Lumines Arise

Written by Joseph Moorer on 11/28/2025 for PS5  

I only played the first Lumines on the original PlayStation Portable. I probably played it way too much, seeing as it was one of the two games I had. I didn't know anything about who made it or who any of the musicians were. I just saw an accessible puzzle game with some great songs. That accessible game became quite the addiction—an addiction so bad that I only had two PSP games for the longest time. While I've played my share of Tetris and the wretched Dr. Mario, Lumines kept me glued to the small portable for a very long time.

Then my house got broken into, and all my PSP games in cases were stolen. My PSP, however, was in its own case in a storage closet, and that case carried six games. One of them was Lumines. In that same case was Lumines II, but I don't remember playing it. I even downloaded Lumines Remastered for the PS5 the other day, and it wasn't the same. Now Enhance has given us Lumines Arise, and I'm wondering if it's enough to reignite the addictive flame.

You're going to notice something immediately if you're a fan of certain old-school puzzle games with a musical twist: this game is done by the same team that brought you the excellent Tetris Effect: Connected. If you haven't played that game, you are missing out. The music, visuals, and sound effects from that game are a treat to watch. Lumines Arise does something similar here, but I think they turned the formula up to eleven. In this game, the background, the foreground, your avatar, the puzzle pieces, and even the music all play a part in this. I use the phrase “sensory overload” more than I should, but that's what this game could very well be. Before we get into that, let's talk about the basics.

You have a playing field where 2x2 squares drop. They can either fall at their own speed and pace, or you can fast-drop them. The 2x2 squares can be made of up to two colors, depending on the theme of the stage. The simple part of the game is to connect these colors together to make squares—or sometimes rectangles. You can rotate the blocks to help make the correct connections, and even drop half a block onto blocks; they will break off and fall where you need them to. A “timeline” sweeps across the playing field to the rhythm of the songs and makes its way across every eight beats. As it sweeps through, it eliminates the completed squares. This is super hard to explain but super easy to pick up. Completing squares is the overarching goal of the game. If a full 2x2 square overlaps the top of the playing field, it's game over—just like… well, you know… that other game.

The more blocks you complete per sweep, the more points you can get, which leads to a combo multiplier. There are two power-ups to help you get more points. One is a chain block. The chain block is built within the 2x2 block and can be used to touch every adjacent block of its same color. Once the timeline passes through, every block touched by the chain block will be eliminated. You will get in trouble a lot, and this is a good lifesaver. The other is Burst. This is brand new to Lumines and is the key to success.

As you're completing blocks, the timeline has a charging percentage. Once that gets to 50% or above, you can trigger Burst mode. This slows everything down to a crawl, as if you're Quicksilver in an X-Men movie. Here, you can make a bigger square. The squares opposite the color of the square will be pushed to the top of the screen. When the timer runs out, the timeline eliminates the square for big points. The pieces at the top of the screen also drop below and give you an automatic combo. The longer you let this charge, the longer you stay in Burst mode. You can charge it up to 100%. You will get in trouble a lot, so this is another good lifesaver. That's all the power-ups you'll get. It’s all skill-based from here.

The playing field is rather large and easy to navigate. It's also very easy to match the blocks and the colors. The tutorial made me think this was the same Lumines from back in the day. The first level in the campaign made me feel like this one is just prettier. The music is more pulse-pounding. The graphics are amazing. Lumines does not care what you think. It wants more commitment. It wants your attention, and it wants to distract you. And it will.

I said earlier that everything does something in this game. Everything is doing something. The timeline is moving to the beat of the song—sometimes this timeline speeds up. The squares all react as they're eliminated: they are dusted, or hatched, or evolved, or sliced in half. They are hatched because some of the squares are eggs. They are sliced in half because some of the squares are made up of broccoli and bell peppers. There's a guy in the background of the playing field walking toward the screen. There is a woman on the beach reacting to the music. Your little avatar is even moving. There are scene changes, explosions, lights, sound effects based on the stage, and music alterations with every square made. And while all this is going on, you have to simply… make squares.

In the campaign, there are nine areas. The first few areas have four stages, while the later areas have five. The game lets you know how many squares you have to make to get through. While the old Lumines just kept you going, Lumines Arise gives you about a 5–7 second break between stages. Once you complete all the stages, it gives you a grade to show how terrible you really are. Then you choose the next area. I needed every second of each break. I was the fool who thought this was just another puzzle game. I probably used every curse word I could getting through the later stages. I made up new curse words for stage 9. All of this was on normal difficulty. I would attempt this on a harder difficulty, but I like life—and my controllers. There is a survival mode where you see how far you can get through all nine areas. Good luck with that.

Fortunately, the game offers more options. There is a mission mode that lets you complete a number of challenges. The training missions are more along the lines of the extended tutorial. The challenges mode sees you through different parts of the game you can and will experience during the journey. I attempted the training module after I played the campaign, then went back to the campaign and had the same experience: a simple game that is not so simple. Lumines Arise is magic—but black magic in a cauldron by a group of witches.

A full multiplayer suite is also available to play. While you can do local couch co-op, you also have the option to take on people online. There is plenty to choose from here, and all of them are here to get your puzzle-playing butt handed to you. You don't play this game, but there are people that do. In Burst Battle, you use Burst mode to send garbage blocks to your opponent. These blocks appear on the sides of the playing field and can be eliminated once an adjacent square is swept off the playing field. Don't dawdle in this mode. They will not take mercy on you. There is a casual version and a ranked mode to further show you how good—or bad—you are.

Multiplayer expands with more modes like the Time Attack leaderboard and Dig Down. The Leaderboard League, as the game calls it, challenges you to erase squares within a time limit. You can set it to three different intervals: 60, 180, or 300 seconds. Dig Down mode sees how long you can last while the playing field has blocks rising from the bottom. Just like me watching any ASMR video, I didn't last very long. All this is available with full crossplay, because it's only out for the PS5 and Steam/PC. Finally, there are special events that get you customizable items for your Loomii. These last 72 hours, from Friday to Sunday. All your weekend belongs to Loomii.

The Loomii is the avatar I was referring to, and if you want to customize it, you have to earn Loomii-Pon. Pon is earned through the mission mode, Journey mode, and multiplayer modes. The in-game currency is key to customization, from your Loomii to the plate that gets shown to your opponents. These items are gained at random, while other items can be unlocked by meeting certain achievements. And I'm not referring to those participation awards you all strive for.

The game knows there's a lot going for it. It planned for it. In the accessibility options, you can turn a lot of the distractions off. This makes it easier for players—and your eyeballs. You can do a no-stress mode, taking out the ability to upload your scores to the servers but making it a lighter experience. If you're playing it on the Steam Deck or PlayStation Portable, you can even change the camera distance. You can turn on or off practically anything that bothers you about this game, and I think that's the best part of Lumines Arise.

It just wants you to play it—from fans of the first game, like myself, to fans of the series. I don't know about the creepy guy in that first stage, but the rest of it is really cool to look at. The music sometimes gets a little wonky, and there's one song I could stand to never hear again, but it does make me feel something. I guess I will try getting good at the game.