Lemmings is a puzzle game developed by the British studio DMA Design and published by Psygnosis for the Amiga in Europe on 14 February 1991. David Jones designed it and programmed it with Russell Kay and Mike Dailly. The player guides groups of lemmings to the exit by giving individual lemmings skills; the original has 120 levels in four difficulty groups, plus 20 two-player levels on a split screen.
The game was ported to a huge range of systems, from the ZX Spectrum and NES to the 3DO and CD-i. In Japan, Imagineer published the PC-98, FM Towns, X68000 and Game Boy versions, and Sunsoft developed and published the Super Famicom, Mega Drive and PC Engine versions. The Super Famicom version earned a Platinum Hall of Fame rating in Famicom Tsūshin's cross review.
The expansion Oh No! More Lemmings followed in 1991 with 100 new single-player levels.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Lemmings | MS-DOS | 1991 | — | 1 |
| NA | LemmingsEurope in August 1992. | SNES | March 1992 | Sunsoft | 1 |
| NA | LemmingsJapan 20 November 1992, Europe 10 December 1992. | Genesis | July 1992 | Sunsoft | 1 |
| NA | LemmingsEurope 19 May 1993. | NES | November 1992 | — | 1 |
| NA | Lemmings3DO; Electronic Arts Victor published it in Japan. | Other | 1993 | — | 1 |
| EU | Lemmings | Amiga | Feb 14, 1991 | Psygnosis | 1 |
| JP | レミングスRemingusuDate from Japanese Wikipedia. | PC-98 | Dec 17, 1991 | Imagineer | 2 |
| JP | レミングスRemingusuSuper Famicom; English Wikipedia gives December 1991. | SNES | Dec 18, 1991 | Sunsoft | 2 |
| JP | レミングスRemingusuFM Towns; date from Japanese Wikipedia. | Other | Apr 1, 1992 | Imagineer | 2 |
| JP | レミングスRemingusuDate from Japanese Wikipedia. | X68000 | Apr 17, 1992 | Imagineer | 2 |
| JP | レミングスRemingusuSuper CD-ROM²; date from Japanese Wikipedia. | TurboGrafx-16 | Nov 27, 1992 | Sunsoft | 2 |
| EU | LemmingsNorth America August 1994; the Japanese version was published by Imagineer. | Game Boy | 1993 | — | 1 |
Also known as: レミングス JP2Remingusu JP2
Box art by region
EU Lemmings
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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ContentAll versions
The original has 120 levels in four difficulty groups (Fun, Tricky, Taxing and Mayhem); some versions add extra levels to each group.1
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GameplayAmigaAtari ST
The 20 two-player levels use a vertically split screen: on Amiga each player has a mouse, on Atari ST one uses a mouse and the other a joystick.1
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ContentPorts
Ports removed or changed the "crossover" levels that used music and references from other Psygnosis and Reflections games.1
Reception
The Amiga version sold over 55,000 copies on its first day. Mike Dailly estimated about 15 million copies across all versions from 1991 to 2006, and Kotaku put the figure above 20 million in 2011. Next Generation ranked it the eighth-greatest game of all time in 1996.1
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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