Latest news with #LuminesArise
Digital Trends
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
The best games we played at Summer Game Fest 2025
The summer has truly begun. Last week, Geoff Keighley christened June with his annual Summer Game Fest stream. While a bit less exciting than previous years, the two-hour stream unveiled plenty of new games from Code Vein 2 to Resident Evil Requiem. Following the event, Digital Trends attended the show's three day long Play Days event. The show featured playable demos of several games revealed during the show, as well as Sony's State of Play, Day of the Devs, and more. Over those three days, we played tons of upcoming games and walked away excited for what's coming in the back half of 2025 and beyond. While we can't talk about everything we got to play yet (stay tuned to Digital Trends over the next week for more coverage), we have plenty of games that we can tell you about. From the psychedelic puzzling of Lumines Arise to Shinobi: Art of Vengeance's fast-paced 2D action, these were the games that impressed us most at this year's show. And trust us: it's only the tip of the iceberg. Recommended Videos Game of the Show: Lumines Arise I've been waiting a very long time for a proper sequel to Lumines. The cult classic PSP rhythm game has always been one of my all-time favorites, to the point that its remaster was one of the first games I played on my Nintendo Switch 2. So, my expectations were very high when Tetris Effect developer Enhance announced Lumines Arise. Thankfully, the team did not disappoint. During my demo, I played a quick run that featured three different songs. It completely blew me away. The color matching rules of the original are the same, but that hook has been buffed up by some dazzling visuals. The levels I played were spectacular, full of thumping music and neon iguanas. there's also one new trick in the form of bursts. When I have enough energy built up, I can activate a special effect that lets me build up one giant color block as big as it can go. It's a genius addition to the formula that rewards players who can match blocks fast. It doesn't have a release date yet, but I'll be clawing at the gates of Enhance's offices until I can play more. Sword of the Sea There may not be a game released in 2025 that feels as good as Sword of the Sea. The latest game from Giant Squid plays like a mix between Journey and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The minimalistic game has players surfing through biomes on a sword, solving puzzles in the environment and doing a bit of platforming. What makes it all special is how incredible the movement feels. Surfing feels remarkably smooth and Giant Squid takes advantage of that with levels that are built like skateparks. In my demo, I rode up half pipes and grinded down enormous chains. I was able to nail every trick I attempted thanks to how forgiving movement is. You can feel it for yourself on August 19, and I suggest you do. Mixtape If there was one game on everyone's tongue during Summer Game Fest, it was Mixtape — and not just because it features the sloppiest French kissing minigame ever put into a video game. The narrative adventure from the creators of The Artful Escape is 90s teen slacker comedy in video game form. During my demo, I'd follow the tale of three small town teens yearning to break free. The bit I played told the story through interactive vignettes chronicling their escapades, all soundtracked by an excellent selection of songs. I skateboarded along to Devo, tapped buttons in time with music to headbang through a car ride, and escape a busted house party with a daring shopping cart chase sequence as the cops tailed me. Every sequence was hilarious, sincere, and full of jams that placed me directly into its 90s setting. