Do you Lumines?

Following the legacy of Tetris, Lumines PCLumines is a puzzle game about blocks: clumps of colored pieces drop from the heavens, and you the player arrange them into overlapping squares, which are then eliminated from existence by a relentless sweeper treading across the screen in its eternal monotony. Achieve a certain score, and the music and visual theme shift; the sweeper tweaks its speed, and clearing the squares becomes a different task. It really embodies the markings of a classic puzzler in its simplicity and addictiveness.

Like Tetris though, Lumines’ creators knew they had a hit and made efforts to reach as wide of an audience as possible, i.e., whoring the game on multiple platforms. Originally released for the PSP, it has been ported to the PS2 and XBox 360 and went back to the PSP for a second round.

I’ve even found the game recently released on the PC, done via the casual game masters at WildTangent for the cost of either $20 or just minutes of your life in advertisement form. The controls are a bit awkward with the keyboard and imprecise with the mouse, but for the grand cost of $0 + life minutes and a 100+ MB download, it’s easily the best version of the game available for the widest possible audience. (1)

Still not convinced? Try Sweep, a free Flash version of the game, and imagine an added layer of professional sheen to complete the Lumines experience.

  1. I’ve done some recent phone shopping and they have a version for Java-enabled phones as well; the game is lackluster and underwhelming on a truly tiny screen with horrible controls ()
 

Nothing has been said.