As I loaded up the demo for Lumines Arise, I expected it to be no different from Tetris Effect: Connected. After all, both games were produced by the same dev team. What I didn’t expect was how trippy each level in the demo would be for me – and how different Lumines’ gameplay is from Tetris.
Unlike Tetris, where you have to connect all 10 cubes to clear a row, Lumines Arise involves linking blocks to other blocks to create a 2x2 Square of a matching color and shape.
For example, a block has two green circles and two purple diamonds. Another block below also has two green circles and two green circles. You have to rotate the block until you align it with the color and shape on the other block and drop it to form the Square.
You can either create other Squares and split the blocks across levels or build them onto existing Squares to make them big enough to get bonus points once the timeline passes through them and bursts.
I found the alignments difficult to do at first because I’ve never played a Lumines game before. However, once I found that the speed of the block drops doesn’t accelerate after clearing a certain number of Squares just like Tetris does, the game was easy to master.
Perhaps the most unique part of my time with the demo, though, was the visuals. The first level had black text to form a person walking across the smoky stage, which made me feel like I was at an Avicii concert. The second level took me to an astral plane where the blocks consisted of purple vibrating circles and white pencilled outline circles, while the third had chameleons everywhere. All of them were trippy in their own ways.
Trippy, in this context, is actually a good cocktail of immersive worlds, relaxing EDM music, and unique puzzle gameplay, all combined to give you a challenge unlike anything you’ve ever seen in a puzzle game. And based on my brief time with Lumines Arise, it’s shaping up to be very good for the mind and soul. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Lumines Arise launches November 11 for PS5 and PC.
