The Vita’s unique functionality grants extra oomph to the Lumines experience. You can slide blocks down the Vita’s oled screen, and you can charge up power-ups by tapping the touchpad behind the system. These may seem like light additions to reign in the Vita’s unique features, but they work coherently with the particular type of puzzle game Lumines is. Along with everything else, the additional Vita functionality gives an outstanding level of polish to Electronic Symphony-heck even the very title of the game is tastier to say than any other game in the series. This Vita Lumines is simply a gorgeous amalgamation of elements fusing together into a harmonious whole.
Over a decade after its original release, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is still a very impressive handheld puzzle game. The music and the array of bright lights and colors imbue it with a distinctive energy that is absolutely resplendent, and a total marvel to gaze at and immerse yourself in. No other Vita game dazzles in the way Electronic Symphony does so effortlessly, and there’s no denying it was made with an extraordinary level of care and consideration for pristine portable play sessions. The best way to describe this kind of experience is like a dynamite exploding in a crescendo of fabulous and sparkling lights and eloquent musical energy. If you want a console-quality Vita title that’s addictive and challenging with maximum satisfaction, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an excellent and essential Vita title.
Other modes amp up the challenge and give Electronic Symphony added zest. Playlist gives you the chance to play any of the music from Voyage Mode in any order that you choose. Duel can provide competitive sustenance for you and a friend to see who can survive the longest during a session. Stopwatch gives you a set amount of time to clear a set amount of blocks with each progression getting more and more challenging. Master is all about creating block combos and satisfying a target before another zone opens up that increases the challenge, and you keep building up these combos until you’ve reached the end of Zone 5-after-which you’ve completed the mode. World Block has you working with other players online to conquer the World Block within 24 hours before another challenge becomes available.
The Vita’s unique functionality grants extra oomph to the Lumines experience. You can slide blocks down the Vita’s oled screen, and you can charge up power-ups by tapping the touchpad behind the system. These may seem like light additions to reign in the Vita’s unique features, but they work coherently with the particular type of puzzle game Lumines is. Along with everything else, the additional Vita functionality gives an outstanding level of polish to Electronic Symphony-heck even the very title of the game is tastier to say than any other game in the series. This Vita Lumines is simply a gorgeous amalgamation of elements fusing together into a harmonious whole.
Over a decade after its original release, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is still a very impressive handheld puzzle game. The music and the array of bright lights and colors imbue it with a distinctive energy that is absolutely resplendent, and a total marvel to gaze at and immerse yourself in. No other Vita game dazzles in the way Electronic Symphony does so effortlessly, and there’s no denying it was made with an extraordinary level of care and consideration for pristine portable play sessions. The best way to describe this kind of experience is like a dynamite exploding in a crescendo of fabulous and sparkling lights and eloquent musical energy. If you want a console-quality Vita title that’s addictive and challenging with maximum satisfaction, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an excellent and essential Vita title.
As for the soundtrack, that’s the element of Electronic Symphony that truly sends you away on a dreamy voyage, and not just because you’re playing the game’s headlining Voyage Mode. There are a plethora of beats and vocal arrangements that capture the imagination so glowingly and beautifully. Voyage Mode memorably kicks off with ‘The Future of the Future’ by Everything But The Girl, drenching you in evocative thoughts of nightlife and the passage of time, but it then peels away to Benny Benassi’s beat-heavy ‘Good Girl’ and then the artfully puddle-dripped ‘Moistly’ by LFO wisps you away into its mesmerizing aura. And so the ballet of bright lights and sharp sounds continues its 43 song/skin tour, and by the end you’ll feel totally enamored, wishing there were more songs, but also eager to take the trip again to better your high scores.
A Well-Challenged Puzzler
Other modes amp up the challenge and give Electronic Symphony added zest. Playlist gives you the chance to play any of the music from Voyage Mode in any order that you choose. Duel can provide competitive sustenance for you and a friend to see who can survive the longest during a session. Stopwatch gives you a set amount of time to clear a set amount of blocks with each progression getting more and more challenging. Master is all about creating block combos and satisfying a target before another zone opens up that increases the challenge, and you keep building up these combos until you’ve reached the end of Zone 5-after-which you’ve completed the mode. World Block has you working with other players online to conquer the World Block within 24 hours before another challenge becomes available.
