Two techno heads simply bobbing to the steadily growing beat? Blocks that methodically crawl towards the field before unfolding, as two skeletal hands start generating silk with each clear? I vaguely remember a snake of some sort, and much more in-your-face spider depictions, but you also have people emerging from cleared squares to walk away. Don’t even get me started on the chef stage with its progression from chopped fruits to vegetables, and I swear I saw a lizard at some point.

It’s incredibly trippy and should feel like little more than a gimmick, but each stage throughout Journey Mode and beyond feels unique – both overtly and in all the little ways. Each song feels tuned to your progress, evolving as you stack up the clears and even warping if you build too far up, seemingly portraying that internal pressure. Each little note tied to your cursor movement, the satisfying click when locking blocks in place – it’s so subliminally addictive that you might not even realize it on that 50th attempt at Survival on Hard Mode.

"The framework is less interstellar journey and more Big Bang, each milestone Burst creating more Loomis to join in. Multiple areas await, each divided into different levels that you play through consecutively. "

However, despite these notable visual flourishes, Lumines Arises reinforces one core aspect about the franchise: How gosh darned fun it is to play. How unique of a twist it feels on the Tetris formula, subtly rewiring that line-clearing mentality into something more malleable, and how delightful it feels to master. Which I haven’t, but there’s no denying the joy that comes from subconsciously fitting everything in place. It almost makes you wonder how the franchise fell by the wayside for so long without a new entry, much like with Tetris before Effect came along. Was this all just one big plan to revive Meteos, Mizuguchi’s other puzzle masterpiece? Probably.

Regardless, from the outset, Lumines Arise will feel very familiar in structure to Tetris Effect. As a Loomi, you embark on Journey Mode to set other Loomis free. The framework is less interstellar journey and more Big Bang, each milestone Burst creating more Loomis to join in. Multiple areas await, each divided into different levels that you play through consecutively. Blocks carry over between each; the speed gradually increases; and if you’re good enough to stay alive throughout, a high score is generated before moving on to the next area.

Aside from the final areas, each follows this pattern, unified by a singular theme such as Dissonance. The actual gameplay is where Tetris aficionados will face the biggest shock. A 16×10 square playing field awaits, and every single piece is 2×2, comprising four blocks each. If they’re the same color, they merge into a square, awaiting the periodic timeline to sweep across and wipe them out. If they’re not, you’ll need to match them with other corresponding colors. Things start to get interesting when combining other blocks with already established squares, transforming them into larger 3×3 squares, which grant even more points when cleared.

They also contribute to your Burst meter, which works somewhat differently from the Zone mechanic. The board slows down as usual, but instead of suspending line clears to build up even higher scores, you’re trying to further add on to a single square, amplifying it into one giant Burst of light. The opposing color, meanwhile, is transformed into assorted squares and blocks, which can be further chained for a higher score. As with the Zone, Burst lasts longer when activated at a full meter. Anything above 50 percent may be useful as a “get out of jail free” card, but it won’t last as long and thus provide as much of a benefit.

"Combine this with the satisfying presentation and sheer joy of each action, and you’ll want to improve, if only to keep the rhythm going. Again, it’s a simple formula, yet there are layers of depth beyond it that are nothing if not captivating."

In the middle of all this, special blocks attached to a square can be used to connect all corresponding blocks across the board for an easier clear. So even if you’re not as optimal in building 2x2s or 3x3s, causing opposing colored blocks to stick out like so many sore thumbs, it could be the key to a clean slate. Alternatively, turn it to your favor to set up even more chains and build up that Burst meter even faster.

As unorthodox as it can feel at first, Lumines’s gameplay loop remains as addictive as ever – relatively easy to pick up and grasp but difficult to fully master. Combine this with the satisfying presentation and sheer joy of each action, and you’ll want to improve, if only to keep the rhythm going. Again, it’s a simple formula, yet there are layers of depth beyond it that are nothing if not captivating.