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance I wasn't expecting too much from Shinobi: Art of Vengeance when I stepped into my first demo of it. After all, you've played one retro-inspired 2D action game, you've played them all, right? Wrong. Sega's surprising revival is much faster than your average side scroller, full of lightning quick combat encounters that let me clear out an entire room full of ninjas in no time flat. Developer Lizardcube has done a bang-up job here, keeping the series in line with its roots while crafting a highly stylized 2D action game dressed up with lovely hand-painted art. It's one heck of a return for Shinobi. Blighted When I first saw Drinkbox's latest game, Blighted, I thought it was a total departure for the studio. Now that I've played it, I now see it as a perfect culmination of everything it has done. It's a top-down action RPG, not unlike Nobody Saves the World. It's a Metroidvania too, just like its Guacamelee series. The art style even calls back to Severed, my personal favorite of its catalogue. All of that comes together in a tough action experience that's inspired by Soulslikes, but still very much a Drinkbox game. My favorite innovation here comes in the form of its blight system, which will gradually buff players' strength while making enemies a little tougher. It's a dynamic approach to difficulty that happens at an in-game level rather than in menus. Plus, it's a game that involves fighting horse-spiders and eating their brains to get powers. That part seems worth mentioning too. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School A few years back, a group of escape room designers decided to form a video game studio and put their talents to good use. The result was Escape Academy, a great set of co-op puzzle boxes that felt just a little too brief. Now, Coin Crew Games is returning with a much bigger sequel in Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School. In my demo, I solved a great introductory escape room with a friend that had us decoding clues together by using split screen to our advantage. What's new this time, though, is that we also got to explore the actual academy, which is full of little side-missions and objectives that almost turn it into a puzzle Metroidvania. It's a great expansion of what was already a solid game, making the sequel feel like a more fully realized version of Escape Academy. Toem 2 It didn't take long in my Toem 2 demo to remind me why I loved its predecessor so much. The first Toem was a charming little photography game full of critters to snap and puzzles to solve. The sequel delivers more of its black and white joy, and even a few new tricks along the way. This time, I'm not just taking pictures and giving them to villagers to solve their requests. I'm also doing more platforming, using a hammer function in my camera to break blocks, solving riddles, going on a mission to make sure a guy turned his stove off, and more. My demo doled out constant surprises through the end, which made it hard to wrench myself away from the controller when my time was up. Dosa Divas After finding success with Thirsty Suitors, Outerloop Games is back with its most creative game to date. Dosa Divas is a turn-based RPG in which two sisters take on a nefarious corporation, ride giant mechs, and occasionally stop to cook a meal or two. It's a genre hybrid in the same way that Thirsty Suitors was, but all of its disparate parts feel much more connected now. There's too much to break down in a quick blurb, but I'll call out its great battle system, which plays like a combination of Bravely Default and Paper Mario. I can both stack up turns to perform more powerful attacks and add extra power to my attacks by pressing a button at the right moment. If you love Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, this is another mechanically creative, narrative-driven RPG that should be on your radar. Snap & Grab I've played a lot of heist games, but never one quite like Snap & Grab. This one is all about casing the joint, as I play the role of a woman whose job it is to stake out a loot location and snap photos of every potential obstacle standing in the way of stealing it. The goal of each level is to create a perfect scenario that will allow your accomplice to perform the theft, all by stringing together snapshots in a logical sequence. One heist had me trying to steal a key stuck in an ice statue's hand. By taking photos, I pieced together that I could keep guards occupied while turning up the heat in the mansion to melt the statue. Doing so would give my pal a clear path to get the job done. It's an incredibly clever idea full of heist scenarios that have some immersive sim charm to them, as there isn't just one solution to every problem.
