Ever since it was first announced at this year`s E3, Lumines Live has been one of the most anticipated Xbox Live Arcade games. For months eager Xbox 360 owners have been waiting for some sort of sign that the game was still on the way, a possible release date or something that would end our long wait. After half a year of silence Lumines Live is finally upon us, and it was worth the wait … sort of.

When it was first released on the PSP last year it was hailed as one of the best puzzle games ever made. The game combines a great mix of addictive game play and toe-tapping music to create a game you won`t soon grow tired of. On the Xbox 360 Lumines manages to keep most of what made the PSP game so memorable, but due to some control issues and an incomplete set of modes, Lumines Live comes off feeling more like a disappointment, rather than the great puzzle game it is.

Before you invest your 1200 points (or $15) it`s important that you know what you`re going to be getting. Unlike most Xbox Live Arcade games, when you buy Lumines Live you won`t be getting all of its components. While you can still play the challenge mode, time attack mode and versus mode, there some of the other parts of the game have been limited in hopes that you will buy optional upgrades in the future. For a game that is already more expensive than most other Xbox Live Arcade games, it`s a shame that if you want to get the most out of your purchase you`re going to have to shell out another $7 - $15.

At first glance Lumines might look familiar, tying together elements from a number of other popular puzzle games over the last twenty years, but it won’t take long before you see how unique this game is. Q Entertainment has managed to combine puzzle games with the music genre, a recipe that could have gone horribly awry without the proper supervision. Thankfully Lumines doesn’t have that problem as it’s programmed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the mastermind behind Sega Rally, Rez, and Space Channel 5. Here he and his team are able to take a good idea and turn it into one of the most addictive games you will ever play.

Lumines is the type of game where it’s easy to learn the basics, but impossible to master. It takes a simple theme and twists it enough to where it challenges you to think in a whole new way. Square blocks fall from the top of the screen in a number of different color patterns; it is your job to connect four of the same colors together to make a square. Every so often a vertical line will move over the screen from left to right effectively wiping clean any square you have made out of the colors. You have a limited amount of time to make as many boxes out of the colors before the line comes and wipes them clean, forcing you to work fast and plan your block placements several steps in advance.

Thankfully the creators have made this task a little easier by only making you worry about two colors at a time. Although the colors will change as you progress through the game, you are never asked to work with more than two colors at a time. The challenge is purely in figuring out how to get the most squares made before the game wipes them away.

What sets Lumines apart from the rest of the crowd is that it keeps changing the way the game looks. As you progress through the game you will unlock new skins, which not only changes the graphics but also gives yo...