The Vita’s unique functionality grants extra oomph to the Lumines experience. You can slide blocks down the Vita’s oled screen, and you can charge up power-ups by tapping the touchpad behind the system. These may seem like light additions to reign in the Vita’s unique features, but they work coherently with the particular type of puzzle game Lumines is. Along with everything else, the additional Vita functionality gives an outstanding level of polish to Electronic Symphony-heck even the very title of the game is tastier to say than any other game in the series. This Vita Lumines is simply a gorgeous amalgamation of elements fusing together into a harmonious whole.
Over a decade after its original release, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is still a very impressive handheld puzzle game. The music and the array of bright lights and colors imbue it with a distinctive energy that is absolutely resplendent, and a total marvel to gaze at and immerse yourself in. No other Vita game dazzles in the way Electronic Symphony does so effortlessly, and there’s no denying it was made with an extraordinary level of care and consideration for pristine portable play sessions. The best way to describe this kind of experience is like a dynamite exploding in a crescendo of fabulous and sparkling lights and eloquent musical energy. If you want a console-quality Vita title that’s addictive and challenging with maximum satisfaction, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an excellent and essential Vita title.
In Electronic Symphony, simplicity meets utterly entrancing addictiveness, making you feel like both a busy participant, and an engrossed audience member whilst you marvel at the sensational sensory delights unfolding in front of you and into your ear lobes. The synergy between the visual identity and the soundtrack in Electronic Symphony gives off an insatiably attractive quality that’s so surreal it transcends beyond the Vita’s five-inch screen. The backdrops are artful and dynamic, perfectly capturing the essence of every piece of music, and as one track tears off into the next track, so do the shapes and colors of the puzzle blocks. On one track you could be maneuvering square-shaped blocks, but the next song could turn those blocks circular like they were Cheerios or Fruit Loops. Suffices to say, Electronic Symphony never stops enrapturing you with its spectacular displays of spectacle.
As for the soundtrack, that’s the element of Electronic Symphony that truly sends you away on a dreamy voyage, and not just because you’re playing the game’s headlining Voyage Mode. There are a plethora of beats and vocal arrangements that capture the imagination so glowingly and beautifully. Voyage Mode memorably kicks off with ‘The Future of the Future’ by Everything But The Girl, drenching you in evocative thoughts of nightlife and the passage of time, but it then peels away to Benny Benassi’s beat-heavy ‘Good Girl’ and then the artfully puddle-dripped ‘Moistly’ by LFO wisps you away into its mesmerizing aura. And so the ballet of bright lights and sharp sounds continues its 43 song/skin tour, and by the end you’ll feel totally enamored, wishing there were more songs, but also eager to take the trip again to better your high scores.
A Well-Challenged Puzzler
Other modes amp up the challenge and give Electronic Symphony added zest. Playlist gives you the chance to play any of the music from Voyage Mode in any order that you choose. Duel can provide competitive sustenance for you and a friend to see who can survive the longest during a session. Stopwatch gives you a set amount of time to clear a set amount of blocks with each progression getting more and more challenging. Master is all about creating block combos and satisfying a target before another zone opens up that increases the challenge, and you keep building up these combos until you’ve reached the end of Zone 5-after-which you’ve completed the mode. World Block has you working with other players online to conquer the World Block within 24 hours before another challenge becomes available.
The Vita’s unique functionality grants extra oomph to the Lumines experience. You can slide blocks down the Vita’s oled screen, and you can charge up power-ups by tapping the touchpad behind the system. These may seem like light additions to reign in the Vita’s unique features, but they work coherently with the particular type of puzzle game Lumines is. Along with everything else, the additional Vita functionality gives an outstanding level of polish to Electronic Symphony-heck even the very title of the game is tastier to say than any other game in the series. This Vita Lumines is simply a gorgeous amalgamation of elements fusing together into a harmonious whole.
