LUMINES REMASTERED
Shine on you crazy puzzler
As far as pure gaming goes, few titles have ever pipped the partnering of Lumines and PSP. I lost hours hooked on Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s deft puzzler back in 2004, digging out Sony’s handheld any time, any place for just one more go. The big question is, then: can this remaster replicate the magic on a HD TV, or is Lumines purely an on-the-go classic? Well, naturally it is still fantastic. The moment the shuffling guitar strum of Mondo Grosso’s Shinin’ wafts across the screen you’ll feel like you’re at a reunion party: the music and blocky puzzles of your PSP wonder years are back, and in HD.
That said, Lumines was always going to be hard to mess up. When an idea is this simple – match coloured blocks into groups of squares ahead of a vertical bar sweeping the screen from left to right in time to the music – it’ll shine regardless of your setup.
Each ‘skin’ you play on has a unique soundtrack, but these aren’t simple mood setters, they actively change how you play. A skin with a faster song ensures you need to think on your feet, a slower track offers time to pace your puzzling, ideally clearing a screen for a speedier skin to come. Some skins tease you into a sense of tranquility, whereas others actively seek to confuddle with a blend of balmy graphics and beats. It’s simple, clever, and very addictive.
SKIN IN THE GAME
There are 40 skins to play across, and 100 levels to puzzle towards, as well as Endless and Shuffle variants of the main Challenge mode to unlock. While this is great, you are constantly reminded this is a remaster and not a new game in the series – the track list is an insistent callback to the year it first released, and one of the few elements to feel dated.
Bolstering the Challenge are Lumines 2’s Puzzle, Time Attack, and Mission modes. Of these Puzzle mode is the real tester, and offers a taxing alternative to the main Challenge mode. But these extras are only here to distract, to offer a respite from the core game that can, once mastered, become a mesmeric puzzle marathon. Some skins you’ll love and embrace, others tease and taunt you, some make you feel like you’re just hanging in there, thumbs dancing on every beat – and they all demand one more play.
VERDICT
A remaster rather than a new game – a Now That’s What I Call Puzzling of classic skins and tracks – this is still one of PS4’s premier puzzlers. Ian Dean