Lumines Remastered is wonderful, even if I’m not ⊟
I’ve been playing Lumines Remastered on Switch at every opportunity, in every possible way. I’ve played it on my TV with a Pro Controller, I’ve played it in handheld mode, sometimes while lying in bed. I took my Switch to the gym and played on the stationary bike. I showed my kids the cool new puzzle game I got, then had them Go to Synaesthesia by handing them Joy-Cons and turning on Trance Vibration mode. I even replayed Lumines Electronic Symphony on my Vita.
With this much exposure, in this many environments, I feel like I’ve collected enough evidence to declare with confidence: I am very bad at Lumines. And I refuse to feel bad about it.
I received a Lumines Remastered code from Enhance Games before launch, in order to better prepare coverage. It also meant I had a little extra practice time to really juice my scores. Even so, I immediately noticed that I was at the absolute bottom of my friends-only leaderboard on day one. People in our Club Tiny Discord were casually hitting levels far beyond what I could achieve in my best run. That means that they were unlocking “skins” – the combinations of song and custom visuals through which the game cycles – that I hadn’t experienced. It also means that other people were just plain better at understanding the strategies involved in correctly rotating 2-by-2 squares to make same-color rectangles.
Maybe it’s because I’m a Tetris person and I think too much in terms of Tetris strategies (I suppose proof will be available upon release of the next game by Lumines creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, The Tetris Effect). Maybe it’s an ironic punishment for failing to get into PSP games until Dracula X Chronicles. Or maybe it’s just a lack of intelligence. Whatever it is, I am not good at Lumines and I don’t expect to Git Gud at Lumines any time soon.
Honestly, though, I’m fine with that. I could get competitive, I could study Lumines strategy and undergo rigorous practice. I could work through the puzzle mode to better internalize the mechanics. I could check the leaderboards daily and watch my struggle (maybe) pay off as my scores and position climb. I could probably, eventually play better Lumines, but I think by doing so I’d be playing it wrong. Lumines is by its nature a chill experience, even when it’s frantic. It’s a perfect oasis. Copies of Lumines should be issued to new parents like those Finnish baby boxes. Electronic Symphony certainly helped me find moments of calm in the early days of twin parenthood. Given the choice between a chill vibe and a heroic struggle, I have to believe Mizuguchi would advocate for vibes.
Hypnotic video loops and pulsing DJ mixes of electronic music pull me out of my worries and into a world where only shuffling squares makes any difference. I’m not about to let Lumines become one of those worries. Instead, I can lose myself in a world of blocks and beats for, like, 20 minutes at a time, ignore whatever score I get and wherever that puts me on the leaderboard, and have a better life.
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