X06: Lumines Live! Update

BARCELONA, Spain--The last time we saw Q Entertainment's Lumines Live! was at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, where we got a chance to poke around on the Xbox Live Arcade version of the addictive puzzler. The game has since undergone some refinements and tweaks, as development is wrapping up for its fall release. At Microsoft's evening event following its press briefing in Barcelona, the latest version of the game was on display to hook people with its Technicolor visuals and captivating gameplay. We tried it out and found it to be on par with what we've played before, with one nice difference: We could check out the achievement points, which is what we've been wondering about for a while. Bear in mind that the version we played was still a work in progress, so what we saw on points may not be the absolute final way they'll break down, but it should give you an idea of what to expect.

So what's it going to take to get Lumines Live! to cough up some points? A midsized amount of work, we'd say; much less if you're an experienced Lumines player, though. The "20K" achievement requires you to earn 20,000 points in a play session. You'll earn the clear "base" achievement by clearing through the base pack content. The "half million" achievement is earned by racking up that many points in a session. The same is true of "single lap quarter million" which should be a fun challenge to go through. Finally, the last eight achievements are tied to destroying a set amount of blocks in the time attack mode during various time limits. All told, the dozen achievements should be manageable to earn unless you have no skills in the music and puzzle genres.

Lumines Live! is slated to ship this fall on Xbox Live Marketplace. Look for more on the game soon.