Lumines for PSP
- Online: LAN Gaming Support
- Publisher: Ubi Soft Entertainment
- Genre: Puzzle
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Losing my mind with Lumines
Pros
Fantastic replay ability, addictive
Cons
ADDICTIVE! 9999999
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
The best puzzle game to hit the stores in YEARS
First of all, I have no idea how to pronounce the title of this game... is it Loo-Mines? Is it Loo-min-eees? No clue. In any case, my husband gifted me with a PSP for our anniversary, and this was one of the first games we bought for it. I was a little skeptical- Adam knew I used to love Tetris, but I from the reviews I read I wasn't sure if this game would grab me in the same way... but boy has it!
This game is insanely addictive, and it offers enough diversity in play to have you coming back for more, more, more!
Gameplay
The basic premise of the game is that there are square blocks that drop down and are a configuration of two colors. My favorite colored blocks are green and white and are shaped to look like cut emeralds and diamonds. Let me say here that the graphics in this game are superb. The colors are vibrant, the textures are rich and the PSP highlights everything with perfection. Amazing detail in color and form here.
...So you have these green and white blocks coming down from the top and you have to arrange them into a square of one color. Each block has four individual squares in it, and it will be either three of one color, one of the other, half and half or a checkerboard type. If you put a block down on another block it will not stay suspended as it did in Tetris, but will fall off the edge, landing on whatever is below it. Occasionally you'll get a gem block, and when put into a square of all the same color this block will also erase any linked squares of the same color. With me so far?
Ok, now what makes this game really interesting and much harder than Tetris is that when you do form a solid color square it does not disappear immediately. This is all set to some very funky house type music, and as the music plays a bar sweeps from left to right across the screen. Only when the bar goes across the formation of blocks do they disappear. When the game begins the music is fast, and the bar moves quickly, which actually poses its own set of problems, because you need to wait until the bar has passed before creating your square- if you time it wrong you might only get half the square deleted. As you progress, the blocks will change color and sometimes shape, and the background changes and becomes WAY more distracting,(I'm talking flashing lights, bright color changes, etc) and on top of all that, the music slooooows doooooown. Obviously once this happens, your stacking begins to get higher and higher... once you run out of room to stack your game is over.
Adding to the coolness of the music is the fact that if you press the X or any other button to rotate the block, the button does not "beep" but rather makes a noise complementary to the music, so that's pretty cool.
Modes of Play
There is challenge mode, where you play against yourself to see how far you can get. There is VS CPU mode, which I am currently hooked on, which allows you to play against the computer. You can also play against someone else with a PSP using a wireless connection. There is a time mode, and finally a puzzle mode.
In vs. CPU mode, the mode I am currently hooked on, the game starts out as a split screen, you play on the left and the computer plays on the right. As you do well or not so well, that center line moves to the right or the left, narrowing your playing field. As you win games in this mode you unlock new skins (the color/shape of your blocks and the background) and new characters. By characters, what I mean is that when you begin the game you enter your name and a little mascot type character. The dog, for instance barks like mad when you're doing well, the elephant swings its trunk, etc.
In puzzle mode you need to form a picture, anything from an arrow to a letter to a giraffe within a certain time limit.
Endgame
Overall this game is just absolutely superb. The graphics are incredibly sharp and bright, and the music is catchy. This is perhaps the most addictive game I have played in years If you have a PSP, pick it up asap. If you don't have one, and you have nostalgic feelings for the old Gameboy system and Tetris, then it might just be worth treating yourself to a PSP just for this game!
* Update. The one flaw I have found with this game is that the highest score you can get is 999999. So I've gotten to this score every time recently, and it is something of a downer that it doesn't go higher... maybe for Lumines 2?
This game is insanely addictive, and it offers enough diversity in play to have you coming back for more, more, more!
Gameplay
The basic premise of the game is that there are square blocks that drop down and are a configuration of two colors. My favorite colored blocks are green and white and are shaped to look like cut emeralds and diamonds. Let me say here that the graphics in this game are superb. The colors are vibrant, the textures are rich and the PSP highlights everything with perfection. Amazing detail in color and form here.
...So you have these green and white blocks coming down from the top and you have to arrange them into a square of one color. Each block has four individual squares in it, and it will be either three of one color, one of the other, half and half or a checkerboard type. If you put a block down on another block it will not stay suspended as it did in Tetris, but will fall off the edge, landing on whatever is below it. Occasionally you'll get a gem block, and when put into a square of all the same color this block will also erase any linked squares of the same color. With me so far?
Ok, now what makes this game really interesting and much harder than Tetris is that when you do form a solid color square it does not disappear immediately. This is all set to some very funky house type music, and as the music plays a bar sweeps from left to right across the screen. Only when the bar goes across the formation of blocks do they disappear. When the game begins the music is fast, and the bar moves quickly, which actually poses its own set of problems, because you need to wait until the bar has passed before creating your square- if you time it wrong you might only get half the square deleted. As you progress, the blocks will change color and sometimes shape, and the background changes and becomes WAY more distracting,(I'm talking flashing lights, bright color changes, etc) and on top of all that, the music slooooows doooooown. Obviously once this happens, your stacking begins to get higher and higher... once you run out of room to stack your game is over.
Adding to the coolness of the music is the fact that if you press the X or any other button to rotate the block, the button does not "beep" but rather makes a noise complementary to the music, so that's pretty cool.
Modes of Play
There is challenge mode, where you play against yourself to see how far you can get. There is VS CPU mode, which I am currently hooked on, which allows you to play against the computer. You can also play against someone else with a PSP using a wireless connection. There is a time mode, and finally a puzzle mode.
In vs. CPU mode, the mode I am currently hooked on, the game starts out as a split screen, you play on the left and the computer plays on the right. As you do well or not so well, that center line moves to the right or the left, narrowing your playing field. As you win games in this mode you unlock new skins (the color/shape of your blocks and the background) and new characters. By characters, what I mean is that when you begin the game you enter your name and a little mascot type character. The dog, for instance barks like mad when you're doing well, the elephant swings its trunk, etc.
In puzzle mode you need to form a picture, anything from an arrow to a letter to a giraffe within a certain time limit.
Endgame
Overall this game is just absolutely superb. The graphics are incredibly sharp and bright, and the music is catchy. This is perhaps the most addictive game I have played in years If you have a PSP, pick it up asap. If you don't have one, and you have nostalgic feelings for the old Gameboy system and Tetris, then it might just be worth treating yourself to a PSP just for this game!
* Update. The one flaw I have found with this game is that the highest score you can get is 999999. So I've gotten to this score every time recently, and it is something of a downer that it doesn't go higher... maybe for Lumines 2?
