Lumines Arise Review – Tick follows block, in Mizuguchi’s latest masterpiece

Tetris has Tetrominos. Lumines has blocks. Tetris tasks you with forming lines. Lumines tasks you with forming larger blocks. They’re two sides of the same block-dropping coin, and while Tetris is instantly recognisable as one of the most iconic, generation-defining games of all time, Lumines can stake a claim to its own equally important place in history. In some ways, Lumines: Arise is the culmination of both these series.

Developer Enhance, led by game design guru – and original Lumines creator – Tetsuya Mizuguchi, revolutionised the look and feel of playing Tetris in 2018’s Tetris Effect. The result of this fusion of Tetris’s classic block-based puzzle action with Mizuguchi’s penchant for wild, psychedelic visuals and thumping, visceral music was an unequivocal triumph, a bona fide masterpiece.

Lumines Arise takes the lessons learned from Tetris Effect and folds them back into Lumines’ framework, expanding on the series’ formula, bringing new life and energy with it, and in the process, crafting another genre-defining puzzle game.

Lumines is all about building up your score by repeatedly forming blocks of matching colour. These can start with a simple 2×2 square, expanding out for higher scores and bigger chain combos. You’re racing against the screen-wiping Time Line though, passing at different rates across the playfield depending on the level and the music. It lends Lumines, and in turn Lumines Arise, a frantic, heady pace, but one that you can zone in and out of, easing back at times before snatching once more at the high score leaderboard.

That alternating pace is changed up by each level, and it’s here that Lumines Arise has felt Tetris Effect’s influence most keenly. Visually, and aurally, Lumines Arise is one of the most incredible experiences in gaming. It’s an assault, a barrage, a blanket, a seabed, a keening wind, an astral vacuum, a tolling bell, a thumping nightclub, or a chopping board. It’s an experience that shifts and moves level by level, changing up the formation of the blocks themselves, while the visuals writhe and twist around you. It’s only heightened by the closed-circuit isolation of VR, and it’s one of the few games that will warrant dusting off your PSVR 2 for.

It’s hard to understand how the changing aspects of the blocks makes them feel different, but Enhance combine visuals, audio and haptic vibration with alarming precision to bring a different sensation to you through the game’s extensive Journey mode. Blocks may pulse, or move, or release tiny astronauts into your field of view when you combine them. They might be hard and delicate as glass, or as difficult to grasp as sound itself, but no matter what form they take, they are captivating.

On your first play through each of these levels, I’d recommend forgetting about your high score. That initial experience is, for one, too good to ignore, but it’s also a distraction at times, drawing you away from the core task you’re set on. Tetris Effect was much the same, catching you up in its synesthetic web, overwhelming your senses with beauty and musical drama, but in Lumines Arise that sensation feels stronger.

Perhaps it’s because the block dropping here is broader and more organic than its brethren, or perhaps it’s because I’m happier to be led by Enhance’s psychedelic pipe. Lumines remains one of the most impactful puzzle games of my life – I still own my PSP, and both Lumines and Lumines II – and Lumines Arise takes everything that was special about the originals, and refines it down into something that feels like Mizuguchi’s opus. He was riffing with Tetris Effect, playing with someone else’s toys, but here he’s taking the next step with his own creation. Because of that, there’s a more personal touch, a deep-seated love and care that permeates the entire game.

Journey is the central mode, drawing together all of the levels into a form that feels like a concept album. The levels and tracks have been put together in such a way that you can feel the ebb and flow of intent, sweeping you along just as Enhance intend, and while you’re ranked and scored at the end of each section, it’s almost unnecessary, craving the next section simply to continue the journey. Chameleons rave, hands pull puppet strings attached to your blocks, and fresh fruit cascades across the screen as you chop it up. It feels nonsensical, but it’s also utterly human, utterly natural, delighting in the world around us, and making it feel fresh and new.

One of the key additions to the formula is Burst mode. Once charged and then unleashed, this gives you the chance to create one giant block while extraneous blocks flying off beyond the screen, and giving you the same rush of adrenaline that Tetris Effect’s Zone did. It’s good for both high score chasers, and those who need a list-ditch attempt to save their run, often clearing a good portion of the screen if you’re quick enough.

Once you’re done with Journey, there’s plenty to keep you coming back to Lumines Arise, from being able to form Playlists of your favourite levels and tracks to the Mission mode, which brings in a handy tutorial as well as a series of Challenges. These mix up the Lumines gameplay by messing with the rules, so the blocks might grow or change shape, the playfield might shrink, or you might have to dig or unleash some hidden secret by building blocks around the outside of the shape. It’s a fun aside, and hopefully one that Enhance will add to throughout the game’s life.

There’s also a suite of multiplayer modes, with both local and online options. From here you can attempt to move yourself up the online leaderboards, or go head-to-head to see just how good you are at making blocks. These come in both Ranked and Custom flavours, with Ranked mode awarding you with a steadily increasing battle rank if you win, and knocking you back down when you come across someone who’s infuriatingly better than you are, while Custom won’t have any consequences other than the enjoyment of knocking your best friend into next week. With blocks, obviously.

The only negative, if you can call it that, is that Lumines Arise isn’t quite as groundbreaking as Tetris Effect was. That feels unfair, when Tetris Effect essentially borrowed Lumines’ own schtick, but there is some familiarity that simply can’t be escaped. That doesn’t diminish its impact, nor its aspirations, but there is a level of euphoria that Lumines Arise doesn’t quite match because of it.