Lumines Live Revisited

[Arwin]

Lumines is still a game I find myself going back to on PSP occasionally, though without being fit (instead of playing before sleep) and some real dedication, I don't get close to my 234 or something record on 180 sec time trial very often anymore.

However, now I got a chance to play Lumines Live, as being one fo the first games I bought on it, and it's just like Lumines 2 on PSP, which is good. What is less good, is that the d-pad on the 360 controller really, really blows. It's a shame. Just too often, when you press down, and I'm really trying to be precise with that, you end up pressing down-left or down-right ...

So you end up having to play the game with the analog controller, which turns out to be pretty decent. I still would have preferred using a dpad, but I'm adjusting a little ... after getting 150-170 scores for a good run of dpad, I switched back to analog again and immediately got a 197. Should have gotten 3 more, so I got that achievement. But that's not so easy yet - I still have trouble moving blocks quickly to the left or right especially if I have to cross larger distances. Still, when I'm into it and things click (and boy does the controller click - it's friggin' loud like that), then the analog stick seems to almost work better than the dpad on the PSP.

This could harm a game like Virtua Fighter though ... people who were looking forward to getting it online on the 360, or even got a 360 just to play it online, may end up getting really frustrated. Hopefully they'll be able to play the game with one of those Arcade sticks.

That's definitely not what I got the 360 for though - my favorite game is still Tekken, and I'm hoping we'll get the EU version sometime soon here.

Anyway, Lumines is still a great game, and although playing it on this big a screen and this high-end a console feels a bit out of place after being used to the PSP, I'm definitely up for some competition if anyone is still playing this. Gamercard is <--

 

[Carl B]

Arwin the previous was just thread necromancy on a crazy level - so I moved this out and gave it its own thread.

(for those unaware, this thread is the successor to this one: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=34753&page=2)

 

[Arwin]

But I like raising the dead!

Oh ok. Still, this isn't going to get a whole lot of replies I'm sure, so that's why I thought why not pick up the original thread eh? Now that I have a 360 you'll see how I suddenly have opinions on things that other 360 owners have long since passed on from. If this is the way you prefer it though ...

What's the cap? 1 year since the last post? 6 months?

 

[[maven]]

I actually found the analogue stick worked surprisingly well for Lumines Live. YMMV, of course, as I suck at the game, but still enjoy it every once in a blue moon...
And yes, the 360 controller's d-pad is pretty atrocious!

 

[Carl B]

What's the cap? 1 year since the last post? 6 months?

In an ideal scenario I would honestly say like three months. I understand where you're coming from, but bumping that ancient thread vs starting a new one, you're essentially at the same place; a Lumines 360 thread at the top of the thread list.

The reason folk don't like the living dead threads is that oftentimes people don't pay attention to what posts are dated when - they just see a new post and assume the entirety of the content must be recent - and you get people replying to posts made a year ago completely out of context because they don't realize they're looking at the past. Personally I feel new threads make things cleaner; whoever would have followed up in that old thread to your post certainly I think would still do so now.

 

[Arwin]

As I thought, not much interest.

Anyway, I scored that 205 on 180 seconds, getting me the achievement. I had to return to the painful, RSI inducing d-pad controls though.

On the plus side, for the other things (the sticks) the 360 controller feels a little more solid than the PS3 controller (and I have huge hands). Though the PS3 controller is light in many ways, including for the travel of the analog sticks, which does have some advantages - it's very linear and easy to use.

I noticed the differences after playing the FIFA08 demo on each of them.

Anyway, Lumines is great, and I like getting the (tough!) achievements in the Time Trial. But once I've done that, I don't think I'll get back to it a lot. The controls are just too uncomfortable. Though who knows, I might get used to it.

Other than this though, I'm surprised to find that even though there are many games on Xbox Live Arcade, they aren't really quite as good and varied as the games on PSN. Who'd have thought that? Maybe I"ll change my mind later, but that's my initial impression right now.

But Gamercards and Achievements are nice.

 

[Arwin]

I have kept track of all games on all platforms pretty well and had a pretty good idea on what games I was interested in long before I got a chance to play them.

I think I'm almost done with Lumines Live now (unless the multiplayer aspect turns out to be good and someone wants to play it with me. ). I've just about managed to master that stupid dpad, and with sheer determination and minute digital (as in finger) precision I'm starting to be able to rack in the points. I got all hard achievements on the time trial, and that was my personal goal, to see if I could master that.

The last one I got in the second try, once I was on a roll, and very amusingly scored an evil 666 which landed me the 13th place in the weekly Live leaderboards ...

 

[PARANOiA]

This has has a price drop from 1200 to 800 points. Bad timing Arwin

There's also two free DLC packs for a limited time. I ended up finally picking this one up after a lot of patience. I toyed with the PSP version, but boy does this benefit from 5.1 - hearing to swirling sounds around you is a real treat. It actually made me feel the same as the first time I watched Ghost in the Shell in 5.1... totally immersed.

The extra DLC is terrible though - get the non-easy puzzles for a few hundred points? Hrmph. In its own way though, Lumines is a great case study for pricing of XBLA games. Was it worth it for less sales vs higher prices? I'd love to see their stats.

Definitely recommend a pickup - now you're saving a bunch and get bonuses too!

 

[pipo]

I'm not sure what you are looking for in terms of XBLA games...

+1

XBLA games are *much* more varied. Shooters, puzzle games, racers, retro, strategy, card & board games, you name it, it's there...

Nothing surprising though, as there are only a handfull of games on the PSN store vs ~80 on the box.