Over a decade after its original release, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is still a very impressive handheld puzzle game. The music and the array of bright lights and colors imbue it with a distinctive energy that is absolutely resplendent, and a total marvel to gaze at and immerse yourself in. No other Vita game dazzles in the way Electronic Symphony does so effortlessly, and there’s no denying it was made with an extraordinary level of care and consideration for pristine portable play sessions. The best way to describe this kind of experience is like a dynamite exploding in a crescendo of fabulous and sparkling lights and eloquent musical energy. If you want a console-quality Vita title that’s addictive and challenging with maximum satisfaction, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an excellent and essential Vita title.
Helping you to achieve the highest scores possible are a range of unique power-ups known as Avatars that can clear away blocks or temporarily stall the timeline, allowing you to wrack up combos. You can pick and select whichever power-up you desire from the Avatars menu. It’s ultra-satisfying when you’re getting overwhelmed by blocks piling up to the point you have no more room to place any, and then a well-timed power-up causes a huge relief as same-colored blocks crash into each other and the timeline sweeps them away.
In Electronic Symphony, simplicity meets utterly entrancing addictiveness, making you feel like both a busy participant, and an engrossed audience member whilst you marvel at the sensational sensory delights unfolding in front of you and into your ear lobes. The synergy between the visual identity and the soundtrack in Electronic Symphony gives off an insatiably attractive quality that’s so surreal it transcends beyond the Vita’s five-inch screen. The backdrops are artful and dynamic, perfectly capturing the essence of every piece of music, and as one track tears off into the next track, so do the shapes and colors of the puzzle blocks. On one track you could be maneuvering square-shaped blocks, but the next song could turn those blocks circular like they were Cheerios or Fruit Loops. Suffices to say, Electronic Symphony never stops enrapturing you with its spectacular displays of spectacle.
As for the soundtrack, that’s the element of Electronic Symphony that truly sends you away on a dreamy voyage, and not just because you’re playing the game’s headlining Voyage Mode. There are a plethora of beats and vocal arrangements that capture the imagination so glowingly and beautifully. Voyage Mode memorably kicks off with ‘The Future of the Future’ by Everything But The Girl, drenching you in evocative thoughts of nightlife and the passage of time, but it then peels away to Benny Benassi’s beat-heavy ‘Good Girl’ and then the artfully puddle-dripped ‘Moistly’ by LFO wisps you away into its mesmerizing aura. And so the ballet of bright lights and sharp sounds continues its 43 song/skin tour, and by the end you’ll feel totally enamored, wishing there were more songs, but also eager to take the trip again to better your high scores.
A Well-Challenged Puzzler
Other modes amp up the challenge and give Electronic Symphony added zest. Playlist gives you the chance to play any of the music from Voyage Mode in any order that you choose. Duel can provide competitive sustenance for you and a friend to see who can survive the longest during a session. Stopwatch gives you a set amount of time to clear a set amount of blocks with each progression getting more and more challenging. Master is all about creating block combos and satisfying a target before another zone opens up that increases the challenge, and you keep building up these combos until you’ve reached the end of Zone 5-after-which you’ve completed the mode. World Block has you working with other players online to conquer the World Block within 24 hours before another challenge becomes available.
The Vita’s unique functionality grants extra oomph to the Lumines experience. You can slide blocks down the Vita’s oled screen, and you can charge up power-ups by tapping the touchpad behind the system. These may seem like light additions to reign in the Vita’s unique features, but they work coherently with the particular type of puzzle game Lumines is. Along with everything else, the additional Vita functionality gives an outstanding level of polish to Electronic Symphony-heck even the very title of the game is tastier to say than any other game in the series. This Vita Lumines is simply a gorgeous amalgamation of elements fusing together into a harmonious whole.
Over a decade after its original release, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is still a very impressive handheld puzzle game. The music and the array of bright lights and colors imbue it with a distinctive energy that is absolutely resplendent, and a total marvel to gaze at and immerse yourself in. No other Vita game dazzles in the way Electronic Symphony does so effortlessly, and there’s no denying it was made with an extraordinary level of care and consideration for pristine portable play sessions. The best way to describe this kind of experience is like a dynamite exploding in a crescendo of fabulous and sparkling lights and eloquent musical energy. If you want a console-quality Vita title that’s addictive and challenging with maximum satisfaction, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an excellent and essential Vita title.