Engadget
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Lumines Arise combines that addictive puzzling flow with a killer soundtrack
After a symphony, online multiplayer and a remaster, the well-regarded (and often handheld) puzzler Lumines is getting Enhance's full synesthetic, Tetris-flowing, treatment. Lumines Arise is almost here. If you haven't played the game before, Lumines' premise centers on rotating and dropping four-square blocks made of one or two colors, building up larger squares of a single color. The game's timeline sweeps across the playfield – to the beat of the soundtrack – erasing completed squares in its path, while also giving you the brief opportunity to quickly drop more squares, add multiplier combos and score even more points. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Lumines Arise adds a new mechanic to the addictive yet simple puzzle. 'Burst' is a refillable bar that you can trigger with L2/R2, which locks a square on the playing field, allowing you to pile on subsequent blocks. You can initiate Burst once the counter has rolled above 50, although it maxes out at 100. As you might expect for a synesthesia-tickling game like Arise , Burst mode has its own low-key musical accompaniment. Lumines has never looked better. But that's not just due to 2025 hardware power, but also design choices for Lumines' skins – the unhinged wallpaper design and block themes that bubble up as you advance through puzzle stages. They're delightfully mad and, at times, distracting. (As you play, the view of your Lumines blocks will occasionally 'zoom' closer – this is intentional. Game Director Takashi Ishihara said this was to both add some dynamism to what are typically static blocks, but also to pull the players' attention back to the game at hand. Lumines Arise wants you to focus on the now, not the score, your Burst meter, or your customizable avatar.) My favorite part of the demo was the final stage, which featured two chameleons simply raving along to the dance music. The soundtrack is, naturally, a banger, too. Lumines Arise features new music from Hydelic, also responsible for the award-winning soundtrack of Tetris Effect: Connected . (The band has already launched one track, "Only Human," on Bandcamp – it's coming to other streaming services, too.) On another stage, two skeletal hands, seemingly strung up like puppets, twitch and wriggle as you shift and rotate your blocks. If anything, I think Enhance missed a trick not mapping the finger movements to a DualSense controller. I said that in front of Ishihara because I have zero sense of decorum — apparently, he'd had the same idea. I now consider myself a game designer. I got to briefly see Lumines Arise running on a Steam Deck, too. The time of the handheld console and PC is now, so it's nice to see a typically made-for-consoles game ready for this new gaming PC form factor. Ishihara teased that there's more to reveal ahead of Arise 's launch. The game will launch on both PS5 and Steam, and it will also feature VR compatibility on both platforms. While Enhance wasn't yet willing to reveal the details, there will also be some form of multiplayer, but it seems like it'll be in a different form compared to the more adversarial nature of Tetris Effect's multiplayer modes. Additionally, Ishihara wanted to highlight that the avatars, which dance and emote in sync with your in-game actions, now feature legs. That is important, apparently. Enhance is promising more answers in due time. Lumines Arise is set to launch in fall 2025.
Express Tribune
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Playstation State of Play 2025 full recap: Every major announcement from Sony's flagship gaming event, including Nioh 3, Marvel Tokon, and more
Sony has kicked off the summer gaming season with a thrilling State of Play showcase. The 50-minute stream revealed a series of exciting updates, new game announcements, and release dates. PlayStation fans can look forward to fresh entries in beloved franchises, as well as entirely new experiences. Here's a breakdown of the major highlights: Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Arc System Works, the developer behind Guilty Gear, announced a new Marvel fighting game, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. The game, a 4v4 tag fighter, will feature iconic heroes such as Captain America, Spider-Man, and Iron Man. Set for release in 2026, the game will launch on both PlayStation 5 and PC. Final Fantasy Tactics Returns A new version of the strategy RPG classic Final Fantasy Tactics was unveiled, titled Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. This enhanced version includes fully voiced dialogue, an updated UI, and graphical improvements. The classic version features the renowned War of the Lions translation and includes modern conveniences like auto-save. Lumines Arise The Lumines puzzle series returns with Lumines Arise, developed by Enhance Games, the creators of Tetris Effect and Rez. Set to arrive in Fall 2025 for PS5 and PSVR 2, Lumines Arise promises to be a visually striking, music-infused puzzle game that combines the best elements of the franchise with new twists. Capcom's Pragmata Finally Coming in 2026 After a lengthy delay, Capcom's sci-fi action game Pragmata has resurfaced with a confirmed release window of 2026. Originally teased in 2020, the game had been largely silent until now, leaving fans eager for more details. Nioh 3 Announced Team Ninja revealed that Nioh fans have something to look forward to with Nioh 3. Set for release in early 2026, the action-packed series will continue the story of samurai warriors. A demo for PS5 is already available to tide fans over. Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection Digital Eclipse is delving into Mortal Kombat's history with the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, set to release in 2025. This exhaustive collection includes arcade, console, and handheld versions of early Mortal Kombat games, alongside interviews with the creators and behind-the-scenes content. Silent Hill f Release Date Silent Hill f finally has a release date: September 25, 2025. Konami and developer NeoBards provided a terrifying new look at the horror game, which promises to continue the iconic Silent Hill legacy with fresh nightmares. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Konami unveiled new details about the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Set to launch in August 2025, this remake will feature new content, including extra features not seen in the original. Fans of the Metal Gear series are in for a treat this summer. Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement A new entry in the Bloodstained franchise was announced: Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement. A prequel to Ritual of the Night, the game follows Leo and the Black Wolves as they battle the rising darkness. Look for it in 2026. Romeo is a Dead Man Developer Grasshopper Manufacture revealed Romeo is a Dead Man, a blood-soaked, action-packed game set to launch in 2026. The announcement left fans excited for the chaotic world of the new title. Sea of Remnants Sea of Remnants is a free-to-play pirate-themed RPG where players will recruit a crew, explore new routes, and engage in turn-based combat. The game offers a unique island-building experience, launching in 2026. Tides of Tomorrow A colourful, multiplayer adventure, Tides of Tomorrow is set on the oceanic planet of Elynd. Players, known as the 'chosen ones,' must shape the planet's destiny while facing the extinction of life. The game's narrative will unfold across a visually rich world. Digimon Story Time Stranger Release Date Digimon Story Time Stranger will launch on PS5 on October 3, 2025. This new entry in the Digimon Story series lets players explore both the human and Digital Worlds as they collect and raise Digimon for turn-based battles. Project Defiant: PlayStation's Fight Stick PlayStation announced the upcoming release of its own fight stick, Project Defiant. Promising ultra-low latency wireless play, precise response, and an ergonomic design, it's set to be a must-have for competitive gamers. Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow A new Thief game is on the way, but with a twist: Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow will take players into the shadows with a virtual reality experience. It's time to pick locks and steal in a new immersive way. The game is currently in development. Sword of the Sea Release Date The visually stunning adventure Sword of the Sea will launch on August 19, 2025. Players will embark on a journey through a magical and mysterious world, exploring vibrant landscapes. Cairn Release Date Set for release on November 5, 2025, Cairn is a mountain-climbing adventure with a demo already available for eager players. Get ready to scale peaks and conquer heights in this exhilarating new experience. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound Release Date Fans of the Ninja Gaiden series will be thrilled to hear that Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound launches on July 31, 2025. This 2D throwback brings classic gameplay to modern platforms with a fresh new twist. Hirogami The unique paper-folding action-adventure game Hirogami will be available on PS5 starting September 3, 2025. Players will take on the role of a master of origami in a world full of secrets to unfold. Baby Steps Release Date The quirky walking simulator Baby Steps will release on September 8, 2025. A delightful adventure, the game lets players experience the simple joy of walking in a unique, playful setting. With so many exciting titles and fresh reveals, Sony's State of Play has set the stage for an unforgettable year of gaming. Be sure to mark your calendars for these upcoming releases!
Engadget
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
The Tetris Effect team is back with Lumines Arise
To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. The summer State of Play presentation form PlayStation kicked off with the announcement of Lumines Arise . It's a gorgeous puzzle game being made by the same team as Tetris Effect , Enhance, so for the many of us who fell in love that game, this is a banger development from Sony. The trailer shows the same dynamic blend between block drops, music and visuals that were the hallmarks of Tetris Effect . However, Lumines Arise is ditching the tetriminos for the slightly different box-dropping mechanics of Lumines . Bringing a new take on the core puzzle mechanics should make this feel like a nice blend of fresh and familiar. And considering how well their first go at reimagining a spatial puzzle game went, I have high hopes for this project. The game is slated for release in fall 2025, but we may get a chance for a sneak peak with both single and multiplayer demos later this summer. It's coming to the PlayStation 5 with optional PlayStation VR2 support for those who want the ultimate immersion experience. (And yes, you really do want that.)
