Our Lumines Live! micro-rant
We know, it seems like all the news is about Lumines lately. It'll subside, we promise. Until then, however, we have to put in our two cents on a hot topic. No doubt you've read some of the reports about Lumines Live! and it's evil downloadable content. Either that, or you've discovered it yourself after clearing one round of Vs. CPU mode. We all knew that there was an "Advance" pack coming, but if you were under the impression that the "Advance" pack would make your game complete, you're wrong. Three times wrong. We think it's time for a rant.
To be fair to Q? Enertainment, we knew this was coming, sort of. A few months ago, we ran a story that Lumines would charge for versus play. This was later cleared up (by Ross Erickson, no less). It's a little shady though. It's true, you don't have to pay to play versus over Live, but you do have to purchase an expansion pack if you want to play versus a computer (just happens to be my favorite mode of play). Now, Ken ferreted out two of these packs -- the "Puzzle/Mission" pack (400 points) and "Vs. CPU" (300 points) pack -- in August. What we didn't know about then was the "Advance" pack that adds new skins. If the pricing Ken found in August is true, then these three packs will run you 1300 points, -- dragging the game up to 2500 (US $31.24). And, for all we know, that's not even the "complete" game. What about the music videos? According to Xbox.com, these will come in an "Artist" pack.
What we're left with is an Arcade game that basically has a retail price. Sure, you could argue that you don't have to pay for parts of the game you don't want, but it stinks to us. Not everybody likes the battle rifle in Halo 2, but it doesn't cost extra. Would it be better if Lumines Live! and all its packs were released as a $40.00 retail game, or would people pick up the box and decide that it didn't look "next gen"? We're all used to relatively cheap Arcade games; is that what makes Lumines sting so badly? Give us your opinion in the comments.
The excellent Gears of War Lumines avatar was made by 360 Fanboy reader, Josh.
