Lumines Live lights up Xbox Live

Earlier this week, rumors began to swirl that Lumines Live, the Xbox 360 version of Q Entertainment's popular puzzle game, would soon hit Xbox Live. The reasoning went that, with only a few months left in the year, the game had to be released sometime soon, and unconfirmed reports had it being released as early as this week.

Now, it's official. This afternoon, Microsoft announced that Lumines Live has been released as part of the latest push in the company's Xbox Live Wednesdays campaign. As of 1:00 a.m. PDT (0800 GMT), the game is available on Xbox Live Marketplace for 1,200 Microsoft points ($15).

Designed by legendary game-maker Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Space Channel 5, Rez), the first Lumines arrived in 2005 on the PlayStation Portable to rave reviews. Earlier this year at E3, Microsoft announced that the franchise would also be coming to Xbox Live Arcade. Sporting the same Tetris-esque gameplay as its predecessor, Lumines Live includes six single-player modes--challenge, skin edit, mission, puzzle, versus CPU, and time attack. It also features two-player head-to-head multiplayer via Xbox Live and unnamed music videos that Microsoft reps could not identify.

Besides the regular version of Lumines Live, Microsoft is also selling a Lumines Live! Advance Pack separately for 600 Microsoft points ($7.50). According to the company, the Advance Pack will include 22 new skins with new music tracks. Microsoft also said more updates would be on the way in the form of unspecified "exclusive downloadable content to enhance and extend the gameplay experience."

For more on Lumines Live, peruse GameSpot's previous coverage, and check back later in the week for a full review.