Having worked closely with Mike Dailly, "honesty" doesn't do justice to his ability to speak hard truths :)
I thought Lemmings Revolution (2000) struck a pretty good compromise - it had the requisite 3D graphics that the industry demanded but the playing field was still basically 2D - just wrapped around a cylinder.
Re:The Making of Lemmings
by matt_smith1968 on Tuesday June 09, 2015 @07:44AM
(#9685261)
Lemmings was terrific. Would it work well on modern touch-based systems? (iPad et al)
Yes, it would work very well. There's a near-perfect homebrew port on the DS[1]. I'm not sure why they haven't licensed it yet.
Re:The Making of Lemmings
by oneeyedpigeon on Tuesday June 09, 2015 @08:03AM
(#9685349)
It would be tricky because there was an amount of precision required that would be tricky to emulate on touch-based input. Plus you really wouldn't want your finger obscuring the screen at the vital moment! Maybe with a stylus, though.
‘Lemmings 3 was a bit crap … more to end our commitment to Psygnosis than actually do a good game,’ admits Dailly.
You gotta give him credit for his honesty. Lemmings was one of many titles that didn't survive the transition to 3D unscathedly. I think it was because a lot of time went into the engine instead of cute handdrawn 2D graphics and map design. Also the 3D camera movements were finicky, while in 2D you could just scroll.