Once you’ve cleared Journey Mode, the real meat of Lumines opens up: Survival. Play through all stages in a row and attempt to complete them. It’s the ultimate test but also the only way to really play. Right? The good news is that there are other modes, like Missions, which offer Tutorials for learning various techniques and challenges to put them into practice. For example, one of them involves clearing squares in the middle to hatch a large egg. It’s a simple lesson that teaches you to properly optimize block placement in the best space on the board, given the low travel distance, and it’s a lot easier said than done. Various tougher missions await, and it’s a great way to learn the game while testing your understanding of its mechanics.

Otherwise, you can venture into playlists and curate your own Survival sequence of stages, or venture into online battles to challenge other players. It’s also home to different durations of Time Attack and the new Dig Down, where instead of pieces dropping from above, the board as a whole periodically raises, and you need to keep clearing to survive. The more squares cleared, the bigger the board and the more leeway available to make mistakes, but things only get more difficult as time goes on.

"As a new entry in the franchise, a successor to everything that came before and really just another great puzzler for those who loved Tetris Effect, this comes highly recommended."

Maybe you’ll want to engage in some Loomi-Pon as well – a gachapon mechanic where you spend in-game currency to unlock new cosmetic items to dress up your character. When compared to the larger suite of features available in Tetris Effect: Connected, Lumines Arise can feel smaller, especially since it doesn’t have the largest swathe of experimental modes. There’s also the issue of visibility in certain places, not to mention one stage where the two block colors look so confusingly similar that it can mess you up during Bursts.

Neither of these is enough to deny the greatness of Lumines Arise as a whole, even if they slightly dampen the excitement. As a new entry in the franchise, a successor to everything that came before and really just another great puzzler for those who loved Tetris Effect, this comes highly recommended. By the end of Journey, there’s this message of ascending beyond and embracing the light of hope. Like Tetris Effect, Lumines Arise appeals to a deeper state of mind – one that appreciates the beauty of its sights and sounds, even after getting crushed for the millionth time in Survival.

This game was reviewed on PC.

A new deep dive video highlights new mechanics like Burst, which essentially freezes any clears made to maximize one’s score. Unlike the Zone from Tetris Effect, however, it also sends adjacent blocks of the other pattern into the air, which then fall back down.

It may seem like a risk, but it allows for more combos if you know what to do. Beyond Journey Mode, which takes players on a wordless narrative, is Survival Mode, where players run through all the stages without any breaks (complete with leaderboards). You can also partake in Training missions, Challenges or make your own custom playlist of stages.

Of course, there’s Burst Battle, which is playable against the AI or others, and the new Dig Down, where blocks must be cleared to traverse downwards.

Lumines Arise is available on November 11th for PS5 and PC (with VR support). A free demo is available now on PC as part of the Steam Next Fest.

In the meantime, a free demo is available, with three stages from Journey Mode and the cross-play online mode, Burst Battle. It’s live until September 3rd, local time, and an extensive trailer is available to explain everything. Check it out below.

The full game features more than 35 stages, and similar to Tetris Effect and Rez Infinite, it promises a synesthesia-like experience with its visuals and music. It also introduces the Burst Mechanic, which effectively pauses time after matching a Square and allows for stacking even more for higher scores. Stay tuned for details in the coming months.

If you’ve played Tetris Effect, the presentation will look familiar with trippy visuals laden with particle effects and a deeply involving soundtrack. However, Lumines is more about creating colored 2×2 squares from corresponding blocks to clear out lines and build up a high score.

The last new title in the Lumines series was 2016’s Lumines: Puzzle & Music, available for iOS and Android. A remaster of the first game released in 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC courtesy of Enhance Games.

As for Tetris Effect, it’s out for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and Meta Quest. Stay tuned for more details on Lumines Arise in the coming months.

Enhance has announced that Humanity is releasing for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One on May 30. On the same day, the game will also become available on PC via the Windows Store. Meanwhile, on both PC and Xbox, Humanity will also be available via Game Pass.

Humanity sees players playing as a god-like Shiba Inu that is capable of controlling massive hordes of mindless and faceless humans. The game tasks players with guiding oceans of humanity through increasingly complex puzzle courses. Outside of a meaty campaign, a level editor mode is also included, which allows players to share their creations with each other online.

