Customer Reviews

Lumines Plus

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Q? Entertainment wisely decided to leave the core gameplay unaltered from the original "Lumines". It's still as addictive as ever, with the falling 2x2 blocks and simple 2-color scheme giving way to complex strategies. The additions come in the form of new skins, new songs (some of which have video backgrounds), new mascots (mine's a kitty!), an expanded puzzle mode, and a remix mode where you can create your own musical effects. The game also allows you to start at an intermediate or advanced difficulty, for those of us who could keep playing the original for hours after maxing out the score. My only complaint is that the song list feels somewhat shorter than the first game, and it didn't take long before I had looped it and was repeating the same tracks again. Still, Lumines is already a new classic for puzzle games, and this sequel adds more of what most players will want.

Although I was already a big fan of Lumines from the first game, this sequel adds quite a bit more to the gaming experience with better music, nicer graphics, and more game play modes. Some of the levels are a little too "busy" visually, with video in the background and heavily animated cubes, but it's a great game experience overall. The best part is, it's the kind of game you don't need to play for long stretches on end. It's involving and fun, but the levels aren't so long that you need to be tethered to your PSP. (But you'll want to be!)

If you're looking for something to fill the hole left by Tetris, Bust-a-move or any other block type game, you'll love this. My wife and I have been playing each other non-stop since it arrived in the mail.

Lumines and it newest version, Lumines II, are about as addictive as any video games I've ever encountered. The sheer simplicity combined with the beautiful visual and audio quality of this puzzle game give it tremendous "replay value", as every time out is in some way different, no matter how many times you play it.

My only complaint with the newest version, Lumines II, is the use of actual music videos playing behind the puzzles. They tend to be very distracting (imagine trying to keep the puzzle moving as Gwen Stefani stands in front of you, half-clothed and gyrating in her usual provocative manner), and crowd the screen in such a way as to make playing the game unduly difficult.

Even still, Lumines II is every bit as good as the first.

[NOTE: I posted this review under the product description for the PSP version of "Lumines II", NOT under the product description for the PS2 game "Lumines Plus". I have no idea why Amazon moved it here from the Lumines II page, and I hope no one is misled by this listing, but, if so, please don't blame me, blame Amazon for moving the review. Thanks.]

This game is awesome! If you liked the first lumines, there's no reason to dislike this one and plenty of reasons to like it more. It's rare that sequels are better than the original, but in this case, it really is better. The gameplay hasn't changed from the original. The mission is still to align colored blocks in 4 or more of the same color to form a square and clear the board. Classic fun originally brought to us by tetris back in the day.

In addition to the great gameplay and music of the original game, this one has even better music than the first. You'll hear a few of the same songs from the first game, but added to them are new original compositions and songs by black eyed peas, hoobastank, gwen stefani, and even "regret" by new order for those of us old enough to remember that wonderful song. And the cool thing is..while the songs play, the video plays in the background of the game. The blocks that drop are really cool looking in this game too!

There are also now 3 levels of play..beginner, intermediate, and advanced, and a new puzzle mode and "mission mode" has been added in addition to the original Vs. CPU mode and time attack mode. You can also change the order of the skins and songs once you clear the level.

If you liked the first game, I can't recommend this one enough. It's great! And if you've never played Lumines, I recommend this one over the original. It's that good.

This game is a lot of fun with its bright colors and bumping beats, and is very addictive.

The only problem with it is that it gets repetitive and has a lack of modes, but the unlockable stage skins and characters give you something to work for.

I would give the graphics and sound a 5/5, the re playability a 3/5 and the overall gameplay a 4/5.

Pretty decent game for the price, and a must have for puzzle game collectors.

There have been puzzle games that are always fun to pop in and play even after the game has been cleared once or twice such as Bombastic, Tetris and yeah Klax too but since I first saw Lumines for myself back when it first came out it looked to me like it would be the next great puzzler so from the time I saw that this game came out for the Playstation 2 I just knew this was one I just had to have. When I got this game as a gift I was looking forward to trying this game for myself. Since then I have played this game through and through and this has got to be the most demanding in clearing any and every challenge (not that that's a bad thing at all) and I don't think I will ever forget how much I could feel my actual heart beating out of my chest when I was on the verge of reaching the maximum 999,999 points which I can proudly say I actually accomplished at that very moment. Plus there is also the Vs. Mode where every character is even more challenging than the last, the Puzzle Mode with 100 levels where you have to think and move fast since clearing every puzzle has a time limit as well as the timed challenges where you only have a minute or two to beat the record number of squares cleared and not to mention all the unlockables that comes with completing these challenges as well. In closing, this is one puzzler that is always fun and challenging from the start and if you have a Playstation 2 and are looking for a true puzzle game well look no further since this is one that will keep you playing for hours and hours.

I have Lumines Live for my Xbox 360, so when I saw how cheap the PS2 version was, I bought it for my female friend and she loves it, being a big Tetris fan. What makes this stand apart from the numerous Tetris clones out there is Mizuguchi's brilliant melding of music with motion. In some games, the music is an annoying distraction, but in Lumines it flows quite nicely to the visuals, actually helping you anticipate when to drop certain blocks for the biggest combo. Another great thing is the inherent learning curve, you begin by simply forming block combos, but as you progress you begin to form more complicated shapes, until you start to see patterns within patterns. Once you reach this point, you are in the zone. Levels go from being annoying obstacles to freeflowing mazes you effortlessly traverse, progressing to even more spectacular backgrounds and music tracks. I've never really played anything so closely resembling synaesthesia, except maybe Rez, Mizuguchi's other musical masterpiece.

I found out about this game from my cousin who owned the game for the psp. Id play for hours whenever I got a hold of the game. I recently inquired a ps3 and didnt know what to do with it (since most of the games arent really female friendly). I ordered it online and when it arrived, i invited some friends over to play. My friends were sold by how basic and fun the game was. Great game!

But on a console it really loses something.
This puzzle game requires you to rotate a 2x2 block of two different colors and you clear them by creating rectangles of the same color.
Yes, the game is addicting and strangely hypnotic at times, but the selection of this particular one is terrible. The "Shinin'" mode is the best, but many other modes are lame. In fact there really isn't much compared to both the PSP Lumines and 360 versions. No music videos and no downloadable content.
Lumines is a great game...for your PSP.
Lumines Plus is just ok.