Musical 'Tetris' Hits PCs

By Connect Mason Reporter Daniel Sims

Since launching with the Playstation Portable in April 2005, Q Entertainment's critically acclaimed musical puzzle game "Lumines" has also appeared on the Xbox 360, Playstation 2, and even mobile phones. If you haven’t been able to access any past iteration of the game, you have almost no excuse to try it out now that it’s hit the PC.

The version of "Lumines" that went live on Steam along with an add-on pack on April 18th is more or less a remix of the first two PSP editions.

For those not familiar, "Lumines" is your basic falling blocks puzzle game with a musical twist that has made it a most interesting look at a game’s potential for immersion. 4x4 squares made up of combinations of two colors fall onto the screen and players must arrange them to create solid-color squares to eliminate them.

Each level or “skin” in "Lumines" is synchronized to a different song which syncs to players’ every action and affects properties like how fast blocks fall and how fast they eliminate. The result is a simple yet extremely addictive trip unlocking interactive sets of music similar to Q’s other games like "Meteos", "Gunpey", Every Extend Extra, and "Rez". Like any puzzle game, "Lumines" definitely takes some getting used to for new players, but those who stick to it should eventually discover a depth in its gameplay that puts it on par with the very best puzzle games.

Although the controls are not customizable, playing "Lumines" with a keyboard is easy and definitely learnable for fans who can also hook up a gamepad to it.

When compared to previous versions like "Lumines II" and "Lumines Live," this edition seems to be pretty bare-bones with only two difficulties of challenge mode, the puzzle mode, the mission mode and a playlist editor. However, this game still provides a competent way for newcomers to experience "Lumines." The basic pack for $8.99 comes with 21 skins from both of the PSP games and a few levels for the additional puzzle and mission modes. The Advance Pack for another $7 includes 21 more skins and a full set of puzzle mode and mission mode levels. All of the skins included are original "Lumines" tracks with none of the licensed stuff that came with "Lumines II" and "Lumines Live."

Technically this version of "Lumines" seems to be a quick, cheap port not fully taking advantage of the PC platform. This version only scales to 960 x 540 resolution and doesn’t have any additional sound options, ultimately making it inferior to "Lumines Live" on the Xbox 360 which was in high definition and had 5.1 sound. Some network functionality like leaderboards and multiplayer would have also been nice.

Bottom Line

This version of "Lumines" seems to have been a quick port of what players got on the PSP and PS2, but it still offers a great new avenue for people to have access to one of the best puzzle games out there right now.