20 Years Ago, PlayStation Launched With A One-Of-A-Kind Audio Odyssey
Catch me down in the Lu-Mines.
When launching a console, sometimes it’s not about impressing early adopters with high-end graphical showcases. Or the grand return of beloved characters with a fresh coat of paint and revolutionary ideas. Sometimes it pays to coincide its release with something so universally understood and undeniable, that it transcends the typical gaming audiences.
Henk Rogers, managing director of The Tetris Company, famously told Nintendo in the lead-up to the Game Boy’s release, “if you want little boys to play Game Boy, pack in Mario — but if you want everyone to play Game Boy, pack in Tetris.” It’s a model that worked wonders for both the Wii and PlayStation 2. And it worked extremely well with the PlayStation Portable’s first must-have title. Lumines was a launch title for Sony’s first handheld 20 years ago, and it remains one of the console’s best, and most universally beloved games from the platform’s history.
Lumines is a block-based puzzler in the style of Tetris. Created by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the musical mind behind Space Channel 5 and Rez, the game was the designer’s first project after Sega dissolved the subsidiary he was head of in 2003.
While Lumines presents like a game of Tetris lying on its side, with blocks dropping in from the top of the PSP’s widescreen display, the rules are very different. Instead, players are always given square 2 by 2 blocks made up of two colors organized in any which way. The player must position those squares on the playing field in perfect color-coded squares.
When they do, an ever-present sweeping line periodically wipes across the screen removing the perfect single-colored squares made by the player from play.
Lumines is a strong concept for a puzzle game on its own. But in typical Mizuguchi fashion, the game’s actual rules are just half the experience. The player’s rhythm is driven by one of the most arresting auditory experiences in all of gaming.
Every action, event, and even the pacing of a Lumines session is directed by the game’s 40-song dance and techno soundtrack. Each track has been tailored to align musically with the dropping of a block, the wipe of the clearing line, and the explosion of blocks being cleared from the screen. The music even impacts the game. Depending on the tempo of the song at hand, your strategy will have to match: slower songs will make you prepare several solid-colored squares at once, while faster songs will have you scrambling to keep the board full of single-colored blocks in quick succession.
PLayed in short bursts or long sessions, Lumines is a transcendent experience.
Lumines was an unbelievably engrossing game, one that borrowed the synaesthetics of Mizuguchi’s past games and boiled them down to the essentials. The game didn’t do anything that other pieces of hardware couldn’t. It was just a well-designed puzzler unavailable on anything else. It was easy to understand within a few turns but had depth and a high enough skill ceiling to be infinitely replayable.
Considering the depth of the PSP’s launch lineup, it’s surprising that Lumines was far and away the best game available. This was the first handheld capable of rendering visuals as smooth as its console counterpart. And every publisher sought to take advantage of it. Electronic Arts made barely compromised versions of Need For Speed Underground 2 and NFL Street 2. Sony remade PS1 classics like Ape Escape and Twisted Metal. Nearly all of the PSP’s two dozen launch titles were mindblowing showcases for the most futuristic personal media device ever released.
And yet, it was the Ubisoft-published Lumines (big week for them 20 years ago) that was the highest-rated game on the console at launch, fourth of all time. The secret sauce was Mizuguchi’s awareness. He was one of the earliest to recognize the strength of the PSP wasn’t its graphical fidelity. He instead was inspired by the PSP’s headphone jack, the gaming device with that kind of fidelity to include one. He considered it “an interactive Walkman,” according to Eurogamer, “a dream machine” for ideas like his.
Lumines has been ported and Remastered on nearly every console and handheld since its PSP debet.
While every other developer rushed to squeeze console-quality games into the palm of players’ hands, the veteran designer made a title perfect for the format. Lumines is great when played in short bursts. It’s great during extended play sessions. And with headphones, it was a rave in your pocket, something anyone could understand almost immediately.
Lumines is a timeless classic. A perfect game that first launched on a device perfect for its unique, transcendent experience. It’s since been ported to almost every modern console for good reason, keeping its legacy alive. It even inspired its direct design inspiration to imitate its gimmick wholesale with 2018’s Tetris Effect (which Mizuguchi would be credited as a producer of).
Lumines is a tour-de-force showcase for video games. Proof that what makes the special isn’t always what’s the technologically cutting edge or stunning to look at. Sometimes it's about creating an unforgettable and addictive experience that no other medium can dare to replicate.
