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| Source // Moby Games |
Lumines II was a firm favourite of mine on the PSP, but a simple game like this can be put on anything, and the next place that it was found was on the Xbox 360 in the shape of Lumines Live!
What could a console offer a game like Lumines? More importantly, what could a digital marketplace offer it...?
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| Source // Moby Games |
Fun Times
Lumines Live! plays like Lumines. Any version of Lumines plays like Lumines. I technically don't know this for certain, having not been bothered to download the demo and try it out for myself, but I can imagine that Lumines Live! plays just how you and I think it does, the only differences being your preference for the input device, controller or handheld console.
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| Source // Moby Games |
I, therefore, think it's safe enough for me to just have a look at what Lumines Live! is about from afar, reading up about it, watching some gameplay. There's nothing different, is there? Blocks move, connect a 2x2 square of the same colour and eventually those blocks disappear. Rinse and repeat for the high score. How can you change that?
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| Source // Moby Games |
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| Source // Moby Games |
There are many ways. You can challenge players to create specific shapes, or eliminate all blocks in a certain number of moves. You can start with an empty grid or one full of rubbish. You can speed up the rate at which the time bar sweeps over the grid and eliminates completed blocks.
You can tweak and challenge in quite a few ways, and play against opponents over the internet or on the couch.
It is, so far, so Lumines. So what?
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| Source // Moby Games |
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| Source // Moby Games |
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| Source // Moby Games |
Frustrations
Downloadable content. Sometimes it's a great addition to a game. Sometimes it's thrust in your face, and you feel a little robbed. Lumines Live! was regarded by some as Lumines Light, with the bulk of the content behind paywalls, in packages that you didn't even know what it was you were even getting.
New skins to play with and music to listen to. Great! What songs? Anything worthwhile? What do the skins look like, will my eyes bleed?
If you were the kind of Lumines player that just zoned out to your favourite tracks, you could customise the content you had so that only your favourite skins would appear and only your favourite songs heard... but if you didn't pay up, you got the barest of bare-bones Lumines experiences.
Final Word
Lumines is always worth a play, but I wonder why Lumines Live! made the 1001 list. Was the fact that it sold extra stuff the only notable thing about it? Was it included in the list as an example of a good game marred a little by its DLC?
From what I've read, there is a sizeable amount of content for the Lumines fan here, but how many took the risk in buying the DLC to experience it all, not really knowing what they'd get?
I much prefer Lumines on the go, and playing it on a TV doesn't sound like the best of experiences, but for those who don't own a PSP, well, there's another console for you to try Lumines out on. And you should try it.
But don't feel pressured into buying DLC, for this or any game.
Fun Facts
Size restrictions on the Xbox Live Arcade meant the base game had to weigh in at less than 50mb, which meant a stripped-down platform, essentially, for DLC to be slotted into. Not a bad idea, by any means, but were the customers happy with it?
Lumines Live!, developed by Q Entertainment, first released in 2006.
Version watched: Xbox 360, 2006 (Vizzed Gameplay Videos, CGRundertow)