“Lumines: Puzzle Fusion” Is A Portable Puzzle Piece of Art
July 31st, 1989. The gaming world would change forever as we would enter the dawn of handheld gaming into the mainstream with the Nintendo Game Boy. At long last people can play games on the go and with the iconic Nintendo branding, the system was an instant success. Any hardware is not complete without killer good software. The launch games for the original Game Boy in North America were Alleyway, a knockoff of the iconic game Breakout. Baseball and Tennis, both simple sports titles, Super Mario Land, where I normally would say because it’s Mario that it would be the most popular game on this list… but alas there’s one juggernaut game that came out that launched the Game Boy into immortality.
That game was a little puzzle game called Tetris, you might have heard of it. This was the first way people in North America could play the iconic Russian puzzle game with ease. This simple puzzle game is perfect for handheld gaming, enough to keep you busy for hours, or at least until the 4 AA batteries in the Game Boy stayed alive. Thanks to Tetris being one of the highest selling handheld games of all time, Nintendo became the apex in the video game handheld market and pretty much held on to that crown for decades.
Now I bet you are wondering why I’m talking about Tetris and the Game Boy in a review called Lumines: Puzzle Fusion? I think there’s a ton of parallels between Tetris on the Game Boy and Lumines on the PlayStation Portable (or PSP for short). As I said before, Nintendo had the handheld gaming market locked down with an iron fist. Many other portable systems tried to take down the king known as the Game Boy such as the SEGA GameGear, and the Atari Lynx. Both were ok but nowhere near as popular as the Game Boy or any of the updated versions of the Game Boy, such as the Game Boy Pocket, (a smaller version of the system) and of course, the Game Boy Color that blew everything else out of the dust.
However, a new challenger would rise, one that at this time was giving Nintendo some fight. Sony, after taking some chunks away from Nintendo with the PlayStation and feeling really good after the success of the PlayStation 2, decided they wanted a piece of the handheld pie. In March of 2005, The PlayStation Portable (PSP for short) was released in North America. Tetris with the Game Boy was a killer combo, so why not do this but better? Sony and Q Entertainment brought what was to be the mid 2000s answer to Tetris, and the result was Lumines: Puzzle Fusion.
Lumines is a puzzle game and a launch title for the PSP. The game is a mix of puzzle gaming and atmospheric music. The game was developed by Q Entertainment, led by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who recently made cult classics for SEGA around the era of the Dreamcast such as Space Channel 5, and Rez. Both games are very heavy music focused, so it’s no surprise that Lumines is the same way.
Lumines is kind of a strange game to describe as there’s not many puzzle games like it. The game is made of a wide grid, a sequence of 2x2 blocks that have a mix of two different colors will drop down. The goal is to get blocks of the same color to match into squares. More squares means more combos and of course, higher scores. However, here’s where the music side comes from. Each stage has a song and has a vertical line going right to said music. Once this line passes, it clears off the squares you have together and gives you your score.
The game is fantastic when it comes to presentation. Each level has its own catchy music, colors, and sound effects. Once a new stage is reached, everything changes visually. The blocks turn different colors, the music changes, and even the sound effects make different sounds. Each level feels as fresh as the last and really keeps the game from being boring. Not knowing what the next stage might be wants to keep playing to see how far you can get. Keep in mind the music also changes, meaning the timing of that vertical line I was talking about may go faster or slower depending on the music. Both a faster or slower song could either help you or hurt you depending on how you play.
The game itself once you get it down is very addicting and fun, it’s easily one of the better puzzle games I’ve played. Each stage feels different and fresh each time. The game was praised and got positive reception, getting 8 out of 10s at the lowest. Lumines is no doubt the killer launch app the PSP wanted, after all you wanna start hot, especially when you are going after the king of the mobile market at the time in Nintendo.
However, both the PlayStation Portable or Lumines didn’t exactly get to original Game Boy/Tetris numbers by any means but those who have or had a PSP likely have this gem of a game. The game would get many sequels and even a remaster in 2018. The newest Lumines game is Lumines: Puzzle & Music for mobile devices. Seeing how the last time we’ve seen the game was 2018, it’s been a little bit since we’ve had a new game in the series. However the mobile market has changed and is more about apps rather than games, but I don’t wish to get into the “is mobile gaming real gaming” debate here, at least not yet.
Oddly enough, a Tetris that feels like the Lumines titled “Tetris Effect” is common and really adds the music and visuals similar to Lumines, with the classic addicting gameplay of Tetris. It’s safe to say that Lumines did not become the Tetris killer as it was designed to be, but it made an impact on puzzle video games.
Oddly this might end up being my only PSP game that I review because it’s really the only one I had a lot to say about. Maybe I’ll review the system itself one day because that handheld is quite interesting to say the least.
Overall I would not say you have to play the original Lumines: Puzzle Fusion on PSP, but the series itself is no doubt worth checking out, especially if you are a big fan of puzzle games.
