No matter how I start off rounds of Lumines, they always end the same way, in horrible horrible defeat capped at around 70,000 points. It begins when I reach Level 24 (a.k.a. prettiest level ever), with the crystalline blue and snowy white squares; my eyes begin to take a little visual holiday. I dream of parkas and dogsleds, ocean waves crashing upon smooth white beaches and the seemingly endless blue sky (Rayleigh scattering I tell you!).

The next color change brings me back into the harsh reality of the world, with it's grating red and whites that seem almost inseparable, and the incongruent circular block pattern (Philosophers, the riddle of the square-circle has been resolved!). I do my best to hold myself together, but most of the damage is done during the corneal assault of Level 28.

The final affront is Level 32, which returns to both a familiar block pattern and color scheme, but whose pacing is severely altered. Instead of the frenzy that I have become accustomed to, blocks drop with seemingly endless resistance, and the scrollbar seems to wait for all men as it saunters across the screen.

This 1-2-3 punch has rendered me defenseless, and I have considered taking this game to a Rorschach therapist, so that I might be guided in my counter-attack the next time I play. In the meantime though, I'll contest that the first 70,000 points are some of the best points I've ever had the pleasure of acquiring. I haven't had dreams like these since I figured out how to make the Kremlin fly in 1989.