Lumines Arise

Lumines Arise was provided by Enhance for review. Thank you!

There are many iconic games from the PSP era, and some I still adore and play today, but Lumines was a cut above the rest. It is a Tetris-like puzzle game filled with flashy, psychedelic visuals. It was an easy game to fall in love with, and I was elated to see a new game in the series being released. Lumines Arise continues the series with its incredible gameplay and hypnotic visual style that makes it feel unmatched in a sea of unique games.

The Lumines gameplay largely remains largely unchanged from Remastered, and I couldn’t be happier for it. We will be raining down 2x2 blocks of two different colors to try creating combinations of 2x2 similarly colored squares to keep our grid as clear as possible. There will be a wave that passes through, which will consistently remove blocks that we put together correctly and add to our score. Once we get a certain number of combined squares, we move on to the next scene.

There are multiple ways to add to our scores to get the highest possible. We can further add to our combined squares, utilizing more of the same color, to increase our score and get rid of more of the grid. And if we get in a pinch, there are chain blocks that can fall and lock onto other similar colors, even if they aren’t in a square, and get rid of them to clear up the grid. This doesn’t add to our score directly, but it can free up some extra space to place more blocks and make the second color blocks fall into each other, creating more combined squares that can contribute to the score.

We also have the new Burst mechanic, which can be used to both dramatically increase our score in a huge combo and get us out of sticky situations. While the special chain can get rid of blocks, Burst essentially pauses how fast your blocks can fall by themselves, giving us a little extra time to plan where we put down our blocks. As we do, we can continually create more and more combos to increase our Burst level, which will ultimately explode with extra points. We have a Burst bar that can be activated once it reaches 50%, but it will last longer if you can hold out until it reaches 100%.

All of these mechanics work together to create one of the most engaging puzzle games I have ever played. It feels like a simplified Tetris that requires us to act fast and keep moving to constantly get rid of that grid as much as we can and increase our score. However, what really makes Lumines Arise stand out and go far above is its incredible visual feast.

The visuals, effects, and overall aesthetic just shine in almost every aspect that they possibly could. The backgrounds are vibrant and unique, and every single level has completely different designs in the backgrounds and the blocks themselves. The variety of visuals, mixed with the gorgeous effects and incredible soundtrack composed by Hydelic, this is just such a fantastic sensory experience. There is really nothing like it. Even with developer Enhance's other games, like Tetris Effect, they have clearly mastered a style that no other game has come close to touching.

There is an assortment of modes to enjoy this game, ranging from single-player content like Missions and a stage-based experience, to multi-player modes to compete against others in quick battles or try to get the highest score on the leaderboards. There's a solid amount of content to enjoy, especially with 35 fantastic stages/songs to play through, and it was hard not to love them all.

The stage-based mode, Journey, is structured kind of like a narrative mode, packed with difficulty levels and a Survival mode, and while it isn't groundbreaking, it is a nice touch I didn't expect for a game like this. It's also pretty friendly, allowing you to continue the entire level where you lost instead of making you redo everything, though your score will suffer.

We also have Playlists we can create with up to 12 tracks of our choice, and play through them as we please. Missions, on the other hand, are just curated smaller experiences where you have to complete a goal that isn't score-based.

And all of these modes earn us currency we can use to customize our character, known as the Loomii-Pon, in Lumines Arise. We can use the currency to unlock new heads, expressions, designs, unique motions, symbols, and objects that are placed inside our head. It's another example of something that isn't necessary, but I do appreciate the option. We do see our Loomii-Pon while playing sometimes, so our customized character will show up to some degree.

Lumines Arise - Steam Deck Performance

There should be no issue playing Lumines Arise on the Steam Deck, and honestly, it's the best way to play it. Enhance does recommend setting the text size to 120% in the accessibility menu, but the default 110% should be okay. The game also defaults to the "Low" quality setting, but I ultimately didn't see a huge difference between this and higher graphical quality. There are some stages where framerate can drop at Very High, but since the Low quality keeps the rendering scale at 100%, I felt it was best to just keep it there.

It does drain more battery than I would expect, but it isn't egregious either. The game itself is so vibrant and beautiful that I am happy to put up with some extra drain as long as the spectacle for my eyes isn't harmed.

Accessibility

There is an accessibility menu specifically, which allows us to change camera distance, transparency, bonus arrows, background motion, some effects, text size, and some filters. We can also toggle some HUD options like the Timer, Time Limit, Drop Guide, counters, and gameplay vibration. There are options for keybindings, audio, and whether we want cross-platform multiplayer.

The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controller support. There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Just as I thought I had moved on from the addiction that is Lumines, Lumines Arise pulled me right back in. The fantastic gameplay style remains easy to comprehend and hard to master, feeling just as good as it did in previous iterations. Enhance not only added a great new mechanic with Burst, but it also went overboard on its visuals and created something so mindblowing to see that it just stuns with each level. With the new single-player content, missions, customization, and multiplayer modes, this is going to be a game I can't see myself putting down.

On top of that, it's a joy to play on the Steam Deck. It does have a little bit of higher battery drain than I would have liked to see, but it's still fantastic to play and looks great on the Steam Deck OLED screen, even on the lowest quality. This is going to be an amazing game to have in your portable library, and I highly recommend it.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.