Lumines Review:

At first, I did not know what to expect from Lumines besides knowing that the game came from one of my favorite game creator's mind. The man who has been known for other such cult classics such as REZ and Space Channel 5 has rocked the handheld world with another visual and audio masterpiece. Lumines is a simplistic game that you wouldn't believe could be this much fun to play or to just listen to and watch, but it is, and oh is it fun to play to boot!!

The premise around the gameplay is quite simple. It is basically a supercharged tetris with pulse pounding music and visuals that if your not careful, you may end up having a seizure from all the bright colors and heart pounding music. Essentially you have blocks that fall from the top of the screen and a nice wide screen to place them on any ways you would like. Each block is 2 toned in color, depending on the stage you are playing, sometimes gold and green, sometimes silver and orange, you get the picture. Depending on the color scheme of each block you have to flip them to make all silver touch eachother, and as you do this, the blocks will meld together to form a bigger block of that color, all the while, there is a bar that goes across the screen from top to bottom and erases the blocks that you form, as it does this, you get points, you effect the music that is playing in the background, and eventually, the stage will change and so will the music. Yes, it sounds simplistic enough, but it is VERY addictive, even if you are playing by yourself.

Now lets move onto the graphics. This game is simple looking in pictures. Once you see it in motion, the bursts of colors and flashes both in the foreground and background of the game will have your eyes loving every second of it. Each stage has its own color scheme, details and motifs. Not really much more to explain here but the fact that it is bright, beautiful and attractive when in motion.

The strong point to this game and the part that I think is the "real deal," is the music and sound effects. It sounds great on the PSP speakers but MAN does this game rock on a good pair of head phones. Anyone who has ever played REZ or Space Channel 5 knows what im talking about if you have a good stereo or surround sound hooked up to your game systems. Pulse pounding basslines, and "tweety" trebles make your ears scream for more with every new song and stage you come across, my only regret is that this game doesnt let you listen to the music of the game on the fly like an MP3 player, because if it did, that would be all the better.

Replay value wise, this game is a very fun single player with over 40 stages to play, each with its own look and music, but unfornately, every time you start, you have to go through the same stages in the same order. If there was a "remix" feature where the stages would be set in random order, i think it would be more beneficial to the game's single player lasting ability. The multiplayer is where this game really shines. With someone to play with on the wireless hook up ability, this game shows it can be played for HOURS without the participants being bored. It's a total blast!

In closing, this game is truly an experience to HEAR and to be SEEN. The gameplay is essentially nothing new, and its a very addicting multiplayer for two puzzle game fans who are looking to stick it to each other "intellectually." Like I said before, the music and sound effects are fantastic in this game and i personally thing this game has one of the best soundtracks of the year, probably out of most games that I have ever played. Now I can only hope that Sega will do another REZ game, HEHEHE. So if your looking for a great puzzle multiplayer, look no further. I have a feeling Lumines will have the PSP on puzzle "lock-down" for a long time to come.

-Juvinwo