Voyage Mode is the delicious main course of Electronic Symphony, where in typical Lumines fashion, you start building and busting blocks that descend down from atop the screen. These blocks fall in sets of four and need to be matched by color in groups of four as well, and your job is to try and drop as many of the same colored blocks on top of or to the side of each other as you can before a timeline scrolls by. The timeline rolls along from left to right and they erase the blocks that have been matched, so basically the more you are able to match before the timeline crosses the screen, the bigger combination and the greater the score you’ll accrue.
Helping you to achieve the highest scores possible are a range of unique power-ups known as Avatars that can clear away blocks or temporarily stall the timeline, allowing you to wrack up combos. You can pick and select whichever power-up you desire from the Avatars menu. It’s ultra-satisfying when you’re getting overwhelmed by blocks piling up to the point you have no more room to place any, and then a well-timed power-up causes a huge relief as same-colored blocks crash into each other and the timeline sweeps them away.
In Electronic Symphony, simplicity meets utterly entrancing addictiveness, making you feel like both a busy participant, and an engrossed audience member whilst you marvel at the sensational sensory delights unfolding in front of you and into your ear lobes. The synergy between the visual identity and the soundtrack in Electronic Symphony gives off an insatiably attractive quality that’s so surreal it transcends beyond the Vita’s five-inch screen. The backdrops are artful and dynamic, perfectly capturing the essence of every piece of music, and as one track tears off into the next track, so do the shapes and colors of the puzzle blocks. On one track you could be maneuvering square-shaped blocks, but the next song could turn those blocks circular like they were Cheerios or Fruit Loops. Suffices to say, Electronic Symphony never stops enrapturing you with its spectacular displays of spectacle.
As for the soundtrack, that’s the element of Electronic Symphony that truly sends you away on a dreamy voyage, and not just because you’re playing the game’s headlining Voyage Mode. There are a plethora of beats and vocal arrangements that capture the imagination so glowingly and beautifully. Voyage Mode memorably kicks off with ‘The Future of the Future’ by Everything But The Girl, drenching you in evocative thoughts of nightlife and the passage of time, but it then peels away to Benny Benassi’s beat-heavy ‘Good Girl’ and then the artfully puddle-dripped ‘Moistly’ by LFO wisps you away into its mesmerizing aura. And so the ballet of bright lights and sharp sounds continues its 43 song/skin tour, and by the end you’ll feel totally enamored, wishing there were more songs, but also eager to take the trip again to better your high scores.
A Well-Challenged Puzzler
Other modes amp up the challenge and give Electronic Symphony added zest. Playlist gives you the chance to play any of the music from Voyage Mode in any order that you choose. Duel can provide competitive sustenance for you and a friend to see who can survive the longest during a session. Stopwatch gives you a set amount of time to clear a set amount of blocks with each progression getting more and more challenging. Master is all about creating block combos and satisfying a target before another zone opens up that increases the challenge, and you keep building up these combos until you’ve reached the end of Zone 5-after-which you’ve completed the mode. World Block has you working with other players online to conquer the World Block within 24 hours before another challenge becomes available.
The Vita’s unique functionality grants extra oomph to the Lumines experience. You can slide blocks down the Vita’s oled screen, and you can charge up power-ups by tapping the touchpad behind the system. These may seem like light additions to reign in the Vita’s unique features, but they work coherently with the particular type of puzzle game Lumines is. Along with everything else, the additional Vita functionality gives an outstanding level of polish to Electronic Symphony-heck even the very title of the game is tastier to say than any other game in the series. This Vita Lumines is simply a gorgeous amalgamation of elements fusing together into a harmonious whole.
Over a decade after its original release, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is still a very impressive handheld puzzle game. The music and the array of bright lights and colors imbue it with a distinctive energy that is absolutely resplendent, and a total marvel to gaze at and immerse yourself in. No other Vita game dazzles in the way Electronic Symphony does so effortlessly, and there’s no denying it was made with an extraordinary level of care and consideration for pristine portable play sessions. The best way to describe this kind of experience is like a dynamite exploding in a crescendo of fabulous and sparkling lights and eloquent musical energy. If you want a console-quality Vita title that’s addictive and challenging with maximum satisfaction, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an excellent and essential Vita title.
