Lumines: Electronic Symphony Review

If you're buying a PlayStation Vita, you should buy Lumines: Electronic Symphony. It's everything I've loved about the brick-based puzzle game since its 2005 debut coupled with the connectivity of the Vita. Seriously. It's amazing.

Across 43 skins -- levels that have their own unique background, color scheme, and music -- and a handful of modes, Lumines: Electronic Symphony merges the old with the new. The game objective is still to take the two-tone blocks falling from the top of the screen and make as many same-colored squares as possible disappear, but developer Q Entertainment adds to the formula.

A simple avatar on the screen has always represented players, but Lumines: Electronic Symphony infuses avatars with special abilities. When the percentage next to the icon you've chosen is at 100 (earned through bonuses or tapping the Vita' rear touchpad like mad), you tap the front touchscreen to deploy the move. It's stuff such as making the next three blocks completed squares or stalling the timeline (a sweeping bar that clears matched squares and multiplies your score based on that). The 41 avatars share a small pool of abilities, but these moves are like steroids for your score.

Avatar abilities aren't the only touch controls in Lumines: Electronic Symphony. You can move and spin blocks via the front touchscreen as well, but this is more of a novelty for new players. The deeper you get in the game, the faster the blocks come. When it got down to the nitty gritty, touch wasn't quick enough, and I reverted back to the traditional d-pad and face buttons combo.

Another thing I didn't dig -- at first -- was the new shuffle block. This bastard randomizes all the blocks it ends up touching. I couldn't understand why Q Entertainment added in something that crippled all of my perfectly laid out blocks, but then, I got further in the game. When you've got a screen full of orphan blocks where simple matching is no longer an option, shuffle blocks are lifesavers. If the screen is full, the shuffle block almost always makes a few squares to lessen the chance of dying and to give you new options for moves. It's a welcome addition that can screw plans up early in the game.


Now, when I say early in the game, I'm talking about early in the one and half-hour Voyage mode trials I'm putting in. Voyage is the game's marathon mode; you play until you quit or the screen is completely full of orphan blocks. Voyage is joined by various time trials that see how much you can possibly clear, Master Mode starts you at specific difficulties with specific goals, and ad-hoc Duel is where two players clear squares until the onscreen divider has literally run one of the opponents off the screen.

All of these modes are great because they take the core mechanic and give it a purpose in your life. Voyage is for when you have tons of time to kill or want to chip away at a puzzle throughout the day, time trials are for commercial breaks, and Duel for playing with a pal while waiting for a movie to begin. The world already knows how good Lumines gameplay is, but now, Q's giving it to you in prepackaged plans on the go.