Lumines
Developer(s)	Q Entertainment
Publisher(s)	JP Bandai NA / EU Ubisoft PC: Wild Games
Designer(s)	Tetsuya Mizuguchi
Platform(s)	Mobile phone, personal computer, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
Release date(s)	PSP JP December 12, 2004 NA March 22, 2005 EU September 1, 2005 PC December 2007
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	CERO: A ESRB: E10+
Media	UMD
System requirements	Pentium III 900 MHz, Windows XP, 256MB Ram, 64Mb video card

Lumines (ルミネス, Ruminesu^?) is a video puzzle game based on sound and light patterns. Created by game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his company, Q Entertainment, it was first released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan on December 12, 2004 and released in North America on March 23 2005. Lumines is pronounced [lu•mən•əs] (a homophone of "luminous", the word also recalls the Latin word lumen, meaning light).

As of October 11, 2005, Lumines has sold over half a million units since its original release in Japan. Europe has sold 180,000 units since its release in September 2005, and North America has sold around 300,000 since March while selling 70,000 units In Japan. ^[1]

In September 2005, mobile gamemaker Gameloft announced that they would be bringing both Meteos and Lumines to cell phones. Lumines Mobile was released on March 1, 2006. A port for the PlayStation 2 was released on February 27, 2007 as Lumines Plus ^[2]. It was also released for PC on the WildGames platform in December 2007 and later on Steam in 2008.

Two sequels titled Lumines Live! and Lumines II were released in 2006. A third sequel was announced for the PlayStation 3 titled Lumines Supernova ^[3]

Gameplay

Lumines is a block-dropping game, that may seem at first to be similar to Columns and Tetris. A 2 x 2 square (an O tetromino) made of four smaller block pieces is dropped into the playing field, which may appear different as the player advances through levels or skins. The small blocks that comprise the larger blocks will be one of two different colors. The objective is to rotate and align the blocks in such a way as to create 2x2 squares of the same color, which may span multiple blocks and, indeed, share blocks. For example, if one should get a 2x3 area of matching blocks, the middle portion will "share" itself with both the left and right halves and create two 2x2 squares. After the "timeline", which is synchronized to the music, sweeps over the matching blocks, they disappear. When too many unmatched blocks pile up to the point where no more blocks may be dropped in the playing field, the game ends.

It is worth noting that when part of a falling block hits an obstruction, the unobstructed portion of the block will split off and continue to fall. More points are scored by creating the largest number of squares during one "timeline" sweep. Increasing score multipliers are earned by repeatedly clearing squares on consecutive timeline sweeps. Bonuses are also awarded by reducing all remaining tiles to one single color or for removing all non-active tiles from the screen altogether.

Occasionally, a block falls with a special square of one of the two colors with a "jewel" in the center. This square, when cleared as part of a matched 2x2 square, will cause all individual blocks of the same color that are horizontally or vertically adjacent to the matched 2x2 square, or to an adjacent square, to be cleared without score. These can be used for both generating large bonuses, since generally several blocks of the other color will be formed once these are removed, as well as to help the player recover if the field becomes too cluttered.

Skins

Screenshot from the game, with the Roundabout theme selected.

Lumines is played in different "skins". Like the software interface skins, these change the visual appearance of the board, but they also control the soundtrack. Each skin contains a different music track and different sound effects, which are triggered by game events and then integrated into the soundtrack. As in Mizuguchi's earlier game, Rez, the soundtrack and sound effects are much more integral to the game than in most others. Skins are unlocked by progressing through the different game modes, or in four-level intervals in challenge mode. Each skin also changes the rate at which the timeline moves across the screen, in time with the music. This can affect the game play; faster tempos make it more difficult to create large combos, and slower tempos may cause the playing field to fill while waiting for the timeline to sweep across. The visual changes can also be jarring. While it's generally easy to distinguish the two colors, nearly always a light and a dark one, the contrast of these colors with the background can be difficult to make out, and thus can make playing more difficult. Compounding this are distracting elements like animated backgrounds and frenetic music.

