The Lemmings-alike where you're a Shiba Inu saving humankind is out in weeks and has a buckwild new trailer

Humanity, the Lemmings-like game from the Tetris Effect devs that I'm still not convinced didn't come to me in a fever dream, has gotten a release date. It'll be out on Steam on May 16.

If you've somehow forgotten, this is the game in which you play a Shiba Inu as it leads the teeming masses of, well, humanity through all manner of obstacles in "a world where humanity is lost—without soul, without intellect, without a will of their own".

Journeying across a hazy, heavenly, abstract set of levels, your job is to eventually funnel the helpless masses into a pillar of light at the end of each level, through which they ascend to… somewhere? That part remains a mystery.

The game will also feature a stage creator, letting you craft devilish trials for yourself and others, and VR support, which might prove to be the definitive way to play it. The devs certainly make a lot of noise about VR in the trailer. But they also make a lot of noise about health and safety on construction sites run by dogs, so maybe I shouldn't read too much into it.

I'm eager to see how this one turns out. For as iconic a series as Lemmings is, you sure don't see many games taking lessons from it in the year of our Lord 2023. Something like this, which seems to have buckets of character in addition to its brain-warping puzzles, seems like a rare treat.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.