Lumines
Encyclopedia
is a puzzle video game based on sound and light patterns. Created by game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi
Tetsuya Mizuguchi
is a video game designer and founder of the video game development firm Q Entertainment. He formerly worked for Sega were he eventually became the head of their United Game Artists division...

 and his company, Q Entertainment
Q Entertainment
Q Entertainment creates, produces, and publishes in digital entertainment content across multiple game consoles, PC broadband and mobile units...

, it was first released as a launch title
Launch title
A launch game, or launch title, is a video game released to consumers synchronously with the release of its respective video game console, meaning they are the only available games at the time of the console's launch. Several of these games are also packaged with the console...

 for the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...

 in Japan on December 12, and released in North America on March 23 and released in Europe on September 1, .

As of October 11, , 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.

In September , mobile gamemaker Gameloft
Gameloft
Gameloft SA is a major French computer and video game developer and publisher headquartered in Paris, France. The company also has subsidiaries in 31 countries around the world....

 announced that they would be bringing both Meteos
Meteos
is an action puzzle video game for the Nintendo DS portable gaming system. The name of the game comes from the English word meteor, transliterated to "meteo". Meteos was developed by Q Entertainment and published by Nintendo and Bandai. The producer for the game was Tetsuya Mizuguchi and lead...

and Lumines to cell phones. Lumines Mobile was released on March 1, 2006. A port for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

 was released on February 27, as Lumines Plus. It was also released for PC on the WildGames
WildTangent
WildTangent is a Redmond, Washington based game network, privately held in the United States that powers game services for several PC manufacturers including HP, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Samsung, Acer and Lenovo...

 platform in December 2007 and later on Steam in 2008. In 2009, Lumines Touch was released on the iTunes App Store for iOS devices.

Two sequels titled Lumines Live! and Lumines II
Lumines II
Lumines II is a sequel to the puzzle game Lumines. The game was released in November, 2006 in Europe and North America, and in February 2007 in Japan.-Gameplay:The gameplay in Lumines II is very similar to its predecessor, Lumines...

were released in 2006. A third sequel was released for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

 titled Lumines Supernova.

Gameplay

Lumines is a block-dropping game, that may seem at first to be similar to Columns
Columns (video game)
is a puzzle video game, first created in 1989 by Jay Geertsen. Early versions of the game were made and ported among early computer platforms, and then the Atari ST, until 1990, when Jay Geertsen sold the rights to Sega, where it was ported to several Sega consoles.-Description:The game takes...

and Tetris
Tetris
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...

. A 2 x 2 square (an O tetromino
Tetromino
A tetromino is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally. This, like dominoes and pentominoes, is a particular type of polyomino...

) made of four smaller block pieces is dropped into the playing field, which may appear different as the player advances through levels or skins
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....

. 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.

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

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
Rez
Rez, developed under the codename K-Project, Project Eden, and Vibes, is a rail shooter video game released by Sega in Japan in 2001 for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, with a European Dreamcast release and United States PlayStation 2 release in 2002...

, the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 and sound effect
Sound effect
For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...

s 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.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...

 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 deterministicallyhttp://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/game/924594.html. 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. A jewel (deleting all blocks of the same colour that are aligned to it) can also mess up this tactic.

Sequels and follow-ups

In September 2005, mobile gamemaker Gameloft
Gameloft
Gameloft SA is a major French computer and video game developer and publisher headquartered in Paris, France. The company also has subsidiaries in 31 countries around the world....

 announced that they would be bringing both Meteos
Meteos
is an action puzzle video game for the Nintendo DS portable gaming system. The name of the game comes from the English word meteor, transliterated to "meteo". Meteos was developed by Q Entertainment and published by Nintendo and Bandai. The producer for the game was Tetsuya Mizuguchi and lead...

and Lumines to cell phones. Lumines Mobile was released on March 1, 2006. It is provided by some US phone companies (Verizon
Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...

, Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...

). In February, 2007 a port for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

 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. In December 2007, Lumines was made available for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 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
Lumines II
Lumines II is a sequel to the puzzle game Lumines. The game was released in November, 2006 in Europe and North America, and in February 2007 in Japan.-Gameplay:The gameplay in Lumines II is very similar to its predecessor, Lumines...

, 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. In August 2011, Ubisoft announced that a version of Lumines was in development for the PlayStation Vita.

Lumines Live!

Lumines Live! is a puzzle game based on the original PlayStation Portable game for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

. It was released on October 18, 2006 as an Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...

 title.

Lumines Live! is played in different "skins". Like software interface skins
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....

, these change the visual appearance of the board, but they also control the soundtrack. Each skin contains a different song and different sound effects, which are triggered by game events and then integrated into the soundtrack. As in Mizuguchi's earlier game Rez
Rez
Rez, developed under the codename K-Project, Project Eden, and Vibes, is a rail shooter video game released by Sega in Japan in 2001 for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, with a European Dreamcast release and United States PlayStation 2 release in 2002...

, the separation of soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 and sound effect
Sound effect
For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...

s is much less than in most video games. Skins are unlocked by progressing through the different game modes.

The game runs in 720p
720p
720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...

 and supports 5.1 surround sound
Surround sound
Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...

. It features seven modes of play, built-in multiplayer both offline and online, Achievements, Leaderboards and GamerScore support and online competitive modes.

A new feature in Lumines Live! over the original Lumines is the ability to create one's own sequence of skins from the skins that have been unlocked through single play mode. Any number of skins can be used exactly once in this sequence and the sequence can be set to either be a single time through (providing a score-attack mode), or to loop indefinitely (providing an endurance mode).

Lumines Live! is included on the Qubed
Qubed
Qubed is a video game compilation for the Xbox 360 console composed of music-based games developed by Q Entertainment, previously available for individual purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace...

 compilation for Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

 along with Rez HD and Every Extend Extra Extreme
Every Extend Extra Extreme
Every Extend Extra Extreme, also known as E4, is a game for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service released on October 17, 2007 for 800 Microsoft Points...

. The downloadable content included with Lumines Live! on Qubed
Qubed
Qubed is a video game compilation for the Xbox 360 console composed of music-based games developed by Q Entertainment, previously available for individual purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace...

 consists of the Advance Challenge Pack, VS CPU Pack, Puzzle/Mission Pack, Rockin' Holiday Pack, and both Genki Rockets skins (Heavenly Star and Breeze). The only packs that aren't included are the Booster Pack and Tokyo Club Mix Pack, however, these can be downloaded separately and will work with the game on Qubed.

Lumines Supernova

In January 2009 Lumines Supernova was released on the PlayStation Network. It has all the features of Lumines Live! (with the exception of online multiplayer) as well as the sequencer from Lumines II and a new mode, DigDown Mode. DigDown Mode is a timed mode where the player has to clear two vertical lines within a time limit to move "down" to the next stage.

Critical response and awards

Lumines has received positive praise, garnering an average score of 89% from over 55 reviews on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 and a score of 90% from over 72 reviews on Gamerankings
Game Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...

; 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
God of War: Chains of Olympus
God of War: Chains of Olympus is an action-adventure game developed by Ready at Dawn and released by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable in March 2008....

. Gamespot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...

 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 Jeremy Parish from 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....

 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."
  • Game Informer
    Game Informer
    Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...

    's "Top 50 Games of 2005" list
  • GameSpot
    GameSpot
    GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...

    's 2005 PSP Game Of The Year
  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    Electronic Gaming Monthly
    Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...

    's 2005 Handheld Game Of The Year

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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