Lumines [lu•mən•əs]

Every gamer has at least one game that just won’t leave them, it will forever be a part of them, frequently calling them back to play ‘just a quick game’.

Lumines is my game, I imported a PSP when it was released in the US, I remember ordering three games that I was really looking forward to and I also remember ordering Lumines as well because it was cheaper and looking like it might be fun. I think one of the main three games was Need for Speed, I honestly cannot remember the others. Once I started playing Lumines it never left my PSP, until Lumines II came out. I did stop playing Lumines II for a short time, I got invited to a press event for the launch of Every Extend Extra the newest game from the mighty Tetsuya Mizuguchi. At the event Mizuguchi-san explained his vision for EEE and how it differed from his past masterpieces (Lumines, Res etc). I was taken in, convinced that EEE was the next game that could be locked in my PSP, at the end of the night I was given a promo copy in a swanky little bag, I’d been playing the game on demo units all night but couldn’t quite get the hang of it, so on the tube on the way home I booted it up in my PSP to give it another shot, I was still no good. I blamed the booze and switched it off.

I never did get the hang of EEE, I tried again when EEEE was released on the Live Arcade, still no skills.

So Lumines is still the king of my puzzle world, I have the PSP versions, and every skin pack that can be downloaded from the Live Marketplace (although the recent ‘seasons’ one is a load of old balls). There is something nice about having game that you can go back to at any time, Lumines is mine, in whatever form I choose to play. It’s just a shame it takes at least an hour to play a ‘quick game’.

If you’ve never played Lumines then give it a shot, you’ll probably suck, everyone does at first but it’s a game that will suddenly ‘get’ and when that happens.. well.. I’ll leave that to you to experience.