Lumines: Electronic Symphony

As stated in my review of Child of Eden, one series of puzzle games I enjoy playing is the Lumines series, which I have played before as an alternative to Tetris. As such, when I heard that a new game in the series, Lumines: Electronic Symphony, was going to be a launch title for Sony’s then-new PlayStation Vita system in 2012, I knew it was something I had to check out if I ever got the handheld. Needless to say, after I acquired the handheld, I eventually did get the chance to play this game, namely after I got it for Christmas last year (at the same time I got Child of Eden, coincidentally by the same developer, Q Entertainment). After spending some time with this game, I found that the game was not only worth the wait, but actually exceeded my expectations.

The core gameplay of Lumines is actually fairly simple: Similarly to Tetris, you must adjust falling blocks as they come down, except rather than clearing lines with seven different shapes, you are trying to make 2x2 blocks of one or two colors connect such that four sections connect to form a square, building off from there to create combos (the grid is also horizontal rather than vertical). At the same time, a timeline regularly runs across the grid as it clears your combos and earns you points. What makes this interesting, however, is that the speed of the squares and the timeline are both dictated by the tempo of the song playing in the background, which changes regularly depending on how fast you clear each stage, or Skin. This alone makes for some incredibly addictive gameplay and can lead to some minor suspense as you try and figure out how/whether you’re going to make it out of a corner in time (assuming you end up in that situation).

On top of this, there are some additional gameplay elements that help keep the game interesting. For example, you might come across a Chain Block, which creates a combo out of any square of the same color that connects to the base square, or a Shuffle Block, which rearranges whatever gathering of blocks it touches at random; both of these special blocks can come in real handy to not only create some big combos when done right, but they can also help you out of a tight spot (they’ve helped me out more than once). You also have an Avatar which has a special power that can be activated by pressing the Vita’s touch screen (you can unlock more over time to set as your Avatar, though the default is Boy, which turns an upcoming block into a Chain Block); however, once you use this power, you have to wait for it to recharge before you can use it again. Fortunately, while combos can help recharge this power faster, you can also repeatedly tap the rear touch pad of the Vita to do the same task (though this may become less of an option should a game become more frantic).

A sample of gameplay.

Additionally, the game has a couple different control options. There’s the normal control scheme, consisting of moving blocks with the D-Pad while using action buttons to turn them; or there’s touch screen controls, wherein you can move a block left or right by swiping it with your finger, spin the block by tapping it, and make a hard drop by swiping it down with your finger. While these controls work well, I found myself primarily using the normal controls, as I had grown more accustomed to them over time (this may vary from person to person).

The game also offers a number of gameplay modes to keep one occupied, the main one of which is Voyage, in which you go through normal gameplay while unlocking more Skins as you go; the more points you earn in one playthrough before quitting, the more you level up to unlock more Avatars. You also have the option to restart upon the end of gameplay, normally after a block is unable to go down in time, which will restart you from whichever Skin you lost on, though as a penalty it resets your current score to 0. In addition, extra modes such as Stopwatch, in which you clear as many squares as possible in a set time frame; Playlist, in which you make your own music selection to play through from the game’s soundtrack; and Master, a shorter, more difficult game, can also provide further challenge and entertainment as you hone your skills and create your own Playlists out of your favorite Skins.

One important aspect of Lumines is its music, and this game has a great selection of electronic music songs to create its own atmosphere, including tracks from artists such as The Chemical Brothers, Kaskade, Benny Benassi, Wolfgang Gartner, Aphex Twin, and many more, some of which can really make you want to move to the beat as you play through each one. Each of these Skins also has their own distinct visual style, including the color and style of the blocks in addition to the background visuals, which can help create a unique experience that periodically changes as you keep playing. While I am familiar with some of the songs and artists featured in the game, a few of the tracks have also gotten me curious about checking out some of their work, including Orbital, whose song “Never” is not playable, but still plays in the credits of the game.

Different tracks offer different Skins.

Interestingly, as a side note, this game was originally going to heavily feature Daft Punk, to the point where Daft Punk themselves were willing to do it and record new material for use in the game. However, these plans were axed as the electronic duo was tied up with composing the music for Tron: Legacy, which lead to what Electronic Symphony became upon release. While I still enjoyed playing through this game, having found out about the original pitch after it already came out, this knowledge as a Daft Punk fan only make me wonder what it might have been like had this gone through (though considering how good the music for Tron: Legacy turned out, I would say it was well worth it in the end).

Lumines: Electronic Symphony is a very enjoyable, and very addicting, puzzle game. The touch screen controls are very interesting, though not everyone will probably use them, and the extra gameplay modes add some extra replay value to the core gameplay. However, the music and visuals come together in addition to the gameplay to make the whole experience worthwhile. This game will most likely appeal to fans of Lumines who have not played this game already, as well as any newcomers who enjoy puzzle games like the Tetris series. For anyone interested in trying out Lumines for the first time, this is a great starting point and one that will not disappoint. Lumines: Electronic Symphony is quite possibly the best Lumines game I have yet played, and for Vita owners, this is a game worth checking out and a true audio-visual spectacle you do not want to miss.

