Lumines (pronounced “Loo-Min-Ez”): Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s new puzzle game, in the style of Tetris, Puyo Puyo, Puzzle Fighter etc. blended with some of the sonic styling that made Rez so funky and groundbreaking. The concept is simple: square tiles drop from the top of the screen. Each tile is comprised of four small blocks. Each block can be one of two colours, initially orange and silver (even when these colours change, one remains a ‘null’, such as white or silver. This means that people with sight impairments such as colour blindness can still enjoy the game). A simple piece of deduction will tell you there are six patterns that the tile can have. The blocks within the tiles can be rotated, and your job is to make a tile of four blocks where each block is the same colour: a difficult game to describe, but one that’s easy to comprehend when playing.

Lumines spins the vinyl in a slightly different way from other puzzlers, though. A ‘Timebar’ scans across the screen from left to right, periodically. Any matched colours will be collected and deleted by this bar in a sparkling, fiery flash that’s extremely satisfying. As tiles with matched colours aren’t deleted until the bar passes across them, you can stack large connections of blocks before the Timebar reappears and deletes them. This opens up combo potential, with larger stacks giving higher points. Once a tile of four colours has been created, adding two more of the same colour will increase the stack as well, meaning fast reactions and a good eye for pattern and colour are vital for high scoring. As a wildcard, certain blocks are dotted in the centre; when these are incorporated into a four of the same colour, any blocks touching this stack will also be deleted by the Timebar - even single blocks. If the player times it right, a huge fall of blocks – like a building in free-fall collapse as it’s being demolished – will delete, resulting in a massive combo.

Scoring is the name of the game in Challenge Mode. Set against various skins that serve as a backdrop to the action (and that change as you progress through the game), the idea is to combo your way to the top of the leaderboard. In the ‘Vs’ option, reducing the play area on the opponent’s side of the screen is the aim, but is achieved the same way as in Challenge: create matching tiles and combo the stacks. The more tiles you match, the narrower your opponent’s playing area becomes. This head-to-head can be played against a human opponent (sadly, a feature this reviewer was unable to test) or the CPU. Beating a CPU opponent (represented by an icon on their side of the screen. You set an icon for yourself, along with a username, at startup) means their backdrop’s ‘skin’ is available for play in the main game. A special mention must be given to the superbly-named "Please Return My CD" backdrop.

Uncovering new skins is the greatest, most enjoyable part of Lumines. Mizuguchi’s creations appeal due to their uniquely sharp and enticing design, characterised by a keen blend of retro styles and modern audio and visual effects. Rez used the evolution from wireframe to solid polygonal models as a metaphor for human achievement and, although Lumines is nowhere near as clever in its use of sound and vision, it uses a cut-down version of the concept to good effect. The play area is a grid, set atop the background skin. The skins pulse with effects and animations, in time to the beat. Moving your tiles and rotating them produces snare effects or little plosive sounds in a similar fashion to Rez, making the whole become thematically tied-up. For example, the “Shinin’ ” stage (the first stage the gamer gets to compete on) is comprised of a space backdrop, with an orbiting space station firing laser beams into the darkness of the void, whilst an ever-changing planet revolves in the near-distance. Accompanied by a track by Mondo Grosso, a mellow techno vibe is established: imagine a mix between something by Underworld and the song ‘Alright’ by the Pet Shop Boys, and you’re partway there. The following skin, “Urbanisation”, is much more basic, backed by a stark Electropop track reminiscent of Ladytron. On it goes, each skin carrying a different beat and style, meaning the backdrop to your play never becomes tiring as long as you are scoring heavily – an intelligent incentive to have ‘just one more go…..’.

Along with the backbone of the Challenge and Vs modes, a few other options are available. There’s a very tough Puzzle Mode (where the CPU chooses a shape, and you attempt to recreate this object onscreen using the blocks), a timed game (where you choose a time period such as 60 seconds and attempt the highest score possible), and a Single Skin game (where any collected backdrop can be played without change).

The GameBoy’s mammoth success was due in no small part to the pack-in inclusion of the seminal Tetris. Sony are, blatantly, trying to copy this success with Lumines (although the game is currently only available separately), and it’s a wise move indeed. Lumines is ideal for short bursts, is fun and eye-catching without being graphically astounding, and extremely import-friendly (which ties-in with Sony’s desire for the PSP to become a well-travelled piece of kit). This means the game isn’t constantly pulling data from the UMD, so load times are low (something that can’t be said for many of the other release titles), and the battery’s life expectancy is, subsequently, higher. Presentation is excellent, in typical Mizuguchi fashion, and original. It really can’t be overstated, either, how marvellous the audio is. Even gamers who despise dance/trance music can’t fail to be absorbed by the ambient tunes as they force your brain into a zoned-out-but-highly-focused state of consciousness. Stick in the headphones, lie back and get in touch with the harmonious.

Lumines adds an element of real panache to a genre not particularly renowned for its beauty, and is very compelling. The only criticisms that can be levelled are that the game doesn’t do anything staggeringly new and inventive (or advance the ‘Synaesthesia’ method of audio/visual interaction any further), and that the skins should, perhaps, change at a faster rate so that a musical track isn’t repeated two or three times before being skipped. Other than that, Lumines deserves a great deal of credit. The subtitle to the game - ‘Puzzle X Music’, meaning ‘puzzle by music’ - says it all: it’s a stylish and remarkably addictive title that blends gameplay with relaxing tunes, and fits perfectly on its home platform. Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s latest game appeals to everybody who samples its future-retro vibe. Luminescent. Luminous. Lumines.