When the original Lumines game first launched alongside the PSP over twenty years ago, the puzzle game took the gaming world by storm. Many people even consider the puzzle mechanics and gameplay on par with or even better than Tetris. Now, the franchise is back with the first entry in almost a decade (and first new entry in over a decade) in Lumines Arise from Enhance and Monstars. As someone who is a lifelong puzzle game fan, I had never touched a Lumines game until this one, and, boy, what an experience this was.

When I previewed Lumines Arise back at Summer Games Fest this year, I mentioned this was the type of game I could sit and play for hours and just vibe out to. That’s because the game gives off immaculate vibes that just engross you which is no surprise as it comes from the series creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the synesthetic minds at Enhance whose previous games include Tetris Effect and Rez Infinite. From the moment you start playing Lumines Arise, you are drawn in by the music and visuals presented on the screen with even the blocks having their own unique style that shifts about halfway through each level, and enraptured by the gameplay of combining and clearing out the blocks to achieve the highest score possible. The only thing I wish I could’ve done more in the game was to see how it was in VR as there were moments I was so entranced by what was on screen and the music that I would lose track of what the next block coming was. Thus, I can only imagine how being completely engulfed by the game in VR feels.

For those unaware on how Lumines Arise, or the series in general, plays, your goal is to clear out a certain number of blocks or as many blocks as possible by the time limit on each stage. You do this by combing the 2×2 blocks of two colors that fall from the top of the screen with blocks that have already been placed in the area. Once combined, the timeline that is continuously passing from left to right that will clear out all combined colored blocks as it passes them. Much like Tetris, you need to clear these blocks before they build too high and reach the top causing a “Game Over.” Lumines Arise also introduces the Burst mechanic which builds up as you play and can be seen as a percentage at the top of the timeline. Once activated, Burst mode pauses the clearing of blocks for a set number of passes, depending on the percent it was activated at, and allows you to build a giant block of the same color to score some major points once the counter hits zero.

As for the actual game of Lumines Arise, it features a few different modes to try your hand at. The main of which is the Journey which is the game’s campaign where you progress through nine levels comprised of four to five stages where your goal is to score as many points as possible by the end of each level. If you lose on a stage, you can restart at the first stage of a level or restart from the current stage, but be warned that your score resets so restarting at a later stage means a lower score. Journey also features a Survival mode where you can play through all the stages nonstop to see how far you can get.

Then, there’s the Mission mode which features Training to teach you how to play the game as well as specific challenge stages where you must complete certain goals in a stage. Elsewhere, there is a Playlist mode that allows you to take the stages from Journey and combine up to twelve of them in your own custom order to play with up to ten different playlists able to be made. Finally, the game has a multiplayer mode where you can tackle the Leaderboards or just go head-to-head in ranked play against other players online.

Overall, Lumines Arise is another incredible update to a classic puzzle game by Enhance and Monstars. Most games don’t have the level of vibes that this game has, and for a puzzle game that’s one of its biggest benefits. You are just pulled into the stages and let the visuals and music overtake you as you enjoy some of the best classical puzzle gameplay there is. It was the perfect puzzle game for Enhance to put their spin on, and they knocked it out of the park.

Score: 9 out of 10

Reviewed on PlayStation 5