Lumines

Lumines II
$19.99
So I've read several reviews only to be irritated by their cons. Call me biased because I love this game, but this game was brilliant. I won't describe the game mechanics as that's what the tutorials are for, or you can read what other people wrote on their summaries. But forget summaries, here's my Brief (honestly, would you rather read an essay style review?) review:

The visuals are like eye candy, can be confusing but that's where the challenge is. While you play with 2 different colored blocks you'll also enjoy a distracting music video in the background. And here's the twist, each song will have a different music video and color scheme to mess with your eyes. There is nothing Wrong with it, it makes it all the More fun with absurd random amusement. (example) Imagine yourself getting into the game and all of a sudden Gwen's Hollaback Girl music video plays to distract you from your moment of glory. Maybe people don't have my sense of humor or taste, but I find that hilarious. Not everyone will agree with the soundtrack, but I love it. Most of the tracks will be upbeat to get you into the game, while there will be some few random ones to throw you off your streak. Overall, it Should keep you smiling - no emo songs (no offense to emo genre, just saying that it'll keep you Smiling). On top of that, the game has plenty of side modes as well as replay value if you're the collector type. Now difficulty? I'd say it's as "hard" as Tetris without the dry monotony. Sooo if you're into all those many many games with blocks/gems falling down from screen (Tetris being the universal example), Lumines II is certainly promising.

LUMINES LIVE! [Online Game Code]
$10.00
Really there isn't anything like it on XBLA. If you never have played it on the PSP, which I hadn't, you need to grab this game on XBLA. At 10 dollars its a steal, I grabbed it when it was full price around launch. The basic gameplay is like this. You have set puzzle pieces, like Tetris however they'll always be 4 pieces in a square, that you have to arrange either by rotating to the left or right to make a minimum of 4 corresponding colored/patterned squares adhere to each other. If you set up chain reactions you get more points, along with making bigger and bigger matches. Get x4, x8 or even x 10 bonus points and see how many different combination of bonuses you can get before the white line passes by. As the levels increase the line increases in speed while every other level returns to normal or gives you a break with a slow relaxing, or time to eliminate a pile of garbage, speed.

Ah yes, more info about this magic line. Throughout the game there is a line that travels from left to right, wrapping back to the left, and repeat. Anytime you make a match or a sequence of the same colors together in a square-like shape they highlight awaiting the white line. Then the line passes over them and your matches disappear with the total bonus points being added to your score. There are also times when the game gives you a wild card-like piece which you can use to clear all of that same touching color pieces. This can save you from defeat many times over or just clear off a good section of jumbled pieces. Why am I telling you this, grab the demo and see for yourself haha.

It's actually very addicting and the payoff is loads of bonus points, staying alive and listening to the interesting musical experience. The musical experience is always different because it is directly relatable to your inputs in the game, move the left you have a sound effect/right different sound effect/clear a match sound effect/eliminate a lot of blocks and you get yes another sound effect! There is a background loopable track being played in the background so its not like you're just playing space invaders.

The add ons might be a rip off to you but I liked the game and wanted to support the dev team, (I like Advance Challenge Pack over the original). Its a game that's easy to play, A or B rotates piece and left stick moves it, but hard to master, (to know where to put each piece and which way to rotate creating chain reactions or not hindering yourself doesn't come right off the bat).

Every Extend Extra
$29.99
I am an avid fan of Lumines, and went out to get Every Extend Extra PSP as soon as I could. This game was made by the same people and I looked forward to the same addictively fun gameplay and music. Unfortunately, the magic just didn't strike twice.

The first problem is that the manual and tutorial just aren't very good. A key aspect of puzzle games is learning how the puzzle works. I have tried this game out on various people and all have the same complaint. What are they supposed to be doing? How does this game work? Many give the game up in frustration before learning the skills.

If you stick with it, you start to get the hang of things. Your little craft zooms around on the screen gobbling up items. When it gets near an enemy, you blow the craft up - either quickly, or in a delayed power burst, or in a directional blast. You want to time your explosions so that you get the maximum bang for the buck. You want to take out as many enemies as possible. Even better, you want their death explosions to then take out even more enemies.

There are of course the normal collection of bonus items, bosses and other events thrown in to keep you on your toes. But the gist of the game is to listen to the jazzy music, enjoy the lovely graphics, and blow stuff up.

So that all being said, if they had simply ramped this game up in a more typical way so you got the hang of things early on, it would have been *much* better. Make the initial level very simple, so that you can win it with only the most basic of skills. Give that sense of "OK I'm doing something right here". Then move on to a slightly more challenging stage that requires more chaining, and so on. By having the starting level confusing, people just lose all incentive to keep playing. They have no idea if they're doing anything right at all.

Give how much fun Lumines is, I just can't recommend this game well. There's no reason to be frustrated by this when Lumines gives you amazing, addictive fun from the very get go.

I'll give this game a 2/5 with the hopes they come out with another version that is longer and more intuitively ramped.

Wipeout Pure
$19.99
The game is pretty cool. It's fun to play if you like racing games. Got a real good deal on it.