Lumines Live price cut

By Tom Bramwell Published 16 October, 2007

Plus new DLC. All tomorrow.

A bit like when my mouse cursor goes to sleep, or when Nanna rings to ask why I'm not married yet, the original price of Lumines Live was met with shouting. Good news then for those of you who didn't bother with it, because Q is permanently cutting the price on Wednesday, 17th October.

From then on, it will cost just 800 Microsoft points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.30) rather than 1200. What's more, Q is letting you download "Heavenly Star" and "Breeze" skins for free between 17th October and 14th November - providing you're an Xbox Live Gold member.

There's also a "Rockin' Holiday Pack" due for release on Wednesday, priced 400 points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.65).

You will still have to pay a few hundred points more than the base 800 to fill out the extra gameplay modes like Puzzle, but it's still not a terrible price for a port of what was - and remains - one of the PSP's best original puzzle games.

Not sure what Lumines is? It's a puzzle game where blocks of two opposing colours fall into a wider-than-it-is-tall rectangular play area and you have to try and arrange them so that they form same-coloured squares of two by two. This is complicated by the fact that they generally descend in little confused clusters of competing colours that have to be disentangled.

When you have same-coloured two-by-two squares arranged neatly in the box, they get all warm and glowy, and a vertical line that sweeps left to right across the play area removes them with its passing. In order to net bigger scores, you want to line up several squares at the same time.

This being a Q Entertainment game, it's all done to the sound of dance and pop music, and is regularly refreshed by new songs and changes of pace for the sweeping vertical line and the rate of the blocks' initial descent.

Sounds good? Well, it is. To find out more, read our original Lumines Live review by clicking on the link we just put in this sentence. And, more importantly, let us know if you'll be tempted by the new price.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • asphaltcowboy #1 4 years ago

    Well, I bought it when it was full price, and I don't feel cheated, it's an awesome game! Already got Heavenly Star from when it was free before, but looking forward to the new pack!

  • Darren #2 4 years ago

    I dread to think how much it costs to buy everything for Lumines Live. It was released with half its content missing at £10.80 to a massive outcry and there's been no end of content for it. Has anyone worked out how much you'd have to spend in real money to buy everything? Just curious...

  • ram #3 4 years ago

    What ever happened to the Artist pack? I'm sure I saw videos online of 360 Lumines backgrounds with Madonna videos etc

  • SomaticSense #4 4 years ago

    Does the "extra" stuff (read: the rest of the game) also come packaged with the 800 points? If not, then they can still get bent.

  • Freelancepolice #5 4 years ago

    @ram
    think that's lumines 2 on psp

  • menage #6 4 years ago

    "I dread to think how much it costs to buy everything for Lumines Live. It was released with half its content missing at £10.80 to a massive outcry and there's been no end of content for it. Has anyone worked out how much you'd have to spend in real money to buy everything? Just curious..."

    No end is a bit exaggerated isn't it. 2 packs and some free skins I believe.

  • menage #7 4 years ago

    " Does the "extra" stuff (read: the rest of the game) also come packaged with the 800 points? If not, then they can still get bent."

    Some people want practically everything for free. Not saying I wasn't a bit dissapointed innitially, but 800 points get's you a lot worse on XBLA than this.

  • asphaltcowboy #8 4 years ago

    Exactly, it was very expensive, but I've probably spent more time playing Lumines than any other XBLA game...

  • pinchofsalt #9 4 years ago

    A dull game is still a dull game no matter what the price.

  • cyacomini #10 4 years ago

    very expensive but well worth it IMO.

    I probably spent more time playing Lumines than I did playing some of the other sutff costing £40+

  • Chester #11 4 years ago

    @ram

    Wasn't it at E3 2006 that MS showed the Lumines with Madonna video in the background? Seems to have gone quiet since then...hmmm..would liven up Lumines where no-one on the planet seems to be playing it on Live...

    Maybe Madonna's a PS3 Fanboy in disguise..? In Bed With Sony, anyone?

  • Monkey_Puncher #12 4 years ago

    The artist pack seemed to vanish radar, can't say I care though as I prefer the quirky Japanease artists over that dickhead Madonna.

    I've bought every bit of content for Lumines, it was pricey but I've never considered myself to be ripped off because it's just so damn addictive. I've played Lumines more than I've played a few of my full price games.

    800 points is a great price because there's enough content in that Base pack to keep you going long enough to not need the other packs.

  • daedalus2 #13 4 years ago

    Is there any way to get that amazing first track from the PSP version on here? Shinin, I believe it was called.

  • neosalad #14 4 years ago

    hmm. tempted.
    though still annoyed that half the game modes arent included initially.

    but it's soemthing for me think about getting... as the 1,200 price put me right off at the initial launch and lack of modes... and i had been really excited about it at the time.

  • jlaakso #15 4 years ago

    Most likely a buy at this price point, if I ever get the time to actually play any more games. The Orange Box to open tonight!

  • melw #16 4 years ago

    Price is now right, but still doesn't change the fact that X360 controller's digital pad is terrible for playing this game (compared to PSP versions, where everything worked out smoothly).

  • JedEvangelion #17 4 years ago

    We're starting to see a few price cuts and offers with DLC now, as well as DLC disappearing from the stores (went to buy one of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance themes the other day and they're gone now) and this in a way bothers me - one 'reliable' thing about DLC was it was always there for you and the price didn't change, which was a purchasing factor.

    Now it's like a retail model in that you have to weigh up 'do I want it at that price' against 'will it ever be available cheaper' and 'how long will it be available' - and it's worse than a full price game because it's not like stuff that's gone can be found on Ebay either. When it's gone from the marketplace, it's gone.

    I paid full price for 360 Lumines about a year after I'd got the PSP version for £8. Not only plays better on PSP due to the dpad, but there's the full game there. Q Entertainment can't factor in how cheap other format versions will sell down to, but the splitting of modes and content for additional micropayments is definitely cynical and calculated. 1200 points for the FULL game might have been OK, but TBH there's was not a lot of game there for 1200 points, or even now at 800 points.

    To get the full package is an expensive investment indeed, even if the starter pack is now 33% off. Be warned - you're not getting even a single full mode, it's more like a 'big' sampler IMO.
    Edited by 2 at 17/10/07 @ 14:48