Lumines is a franchise born on Sony’s handheld with the first two games making an appearance on the PSP, and they were well-received, featuring great block arranging and busting gameplay, along with great electronica tunes and sparkling visuals. However, Electronic Symphony takes the template of the PSP games and molds and evolves it, providing us with something so gorgeously elegant that it’s difficult to acknowledge that underneath it is principally the same game as the previous two entries. There is no other PlayStation Vita title that impresses with its audio-visual displays like Electronic Symphony, yet such games maybe cornered by the fact its identity as a puzzle game; but make no mistake this is the puzzle game with more sparkle in its finger than the majority of games on the Vita have in their entire physical or digital forms.
Play
Bon Voyage!
Voyage Mode is the delicious main course of Electronic Symphony, where in typical Lumines fashion, you start building and busting blocks that descend down from atop the screen. These blocks fall in sets of four and need to be matched by color in groups of four as well, and your job is to try and drop as many of the same colored blocks on top of or to the side of each other as you can before a timeline scrolls by. The timeline rolls along from left to right and they erase the blocks that have been matched, so basically the more you are able to match before the timeline crosses the screen, the bigger combination and the greater the score you’ll accrue.
Helping you to achieve the highest scores possible are a range of unique power-ups known as Avatars that can clear away blocks or temporarily stall the timeline, allowing you to wrack up combos. You can pick and select whichever power-up you desire from the Avatars menu. It’s ultra-satisfying when you’re getting overwhelmed by blocks piling up to the point you have no more room to place any, and then a well-timed power-up causes a huge relief as same-colored blocks crash into each other and the timeline sweeps them away.
In Electronic Symphony, simplicity meets utterly entrancing addictiveness, making you feel like both a busy participant, and an engrossed audience member whilst you marvel at the sensational sensory delights unfolding in front of you and into your ear lobes. The synergy between the visual identity and the soundtrack in Electronic Symphony gives off an insatiably attractive quality that’s so surreal it transcends beyond the Vita’s five-inch screen. The backdrops are artful and dynamic, perfectly capturing the essence of every piece of music, and as one track tears off into the next track, so do the shapes and colors of the puzzle blocks. On one track you could be maneuvering square-shaped blocks, but the next song could turn those blocks circular like they were Cheerios or Fruit Loops. Suffices to say, Electronic Symphony never stops enrapturing you with its spectacular displays of spectacle.
As for the soundtrack, that’s the element of Electronic Symphony that truly sends you away on a dreamy voyage, and not just because you’re playing the game’s headlining Voyage Mode. There are a plethora of beats and vocal arrangements that capture the imagination so glowingly and beautifully. Voyage Mode memorably kicks off with ‘The Future of the Future’ by Everything But The Girl, drenching you in evocative thoughts of nightlife and the passage of time, but it then peels away to Benny Benassi’s beat-heavy ‘Good Girl’ and then the artfully puddle-dripped ‘Moistly’ by LFO wisps you away into its mesmerizing aura. And so the ballet of bright lights and sharp sounds continues its 43 song/skin tour, and by the end you’ll feel totally enamored, wishing there were more songs, but also eager to take the trip again to better your high scores.
A Well-Challenged Puzzler
Other modes amp up the challenge and give Electronic Symphony added zest. Playlist gives you the chance to play any of the music from Voyage Mode in any order that you choose. Duel can provide competitive sustenance for you and a friend to see who can survive the longest during a session. Stopwatch gives you a set amount of time to clear a set amount of blocks with each progression getting more and more challenging. Master is all about creating block combos and satisfying a target before another zone opens up that increases the challenge, and you keep building up these combos until you’ve reached the end of Zone 5-after-which you’ve completed the mode. World Block has you working with other players online to conquer the World Block within 24 hours before another challenge becomes available.
The Vita’s unique functionality grants extra oomph to the Lumines experience. You can slide blocks down the Vita’s oled screen, and you can charge up power-ups by tapping the touchpad behind the system. These may seem like light additions to reign in the Vita’s unique features, but they work coherently with the particular type of puzzle game Lumines is. Along with everything else, the additional Vita functionality gives an outstanding level of polish to Electronic Symphony-heck even the very title of the game is tastier to say than any other game in the series. This Vita Lumines is simply a gorgeous amalgamation of elements fusing together into a harmonious whole.