Child of Eden

Child of Eden is one of those games where I had the desire to play it based on its positive reception, but in this case what I saw of the visuals also made me curious to try it out. However, it wasn’t until after I got the game (as a Christmas gift) that I saw, on the back of the box, that it was a creation of Japanese game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, whose best known games are Rez and the Lumines series of puzzle games. Since I enjoy the Lumines series, I figured I would likely have some fun playing Child of Eden. Sure enough, I was right.

On September 11, 2019, the first human to ever be born in space is a girl named Lumi. During her life, she had always wanted to see the Earth, which she expressed in music she sent down to the planet, so when she died, her memories were archived and her body preserved. As humans make advancements in technology in the passing years, a space-wide internet is developed called Eden, which acts as an archive of all records of humanity. Later in the 23^rd century, Project Lumi is put into motion, where Lumi’s data is used to create another version of her within Eden, but unfortunately Eden falls prey to a virus attack. It is then your duty to purify the virus and help restore Lumi and Eden to get Project Lumi up and running again.

I have seen praise for Child of Eden in which the game works well with the Xbox 360’s Kinect peripheral, to the point where using the sensor is actually seen as an advantage rather than a nuisance. Since I don’t own a Kinect or the 360 version of the game, but I do own the PS3 version and a PlayStation Move peripheral, my thoughts on Child of Eden are based on playing that. With that in mind, the controls work really well. There is the option of using a regular controller, but I found myself eventually using motion controls exclusively, since they worked better for the game and increased the immersion the game was going for in the first place. The game generally plays out like a music-based rail shooter, wherein you must aim at targets on the screen and purify them with a beam. You can move the reticle over multiple targets to use the beam on all of them at once, or you can use a tracer to fire at them one at a time; the tracer is weaker than the main beam, but using the tracer is the only way to purify smaller objects colored purple. Though this can be done with a normal controller, I found it much faster to pull off with the Move, since, once calibrated properly, I found myself able to aim at targets faster and the beam was a more passive ability, even though my arm begins to hurt after a while whereas on a Dualshock the beam had be used by holding down a button and using the analog stick felt a little slower (so in a sense it’s kind of a trade-off). If you don’t have a Move, though, a regular controller should still work just as well to get through the game.

Getting through each Archive may not be easy, however, since the game follows a health system with a Life Gauge split up into five sections. When you start each attempt, three of these slots are filled up and you can fill them back up again, though each Life refill you catch only fills up half a section. Fortunately, though there are only so many, it is possible to reach the end boss of an Archive with just enough health if your reflexes have been honed enough. You can also get some assistance purifying viruses by using Euphoria, which you get one shot of at the start of an attempt. However, these are more limited than the Life pick-ups, so it is advised that you use them wisely. You also get stars based on how much of the Archive you were able to purify, and a certain number of stars are needed to unlock further Archives, so replaying Archives to get more stars becomes a necessity to gather the required stars (fortunately they stack, no matter how many attempts you make or whether you switch between control styles).

A sample of gameplay.

The visuals of Child of Eden are just stunning. Even while you are trying to purify Eden, you can still look around, and the levels, or Archives, are truly a sight to behold. Each Archive is themed a certain way, one of which is based around human achievements in technology, each of them providing a unique experience that you may end up revisiting again out of your own volition. This game has perhaps some of the most amazing visuals I have seen in any music-based game, and there’s actually a mode you can unlock after completing the game where you can go through each Archive without having to worry about any enemies. The music itself, which comes from Mizuguchi’s own virtual band Genki Rockets (of which Lumi is one of the virtual members, played by Rachel Rhodes from the band in the game in live-action), is also very good, and actually somewhat memorable on top of that. Each song fits their respective Archives rather well and when you purify a virus it creates more music that adds further to the music; in a rather nice touch, which took me a while to notice, the controller actually vibrates in time with the beat of the song being played, which adds to the overall immersion even more with how subtle it is. While I haven’t heard any of Genki Rockets’ music before (they have two albums at the time of this writing), hearing the band’s songs in Child of Eden has made me curious as to what more of their songs are like.

The game also has its fair share of unlockable content, and it’s worth the effort. Depending on your performance through an Archive, you can unlock concept art related to the game, which you can view upon completing the campaign. I always find it interesting to look at concept art related to a product, be it a movie, game, or toyline, and the art viewable here does not disappoint; even the concept art is a visual splendor. You can also unlock previews of music videos for Genki Rockets songs, including “Heavenly Star” and “Breeze” from what I managed to unlock, as well as different visual/sound effects for the game and different difficulty settings (among them the aforementioned mode without enemies). Upon completing the final Archive, an additional Archive is unlocked as a Challenge Mode, in which you must try to survive waves of enemies for as long as possible (this, incidentally, can also give you extra stars). When you complete an Archive, you also get a choice of what to add to Lumi’s Garden (the main menu screen), regardless of your star rating. These options are different for each Archive, and when you successfully complete an Archive an additional time(s), you have the option to add something different or add an upgraded version of something you already chose.

Child of Eden is a game really worth playing that goes out of its way to make it an unforgettable experience that stands the test of time. The visuals are breathtaking, complimented by catchy music, and the motion controls work really well for it. Fans of Lumines and Rez will be able to enjoy this game, as will fans of music-based games and/or rail shooters. If you play the PS3 version and have a Move controller, I would suggest using that in place of a regular controller, and if you do I would also suggest taking a break every so often because, even with the game’s fairly short length, your arm will get tired after a while.