Going Supernova
Lumines Supernova has arrived on the PS3, but it doesn't bring the thing we were hoping for most along with it: online play.
Published: January 5, 2009
Good, dear, sweet lordy, Lumines was awesome. I shouldn't even use "was," as the game is still every bit as good and horrendously addictive as the day it was released, but after dropping what must be approaching 50 hours into the game, I've definitely started to burn out on it a bit. That hardly lessens what the PS3 release of the game, Lumines Supernova brings to the table, but since the original PSP release, Lumines has gotten a full-blown sequel and seemingly a billion different ports to other platforms. Again, this isn't a bad thing, since everyone should get the chance to play Tetsuya Mizuguchi's particular bland of puzzle and music fusion, but with the PS3 version being the latest of the releases, I honestly expected it to be the definitive one.
It is, if nothing else, one of the better versions. Everything is presented in glorious HD, and there are plenty new levels (skins, in Lumines parlance[/i]), plus all the now-classic four-square/matching/clearing gameplay of the original. The PS3 version of things adds a couple new options: there's a sequencer, allowing you to drop a bunch of pre-assembled sound bits onto a timeline to create a custom song -- a quaint if simple little toy to mess around with and then play on top of; a new mode called Dig Down that has you clearing columns in progressively more complex screens for 20 levels.
Otherwise, though, things are going to be par for the course if you've ever played a Lumines game before in the past -- doubly so if you recognize any of the skins from previous versions of things. This could have been minimized to some degree by simply allowing some online multiplayer, but it's nowhere to be found. It's a flabbergasting omission considering the game will run you about $15, and even the addition of PS3-specific stuff like a LittleBigPlanet skin isn't really enough to justify that price.
Lumines Supernova is a solid version of a great game. Even with the two new modes, though, it's really only the kind of recommendation I can make for those that haven't already bit and picked up one of the other versions. If Q Entertainment can release some kind of patch (not, I want to stress, an add-on, which would be nickel and diming people that already dropped fifteen bucks for the thing), then this likely will be the definitive version. Dig Down Mode and the Sequencer are great additions, but the going rate for the game right now is just a bit too high. Go for it when it drops to around ten bones -- unless of course you don't have any of the other versions, in which case you'll get plenty of Lumines for your money.
It is, if nothing else, one of the better versions. Everything is presented in glorious HD, and there are plenty new levels (skins, in Lumines parlance[/i]), plus all the now-classic four-square/matching/clearing gameplay of the original. The PS3 version of things adds a couple new options: there's a sequencer, allowing you to drop a bunch of pre-assembled sound bits onto a timeline to create a custom song -- a quaint if simple little toy to mess around with and then play on top of; a new mode called Dig Down that has you clearing columns in progressively more complex screens for 20 levels.
Otherwise, though, things are going to be par for the course if you've ever played a Lumines game before in the past -- doubly so if you recognize any of the skins from previous versions of things. This could have been minimized to some degree by simply allowing some online multiplayer, but it's nowhere to be found. It's a flabbergasting omission considering the game will run you about $15, and even the addition of PS3-specific stuff like a LittleBigPlanet skin isn't really enough to justify that price.
Lumines Supernova is a solid version of a great game. Even with the two new modes, though, it's really only the kind of recommendation I can make for those that haven't already bit and picked up one of the other versions. If Q Entertainment can release some kind of patch (not, I want to stress, an add-on, which would be nickel and diming people that already dropped fifteen bucks for the thing), then this likely will be the definitive version. Dig Down Mode and the Sequencer are great additions, but the going rate for the game right now is just a bit too high. Go for it when it drops to around ten bones -- unless of course you don't have any of the other versions, in which case you'll get plenty of Lumines for your money.
