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Lumines Electronic Symphony
Originally a puzzle game on the PSP,
UbiSoft have relaunched this series for the PS Vita with Lumines:
Electronic Symphony that takes this franchise to a whole new level,
especially with the capabilities of the console. Although there are a
few puzzle games available for the PS Vita at the present, none of them
have reached the same level as Lumines: Electronic Symphony that
combines elements of Tetris with music from a variety of bands such as
The Chemical Brothers and LCD Soundsystem. The music included in the
game almost mesmerises the
player with the beats and speed changes. The goal, just like Tetris is
link 2x2 blocks of the same colour to create squares as opposed to
lines.
Once again, like Tetris, if these blocks reach the top of your screen, it's
hasta la
vista baby! When you have matched the blocks of a particular colour, you
need to wait until the sound waves that moves from side to side of the
screen touches
the blocks. This then forces the blocks to vanish and additional room is
made in your gaming environment as you play against both the score and
the timer. It's quite a psychedelic experience as you attempt to move to
the next level as the colours and songs change. The sound
wave which is required to make your matching coloured blocks disappear is
effected by the tempo of the songs of the level. The faster the song,
the faster this wave moves and the slower the song, well.. you get the
point. Needless to say, the faster the track, the faster the blocks
begin to fall.
Add in multipliers and the great tracklist for Lumines: Electronic
Symphony and this game becomes quite an addictive experience as you
attempt to move the blocks in order to solve the current dilemma in front of you. There are
also some tricks that you can employ like chain blocks and shuffle
blocks. Chain blocks force all blocks of the same colour to vanish,
whereas shuffle blocks randomly change the blocks that they touch to
another colour. This
is sometimes needed to help prevent your screen from filling up.
On the right of your screen, it tells the gamer how much of the level is
left to clear (e.g. 30%) and when you reach 100%, the entire colour
scheme of the level changes as does the music which creates this almost
magical transfer. Although the traditional controls (e.g. d-pad and
shoulder buttons) can be
used to rotate your blocks, you can use the touch screen of the Vita but
when the music tempo is quite fast, this can be quite difficult.
There
are a variety of different gameplay modes that include "Voyage"
(my favourite), Playlist (modify skins and playlists), Duel (2 players
via adhoc), Master (super fast and difficult levels), Stopwatch (race
against the clock) and World Block (contribute with other people from
around the world to erase the world block). You even collect XP as you
complete the levels and the more levels that you complete, the higher
your scores becomes which is posted on an online leader board. XP also
allows you to unlock other bonuses like avatars. All in
all, lots of challenges and the only downside is the lack of a real
online mode.
Graphics and Audio
Graphically and as mentioned, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is quite a
psychedelic experience with some great background skins, however the
highlight of the game, apart from the award winning and addictive
gameplay is the soundtrack. The soundtrack features 34 awesome artists that
include;
• “4 AM” – Kaskade
• “Aganju” – Bebel Gilberto
• “Always Loved A Film” – Underworld
• “Apollo Throwdown” – The Go! Team
• “Automatons” – Anything Box
• “Autumn Love” – SCSI-9
• “Bang Bang Bang” – Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.
• “Celebrate Our Love” – Howard Jones
• “Close (To The Edit)” – Art of Noise
• “Disco Infiltrator” – LCD Soundsystem
• “Dissolve” – The Chemical Brothers
• “Embracing The Future” – BT
• “Flyin Hi” – Faithless
• “Good Girl” – Benny Benassi
• “Gouryella” – Gouryella
• “Hey Boy Hey Girl” – The Chemical Brothers
• “Higher State of Consciousness” – Wink
• “In My Arms” – Mylo
• “Kelly Watch The Stars” – Air
• “Moistly” – LFO
• “Never”* – Orbital
• “Out Of The Blue” – System F
• “Pacific 707” – 808 State
• “Played-A-Live (The Bongo Song)” – Safri Duo
• “Rocket (Tiesto Remix)” – Goldfrapp
• “Sunriser (Publicmind Remix)” – Ken Ishii
• “Superstar” – Aeroplane
• “The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)” – Deep Dish
• “The Sun Rising” – The Beloved
• “What’s Your Number” – Ian Pooley
• “Windowlicker” – Aphex Twin
• “Wolfgang’s 5th Symphony” – Wolfgang Gartner
• “Wooden Toy” – Amon Tobin
• “Yesterday, When I Was Mad (Jam & Spoon Mix)” – Pet Shop Boys
Final Level
The best aspect of Lumines: Electronic Symphony is that you can play it
for 10 minutes or an hour as you become mesmerised by the puzzle and
music in front of you. It does help if you're into electronic music, especially
with its thumping track listing. However if you're one of those people
that become easily frustrated at puzzle games, you might want to look
elsewhere for your enjoyment but this is definitely the Tetris of the
21st Century!
Highly Recommended! |
