Game:

Lumines: Puzzle Fusion (2004)

Duration: 0:56

2,391 views

14

Now how's about this for a quick change of pace? Emphasis on quick, since these are generally even shorter than playing either of the other modes I've displayed so far.

Welcome to Puzzle Mode! This is... well, it's a little different from what I'd expected. Heck, I could scarcely believe there WAS a puzzle mode to be had in a game like Lumines, considering what its normal gameplay is like.

Where the goal of Lumines is normally to destroy, Puzzle Mode makes you play in such a fashion as to build something up instead. You must build quickly and precisely in order to recreate the prescribed formation before time runs out.

Formations may be constructed with either color, but there is one fairly key restriction, just in case you felt like it wasn't quite challenging enough as it is. You can't have any hanger-on squares of the color you're using for your solution. This actually creates more problems than you might think, and one extra piece hanging off the edge of your creation is quite likely to ruin it and attempts at surgical removal often result in damage beyond repair.

---

Puzzle Mode
Puzzle 1: Small Cross

More often than not, these puzzles will consist of shapes that you probably shouldn't be creating except on purpose, hence I suppose how these are very specific challenges to be puzzle-worthy, after all. Well, some are more forgivable structures that might come up in normal play, but they're probably not the best intentional moves you could make.

Take for instance our first offender: the Small Cross. You can kinda salvage it in normal play by slipping a piece of the same color into one of the upper corners, but the leftover two pieces will be rather troublesomely ensconced around the other color square and almost certainly remain a massive pain thereafter.

This goes double in general for puzzle formations, because the only really sure footing you get for this mode is quickly eaten up if you make too many careless mistakes. Then you'll end up chewing through all the remaining time limit trying to settle things out again.

This puzzle is incidentally the only one that can be made in two back-to-back drops, although the pieces you're provided for this aren't quite merciful enough to provide you with the specific combination required to make that happen.

You'll notice that all this is fine talk in hindsight, but I did more than a little flailing about as I reintroduced myself to the game and this mode in particular. I find it amusing how looking back, I can see that I could've wrapped this one up one move in advance if I'd focused on the white squares instead of the orange ones, but at least it seems like I was using the upcoming piece previews appropriately enough.

Other Statistics