(Also posted this in the launch thread, but that thread's a bit of a monster now)
My PSP and Lumines finally arrived! Rez is probably my favourite Dreamcast game, so I've been gagging for something similar ever since. And I had a feeling the music-building concept of Rez could work well with a puzzle game.
So does it deliver? Yes! And it's addictive as hell!
First thing you notice is the presentation, it's really polished and very Rez-like. You enter your name, and choose an onscreen logo for yourself from a selection of about 20 (with more to unlock). Nice retro-chunky fonts everywhere.
After choosing 1-player game and Challenge Mode the next thing that hits you is the music. The first song in the game is Shinin' by Mondo Grosso, and it sounds amazing! I'd resisted downloading it before playing, so this was the first time I heard it. Guitars and drums, and it sounds well good. And after clearing your first blocks, the vocals kick in. Music this good out of a handheld is quite a shock actually!
As far as how it plays, the concept is quite simple but as with all the best ideas there is a lot more to it than you first think.
It revolves around 2 colours, and you are given 2x2 blocks made up of combinations of these 2 colours which you can rotate. The aim is to build squares/rectangles of a single colour. So a 2x2 square of a single colour for instance will be cleared. Unlike other puzzle games things are not cleared instantly though. Instead they are outlined as in the screenshot above, and are only cleared when a scanline passes over it. The scanline repeatedly passes over the playarea from left to right in time with the music that is playing. The number above the scanline is your combo-meter. The more blocks you clear in a single-pass, the bigger your combo and the higher your score. Once you've outlined an area, you can also expand that area with more blocks of the same colour and this ups your combo as well. When blocks are cleared, any blocks on top of them fall down which can set up things for the next pass.
The scanline adds a whole new twist to things. You can choose to ignore it, but to get the best score and highest combos you have to work fast and use the whole width of the play area. Staying infront of the scanline to try and clear as many blocks as possible in one pass. You get quite a rush if you do a good run and get a high combo, helped of course by the sound and music changes!
The only other element to the game are the special blocks, which come in the same 2 colours but have a little light in them. When you clear these blocks they also clear any of the same colour that are touching, like a virus. The blue blocks in the screenshot below show a special block has just been triggered, and will be cleared by the scanline on the next pass. The special blocks are very useful when things are getting crowded, as if you place them right you can clear big areas of the board in one go. There are also bonuses like an All Clear bonus for getting rid of all the blocks in the playarea, and a Uni Colour bonus which I'm not quite sure about. I thought it was a bonus for constantly clearing only one of the colours, like Ikaruga, but I've only managed to make it happen about twice so not sure yet. Anyone know?
The sound and music is, as expected, where Lumines REALLY shines. It's far more Rez-like than I was expecting, and you must play it with headphones to fully appreciate it. There's noises for everything, from little chimes for moving left/right, to piano hits when you rotate the block, to a bass drum when you drop it. Changes in the music are triggered when the scanline reaches the far right of the playarea after clearing some blocks, and you'll find drums, bass and vocals start kicking in the more blocks you clear. And the songs themselves are all brilliant, and quite varied in style, with my favourite so far being Round About.
The backgrounds also react to how you are playing, and are much more animated than I was expecting. The planet in the screenshots for instance is rotating, and there's beams of light coming out of the spaceship which flash in time with the music. All the backgrounds are beautifully designed, you've basically got full-on DDR-style backgrounds going on while you play and they are all very different. The first time you see the Shake Ya Body one is quite a surprise!
All the audio/visual feedback you get makes it a very rewarding game to play. The difficulty level increases as you play and is shown in the top-right of the screen. Every fourth level triggers a skin-change, which means completely new music, background, block colours, and sound-effects. And this is what makes this game so addictive! You end up craving a new skin like a junkie craves his next fix. It is VERY difficult to stop playing. I'm currently at a high-score of 35,888 and 6 skins unlocked, so a long way to go if there is indeed 40 songs/skins. It's a very good high-score game. There's also Vs. game modes, both against another player or the CPU. And a Puzzle Mode as well.
Go to http://lumines.jp for an example of the God-like music and design.
To sum up, it's the best puzzle game I've played since Puyo Puyo. The best sound/music experience since Rez. And the best time-killer since Tetris. In other words, get it!
