Lumines

There are puzzle games, and then there is Lumines — a title that elevated falling blocks into a hypnotic dance ritual. When it came out in 2004 as one of the PSP's launch pieces, it immediately became the console's flagship and one of the most addictive logic games ever. Once you start that rhythm, you won't easily switch it off.

Behind the game stands Tetsuya Mizuguchi and studio Q Entertainment — the creator of the cult Rez, obsessed with fusing music, image, and gameplay into a single sensory experience, so-called synesthesia. In Lumines you assemble two-colored square blocks into larger squares, but the key is the sweeping time line that erases the formed shapes to the rhythm of the music. Movement, sound, and score pulse here as a single organism.

The brilliance lies in the interconnection with the music. Each pack of levels, a so-called skin, brings its own track, visual style, and tempo of the time line. So you progress not only through visually diverse environments but also along a musical path, where the beat speeds up and every successful merge of blocks adds a sound element to the track. You play and simultaneously co-create the music.

This connection makes Lumines something much more than a Tetris clone. It's a zen affair in which you lose track of time, and at the same time a game with surprising depth for those who want to chase high scores and handle the accelerating tempo. On the PSP's small screen with headphones on, it's an ideal combination.

Lumines kicked off a whole series and became a symbol of what the PSP could be as a platform for smart, stylish, and original games. To this day it counts as one of the best puzzles that ever appeared on a handheld console.

Why play: A hypnotic music puzzle from the creator of Rez, where image, sound, and gameplay merge into an addictive synesthetic ride.