GAMES

FIRST PLAY LUMINES ARISE PS5, PSVR2, PC

Words Alan Wen

Originally released as a launch title for the PlayStation Portable, puzzle game Lumines was just as perfectly hypnotic as Tetris was for the Game Boy.

So it might seem strange that its latest incarnation isn’t specifically for a handheld (although PS Portal and Steam Deck are still options); but that’s because Lumines Arise also wants you to feel the music pulsing with the haptics of your controller, while dazzling you with visuals best savoured on the big screen – or even in VR if you have a PSVR2.

It’s essentially Lumines given the Tetris Effect treatment – though it makes even more intuitive sense than that since this game was designed with music in mind. Essentially, you’re dropping and rotating 2x2 blocks, the goal being to create squares of a single colour before a sweeping vertical ‘time line’ clears them.