When you close your eyes at night, you don't count sheep. All you can concentrate on are the blocks- the blocks of saturated color and sparkling light rotating and pulsating through the techno dance floor of your mind. You are a Lumines addict and, rest assured, you are not alone.
If, however, you are one of the unfortunate few (or fortunate few, depending on your affinity for sleep) who has not yet succumbed to the PSP puzzler, second and third chances are on the horizon. While Lumines II is coming soon for another round on the Sony handheld, it's the release of Lumines Plus for PS2 that has us worried. Consuming our travel and commute wasn't enough? Now it's invading our TV... that thing we play all the non-Lumines videogames on?
Sensing our weakness, publisher Buena Vista recently dropped by and offered some hands-on time with the console port. How's it play?
Well, like Lumines. Falling squares, each consisting of four alternating colored blocks, fill the screen as you carefully, or sometimes frantically, attempt to place them in patterns. Position at least four blocks of the same color next to each other and wait for the rhythmic timeline to sweep across the screen, clearing them along with a little piece of your mind. Before you can truly relax, though, you realize that the blocks are plummeting faster while the beat of the line is cruelly consistent.
