As a child of the Eighties, one of my earliest memories of gaming was playing Tetris on the Gameboy. Falling blocks came to define a generation of video gaming for me. It’s no real surprise that I loved every iteration of the series since, culminating in the near perfect Tetris Effect back in 2018. What is probably more surprising is that I’ve barely ever touched its cousin Lumines prior to Lumines Arise, given the similarities in tone and execution. However, you can be damn sure that I’ve made up for it, as it’s basically been all that I could think about for the last week or so, as the obsession that is Lumines Arise has slowly but surely taken over my mind.
The developers (Enhance and Monstars Ltd) have taken what they have learned about immersion and spectacle in Tetris Effect and have applied the same dazzling formula to Lumines. For the uninitiated, Lumines sees you dropping 2×2 blocks onto a grid as a timeline moves across the playfield from left to right. Each block is made up of two colours and your objective is to create squares consisting only of a single colour as you rotate and drop them on top of each other. Combo these smaller squares together for huge points as you work toward a final square count and the next level in the playlist. Easy, yeah?
Ok, so things get more difficult as each level reacts to the beat of its own soundtrack, the line moving in time with the tempo of the track for that particular stage. Some fast, some slow, some that change as you play. This isn’t just simple block stacking, this is feeling the rhythm of the game, timing your placement to maximise combinations, keeping calm in the face of failure, which in this instance is when there’s just no more room to stack the never-ending flow of blocks.
With a mechanic called Burst, you can build a meter that allows you to stop one of your created squares from clearing as the timeline washes over it, allowing you to surround it with even more of the same colour block for a few more passes, building toward an explosion of light and sound that will shower the screen for a huge combo. It’s hard to express the satisfaction of frantically stacking and scraping together just a few more blocks to the total before the explosive finale melts your eyeballs.
Even with limited experience of previous series entries, it’s such a simple concept for a beginner to grasp, but to truly master the intricacies of Lumines Arise will demand quick thinking, a high level of manual dexterity and intense focus. This is a game that embodies flow state, spellbinding you with a heady combination of pulsing bass, overwhelming visual stimulus and rhythmic challenge. It’s scarily hypnotic.
The stages are many and varied, from neon-lit street scenes soundtracked to a thudding house beat to flocks of silhouette birds flying through what looks like the infinite vastness of space. The blocks themselves are constantly changing every level too, some featuring glass blocks that will house an astronaut as you build a bigger and bigger combination square before shattering to pieces as the timeline smashes through them or a diverse collection of red and green vegetables that get sliced to juliennes in time to the relentless beat. Terminator-esque glowing hands. Dancing Techno chameleons. Giant space baby things. There’s always a new theme around every corner and each has been an absolute joy to discover.
For those who enjoy a little more self-expression, why not customise your Loomi, your in-game avatar, choosing from a vast and varied array of skins, backgrounds, emotes and more. Whilst by no means integral to enjoying the game, it’s a lovely little distraction between puzzling sessions and the currency used to buy these cosmetic parts demands nothing more than playing even more of the game you’ll already be enjoying regardless. Your Loomi will mostly be seen when traversing the multiplayer hub, a space where you can wander around and take in the delights of others bizarre creations, all before attempting to best them in one-on-one Lumines battles.
These are played out in much the same way as a regular level but as you match squares in ever-increasing combos, you’ll cause walls to close in on each side of your opponents playfield, limiting their options and forcing them to build frantically to escape failure. Whilst I have managed a couple of games online, there have been some connection issues forcing me instead to take on the leaderboards for my ego boosting requirements. With leaderboards for timed runs, as well as a couple of more unique game modes, it’s worryingly addictive to try out just one more 30 second attempt at the leaderboard, as each stab at it gets ever closer to the elusive global top ten. For those with a more sadistic streak, why not try and go for a ranking for completing the entire single-player campaign in a single sitting? Might as well stick on Hard mode whilst you’re at it too.
There’s also the option to play Lumines Arise in VR, which presents a justifiable fear that you’ll never be able to return from the void whilst drowning in dopamine. Combine this level of immersion with the ability to create playlists of completed levels and you can create a perfect bespoke environment to suit any mood you fancy, perfect to lose yourself in for an hour or thirty.
Lumines Arise takes a block building classic, adds a splash of psychedelic firework paint and an absolute banger of a soundtrack, leaving us with a game destined to become an all-timer. The concept of reality simply melts away as you lose yourself in a seemingly never-ending stream of falling blocks, mesmerised by pulsing electronica and flashing lights, an exquisite overload to the senses. For all the non-puzzlers out there, Lumines Arise is a must try and for everyone else, this is simply a no-brainer. Lumines Arise is quite frankly fantastic.
