If you didn't play the first game don't miss this, if you did then simply consider this.
Of course, there isn't much more to offer with a sequel to a puzzle game so I was looking forward to simply getting new skins along with new songs and thats pretty much what I got. However, one problem right off the bat is there is no learning curve if you've played the first game.
A big part of the first Lumines was figuring out how to play the game and then working up my score higher and higher. When I started off on the second one I already had all the key skills and could work my way through every skin no problem.
It seems they tried to account for this a bit by adding in "difficulty" levels. The only thing is, the difference between each difficulty is the amount of skins there are. So, you have to survive for a longer amount of time to get all of the skins. But there still wasn't enough to provide a challenge if you already knew the game.
The computer challenges were another area that could have been changed around a bit. These had an insane difficulty increase in the first game going from easy to impossible in only 10 rounds, but they actually made them fairly mindless in this game. Everytime you die you can now restart right where you left off instead of having to beat them all back to back. A nice thought, but it took away a significant amount of the challenge. This game also had a big problem with multiplayer mode. Major lag. Sitting only 5-10 feet away from another person you are playing Lumines against will give you some sick lag to the point even the best can't perform right. But why? It shouldn't have to do anything complicated and the first Lumines performed fine this way, but for some reason this one just can't keep up.
I admit I didn't get to play around with the online stuff to comment on it and I also didn't play around with the puzzles assuming they are similar to how they were in the first game which didn't interest me all that much. Now, I've complained a lot about the flaws of this game, but only because I know the first one front to back and I love it dearly. The amount you fall in love with this game is really directly related to if and how much you played the first one. If you know it like crazy you could easily stick with it and be fine, but if you don't even know what Lumines is then you can pick this one up and have just as great a time with it as I did when first getting the first Lumines.
It's really got some great skins to offer, some crazy ones with full out music videos in the background and some really awesome colored blocks, it just doesn't dish out any new gameplay to really require a purchase from all. Still one of the greatest puzzle games ever made and one of the most addicting.