I got a PSP a few weeks ago, with Lumines, Wipeout Pure and Burnout Legends. Wipeout is awesome, Burnout is alright, and Lumines...
Lumines is actually not all that good of a game. Well, it's good, but it's weak in areas that you would expect good games to be strong in. Like gameplay.
Match up small squares to make big squares. The timeline comes across and sweeps them away. Repeat. There's not much "puzzle" to it, even though it technically is a puzzle game (and there is a puzzle mode). It's strictly a high score contest, but one that has a ceiling of 999,999 points. Once you get there, your score goes no higher, and anything you do past that is pointless.
Yet you want to keep going anyway.
Once you start a game of Lumines, you are entranced by the pretty colors, hypnotizing music and accompanying sound effects. When you eventually fill up the field and die, only then do you realize how long you sat in the same position, clutching the PSP and not doing much else. When you move to stand up, you are stiff and cramped, with no immediate explanation as to why. Then you see what time it is.
Last night, after we finished updating all of the media from the Wii events, I decided to play a "quick" game of Lumines before going to sleep. It was 11pm. I get into it, and before I know it, I'm at level 245, my score has been maxed out, and over two hours have passed. The game has a timer that shows you how long you've been playing, but even with that you don't realize how much time has passed until the game is finished. For me, it was past 1am when I stopped playing (semi-voluntarily) and I needed a good 10 minutes to work the kinks and cramps out of my system before I retired for the night.
I've come to see Lumines as a game in which you don't really play for high scores or because of its good gameplay. In fact, I don't even think the game is fun, in the traditional sense of the word. It's almost a chore to play (or maybe said better, use) Lumines, actually.
I play Lumines because I want to skip an hour or two of real-world time. I want to time travel, as it were. I start playing, and when I finish, I've travelled into the future. It's sort of like how we travel into the future when we set our clocks ahead an hour for Daylight Savings, but anytime you want instead of just once a year. And for more than just one hour. But it costs more money.
I'm not entirely sure I want to get Lumines II on the PSP or Lumines Live on the 360 as of yet. Maybe on the 360 because of the 5.1 sound, and perhaps later for Lumines II when I can find it cheap.
At least I know I can play Lumines a few dozen times to make that later come sooner.
Topic: Lumines -or- How to Time Travel Two Hours into the Future (Read 1615 times)
