Around this time every year, I like to play through Lemmings. The original Amiga version, played through the excellent Lemmini interpreter/source port. It's a favourite of mine, with its compelling real-time puzzle gameplay testing both wits and reflexes. 

If you're unfamiliar with Lemmings, for god's sake, it's an extremely brilliant masterpiece that saw ports on every single format imaginable. You play as a cursor who assigns tasks to the titular Lemmings as they march inexorably forward to their deaths. Climbers can climb sheer walls, Floaters will pull out a parasol to help them survive long drops, Bashers will break through walls, etc. The challenge comes from devious level design and limited resources; often, you'll see the same level layout you already beat, but with drastically reduced tools at your disposal. It's a work of art, a perfect merger of aesthetics and gameplay. 

It's also a game in which you control the ultimate fates of dozens of entities, which can be inordinately, frighteningly satisfying. Stuck on a level (probably "I Have A Cunning Plan")? Double click that Nuke button and watch the Lemmings clutch their heads in fear and pain before exploding in a spectacular shower of pixels. You can even name the Lemmings. That's Tom, from telecoms. That's Sarah, from HR. That's Felix, from YouTube. Click. Pop. Bye bye. 

This may seem monstrous - insane, even - but life can be fairly trying at the best of times. Sometimes you just want to kill a hundred things at once. 

Or, you know. Save them. Like you're supposed to.

• amiga
• Stuart Gipp
• lemmings