There are two key phrases the developer of a puzzle game wants to see in a review of their game: "incredibly addictive" and "the next Tetris." Puzzle games, repetitive by nature, rise or fall on their ability to hook players to the point of playing "just one more level, then I'll stop, I swear." Tetris, of course, is the game that launced a billion GameBoys, so it's easy to see why developers would want their game compared to that legendary masterpiece of puzzledom. So let me end the suspense and get those two phrases out of the way right now:

Lumines is incredibly addictive, but it's not quite accessible enough to be the next Tetris.

Get down, get funky
Odds are good that you've heard of Tetsuya Miziguchi's games. Odds are just as good that you haven't played them. Rez and Space Channel 5 never saw the huge success that they deserved, but both combined gameplay and music in intriguing and fun ways. Miziguchi's designs take music from its usual spot as a supporting player in the game and makes it an integral part of the action, blending it with the gameplay so that paying attention to the music, feeling the beat, actually makes the player better at the game. Lumines continues this music/gaming fusion, and while that's what raises it above the ranks of the rest of the dropping-block puzzlers, it's also what keeps it from being the puzzle game even grandmas would play.

As with most games of its genre, in Lumines, blocks drop from the top of the screen, to be rotated at will by the player. Each block is subdivided into four smaller blocks that are one of two colors, and the object is to match up groups of like-colored blocks into blocks of four or more. A bar sweeps across the screen from left to right, clearing any matching blocks of four or more that it comes across. Combining blocks of more than four, or having combinations in both colors increases the bonus and ups the points. Since blocks don't disappear until the bar hits them, skilled players have time to set up bigger combos and rack up huge scores. The beat of the music affects the speed of the bar, and faster songs will leave less time for block manipulation as the bar zips along with combo-destroying speed. Clearing a level (or "skin") advances the player to the next level, next background, and next song.

The music of Lumines is the same trippy, trance-style sound that players of Rez will already be familiar with; in fact, the third level of Lumines sounds exactly like the first level of Rez, a nice in-joke for fans of Miziguchi's work. At first, the music just seems like a pleasant distraction for the block-dropping mechanic, but at once the player really understands how the beat of the music is driving the speed of the game, it becomes much easier to achieve a zen-like block-dropping state, and previously unseen combo possibilities practically leap off the screen. There definitely comes a moment when it all clicks in Lumines, and once a player reaches that point, pretty much the only thing that will make them stop playing is the PSP's battery going dead.

Bring a friend Besides the regular Challenge Mode, Lumines also offers takes advantage of the PSP's wireless capabilities and offers up a tasty Versus mode. Those who lack PSP-owning friends can challenge the computer, in an interesting twist on the versus mechanic. The screen is divided in half, but well-done combos don't drop blocks on the computer's side, instead, they move the center bar further into its territory, thus reducing the amount of room it has to work. Beating CPU opponents is another way to unlock skins and characters for use in Single Skin mode. Each skin has its own background, color scheme, block design, and music, and every player will undoubtedly have his or her favorites.

The mode that's most likely to send PSPs flying across the room is definitely the frustrating, yet still compelling, Puzzle Mode. The concept is simple: make a specific design with one of the block colors. The designs start off with basic designs such as a cross or a T-shape, but eventually advance to more complicated structures like an alligator. I can't tell you how many times I nearly had the design complete, only to accidentally combine four blocks and have them magically vanish. Puzzle Mode is ingeniously maddening.

So what's the down side? Lumines' gameplay is exactly what puzzle fans want: simple to learn, difficult to master, subtly increasing in difficulty, constantly pushing the player to rethink his approach and technique. The slick, gleaming visuals combine with the techno-trance music to form a swirling gaming environment that sucks players in and makes it very hard for them to let go. Unless, of course, they don't happen to like techno-trance music, in which case Lumines becomes a real drag. Lumines' rave-like atmosphere, though brilliantly done, is what ultimately keeps it from being the puzzle game for Everyman. By itself, it's not quite good enough to compel gamers to shell out $250 for a PSP, but for those who did buy the system, it's a definite must-have.