Lumines Electronic Symphony review

Lumines was originally released when the PSP was first released and now that the PS Vita is available to play it’s also come out for this format as well. If you’ve never played the game it’s sort of like Tetris mixed with Rez. As square blocks fall from the top of the screen you must stack them in such a way that they form at least a block of the same colour 2×2 blocks wide/tall. As the timeline moves across the ‘stave’ it clears any blocks you’ve correctly placed leaving room for more to fall and be stacked. You get more points for making bigger blocks of the same colour or forming chains as blocks fall and of course if you end up filling the area up to the top of the screen it’s game over.

What makes Lumines extremely playable is the light show and music you’re treated to as you play. There are over 30 cool tracks that are best listened to with headphones on by artists such as Mylo, GoldFrapp, Underworld and The Chemical Brothers and these all belong to different themes and skins within the game itself. And these aren’t just here to look pretty, they also serve a purpose with block drop and timeline speed changing to make things harder and easier as you progress. Voyage is the main mode you’ll be playing which, like traditional games of this type, keeps going until you eventually muck things up and die. It’s all about lasting as long as you can and scoring a high score. Other modes include Duel where you can play against a human opponent via Ad-Hoc, Master mode which pits you against five stages with already fast-falling blocks, a Playlist mode where you can arrange tracks and skins you’ve unlocked into any order and Stopwatch mode where you must race against the clock to get as many points as possible. You can also join with others around the world to complete the World Block which is basically a massive block of squares that must be chipped away by players over a 24 hour period.

Lumines is one of those games that keeps you coming back for more. Not only does it feature basic addictive gameplay but also a levelling up system where you can earn new avatars which you can activate at the touch of a button to help you in varying ways as you play through the increasingly challenging stages. One word of advice, don’t bother with the touch screen controls that have been added just because the PS Vita has a touch screen. As with most things, actual buttons are far more precise so stick with them.

Lumines Electronic Symphony gets an excellent 8 out of 10.

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Related: Rez, PS Vita, Lumines Electronic Symphony review on Youtube