Lumox 2

awesome

Not having played Lumines, I downloaded this is an attempt to kill some time during a train ride. I found myself playing it for a few hours... very impressively executed, and a clever game. The graphics are solid, the controls are simple, it performs well on my Powerbook G4, and it seems very stable. Easily worth $10. This may be the first shareware game (okay, besides Escape Velocity) that I personally will have paid for. I look forward to additional modes in future revisions.

Lumox 2 is a very fun and addictive puzzler. The game features addictive gameplay (which I assume is the same as the PSP original's), good music, and a varied collection of graphical themes. It's immensely enjoyable, but the experience is marred by a few slight issues. Features: All I can see in this 5 game demo (however, it is not well protected. I suggest you find a more secure way of limiting the game limit) is one mode, which pits the player against falling, two colored blocks. Although it is fun, a Lumox 3 would definitely need more. Challenge modes, multiple-color modes (with more points gained to compensate for the higher difficulty), puzzles that give you a set selection of blocks to clear the screen with, and a much needed online mode (whether simply user initiated network matches or server hosted lobbies and game selections) would all be welcome. I can see myself wasting a lot of time playing this game if it had more variety and replay. Many similar games have a variety of online modes, such as co-op, head-to-head, and special head-to-head matches that mess up the opponent (hard to use, randomly placed drops of blocks, for example) when you get a large combo. A mode like this would rock. Having online scoreboards for each mode and the option to upload your own highscores would also increase replay. Playability: The controls are simple and responsive and fully configurable. You'll find yourself racking up huge point totals after just a few games. It's very easy to learn and very addictive. Graphics and Sound: For a game like this, presentation is everything. The menus are nice and clean, although the hierarchy in the options menu seems a little odd. The gameplay is equally nice, however, some of the themes are much duller and harder to distinguish than others. Blue and green, especially the darker versions, are not as contrasted as white and blue or black and red, so they make the game noticeably harder and less visually appealing. Having a better selection of easy to see themes or at least a menu to turn off certain themes would be very useful, and the menu would be a nice addition even if it weren't necessary. Lumox also lets a player choose a "dancing" avatar. However, since it is a very lackluster selection that isn't really responsive to the game, and there is no way to share your icon, so it feels lackluster. Having the icons react to how you're playing, be visible in theoretical online games, and having a wider selection (and possibly an option to import icons of the right file type) would be a nice. The same can be said for music. The overall quality is very high, and although there are some parts that are catchier than others, it ends up working. However, the music feels completely static and doesn't reflect gameplay at all. Fading to faster music and having the speed of the tempo bar increase when the game gets more hectic (read: when the player is closer to losing) would be a great way to draw the player into the game more. And again, having the option to import music and set its tempo or select certain tracks from a wider variety would be nice. Stability: The game seems very stable. Running it on 10.3 on a 1.25 GHz eMac, I never had a single crash. On the whole, this is a very worthwhile game with a lot of growing room. Great job so far!

Due to some mumbo jumbo with the submission process, the page for Lumox 1.02 has been transformed into the page for Lumox 2 1.0. These are different games (Lumox 2 is light years ahead of the original Lumox). Reviews below this apply the the original Lumox, while reviews about this apply to the new Lumox 2 (even though they may both be labled as version 1.0).

Very fun, although it seems to be missing the musical part of Lumines (at least now I can still listen to iTunes while playing). Worth the 3 bucks, but I urge the developer to add an Options menu that lets you change the keyboard sensitivity. Many times I found myself skipping two spaces forwards instead of 1, which messed up many combos and got rid of a lot of the game's strategy. Overall a fun and hectic time, though.

it's cool to see a version of this game for mac since i never decided to pay $250 for a movie player...oops, "game console". the game is a perfect reproduction of the game (as far as i can tell). the graphical bells and whistles found in the psp game would be very welcomed in a future version. also, the controls can be a little sensitive, but nothing game-ruining. and for a measly $3, i may even pay for this!