Over a decade after its original release, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is still a very impressive handheld puzzle game. The music and the array of bright lights and colors imbue it with a distinctive energy that is absolutely resplendent, and a total marvel to gaze at and immerse yourself in. No other Vita game dazzles in the way Electronic Symphony does so effortlessly, and there’s no denying it was made with an extraordinary level of care and consideration for pristine portable play sessions. The best way to describe this kind of experience is like a dynamite exploding in a crescendo of fabulous and sparkling lights and eloquent musical energy. If you want a console-quality Vita title that’s addictive and challenging with maximum satisfaction, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an excellent and essential Vita title.
When the PlayStation Vita launched internationally on February 22, 2012, the PlayStation community rejoiced for they got their mitts on a fresh and sleek new Sony portable console that promised to evolve its predecessor the PSP’s potential by creating more visually impressive games and innovating with touchscreen controls. The Vita certainly lived up to these standards with the headlining launch title Uncharted: Golden Abyss, as well an entry in PlayStation’s perennial racing series Wipeout with Wipeout 2048.
The momentum Sony’s sparkly new portable built was astounding, and throughout its brief prominence, it managed to deliver a bevy of great titles, many of which are still fondly remembered now such as Gravity Rush, TearAway, LittleBigPlanet Vita, Persona 4 Golden, and Killzone Mercenary. However, my pick for best PlayStation Vita game is a rhythm action title that perfectly blends visual splendor with a cracking soundtrack and insatiable puzzle gameplay, all fused together in impeccable harmony. This game is none other than Lumines: Electronic Symphony.
Lumines is a franchise born on Sony’s handheld with the first two games making an appearance on the PSP, and they were well-received, featuring great block arranging and busting gameplay, along with great electronica tunes and sparkling visuals. However, Electronic Symphony takes the template of the PSP games and molds and evolves it, providing us with something so gorgeously elegant that it’s difficult to acknowledge that underneath it is principally the same game as the previous two entries. There is no other PlayStation Vita title that impresses with its audio-visual displays like Electronic Symphony, yet such games maybe cornered by the fact its identity as a puzzle game; but make no mistake this is the puzzle game with more sparkle in its finger than the majority of games on the Vita have in their entire physical or digital forms.
Play
Bon Voyage!
Voyage Mode is the delicious main course of Electronic Symphony, where in typical Lumines fashion, you start building and busting blocks that descend down from atop the screen. These blocks fall in sets of four and need to be matched by color in groups of four as well, and your job is to try and drop as many of the same colored blocks on top of or to the side of each other as you can before a timeline scrolls by. The timeline rolls along from left to right and they erase the blocks that have been matched, so basically the more you are able to match before the timeline crosses the screen, the bigger combination and the greater the score you’ll accrue.
Helping you to achieve the highest scores possible are a range of unique power-ups known as Avatars that can clear away blocks or temporarily stall the timeline, allowing you to wrack up combos. You can pick and select whichever power-up you desire from the Avatars menu. It’s ultra-satisfying when you’re getting overwhelmed by blocks piling up to the point you have no more room to place any, and then a well-timed power-up causes a huge relief as same-colored blocks crash into each other and the timeline sweeps them away.
In Electronic Symphony, simplicity meets utterly entrancing addictiveness, making you feel like both a busy participant, and an engrossed audience member whilst you marvel at the sensational sensory delights unfolding in front of you and into your ear lobes. The synergy between the visual identity and the soundtrack in Electronic Symphony gives off an insatiably attractive quality that’s so surreal it transcends beyond the Vita’s five-inch screen. The backdrops are artful and dynamic, perfectly capturing the essence of every piece of music, and as one track tears off into the next track, so do the shapes and colors of the puzzle blocks. On one track you could be maneuvering square-shaped blocks, but the next song could turn those blocks circular like they were Cheerios or Fruit Loops. Suffices to say, Electronic Symphony never stops enrapturing you with its spectacular displays of spectacle.
