Lumines: Electronic Symphony

Lumines: Electronic Symphony
Developer(s)	Q Entertainment Rocket Studio
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Director(s)	Ding Dong
Producer(s)	James Mielke
Series	Lumines
Platform(s)	PlayStation Vita
Release	NA: February 14, 2012 EU: February 22, 2012 JP: April 19, 2012[1]
Genre(s)	Puzzle

Lumines: Electronic Symphony (ルミネス エレクトロニック シンフォニー, Ruminesu erekutoronikku shinfonī) is a game developed by Q Entertainment and published by Ubisoft for the PlayStation Vita. It was released on February 14, 2012 in North America, February 22, 2012 in Europe and April 19, 2012 in Japan.

The game was first announced in Cologne, by publisher Ubisoft at Gamescom 2011, with its first hands-on showcase at Tokyo Game Show 2011. The playable demo featured The Chemical Brothers song "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" and Kaskade's 4 AM as the game's first confirmed artists and songs.^[2]

Gameplay

Lumines: Electronic Symphony has the same core gameplay of the previous Lumines titles. The objective is to survive by rotating and moving blocks onto the board. Blocks are made up of 2x2 and vary between two colors. If they're arranged to form a set of 2x2 of the same color, they form a colored square. Once the Time Line sweeps over the colored squares, they will be eliminated and points will be added to the player's overall score. If the blocks reach the top of the board, the player loses the game. Lumines Electronic Symphony uses both the front touch screen, touchpad on the back of the Playstation Vita, and classic controls featured in previous Lumines titles.^[3]

There are six game modes: Voyage, Playlist, Duel, Stopwatch, Master, and World Block. Voyage is similar to Challenge Mode from previous titles. In Voyage players must continuously create colored squares. After a set of colored squares have been erased, the player moves onto the next stage. Unlike Challenge mode, where the block drop speed and challenge increase after each completed stage, Voyage's difficulty is set in waves where it decreases and increases difficulty after each completed stage. Playlist allows players to select a number of previously unlocked skins and play them in the order they choose to. Duel allows players to battle between each other. Stopwatch is the same as the Time Attack mode from previous titles. Stopwatch give the player a limited time to clear as many blocks as possible. There are four levels of difficulty: 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 180 seconds, and 300 seconds. In Master, players must make a select amount of colored squares in order to move onto the next zone. Each zone increases in difficulty with a total of five zones. In World Block, players can join online and work together to erase the world block every 24 hours.^[4]

Development

James Mielke, producer at Q Entertainment (and former Electronic Gaming Monthly editor-in-chief) , originally pitched the game to Ubisoft as "Daft Punk Lumines". He had wanted to distinguish the Vita version of Lumines and felt that linking it to a particular artist would provide that experience. Daft Punk had met Tetsuya Mizuguchi in the past and were familiar with his work, so they were excited to be involved. They had wanted to compose a completely new set of music for the game but were too busy writing the soundtrack for Tron: Legacy. Consequently, they were forced to drop the project until a future date.^[5][6] Mielke and Tetsuya Mizuguchi both collaborated together on what kind of Lumines game they wanted to make. Mizuguchi wanted to make a Lumines game with flowers and lights. "Lumines: Electro Light Orchestra" was almost used before Q Entertainment's legal department thought it could cause problems with Electric Light Orchestra. It was then decided to use the name Lumines Electronic Symphony.^[7]

Due to the majority of the development team working on Child of Eden at the time, Rocket Studio was hired as an external programming team alongside an anonymous director, which was replaced by Ding Dong from Ubisoft.^[7] Ding Dong wanted to focus on adding dynamism into the game by making the background visuals move in conjunction with the blocks dropping onto the playing field. During development, one of the features unique to PSVita that was difficult to incorporate into the game was the use of the back touchpad. Ding Dong clarified that due to Lumines is a game that requires concentration, it was difficult to prevent the back touchpad to interfere with the player's concentration. The end result was to use the back touchpad to store power of the Avatar.^[8]

