Lumines: Electronic Symphony
Score: 88% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Q Entertainment Media: Download/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: Lumines was a launch title for Sony's previous handheld system, the PSP, and it's unique blend of audio and visual stimuli made many gamers stand up and take notice. So, it's no surprise that Ubisoft and Q Entertainment have released a new version of the techno-heavy puzzle game for Sony's newest portable gaming system, the Vita. Lumines: Electronic Symphony fits the mold of its predecessors, but with an upgrade in graphics and a high-energy selection in music combined with the system's OLED screen and high quality audio capabilities, Electronic Symphony stands far above its predecessors. One small, but very apparent change added to this version of Lumines, is the switch from 2D sprites to full 3D graphics. Where the previous games looked good as they switched between color pallets and visual styles, Electronic Symphony is just stunning. Of course, while Lumines has always been visually appealing, it's the game's music, and how well it syncs up with the visuals, that makes the line such a fun experience. Electronic Symphony continues that trend with 34 tracks including songs by everyone from Pet Shop Boys, The Chemical Brothers and Wink, just to name a few.
Gameplay: Lumines: Electronic Symphony is more or less the same as past games in the line. The goal is to drop 2x2 squares of blocks onto the grid as a bar sweeps across the screen. When you make large combinations of the same color, the bar's pass will cause the combined blocks to disappear. The best way to rack up points is to create the biggest combination of blocks as possible before the bar clears out the combinations. Sounds easy right? Well, as anyone who has played a Lumines title in the past can attest, the game is a veritable marathon of non-stop puzzle action and the longer you play, the better the chances of building up your blocks too high. The other major aspect of the gameplay involves the shift between levels. When you've earned enough points to progress to the next stage, both the graphics and the music shift. I've always found these transitions between levels to be some of the more energizing and stressful parts of the game. On one hand, you've advanced a level and made it to a new milestone, but on the other, you have to quickly rethink about the visuals you see since the switches between the graphics mean that the colors you were seeing are now drastically different and I've always found it takes a few precious moments to reorient. Interestingly enough, Electronic Symphony changes the unlock system found in the previous games to make it a bit more manageable. Before, the only way to unlock new skins and avatars was to grind your way through the game to reach a new level. With Lumines: Electronic Symphony on the other hand, the game uses an experience bar to keep track of your running score. Now, when you level up through multiple play sessions, you will be able to unlock the new skins and avatars.
Difficulty: Lumines: Electronic Symphony, like all of its predecessors, starts off simple, but little mistakes build quickly. Since the overall gameplay is nothing but a non-stop survival session, the game naturally gets harder the longer you play it. As a result, you can expect many gameplay sessions with a variety of levels of difficulty, at least, that's how it felt to me. There were plays where I was in the zone and could make it through many levels before I would really start having problems, but the opposite was true just about as frequently. I found this typically made me want to play as much as possible since I always felt like a better playthrough was just around the corner. So, while the game could get hard quickly, whenever the game ended, I could always point out my own mistakes that led up to the defeat.
Game Mechanics: Lumines: Electronic Symphony doesn't try and show off the Vita's various input formats and capabilities like other launch titles might. Instead, it keeps the controls simple and sticks to the pick-up-and-play style of the previous games in the series. For the most part, all you are going to do in the game is move the blocks across the screen, rotate them, and drop them. The game offers quite a few ways to do this. One has you using the D-pad to move the blocks and either the face buttons or shoulder buttons to rotate the pieces. This should be pretty easy for anyone who has played a puzzle game even remotely like Lumines in the past. Electronic Symphony does give one Vita-specific style of input. You can drag the blocks left and right across the screen by using the touchscreen and tapping on the left or right side of the screen to rotate the blocks. Unfortunately, I found this to be a very clumsy form of control and could never really get used to it. You also tap on the screen in order to activate your avatar's ability, but the Vita offers another interesting twist with this mechanic. After using your ability, you can rapidly tap the back touch pad to refill the avatar's power. The problem is doing this while also controlling the falling blocks. For the most part, Lumines: Electronic Symphony isn't really any different than past Lumines games. As a result, it's hard to recommend the purchase of this title to anyone who already has the game in one form or another. On the other hand, its a beautiful experience and while I won't say you should buy the system for this particular title, it is worth considering if you have a bit of extra money to burn and you want a second title for your Vita.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Related Links: Official Lumines: Electronic Symphony Home Page Buy Lumines: Electronic Symphony at Amazon Lumines: Electronic Symphony on Playstation.com Game Vortex’s Lumines Coverage
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