The premise is simple. A block of 4 individual blocks waits for you to turn and place it from the top of the screen. The block can contain any combination of 2 colors - 1 white, 3 orange, 2 white, 2 orange, 4 orange, etc. And, these combinations can be placed in any of the four corners of the larger block. Your job is to rotate, move and drop these blocks in such a manner that you create groups of four of one color - 2 X 2. It sounds simple enough -- until you make an error.

There is a constant line that passes over the game board. Any groups you've built up - even if you were just ready to turn that group of 4 into a group of 5, will be wiped. The blocks above will settle and your game board has now changed. There is a Special Block with a red dot in the middle. Periodically (and usually just in the nick of time) of these will show up. Should you create a group of 4 say orange blocks, then every block that is connected to that block and contains an orange will lose its orange piece. Then, of course, the rest fall into place, make a big block and you've cleared a large portion of the board.

Once you reach a certain threshold, the color of blocks, background and music will change. Personally, I'm happiest with the green and white as the wallpaper has the least amount of extraneous movement. Each time you reach a new "skin" it is yours to keep. You don't have to play through skins each time - if you just want to play for the sake of playing, pick your favorite skin and play on it for high score.

There are a few other modes to the game. There's a time attack mode - make as many blocks as you can in as preset time. It's great for testing your skills. There's a puzzle mode which has me baffled. You've got to make a shape using the blocks however, I've not determined how to make a cross without support and how to keep it in one color - I need to spend more work on that.

Then there is the "versus" mode. This is actually quite fun and makes me really miss the fact that no one near me owns a PSP. During this mode you can play vs. the CPU or another player. As you clear blocks you push your game screen into your opponents (or theirs into yours). Should you clear a field you're given new skins and new "characters" (icons) to identify yourself during head to head play. I really enjoyed playing the CPU but after 3 levels or so it becomes far better than I and I just could not advance.

Lumines is fun. It's pretty and it can be time consuming. But, like all well designed puzzle games it can be a compulsive escape or a 15-minute time killer. It is definitely one of the games for the PSP I shall keep as I can see myself picking it up periodically for years to come.