According to James Mielke, "Our goal was simple. We wanted to tell a story through sound. With this in mind, our song selection was done to replicate a groovy lounge instead of trying to develop a non-stop 140BPM megamix. The soundtrack is designed to rise and fall like waves, giving the player both rhythm and respite, which would feel like a musical journey."^[9] Mielke spoke of creating a "Say Anything..." moment within the game, referring to the use of a highly familiar vocal track at a key moment to generate a strong emotional impact. Mizuguchi and Mielke later agreed that this could be done solely using electronic music. In the selection and ordering of the tracks, they aimed to show an emotional progression, much like that found on some bands' LPs.^[10]

Music

There are 34 licensed tracks in Lumines: Electronic Symphony.^[11] Voyage, the main gameplay mode, includes 33 of these songs, which appear in-game in the following order:

1. "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)" – Deep Dish with Everything but the Girl
2. "Good Girl" – Benny Benassi
3. "Moistly" – LFO
4. "4 AM" - Kaskade
5. "In My Arms" – Mylo
6. "Sunriser" (Publicmind Remix) – Ken Ishii featuring 7th Gate
7. "Hey Boy Hey Girl" – The Chemical Brothers
8. "Autumn Love" – SCSI-9
9. "Disco Infiltrator" – LCD Soundsystem
10. "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" (Jam & Spoon Mix) – Pet Shop Boys
11. "Windowlicker" – Aphex Twin
12. "Bang Bang Bang" – Mark Ronson & The Business
13. "Played-A-Live (The Bongo Song)" – Safri Duo
14. "Close (to the Edit)" – The Art of Noise
15. "Embracing the Future" – BT
16. "Automatons" – Anything Box
17. "The Sun Rising" – The Beloved
18. "Pacific 707" – 808 State
19. "What's Your Number" – Ian Pooley
20. "Flyin' Hi" – Faithless
21. "Higher State of Consciousness (Deep & Slow Chill Edit)" – Josh Wink
22. "Wooden Toy" – Amon Tobin
23. "Superstar" – Aeroplane
24. "Apollo Throwdown" – The Go! Team
25. "Celebrate Our Love" – Howard Jones
26. "Kelly Watch the Stars" – Air
27. "Aganju" - Bebel Gilberto
28. "Rocket" (Tiësto Remix) – Goldfrapp
29. "Always Loved a Film" – Underworld
30. "Wolfgang's 5th Symphony" – Wolfgang Gartner
31. "Dissolve" – The Chemical Brothers
32. "Out of the Blue" – System F
33. "Gouryella" – Gouryella

"Never" by Orbital is played over the game credits.

The game includes ten additional unlockable music tracks composed by Makoto Asai. Once unlocked, these tracks are playable in Playlist mode.

1. "Final Days of the Samurai"
2. "Traces of the Past"
3. "The Afterglow"
4. "Subaquatic"
5. "We Are Connected"
6. "Another Dimension"
7. "Sub-zero"
8. "Riders on the Storm"
9. "Hot Stuff"
10. "Life"

Reception

The game was released in February 2012, alongside the launch of the PlayStation Vita. Its current Metacritic score holds at 83 out of 100,^[13] with many of the top gaming sites, like Destructoid and IGN scoring the game a 9.5/10 and 9/10, respectively. 57 out of the 65 reviews are 'positive,' while only 8 are considered 'mixed,' and zero are ranked as 'negative.' Many reviews have stated that Lumines: Electronic Symphony ranks as the PlayStation Vita's first "must-have" title, with gaming site, TotalPlayStation.com, saying that "Tetris has met its match." Giant Bomb editor-in-chief Jeff Gerstmann calls Lumines: Electronic Symphony "the most fun I've had with the franchise since it debuted on the PSP back in 2004."

Kotaku describes the game as "bringing Lumines back to its electronic roots".^[14] ShackNews reports the game is one of the most expected and impressive launch titles for the Vita,^[15] along with Gravity Rush. Thierry Nguyen from 1UP wrote that Lumines: Electronic Symphony "seems like a safe bet that this will end up being another snazzy synesthesia symphony."^[16] while GamesRadar described in depth the games' mechanics: "As our score grew and the visuals got more and more intense, it was impossible not to slow down and admire how gorgeous it looks in motion."^[17]

References

External links

• Japanese official site