State of Play has begun not-E3 with a musical bang, with the announcement that we’re getting a new Lumines game, titled Lumines Arise. Coming this Fall from Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and the team at Q Entertainment, many modern players will know them from the stupefyingly good Tetris Effect, but, for those in the know, Lumines came first, and really, Tetris Effect cribbed a lot of its incredible visual and musical ideas from the earlier series.
Lumines originally launched as a Sony PSP exclusive in 2004, fusing beats and beautiful visuals with block-dropping, shape matching puzzle action that’s utterly enthralling. They followed it up with direct sequel Lumines 2, adding licensed tracks from groups like the Black Eyed Peas, while staying true to the block-dropping action.
Fortunately, the series didn’t end up stuck on the PSP, and they re-released the original, firstly for Xbox 360 as an Xbox Live Arcade title, before a remaster arrived for modern consoles including the Switch, PS4 and Xbox One.
Lumines remains just as enthralling today, and it was clear to see the game’s legacy in the team’s later work on Tetris Effect. It might have been a different set of blocks, and a vertical field of play rather than horizontal, but the same ideas about music, gameplay and synaesthesia lie at the heart of both games. Just like Tetris Effect, Lumines Arise is going to include optional VR support, here for PSVR 2.
We awarded Tetris Effect an unmissable 10/10 saying, “There’s a point when you’re playing Tetris and everything else seems to fade away. Tetris Effect takes that one step further by bringing the game to PSVR alongside its regular 4K HDR presentation, where the closed circuit of headset, player and controller is the only reality. In the main Journey mode – a collection of stages strung together in a series of EP-like sets – you’re still attempting to remove lines from the playing field by fitting shapes together, but when you combine the low latency response of the PSVR’s screens, the ever-changing visuals and wire yourself up to the music, Tetris Effect’s heady melody of the physical and the experiential offers one of the most compelling arguments for virtual reality yet.”
Fundamentally, you should be very very excited about Lumines Arise, and while it’s due to launch in Fall 2025, there’s going to be a demo available this summer for PC and console platforms. Stay tuned to TheSixthAxis for more on this one!
