Lumines Live! (Massive, MASSIVE failure)
 

So, Lumines, that great PSP puzzler, was set to come out today, after the Live maintenance was complete. Of course, the Live maintenance didn't finish on time and even now, some 7 hours after it was supposed to go back up, it's STILL not working properly. The Marketplace ain't up even after ALL. Myself and number oud others (according to GAF and other forums) can't get online to download the game.

BUT ALAS, NO ONE SHOULD EVEN CARE ANYMORE. You wanna know why details for this release were so scarce before it dropped? No track list, no nothing? HERE IS WHY.

Your track list:

Circles
Just...
Morning Beats
Square Dance
Meguro
Strangers
Take a coffee for a moment?
Holiday in Summer
Take a Dog out a walk
Tiny piano
Big Elpaso
Spirits

No Shinin', no Lights, not even URBANIZATION. Massive fail right there. However, that's not the half of it.

What ELSE do we have here? Why, lemme SHOW YOU.

Originally the plan was to release the game for 1200 points, and then release an advance pack for an additional 600 points, which would have contained an additional 22 skins. Now, I'm not one to normally support content packs coming out the DAY THE GAME DROPS, (since it could just as easily be put in the game then instead of trying to rip the consumer off), but I figured that since the basic 12 skins the game comes with is a little minimal, plus the fact that after you combine both costs, it costs 20 bucks, which is the retail cost of the PSP version (which has 40 skins), I figured it would be close enough that it's not that big a deal.

BUT NOPE. The content pack did NOT drop right away. So much for having more than 12 songs for a little while! OOPS. Ok, fine. I can live with that if the pack drops shortly, I say! At this point my pure fanboyism of the original Lumines is taking over and I'm willing to support next to anything.

BUT then I start hearing news filtering in. 15 bucks doesn't get you a full game of Lumines! Instead, you pay for the privledge of seeing this:

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6797/dsc00808to3.jpg

That's right, you paid 15 bucks FOR A DEMO. You're going to have to shell out more money for INDIVIDUAL FEATURES.

Both Mission and Puzzle Mode are the EXACT SAME.

So here's what you're going to have to buy SO FAR! MORE COSTS IN THE FUTURE, I BET!

1200 for the game demo
600 for the "Advance" pack, which contains 22 skins, no features.
??? for the Versus CPU pack
??? for the Mission and Puzzle Mode pack. (Hell, these could be SEPERATE)

So, here's what you get for your twenty bucks, an a la cart motherfucking demo that costs as much as it's PSP sibling after one upgrade, with half the modes taken out.

If you're not an idiot, you'll wait for Lumines 2 instead, which will only be 30 bucks, according to EB Games. And that'll have 100 skins, and ALL THE FUCKING MODES.

God, this fails. It's like MS is trying that whole GT:HD thing. UGH. I guess this is how they get around the charging X amount for arcade games and size limitations, but holy fuck this is bogus.

Ah, massive failure on the part of MS and Q?. Bite me, guys. (This better not have been your idea, Mizuguchi.)

Skills is just overreacting.

For someone who complains that he doesn't want to spend money because he's saving for the Wii, I find it odd that you'd support a la cart features like this. You're basically going to end up paying retail price for this game after all is said and done.

Why they didn't put this on a disc, give it 1000 achievement points, and put it in a nice case and gimme a manual with all the modes available from the FUCKING GET GO is beyond me. This is how you avoid publishing costs, I guess! "Those fuckers will pay anything" is the mentality. "Why even put it on a disc? That costs us money! They won't give a shit if they are getting less and paying more!"

Think about it, Mo0. Dur.

I'm not saying that the a la carte features aren't the most fucking retarded thing to ever happen on the marketplace. Because they are.

I'm just not questioning it because I already realize I'm a fucking whore and I'll download whatever they tell me to. :o

Also, because I knew this was coming ahead of time and decided it'd be worth it. You're reacting as if this was a complete shock. :/

The way the features were announced before made it sound like you downloaded ADDITIONAL CONTENT for each mode, MORE PUZZLE STAGES, MORE CPU STAGES, more of the content that would already be there.

But right now you don't have ANY REAL CONTENT TO SPEAK OF. It's ALL MISSING. I realize now what these previous news statements were refering to, I guess I was interpretting it wrong, but this is STILL HORESHIT.

I don't own a 360, but I did play a ton of Lumines when I had my PSP. I loved the game to death due to it's massive amount of win and awesome.

This is just a shame. :(

I hate to say this, but I hope that it doesn't sell very well. We don't need all future games to be full of so much bullshit. I had some fun with the PSP Lumines, and it's fun and all, but the packages that they're offering here is just ridiculous. Fooling consumers this way is the easiest way to lose them.

I used to hate this image, but fuck if it isn't appropriate right now:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...af/360coin.jpg

Do you really think that people who don't know about the PSP version and/or don't have a PSP are really going to care that they're buying a bunch of different things to get the whole game? Like myself, I view it as saving money between spending $220 + memory card on the PSP versus the $20 or so to get it on Live. And I get to kick Skills' ass (read: Get my ass kicked by Skills lol) at it. SUP NOW CANADA.

Well, or they could wait until Jan. 2007 for Lumines Plus for PS2.

Didn't realize there was a PS2 port in the works. =o

Wow, first Ninety Nine Nights and now this. Q? Entertainment need to fall in a hole. A deep one. One that will prevent the upcoming Disney Meteos as well. Maybe the hole can be filled with snapping turtles.

ROT-2: Lumines Plus is a sequel to the first one, and as of yet has to be announced for anything other then the PS2.

Just chiming in that this is fucking ridiculous. And that we gamers who purchased it are idiots since it does nothing but demonstrate that we're okay with it. :(

Wrong again. Lumines Plus is actually a remake of the original, and it's pretty much a flat out port of the PSP game with 9 extra skins and a bit of extra content.

The real sequel is Lumines II, due out shortly for the PSP. About 100 skins on that one with a whole whack of new stuff, and is the first one to feature licensed music from pop artists.

But I liked Ninety-Nine Nights.

That's a damn shame. Like Newbie said, I hope this doesn't sell well at all. MS and Q? (or is this Buena Vista's doing?) need to realize that "shit don't work like that, 'cuz". Does Live Arcade tell you before hand that the Lumines Live! you talked about needs the "Base Pack" and VS Pack before its a complete game?

Hell no. That's one of my biggest beefs. The only way you'd know about this was if you read up on it through interviews beforehand. The description says nothing about it.

wow that sucks! i was waiting for this game for a long time. During DigitalLife the developer present at the XBox Live! Arcade booth couldn't make any comments on the game -_-. Bah to him and his bald head!!!

One more point of contention. I dunno if it's a temporary thing, but the lag in multiplayer makes the game nigh near unplayable. I was playing it with Mo0 earlier today and I actually had to kill myself to make it end, absolutely attrocious.

I don't know what's up with all the lagginess with XBLA games. Hopefully this won't happen for UMK3...

After reading this, i'd rather play Lumines Mobile on my phone~
It only cost $5 and is even more challenging than the PSP version
(3 colors at once and different block shapes).

This is pretty bad, but is it really microsofts fault? Or is the the game
creators that choose this as well?

I'm not blaming anyone in particular for this, I'm just saying this whole effort is a massive pile of suck. I heard somewhere that Miz supports this sort of distrobution model, so I assume he's at least partly to blame.