In our review of Humanity, we awarded it a score of 9/10, saying, “Humanity delivers some excellent puzzle gameplay in a weird, unique setting, and constantly ups the complexity and challenge in new and creative ways that should be experienced by all fans of the genre.” Read the full review through here.

Your task in all of the hundred-plus courses in Humanity’s story mode boils down to one thing- guide these endless waves of humans to the exit. Throughout the level, you’ll find obstacles to overcome and puzzles to unravel, all of which is done by placing commands on tiles that your flock of humans then obeys as soon as it walks over those tiles. On paper, it sounds incredibly incredibly simple, and when the game kicks off, it is simple. But constantly, throughout its surprisingly meaty campaign, it keeps layering on one complexity after another, one new idea after another, one new challenge after another, and keeps doing that until the very end. Humanity injects a consistent dose of variety, complexity, and creativity throughout its runtime, to the extent that if you were to somehow jump from the first level of the game straight to the very last, you might feel like you’ve been dropped into a completely different game.

"Right from the off, everything about the game is bizarre in a wonderful way, from its minimalistic visuals to its strange premise, and that, crucially enough, is not only something that contributes significantly to the game’s whole vibe, it’s also used in excellent ways to deliver some incredible puzzle gameplay."

When Humanity starts off, the commands that you have at your disposal are few and straightforward. It starts off with changing the direction your endless human stream is walking on, or commanding them to jump over a large gap. Then you unlock the ability to jump higher, or to jump longer, or to make your humans lighter so that each jump now has a different variation. As you progress further and further, you can command them to split off in different directions, use weapons against enemies, and more.

The levels themselves also keep getting increasingly complex as you get deeper into the game. They start out as simplistic collections of plain blocks with some gaps and ramps and walls thrown in there, but then they start introducing fans on the ground to make your humans hover in the air, or water bodies that they can float through, or walls that they can climb, or blocks that they can move- and all of that is just in the opening couple of hours. The pace at which Humanity introduces new mechanics, or new challenges, or new twists on old ideas ensures that it never feels like the game is coming even close to resting on its laurels. It introduces something new, executes it succinctly, and then quickly moves on to up the ante even further, constantly sliding up the complexity.

At the same time, Humanity never becomes too complex or overbearing, because it never throws all of its ideas at you at once. Every single level is a small box (literally) of a limited set of ideas mixed together, and never do things get too muddy. More often than not, there are only a handful commands that can be used per level, and though the challenges and obstacles you do face do get increasingly intense as you play on (especially in the latter stages of the game), the actual set of mechanics that you have at your disposal as you deal with those challenges always remains wonderfully succinct and compact.

"The pace at which Humanity introduces new mechanics, or new challenges, or new twists on old ideas ensures that it never feels like the game is coming even close to resting on its laurels. It introduces something new, executes it succinctly, and then quickly moves on to up the ante even further, constantly sliding up the complexity."

Levels themselves are also mostly quite compact. In the initial hours, the average length of a level can be between 10-15 minutes, and though some of the later ones do get a little longer than that, by and large, they’re all structured like bite-sized chunks that you can play at whatever pace you want. You can devour them all in large quantities in one go, or conversely, you can just hop into the game every now and then, finish a level or two, then hop back out. Regardless, the game always maintains a brisk pace, and thanks to how much variety it boasts across all of its levels, it never feels like it’s getting long in the tooth, regardless of what pace you choose to play it at.

Humanity also goes out of its way to ensure that your experience is as frictionless as possible when it comes to the actual puzzle-solving aspect. This is a game that involves a lot of trial and error, a lot of iterative problem solving, especially if you’re the kind of player that wants to collect the (partly) optional collectibles known as Goldies, who are big, golden humans that reward you with everything from cosmetics to new gameplay features, like being able to fast forward (which comes in quite handy). That trial and error, however, doesn’t often feel frustrating, because of how easy the game makes it to retry levels. Not only is the process quick and snappy, you can also choose to restart a level with all of your previous commands still in place, so it still feels like you’re making progress.

