Lumines Come up combines that addictive puzzling move with a killer soundtrack

After a symphony, on-line multiplayer and a remaster, the well-regarded (and infrequently handheld) puzzler Lumines is getting Improve’s full synesthetic, Tetris-flowing, remedy. Lumines Come up is sort of right here.

If you happen to haven’t performed the sport earlier than, Lumines’ premise facilities on rotating and dropping four-square blocks made of 1 or two colours, build up bigger squares of a single coloration. The sport’s timeline sweeps throughout the playfield – to the beat of the soundtrack – erasing accomplished squares in its path, whereas additionally providing you with the temporary alternative to shortly drop extra squares, add multiplier combos and rating much more factors.

Lumines Come up provides a brand new mechanic to the addictive but easy puzzle. ‘Burst’ is a refillable bar you can set off with L2/R2, which locks a sq. on the taking part in subject, permitting you to pile on subsequent blocks. You possibly can provoke Burst as soon as the counter has rolled above 50, though it maxes out at 100. As you would possibly anticipate for a synesthesia-tickling recreation like Come up, Burst mode has its personal low-key musical accompaniment.

Lumines has by no means seemed higher. However that’s not simply as a consequence of 2025 {hardware} energy, but additionally design decisions for Lumines’ skins – the unhinged wallpaper design and block themes that bubble up as you advance by means of puzzle phases. They’re delightfully mad and, at instances, distracting. (As you play, the view of your Lumines blocks will sometimes ‘zoom’ nearer – that is intentional. Recreation Director Takashi Ishihara stated this was to each add some dynamism to what are usually static blocks, but additionally to tug the gamers’ consideration again to the sport at hand. Lumines Come up desires you to concentrate on the now, not the rating, your Burst meter, or your customizable avatar.)

My favourite a part of the demo was the ultimate stage, which featured two chameleons merely raving alongside to the dance music. The soundtrack is, naturally, a banger, too. Lumines Come up options new music from Hydelic, additionally liable for the award-winning soundtrack of Tetris Impact: Related. (The band has already launched one observe, “Solely Human,” on Bandcamp – it’s coming to different streaming providers, too.)

On one other stage, two skeletal fingers, seemingly strung up like puppets, twitch and wriggle as you shift and rotate your blocks. If something, I believe Improve missed a trick not mapping the finger actions to a DualSense controller. I stated that in entrance of Ishihara as a result of I’ve zero sense of decorum — apparently, he’d had the identical thought. I now think about myself a recreation designer.

I acquired to briefly see Lumines Come up working on a Steam Deck, too. The time of the handheld console and PC is now, so it is good to see a usually made-for-consoles recreation prepared for this new gaming PC kind issue.

Ishihara teased that there’s extra to disclose forward of Come up’s launch. The sport will launch on each PS5 and Steam, and it’ll additionally characteristic VR compatibility on each platforms. Whereas Improve wasn’t but keen to disclose the small print, there may even be some type of multiplayer, but it surely looks as if it’ll be in a unique kind in comparison with the extra adversarial nature of Tetris Impact’s multiplayer modes.

Moreover, Ishihara needed to spotlight that the avatars, which dance and emote in sync together with your in-game actions, now characteristic legs. That’s important, apparently. Improve is promising extra solutions in due time. Lumines Come up is about to launch in fall 2025.