Lumines Live! In-Depth Hands-On

Q Entertainment's Lumines remains one of the shiniest gems in the PlayStation Portable's software library since the game shipped in March of last year for the handheld's release. The unique puzzler married trippy graphics, club music, and simple gameplay into one addictive package. Q Entertainment is hoping to extend the game's appeal by bringing Lumines Live to the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. The new title includes the content from the original PSP game, as well as new, Xbox Live-exclusive content. We had the chance to try out a work-in-progress version of the game and talk to Q's Tetsuya Mizuguchi about the upcoming title, which promises a slick evolution of the puzzler.

While you might think that Lumines Live is going to be just a quick and dirty port of the original Lumines onto the Xbox 360, that's not the case. Some of the PSP content does stand as the base for the game, but there's quite a bit more to it, thanks to some smart uses of Xbox Live and licensed music. The game will feature single-player modes that include challenge, skin edit, mission, puzzle, versus CPU, and time attack. Challenge is a straight run through the game that rewards you with new skins and music as you progress. Skin edit lets you customize your Lumines experience by picking what skins you want to use while playing.

Next is mission mode, which is exclusive to the Xbox 360 game and challenges you to clear blocks within a certain number of moves. Puzzle requires you to create a specific pattern within a set amount of time. Versus CPU pits you against a series of artificial intelligence opponents. And finally, time attack has you going for the highest score you can get within a set time limit. The multiplayer mode is still under development and not as together as the single-player game, and as such, Mizuguchi could only touch on some of the multiplayer modes. At the moment, Lumines Live offers duel and versus for two players, although the team is aiming for four players.

In addition to all of the above, Lumines Live will improve on its portable cousin by featuring support for downloadable content. When the game is released this summer, it will serve as a "base pack," with roughly 10 to 15 skins to unlock. In the months to come, Q intends to offer new puzzles, music, and skins in packs you can download on Xbox Live Marketplace. The content in the packs will also include music videos from a variety of different artists. During the Lumines Live segment of Microsoft's press conference, the video for Madonna's "Sorry" was used as an example.

We had the chance to play the game to see how it's shaping up on the 360 and were pleased by how it looks and sounds on the console. The visuals have been sharpened up and enhanced on the 360, which gives the game a nice sheen when running in HD. More importantly, the game's art direction seems more adventurous, with even crazier visuals. For example, one of the new skins we saw during a versus-CPU fight was all leopard skin and zebra print. Better still was the animation on one of the bosses--a large, animated dragon head. Best of all, the various additions we've seen fit perfectly with the original game's aesthetics. As far as control goes, the game handles fine on the 360 controller.

Based on what we've seen and played, Lumines Live is looking like a nice piece of digital crack. Even at this stage in development, the game's slick HD visuals, cool tunes, and addictive gameplay show promise. Lumines Live is currently slated to be available this summer on Xbox Live Marketplace. Look for more in the coming months, and check out some brand-spanking-new gameplay movies in the meantime.