As for the soundtrack, that’s the element of Electronic Symphony that truly sends you away on a dreamy voyage, and not just because you’re playing the game’s headlining Voyage Mode. There are a plethora of beats and vocal arrangements that capture the imagination so glowingly and beautifully. Voyage Mode memorably kicks off with ‘The Future of the Future’ by Everything But The Girl, drenching you in evocative thoughts of nightlife and the passage of time, but it then peels away to Benny Benassi’s beat-heavy ‘Good Girl’ and then the artfully puddle-dripped ‘Moistly’ by LFO wisps you away into its mesmerizing aura. And so the ballet of bright lights and sharp sounds continues its 43 song/skin tour, and by the end you’ll feel totally enamored, wishing there were more songs, but also eager to take the trip again to better your high scores.
A Well-Challenged Puzzler
Other modes amp up the challenge and give Electronic Symphony added zest. Playlist gives you the chance to play any of the music from Voyage Mode in any order that you choose. Duel can provide competitive sustenance for you and a friend to see who can survive the longest during a session. Stopwatch gives you a set amount of time to clear a set amount of blocks with each progression getting more and more challenging. Master is all about creating block combos and satisfying a target before another zone opens up that increases the challenge, and you keep building up these combos until you’ve reached the end of Zone 5-after-which you’ve completed the mode. World Block has you working with other players online to conquer the World Block within 24 hours before another challenge becomes available.
The Vita’s unique functionality grants extra oomph to the Lumines experience. You can slide blocks down the Vita’s oled screen, and you can charge up power-ups by tapping the touchpad behind the system. These may seem like light additions to reign in the Vita’s unique features, but they work coherently with the particular type of puzzle game Lumines is. Along with everything else, the additional Vita functionality gives an outstanding level of polish to Electronic Symphony-heck even the very title of the game is tastier to say than any other game in the series. This Vita Lumines is simply a gorgeous amalgamation of elements fusing together into a harmonious whole.
Over a decade after its original release, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is still a very impressive handheld puzzle game. The music and the array of bright lights and colors imbue it with a distinctive energy that is absolutely resplendent, and a total marvel to gaze at and immerse yourself in. No other Vita game dazzles in the way Electronic Symphony does so effortlessly, and there’s no denying it was made with an extraordinary level of care and consideration for pristine portable play sessions. The best way to describe this kind of experience is like a dynamite exploding in a crescendo of fabulous and sparkling lights and eloquent musical energy. If you want a console-quality Vita title that’s addictive and challenging with maximum satisfaction, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an excellent and essential Vita title.
When the PlayStation Vita launched internationally on February 22, 2012, the PlayStation community rejoiced for they got their mitts on a fresh and sleek new Sony portable console that promised to evolve its predecessor the PSP’s potential by creating more visually impressive games and innovating with touchscreen controls. The Vita certainly lived up to these standards with the headlining launch title Uncharted: Golden Abyss, as well an entry in PlayStation’s perennial racing series Wipeout with Wipeout 2048.
The momentum Sony’s sparkly new portable built was astounding, and throughout its brief prominence, it managed to deliver a bevy of great titles, many of which are still fondly remembered now such as Gravity Rush, TearAway, LittleBigPlanet Vita, Persona 4 Golden, and Killzone Mercenary. However, my pick for best PlayStation Vita game is a rhythm action title that perfectly blends visual splendor with a cracking soundtrack and insatiable puzzle gameplay, all fused together in impeccable harmony. This game is none other than Lumines: Electronic Symphony.
Lumines is a franchise born on Sony’s handheld with the first two games making an appearance on the PSP, and they were well-received, featuring great block arranging and busting gameplay, along with great electronica tunes and sparkling visuals. However, Electronic Symphony takes the template of the PSP games and molds and evolves it, providing us with something so gorgeously elegant that it’s difficult to acknowledge that underneath it is principally the same game as the previous two entries. There is no other PlayStation Vita title that impresses with its audio-visual displays like Electronic Symphony, yet such games maybe cornered by the fact its identity as a puzzle game; but make no mistake this is the puzzle game with more sparkle in its finger than the majority of games on the Vita have in their entire physical or digital forms.
Play
Bon Voyage!
