Troddlers is a 1992 Lemmings-inspired puzzle game developed by Atod that was originally released for the Amiga and was later remade on the Super NES.
Once upon a time in a far away castle in a magical land lived the sorcerer Divinius and his two apprentices, Hokus and Pokus.
One day, Hokus and Pokus swapped the lids around in the larder and Divinius put Marmite on his shoes instead of polish.
No one had tidied up that room for a few centuries, and he was hoping that this task would keep the pair out of mischief for a good few days.
Unknown to them, Divinius was so fed up with their pranks that he decided to try to make some Troddlers (small, artificially created men) so they could one day replace Hokus and Pokus.
Hokus and Pokus thought that these Troddlers could be used to finish cleaning the storeroom.
The Troddlers, who apparently have animal-like minds, instinctively began walking toward a teleporter (which appeared to be a little door) at the far end of the storeroom as if they were hypnotized.
As they shot through the door, Divinius shrieked: "And don't bring back any bleedin' zombies!!"
Unlike in Lemmings, Troddlers places the player in control of a character on the screen, thus adding some platforming elements to the game.
One of the game's distinguishing features is the ability to magically place and erase building blocks, like in Solomon's Key.
The main purpose of these blocks is to form a path to the exit for the wandering Troddlers.
Troddlers themselves are never wandering around in a level to begin with; they always enter from a special entrance after a fixed amount of time.
If one happens to make contact with a normal Troddler, both will die and become a cloud of dust.
Both varieties will destroy normal Troddlers (as well as themselves) on contact, but only the lethal type can damage Hokus or Pokus by touching them.
If there are walls or other objects right next to where the rock makes contact, it will prevent one gem from forming there.
Placing a rock on a Troddler (including zombies) will result in red gems.
While trekking up a wall or ceiling, Troddlers will fall if they happen to run into a rock.
"[3] PC Gamer's Jon Smith gave the game an 82% rating, in a review that mostly makes a comparison with Lemmings and its addictive aspect, stating that "Troddlers will do your mental health no favours at all".
He then concludes: "Troddlers has its drawbacks, of course – the fact that the controls aren't perfectly responsive makes it sometimes a little hard to work out what's going on, and some of the features verge in the gimmicky – but I've still got a suspicion that this one will capture your heart and mind for far longer than can possibly be good for you."