Game:

Lumines: Puzzle Fusion (2004)

Duration: 1:12

957 views

3

Oh dear, oh my... I've been dreading this for a while now, mostly because it carries a terrible revelation and finally proving a point I made early on in this progression of uploads: I'm not very good at Lumines (yet)... so this is actually as far as we go for now.

Of course, what really did me in was the last couple of skins, and this is just administering the final nails in the coffin. That said, it's still quite important that we understand this part of any action puzzle game: the lose condition(s).

In many falling-shape games, it's determined by the player being unable to allow any further pieces the space needed to enter the field. In others, it's about the field filling up to the play field limits anywhere and being left alone for too long. In Lumines, it occurs when the piece readied tries to enter the play area, but cannot, making it rather similar to the first example.

If the piece can still enter the field (i.e. it can descend one space, placing it below the line that divides the play area from where the piece waits its turn for the preceding piece to lock into place), it'll count as a valid move. If it stops with any of its constituent tiles above that boundary, they're simply removed from play and are not counted for anything (like in Puyo Puyo or Dr. Mario, if you rotate part of your current piece above the upper edge of the field) and the in-field tiles will behave as they normally would.

---

Challenge Mode
Skin 11: Aback

It's actually a shame, too, because the greater scheme of skins and their progressions were getting more interesting, and the styles were getting out and branching into the truly outlandish.

For the record, I didn't even make it to the halfway point with this run, so I'd be happy to give it another try sometime when I get the chance to plunk away a maximum of some hours playing to chunk up and serve to those of you willing to indulge the bite-sized morsels it would create.

I know I played this skin before, but I can't remember if I got any further, mostly because I was foolish enough to copy my save data somewhere "for safe keeping"... and then I happened to forget where that was, so you might have noticed that I was basically starting over from scratch. (That's great data management!)

So yeah, hopefully I managed to simulate for you the disappointment I achieved upon the conclusion of this particular chapter of my Lumines "career"... but it really was just a capture test all along, and I am actually quite surprised how attached I came to be to these mere minutes of audiovisual delirium.

Anyway, that brings me to a thought, any who manage to make it this far and actually read the descriptions: when I (eventually, I don't know when) get around to giving this another go, do you think it would be more useful to just start showing what happens when I get back around to Aback, or are you nutjobs like me who actually like listening to the skins and their progressions and all the emergent soundtrack goodness?

I ask, mostly because either way I go about it, I'm good. I'll get my fix from "Shinin'" up through "Dark Side beside the River" regardless of whether or not I subject other people to it, so I can be all the addict I want to be no matter what happens. But it would be unthinkable that I fail to properly do my duties as your friendly neighborhood digital figurative drug dealer.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that even one person wanting another dose of their meds would be more than worthwhile enough for me if they should speak up between now and the eventual (I'm talking long term, probably) incidence of me undertaking another Challenge Mode run while running a video capture on it.

Anyway, I know it's not likely, but I hope some of you enjoyed this little expedition into the insane at least a fraction as much as I did. Then again, I do know some crazies who do enjoy watching and listening to such things more than they do playing them, so maybe I'm not giving Lumines quite enough credit...

Other Statistics