've got some neighbours you particularly hate or if you just want to irritate a brother, sister or pet then hit that volume button and watch them come running. Oh yes, and the lemmings do make all those splatty noises when they hit the ground.

Fortunately for you lot, Lemmings has made the crossover into Commdoreland with surprising ease. The game's chock full of gameplay and really does have something for everyone. If you're into shoot-'em-ups then you'll like the more frantic levels, while if you're something of a strategy fan then you'll enjoy the complicated levels. With good mainstream games becoming rarer than hen's teeth, it's a bit of a treat to see a game as big as this converted 1o the C64.

1. Great little game with loads of levels and plenty of challenges.
2. Though it does judder occasionally and there is the odd graphics glitch.
3. One for the stocking guys.