In addition, the order that the skins are presented to the player in both Challenge and Vs. CPU mode are fixed in a pre-set order that loops around indefinitely. (While this is also true for the basic mode in Lumines Live, this game also includes the ability to create one's own desired skin order). The order of the presentation of the skins can affect the difficulty of the game as well; for example, a fast-paced skin which can cause a lot of blocks to pile up, followed by a skin with a very slow timeline can make it difficult to recover from earlier mistakes. Skins change regularly after a fixed number of 2x2 squares are removed, tracked by a "level" indicator, so that one can prepare for the visual disruption caused by the change.

Game modes

There are 4 basic modes in the game, Challenge, Time Attack, Puzzle, Vs., and Vs. CPU Mode. Challenge Mode cycles through skins in a fixed order of generally increasing difficulty, and is played until the blocks pile up to the top of the screen. The maximum score in Challenge Mode is 999,999 points. Time Attack games give the player a limited time to clear as many blocks as possible. Puzzle mode challenges the player to create pictures (such as a cat, dog, cross, etc.) by forming the picture with one color while surrounding it with the opposite color. Vs. CPU mode is a series of battles against A.I. opponents. A line splits the playing field in half, and deleting blocks or combinations of blocks shifts the line towards the opposing player, giving the opposing player less room on their side. The battle ends when blocks pile up all the way to the top of the screen for one player. Two players with PSPs can use their wireless connection to play in the same way.

It is theoretically possible to beat at least the slow parts of the single-player Challenge mode of Lumines deterministically [1] [2]. By dividing the game board into separate sections, and using each section to clear blocks of only a single type, it is always possible to place a piece so that the game state stays in a loop. However, this tactic is not completely foolproof; it will only work as long as the speed of the falling blocks (which can increase or decrease with changes in the "skin") does not exceed the ability of the player to place them before landing and the timeline moves quickly enough to delete the blocks.

Ports

In September 2005, mobile gamemaker Gameloft announced that they would be bringing both Meteos and Lumines to cell phones. Lumines Mobile was released on March 1, 2006. It is provided by some US phone companies (Verizon, Sprint Nextel). In February, 2007 a port for the PlayStation 2 was released under the title Lumines Plus. It added new skins and music tracks, although at the same time omitting some other tracks from the original game.^[4] In December 2007, Lumines was made available for Windows through the Wild Games network. On April 18, 2008, the game was released on Steam; however, both these PC versions are actually reduced versions of Lumines II, having the new interface and visually upgraded themes. Most licensed and some "regular" themes are omitted, as well as the "Versus CPU" mode and multiplayer.

Sequels

So far, there have been two other games in the series:

• Lumines Live! (2006)
• Lumines II (2006)

Critical response and awards

Lumines has received positive praise, garnering an average score of 89% from over 55 reviews on Metacritic^[7] and a score of 90% from over 72 reviews on Gamerankings;^[8] it was the highest-rated PSP title on both sites until being pushed to 2nd place by 2008's God of War: Chains of Olympus. Gamespot scoring the game a 9 out of 10 called Lumines, "the greatest Tetris-style puzzle game since Tetris itself" praising its sound and beautiful presentation.^[6] Jeremy Parish from 1UP.com rated the game a "A" stating, "Q Entertainment has used the Tetris template to duplicate a lightning-in-a-bottle feeling equal in brilliance and addictiveness to the puzzle classic."^[5]

• Game Informer's "Top 50 Games of 2005" list
• GameSpot's 2005 PSP Game Of The Year
• Electronic Gaming Monthly's 2005 Handheld Game Of The Year

List of themes

This is the full list of themes from the original PSP version.

References

External links

• Official Lumines website
• Official Lumines Mobile website
• PC Version website on Wild Games
• Lumines: Puzzle Fusion at MobyGames
• A computer-discovered solution to Challenge Mode