After Tetris, but before Tetris Effect, there was Lumines. Creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s addictive puzzle game was a launch title for Sony’s PSP console in 2004, and as the story goes, it came about when problems prevented Mizuguchi’s team from obtaining a Tetris license. But it worked because the core mechanics of Lumines are fantastic. For me, Lumines is second only to Alexey Pajitnov’s enduring classic in terms of puzzle games, and Mizuguchi eventually acquired the license for Tetris Effect years later. Fortunately, Lumines Arise holds up and feels as good as Lumines ever has, and its borrowing of the Tetris Effect aesthetic (which Lumines technically did first in many ways) creates the perfect blend of visuals and puzzle-solving bliss.
The basic idea is that multi-colored blocks fall into a well and you have to create squares with blocks of the same color. In Enhance tradition, everything is set to the beat of the music and the squares you manage to create will be erased. Dropping and rotating blocks also creates sound effects that complement the music. This has always been the core idea of Lumines, and it’s recreated well here. The large improvement in Arise is the presentation.
Like Tetris Effect (and the original Lumines), the graphics, sound and pace change every few minutes. Success is rewarded with abstract images and radically different block styles. One of my favorite levels features giant hands connected to balls of spider silk, and the alternating blocks are pieces of electronic steel. Another feature is to move the vegetables you cut into pieces when you manage to make them disappear. All the stages are captivating and quirky, and even the less thrilling ones allow you to play Lumines, so it’s impossible to get upset or irate at them.
The main attraction of Lumines Arise is being able to see the different graphical options, all rolled into a campaign that you can play and beat, which is great. However, it doesn’t take long to beat them all, and the rest of the modes are just okay. There are plenty of puzzle-like tutorials and an online mode where you can play with others. I had a good technical experience playing online and local multiplayer, but I had much more fun playing the main single-player game, letting it capture my senses – something you can’t really do when competing against another.
In fact, many online elements distracted me. Other player avatars appear on the start screen and sometimes appear in the single-player campaign, especially in the later stages. They don’t get in the way much, but the supposed sense of community that Arise tries to foster has collapsed. For the most part, I found that everyone was just getting in the way of me achieving the experience I wanted with Lumines.
I’m also disappointed that there isn’t something like the endless modes from previous Lumines games where you can just play to see how long you can take to reach a high score. Without this core mode, I didn’t feel particularly enticed to return to the single-player campaign, even though I thoroughly enjoyed it.
However, my complaints mostly revolve around minor distractions and wanting more of what I liked most: the campaign. The core game is moving, pretty and always addictive. Lumines Arise, like its cousin Tetris Effect, is the type of game I won’t delete from my demanding drive because I’ll always want to be able to periodically lose myself in a game at which Arise is consistently excellent.
Game in VR
Like Tetris Effect, Lumines Arise offers VR support via PlayStation VR2 or SteamVR, depending on the platform. This is probably the ideal way to have fun, but I’m not saying it’s the way for you need play. The advantage of VR is that it allows the game to fully capture your senses. Your concentration and peripheral vision become completely luminescent, and with headphones on, it’s uncomplicated to become completely absorbed and lost in a sea of falling blocks and music. Like Tetris Effect, this is one of my favorite games to play in VR, but I don’t think you’ll miss out on the core experience if you’re not wearing a headset. It’s like the difference between watching a movie in a home full of distractions and watching a movie in an IMAX theater with an attentive audience. The latter experience is more compelling, but the story, soundtrack, graphics and performances are the same.
