Lumines Live! -Xbox360-
Lumines Live! -Xbox360-
Review by pete
After finishing my review for Lumines on the PSP, I though I would give some thoughts on the Xbox 360 version. This version of Lumines is basically the same game, but was deceptively packaged, and ended up costing way more than was eluded to. Additionally, the Xbox 360 controller’s D-pad is not as good as the PSP’s D-pad, so its really a step down for controls. But looking on the bright side for this version of Lumines, you are playing Lumines on your television, and the game looks about as good as it gets!
I’ve spent many many enjoyable hours toiling away on my Xbox360 playing Lumines. But there was a tinge of rancor eat away in my subconscious the whole time. Here is my experience: Lumines was first released on Xbox live Arcade in late 2006; and what it was packaged as, was “Lumines Live! base pack” or something like that. I had never actually played the game Lumines, but I heard some great things about it and I thought I would give it a try. Lumines Live! base pack was around $15 bucks. I straightaway purchased it. But upon played the game, I soon discovered that the whole game was not included.
For some reason, the game was split into 2 parts. the Lumines Live! base pack only included like 5-10 skins in single player mode. All the other modes were locked and required me to purchase the second part Lumines Live? Advanced pack which was another $15 bucks. What the fudge? The Advanced pack wasn’t available for download until a couple of weeks later, then the full game was unlocked on my console. The advanced pack had like 10-15 more skins, the puzzle mode was unlocked and multiplayer was unlocked.
Over the next several months and years, they released another 2-3 skin packs for like $8-10 bucks each. at this point I was so in love with the game that i bought them all. In the end, I spent upwards to $60 on a downloadable game that I thought was only going to be around $15. Don’t get my wrong, the game is probably worth the $60 anyway, but that is not what the package said.
Lumines Live! plays exactly like any other version of Lumines. It is a ground breakingly intuitive spin on the old fashion block dropping game. The single player mode will entertain you for countless hours, and the multiplayer really puts your skills to the test. The Xbox 360 version supports online multiplayer, but I never was able to find one single opponent ever. I would just sit in queue as the game told me it was searching for an opponent. You can’t really blame anyone, I just suppose that no one was online when I was?
If Lumines hadn’t come out on the PSP 2 years before it out on the Xbox 360, then I would have given it an easy 5/5, but because of the fiasco surrounding its release, and the fact that the majority of the skins are actually reused, and that it is a lesser version than the PSP overall, I must give it a 3/5.
-pete April 22, 2010
