Lumo is an isometric puzzler, developed by Triple, Eh? and published by Rising Star Games. A game that is a pure form of throwback Thursday, Lumo is centred on nostalgia and fixated on bringing back the warm fuzzy feelings of your youth. Gareth Noyce, the founder and developer at Triple, Eh? is a force to be reckoned with, after working for multiple video game studios over the last 15 years and creating this fun game. Lumo is available on the hard hitting consoles, but it instantly propels you in to the past, immersing you back in to the fresh mindset you had when you picked up a classic video game for the first time.
Lumo is packed with nods to pop culture from the 80s and 90s, which some think of as the golden age of video games. Whether it is an all out dramatic gesture to Street Fighter IV, or an obscure reference to a British TV show, this game is lightly sprinkled and, at some points, heavily pummelled with references that make you smile. This is the sort of game that will have you calling your pals over to have a look, as you all breathe deep and sigh, letting waves of memories wash over you. This game allows you to reminisce so much, that it is never anything less than enjoyable.
Lumo offers over 400 rooms of isometric platforming, with six hidden mini-games just waiting to be discovered. All rooms pose a challenge, and all have an appeal. The game has a steady incline of difficulty, which serves as another strong basis of its appeal, because no one likes a sudden difficulty spike. The starting room to test out your controls is a massive throwback, but it also helps to calibrate your muscle memory – there is a limitless amount of games that have poor orientation and camera angles, causing you to die frequently, but Lumo works hard against that, trying to maximise the amount of fun you have, and minimise your frustrations.
The premise of the game is that you have to travel around, collecting items such as floppy discs, but they are dotted all over the map. The game is, inherently, quite basic. There is nothing in it that you do not know how to do. Sometimes, you have to push a box around, sometimes you have got to travel over floors that disappear, sometimes the room fills with water, and sometimes the ground is slippy, but you know how to survive all these scenarios, and that is what makes it fun. This game embraces all these old scenarios, but makes them feel young again.
The game is not incredibly beautiful, but it has its own style. Equally, the soundtrack is light and enjoyable, but not the best soundtrack you will ever hear. But, if you are new to gaming, you will not find this game anywhere near as fun as someone who is a veteran gamer. Standalone, this game is essentially just a puzzle game, which young kids would probably find just as fun as you. It is the small references that make this game what it is, so it takes a big gamer to enjoy them.
Honestly, if you are a new gamer on the scene and just want to play a puzzle game, you can find so many better ones just through a Google search. But if you are a gamer, looking for a short but wild trip down memory lane, sprinkled with British pop culture history and references to some absolute classics, this game is worth a purchase. Due to that, this game really needs two ratings. If you are not looking for nostalgia, this game is just a five out of ten. But if you want to feel like everyday is throwback Thursday, this game is a:
REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.
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Lumo Review
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Gameplay - 8/10
8/10
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Graphics - 8/10
8/10
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Sound - 8/10
8/10
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Replay Value - 8/10
8/10
User Review
( votes)( reviews)
Overall
Summary
if you are a gamer, looking for a short but wild trip down memory lane, sprinkled with British pop culture history and references to some absolute classics, this game is worth a purchase.
The game is not very well designed at all.