Game:

Counter-Strike: Source (2004)

Duration: 2:46

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5

Just... Just what?! Don't leave me hanging like this!

Well, whatever it is, I have to say that I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this skin. It flies straight out of nowhere and defies the general trend of the skins so far, and this is definitely a good thing for variety, but it's also a confusing thing for the ears to encounter all the sudden. It's only by actually having the freedom to "stop" and back up in the midst of a challenge that I get to try to formulate some thoughts about it.

So then, let's do the unthinkable and try to think about that which is largely reflex, pattern-recognition, and almost a subconscious act when you really get into the game.

(Maybe that's exactly why action puzzle games are something that I shouldn't enjoy quite so much and need to have them roped off and controlled, only fed to me in prescribed doses. These are clearly the rationalizations of an addict in a random moment of clarity... Erm, "clarity" for the sake of self-second-guessing, as usual.)

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Challenge Mode
Skin 08: Just...

It's relatively low-energy, what with some lilting piano cues and jazzy sax at your back, but the tempo of the clear line doesn't seem to match the tempo of the experience at hand... well, that's the impression I'm getting after the fact, which would only settle in the back of my mind while I'm playing as some sort of unaddressed nagging. The briefness of the skin's duration surely doesn't help that feeling any.

What really gets me to this thought of aural dissonance to what's going on is the fact that the soft and soothing jingles are met with somewhat contrary voice samples, a sharp two-part mondegreen (the phenomenon where you hear a lyric and then your mind fills in the gaps of unclear enunciation to turn the phrase into something which may not at all resemble the actual utterance) that I can't make heads or tails of what's actually being said: sometimes it's just an "aw, aw!" and other times I hear "aw, no!" or even a "shut. up!" ...which, while I'm sure you could posit any other two-syllable outburst of your choosing, and it'll definitely vary from person to person, happens to prey upon my apprehensions with where and when to drop my next piece. The other thing that really throws me is the high-energy, frequent, and lengthy "awwwwwwwwwwyeeeaaaaahhhh~!" (again, the actual nature of a mondegreen and what is actually being said is in the ear of the beholder) that just rattles me, because it's so out of the norm of what I'd expect based on the rest.

My theory as to the whole off-tempo and conflicting and clashing elements of style is that it obviously first fulfills two basic requirements for something to be appropriate to be a Lumines skin: it needs to be in some fashion surprising and it needs to be a total ear worm without requiring it adhere to some specific fixed pattern, which is no mean feat in and of itself. More to the point, what we're hearing is, at least by my estimation, the cusp of what's to come...an early attempt to expose the player to a song with slightly unnerving undertones in the music so as to make the already jittery action puzzle player that much more addled in their piece placements.

It's really not something you come across much, and even then, it's even more unusual for it to be so subtle about doing unsubtle things to the player... y'know, instead of just being subtle and low-key as background sound, since this is Lumines and all. It really requires you be the one fretting over where your next move will go to feel it properly.

Either that or I'm insane, because Lumines will definitely do that to you. What this really means is that my relative lack of musical grace and understanding is showing and I can only fumble for the words I think match what's being evoked in my response. It's terribly problematic for me to suck at musical appreciation and analysis when that's kinda important in any attempt to dissect the workings of a game like this.

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