First impressions: Lumines for XBLA
by Ken Weeks 
{ May 11th 2006 at 8:30AM }
Microsoft had a little trouble getting the sound working on their Lumines kiosk, but once they got it up and running, I was immediatley struck not by the gameplay, which is familiar to anyone who played thisTetris-like game on the PSP, but by the Madonna video blaring in the background. That's because skin support for the Xbox Live Arcade version includes the ability to run videos behind the puzzle grid. Interestingly, Microsoft told me they have yet to make a decision as whether we'll be able to use any content for this feature, or if it will only work with specific videos downloaded off XBLM. I'm guessing the latter, because positioning little squares with anime porn running in the background would just be too distracting. Lumines hits XBLA around the holidays.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Concerned citizen @ May 11th 2006 8:37AM
E3 is over already?
JayBee @ May 11th 2006 8:47AM
Why does this hot during the holidays? I dont understand why these XLA titles are so far off when they're so simplistic?
soco @ May 11th 2006 9:10AM
i think the reason is to space out the releases so that when there's a delay in the more complex games, they can release one or two arcade games. plus most of these are just demos, and they probably didn't have multiplayer and such working, which is apparently what's delayed Street Fighter 2.
if you've tried a few games of gauntlet or almost any emulator with network support, you'll see how much the game sucks when trying to play over the internet. (they usually work fine on lans)
apoc06 @ May 11th 2006 11:30AM
question: the draw of lumines is that the game adapts to the music. does this version adapt to the songs/ videos played? or are the different skins just music videos with generic tempo sweeps? or do the timeline sweeps actually adapt the whatever song you try to play?