Lumines Live! - Review
Added November 7th, 2006 by Chris Oder
Not since Tetris has a game made of falling blocks caused such a stir in the gaming community. First released as a launch title for the Sony Playstation Portable, Lumines quickly became a “must have” title for the portable system. Lumines probably spent more time in my PSP’s UMD drive than the rest of my games combined. The announcement of Lumines Live! for the Xbox 360 Arcade was the last nail in the coffin and my PSP joined the rest of the surplus of used Sony portables at EB Games. After waiting through multiple delays I’ve finally had the chance to play this great puzzler again.
The basic gameplay has stayed identical to the original portable title. There is a playing field that the player drops squares into. Each square consists of four blocks that are one of two colors, usually gray and a bright color such as orange or red. Your goal as a player is to arrange these squares in such a way that four or more of the same colored blocks will form a square. In most puzzlers this would cue the colored square to disappear. Not so in Lumines. There is a line that constantly moves along the screen and it's not until that line hits the square that it will dissolve into nothingness. Sounds sort of basic, but when you put it all together it's a frantic race to put together squares and score big combos.
The basic gameplay has stayed identical to the original portable title. There is a playing field that the player drops squares into. Each square consists of four blocks that are one of two colors, usually gray and a bright color such as orange or red. Your goal as a player is to arrange these squares in such a way that four or more of the same colored blocks will form a square. In most puzzlers this would cue the colored square to disappear. Not so in Lumines. There is a line that constantly moves along the screen and it's not until that line hits the square that it will dissolve into nothingness. Sounds sort of basic, but when you put it all together it's a frantic race to put together squares and score big combos.
Lumines Live has several modes. The first is Challenge mode that is a simple play until you can't drop anymore blocks version that is identical to the PSP. Once you reach assigned points totals, the skin (the background and block colors) will change along with the music. Next is Skin Edit mode that lets you setup "laps." Laps are similar to challenge mode except you get to pick which skins to use. After that is Vs. CPU. In this mode you're assigned half of the screen and the CPU gets the other half. As you create squares it moves the line splitting the screen over towards the CPU side giving you more area to work with and it less and vice-versa. The goal is to block your competitor in so they fail out. Time attack also returns from the PSP. Make as many squares as possible in a limited time. Then there's puzzle and mission modes. In these modes you'll be given specific objectives and a limited number of blocks or time in which to complete them. There is also Xbox Live play that is identical to Vs. CPU mode just with a human taking the place of the CPU.
Summary:
Lumines is a great puzzler that puts the other old and tired puzzle games on XBL Arcade to shame. Its unique gameplay will make Tetris fans go "Huh, wait a sec...Hey this is kinda cool." The visuals are even better than they were on the PSP but it's not quite as portable. You might look a tad silly lugging around a forty inch widescreen LCD TV. Don't be put off by the higher than normal price. There is plenty of challenge in the base package and I'm looking forward to the expansions.
Lumines is a great puzzler that puts the other old and tired puzzle games on XBL Arcade to shame. Its unique gameplay will make Tetris fans go "Huh, wait a sec...Hey this is kinda cool." The visuals are even better than they were on the PSP but it's not quite as portable. You might look a tad silly lugging around a forty inch widescreen LCD TV. Don't be put off by the higher than normal price. There is plenty of challenge in the base package and I'm looking forward to the expansions.