Voyage Mode is the delicious main course of Electronic Symphony, where in typical Lumines fashion, you start building and busting blocks that descend down from atop the screen. These blocks fall in sets of four and need to be matched by color in groups of four as well, and your job is to try and drop as many of the same colored blocks on top of or to the side of each other as you can before a timeline scrolls by. The timeline rolls along from left to right and they erase the blocks that have been matched, so basically the more you are able to match before the timeline crosses the screen, the bigger combination and the greater the score you’ll accrue.
Helping you to achieve the highest scores possible are a range of unique power-ups known as Avatars that can clear away blocks or temporarily stall the timeline, allowing you to wrack up combos. You can pick and select whichever power-up you desire from the Avatars menu. It’s ultra-satisfying when you’re getting overwhelmed by blocks piling up to the point you have no more room to place any, and then a well-timed power-up causes a huge relief as same-colored blocks crash into each other and the timeline sweeps them away.
In Electronic Symphony, simplicity meets utterly entrancing addictiveness, making you feel like both a busy participant, and an engrossed audience member whilst you marvel at the sensational sensory delights unfolding in front of you and into your ear lobes. The synergy between the visual identity and the soundtrack in Electronic Symphony gives off an insatiably attractive quality that’s so surreal it transcends beyond the Vita’s five-inch screen. The backdrops are artful and dynamic, perfectly capturing the essence of every piece of music, and as one track tears off into the next track, so do the shapes and colors of the puzzle blocks. On one track you could be maneuvering square-shaped blocks, but the next song could turn those blocks circular like they were Cheerios or Fruit Loops. Suffices to say, Electronic Symphony never stops enrapturing you with its spectacular displays of spectacle.
As for the soundtrack, that’s the element of Electronic Symphony that truly sends you away on a dreamy voyage, and not just because you’re playing the game’s headlining Voyage Mode. There are a plethora of beats and vocal arrangements that capture the imagination so glowingly and beautifully. Voyage Mode memorably kicks off with ‘The Future of the Future’ by Everything But The Girl, drenching you in evocative thoughts of nightlife and the passage of time, but it then peels away to Benny Benassi’s beat-heavy ‘Good Girl’ and then the artfully puddle-dripped ‘Moistly’ by LFO wisps you away into its mesmerizing aura. And so the ballet of bright lights and sharp sounds continues its 43 song/skin tour, and by the end you’ll feel totally enamored, wishing there were more songs, but also eager to take the trip again to better your high scores.
A Well-Challenged Puzzler
Other modes amp up the challenge and give Electronic Symphony added zest. Playlist gives you the chance to play any of the music from Voyage Mode in any order that you choose. Duel can provide competitive sustenance for you and a friend to see who can survive the longest during a session. Stopwatch gives you a set amount of time to clear a set amount of blocks with each progression getting more and more challenging. Master is all about creating block combos and satisfying a target before another zone opens up that increases the challenge, and you keep building up these combos until you’ve reached the end of Zone 5-after-which you’ve completed the mode. World Block has you working with other players online to conquer the World Block within 24 hours before another challenge becomes available.
The Vita’s unique functionality grants extra oomph to the Lumines experience. You can slide blocks down the Vita’s oled screen, and you can charge up power-ups by tapping the touchpad behind the system. These may seem like light additions to reign in the Vita’s unique features, but they work coherently with the particular type of puzzle game Lumines is. Along with everything else, the additional Vita functionality gives an outstanding level of polish to Electronic Symphony-heck even the very title of the game is tastier to say than any other game in the series. This Vita Lumines is simply a gorgeous amalgamation of elements fusing together into a harmonious whole.
Over a decade after its original release, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is still a very impressive handheld puzzle game. The music and the array of bright lights and colors imbue it with a distinctive energy that is absolutely resplendent, and a total marvel to gaze at and immerse yourself in. No other Vita game dazzles in the way Electronic Symphony does so effortlessly, and there’s no denying it was made with an extraordinary level of care and consideration for pristine portable play sessions. The best way to describe this kind of experience is like a dynamite exploding in a crescendo of fabulous and sparkling lights and eloquent musical energy. If you want a console-quality Vita title that’s addictive and challenging with maximum satisfaction, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an excellent and essential Vita title.