One aspect of Humanity’s gameplay that does deserve criticism is how it controls. As mentioned previously, you play as a Shiba Inu, which means you have to physically move the dog through the levels in order to place the commands you want to place, though I always found those controls to be a little imprecise and clunky. I would often miss jumps or find it hard to judge where that small glowing dog is on the screen, especially given how busy things can often get, which caused some annoyance. Later levels in the game also sometimes require you to quickly move across levels in order to change commands on the fly, and that’s when the frustration can really kick in. Though I do like the inherent weirdness of the idea of playing as a glowing dog that can command never-ending swarms of humans, I do feel Humanity could have been better served as a puzzle game that just lets you use a cursor.

"From its minimalistic yet striking visuals to its excellent synth soundtrack, from the core simplicity of its design to the startling complexity that constantly spawns, this is a game that has so much going for it."

The game’s flaws, however, are easily to overlook. From its minimalistic yet striking visuals to its excellent synth soundtrack, from the core simplicity of its design to the startling complexity that constantly spawns, this is a game that has so much going for it. Once you’re done with the 15-20 hour campaign, there’s also a robust stage creator to dive into, while if you’re not the creative type, there’s already a healthy selection of user-generated stages to browse through and check out. Humanity is a dense, addictive, unique, and satisfying package, be that in terms of its mechanics, its design, or the volume of content it has on offer. THA Limited and Enhance have another weird little hit on their hands.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

If the trailer didn’t confound you enough, Humanity is about a Shiba Inu who guides crowds of humans through various trippy environments. Depending on your commands, the humans will navigate environments, solve puzzles and even fight bosses. There are over 90 stages to complete as part of the story, but there’s also a Stage Creator for creating and sharing levels online.

You can also try out other players’ creations with various categories like Best of the Week and Beautiful Creations to navigate. Whether you’re looking for more challenging stages or fun distractions, there’s plenty of content available. Head here for more details on the entire game.

Apparently putting a greater emphasis on story than one might expect from a puzzle game, Humanity’s Story Mode will see players waking up as a glowing Shiba Inu, with a voice telling you to guide hordes of mindless humans to the light. That voice, interestingly enough, apparently comes from giant, hovering, shining balls, which are entities known as Cores. Each Core has a series of trials for players, and collectively, the Cores are trying to rebuild humanity bit by bit.

Clearly, there’s plenty going on, and Story Mode will be focusing on its fair share of mysteries and questions. Humanity doesn’t exactly seem like a game that needs to set itself apart from its peers any more than it already is doing, but Story Mode surely seems like another attractive prospect. Check out the trailer below for more details.

Humanity is due out on May 16 for PS5, PS4, and PC. It will also feature PS VR and PS VR2 support, and will be available for PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers via PS Plus Game Catalog at no additional cost.

Humanity will see players playing as an all-powerful glowing Shiba Inu, with your goal being to direct massive hordes of humans through obstacle courses to their end goals. From gaps and chasms to other hazards, there will, of course, be plenty that you will have to deal with, and for that purpose, you’ll be able to issue a number of commands to the aforementioned hordes, including turning in a specific direction, jumping (with different heights of jumps also available), splitting into multiple directions, and more.

Across the levels that you play, you’ll also find collectibles called goldies, and though many of these will be optional, a certain number will be required to progress further in the game. Collecting goldies will also allow you to unlock cosmetics for the humans in your hordes, as well as a variety of features, like being able to fast forward gameplay, a free-moving camera, and more.

Certain stages will also have unique elements and obstacles, like switches that can open new paths, water that humans can swim inside, blocks that can be pushed off of paths, walls that can be climbed, giant fans on the ground that propel humans into the air, and much more. Check out the video below for more details.

Humanity is due out for PS5, PS4, and PC on May 16, and will also feature support for PS VR and PS VR2. It will also be available via PlayStation Game Catalog for PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers at no additional cost at launch.

As a Shiba Inu who must command massive groups of people, Humanity offers over 90 stages with different obstacles and puzzles. Progressing through the campaign, you’ll meet a rival faction, the Others, and a late-game antagonist force in The Machines. There are bosses to fight and even a Stage Creator for generating and sharing content.

It’s an unorthodox game with a unique style since Rez Infinite creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi and visual designer Yugo Nakamura are involved. Stay tuned for more details on Humanity when it releases on May 16th worldwide.