Lumines Live!
October 29,2006 - When Lumines came out of nowhere as the killer app for last year's PSP launch, the gaming world stood up and took notice of the first true Tetris-killer ever made, courtesy of Rez mastermind Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his new team at Q? Entertainment. When Microsoft unveiled the series' first console appearance at E3 2006, exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade, everyone had to acknowledge what an enormous coup that was for the online gaming service. There was some well-placed apprehension at the same time, though – the game's announcement at E3 was accompanied by some thinly-veiled statements suggesting it would be championing the true arrival of the microtransaction era of Xbox Live Arcade, and the final product does support that talk as the game's one and only flaw.

For those who haven't played Lumines, the premise is simple; use 2x2 blocks of two colors apiece to build other 2x2 blocks (overlapping if need be) of a single color. The blocks will be erased when the “time line” (a laser-like line constantly scrolling from left to right) runs over them. Bonuses will be assessed when all of a single color is removed from the field (1000 points) or when you clear the field entirely (10000 points). As you progress through the game's ongoing Challenge Mode, you will unlock various combinations of background music, background imagery, and block styles, aptly referred to as “skins.”

This was a winning formula on the PSP, presenting players with a brand of great style and legitimate addiction that was only put to a stop when said players reached the maximum 999999-point plateau. Fans of the game will be happy to know that the six-digit score limit is gone from Lumines Live, but unfortunately, other outside issues hold it back from making a very real argument for itself as a greatest-game-of-all-time candidate.

Point-blank, Lumines Live is being molded as the game to take the Live Marketplace's microtransaction model to the next level, with a 1200-point ($15) core game, a 600-point ($7.50) Advance pack that includes 22 more skins and a new Challenge course, and three other packs coming out in 2007. The Artist pack will include skins based on songs and music videos by popular western sources like Madonna, as was announced when the game was unveiled at E3. The Mission/Puzzle pack will include three new skins and 50 new puzzles. Finally, the Vs CPU Mode will bring the game up to 12 AI opponents from just one in the core package. With these packs not coming out for a few months, pricing details are still unknown, but it wouldn't be out of the question to assume that the 600-point price tag will stick. 1200 points does get you a technically complete game, but you'll definitely want the Advance pack to do something about the anemic skin count in the core game, making Lumines Live the most expensive Live Arcade game yet, at 1800 points, or $22.50.

Between the core game and the Advance pack, Lumines Live sports over 30 skins, putting it roughly on par with the PSP game, and including a healthy blend of new skins and remixes of PSP skins. While favorites like Shinin' and Lights are missing from Lumines Live, other memorable PSP skins, like Aback and Dark Side Beside The River, have been remixed and placed in the Live Arcade follow-up. Overall, the skin selection is brilliant, and should satisfy fans of the original with it's mix of the old and new.

Putting the removal of the score cap aside, the other major obvious improvement in Lumines Live is the addition of online play. The lack of infrastructure in the PSP original was frustrating, and Lumines Live makes up for it, absolutely. The online Vs is identical to the Vs Player mode found in both this and the original Lumines, featuring two players battling over screen space on the same field. Matches tend to go by quickly, but they also pack in a lot of frantic action that is otherwise a bit uncharacteristic of Lumines' usual methodical style.

The aesthetics are exactly what you would expect from Lumines' next-gen console debut. The game looked beautiful even on the PSP's limited 480x272 display, and the jump to high-definition does it all the good you would imagine. Simply put, Lumines Live is as beautiful to watch as it is a joy to play. The sound, as expected from a Mizuguchi game, follows suit wonderfully, with a brilliant soundtrack and Mizuguchi's trademark interesting use of sound effects to really set Lumines apart from other games of its kind. In the most descriptive terms, Lumines Live is a sensory treat.

Sadly, Lumines Live's interesting but misplaced focus on microtransactions hurts its value, and thus, kills the very legitimate shot it had at perfection. Still, general imperfection is hardly something that can be held too solidly against a game, and players won't even be thinking about it during the hours they will be pouring into this highly-addictive puzzler. In the end, Lumines Live is truly the best game to hit Xbox Live Arcade to date.

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