EnhanceIn 2021, Tetris Effect reimagined the classic puzzle game, keeping the core of its block-stacking gameplay intact, but giving a transcendent overhaul to the way it looks and sounds. “Transcendent” might sound like a stretch, but it really is the best way to describe the hypnotic hold it has over players in action. Now, developer Enhance is giving the same treatment to a classic PSP puzzle game with Lumines Arise. While it has a lot in common with Tetris Effect, the most surprising thing about it is that, based on a new demo, the same trick may work just as well the second time — and with the announcement that Lumines Arise is launching on November 11, we know exactly when we’ll be able to see the whole game in action.Lumines superficially looks a lot like Tetris. A series of blocks falls from the top of the screen and you need to arrange them in the right pattern to make them disappear to earn points. Let the blocks stack up to reach the top of the screen and the game is over. But it’s a much different game in practice. In Lumines, blocks always fall in two-by-two squares of two different colors, and your goal isn’t to make complete lines, but to form squares of the same color. All the while, a vertical line constantly moves across the screen from left to right, erasing any squares you’ve formed when it passes.That all stays the same in Lumines Arise, with the addition of the “burst” system. Since matches only disappear when the timeline passes, you can stack multiple squares together to gain a bigger combo. Doing that also fills the burst meter in Lumines Arise, and when it’s at least 50 percent full, you can spend it to stop matches of one color from disappearing for a few seconds, letting you build a massive combo. At the same time, blocks of the opposite color will be removed from the screen, letting you grow the combo even more, before returning when the burst phase ends.It’s a good addition to what was already there in Lumines, pushing you toward paying more attention to building combos and aiming for high scores. But the truly transformative part of Lumines Arise is its aesthetics.Lumines isn’t a household name like Tetris, but its upcoming sequel could help change that. | EnhanceThe Lumines series already had a focus on music. Going back to the original PSP game, the soundtrack was a huge part of what made the game great, specifically the ways that the combination of music and puzzle-solving induced a feeling that was something like a less hypnotic version of Tetris Effect. Lumines Arise pushes that connection further, adding a soaring electronic soundtrack similar to Tetris Effect’s and adding sound effects to blocks falling and matches getting cleared that ties the sonic experience of the game to everything players are doing.When Lumines Arise was first announced, I was a bit skeptical. I liked the original Lumines well enough, but it’s not a game I needed a sequel to. I’m a much bigger fan of Tetris Effect and still distinctly remember the feeling of the near-spiritual experience that playing through the entire campaign mode in one sitting can produce. But at least part of that game’s appeal is the Tetris of it all. Tetris is a much simpler, more intuitive game than Lumines, one that’s perfect for playing almost mindlessly, letting instinct and reflex guide your strategy as much as puzzle-solving logic. The relative complexity of Lumines seems less suited to producing the trance-like state that makes Tetris Effect such a joy.Having now played the game’s three-level demo, I’m starting to see why impressions of the game from convention preview have been glowing so far. Playing a handful of disconnected levels is a very different experience from letting the game wash over you in longer play sessions, but in just a few short minutes, I already felt myself getting lost in its carefully intertwined music and visuals, even if getting the hang of the gameplay itself is tougher here than in Tetris Effect.Lumines Arise will be available on PlayStation 5 and PC on November 11. A demo is available now.