TGS 2004: Rez Creators’s PSP Game Finally Revealed
One of the bigger news events we were anxious to hear from the Tokyo Game Show is the showing of the latest work from Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Mizuguchi is the famed producer of Rez and Space Channel 5. (He also was a big part of Sega Rally.) We didn’t know if his new title would be for Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, but he had clued the industry in that it would be one of the new handhelds. Lucky for us, IGN grabbed the first bits on this game.
It will be for the Sony PSP.
The new title from his development studio, Q Entertainment, is Lumines. Even with the supplied screenshot from IGN, we still don’t know what it’s about. Our guess is a fast paced puzzle game based on musical/rhythmic gameplay. Sort of a cross between Tetris and Frequency. Just a guess.
IGN’s editors are just as confused:
We’re not sure what to make of the game, even with the single screenshot that’s been revealed so far. There are curved red lines on the screen along with orange and white boxes. There are stats for score, time, level, high-score and “deleted.” There’s even a black-and-white face to the far left side.
Seeing Rez for the first time without knowing what the game was all about would probably have evoked a confusion not too different from this.
We’ve been provided with a couple of hints about the game. According to Sony Computer Entertainment, the game will make you understand the happiness of playing a game with headphones. We suppose this means the game’s aural component will be important. The red text above the screen pictured to the right provides an even vaguer hint: “The moment that you play, you evolve into a cyber walker.”
One of the more anticipated titles of the event, we’ll update you on Lumines once we find out more.
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What do I think it is?
Hmmm… I’ll bet that the orange, yellow, and white blocks are just three of several colors. The lines you see are a visual representation of the music being played by aligning the blocks. Each block represents various pitches of music and you choose the tone based on the color shapes of each block. I think the idea is to match the block notes into a consistent pattern to match a pattern being played. You delete items by successfully finding their place in the pattern. The face is a visual representation of the game player that reacts to the music or non-music being played.
I would also say that you can use the WiFi on the PSP to compose (walk) with people over the internet as well as conduct music for other people to follow.
But that is just a guess. It reminds me of the “unnamed prototype 1″ for the Atari 2600 that is included in the Activision Atari Anthology from Aspyr games. In that it includes blocks and musical cues in the gameplay and looks virtually inscrutible without knowledge of what the purpose of the game is. So, this is his PSP project. Don’t hold your breath for a DS version. In his previous interview with Kikizo, he stated that he wants to develop for both systems, but will make different games for each system based on their strengths. He stated that the strength of the PSP is the sound and the large screen. The strength for the Nintendo DS is the touch screen, and second screen according to Mizuguchi. So, I would like to see what he makes for the Nintendo DS. However, I think his title on the PSP will end up largely ignored. While it was an awesome game, Rez sold an abyssmal amount of units. Considering that the bulk of PSP gamers will -most likely- be graphics whores; they may pass on this game because of its NES era-style graphics.