Published by: Rising Star Games
Developed by: Speelbaars
Genre: Indie, Adventure, Relaxing
Release Date: 3 September, 2015
Time to complete: 2+ hours

Play as a bright, flying, fish-like species called Lumini, as you make your way through a beautiful colourful world, fending off evil creatures wanting to hurt you and escaping the dangers of a hostile planet.

Rather than controlling just a single creature, you play as an entire swarm of Lumini (unless of course you manage to kill them all!). As you progress, you reach large cube crystal-like checkpoints that emit an energy, allowing your force of Lumini to grow. The more little blue flowers you collect along the way, the more your swarm will grow. There are different types of Lumini with different abilities (for example a speed boost, or a bomb-like move which removes damaging objects in your path), and you can change which variety leads the swarm. Though the game mostly involves simply exploring the soothing atmosphere, there are a few puzzles to complete and bad guys to fight off. Some of the puzzles require your swarm of Lumini to separate into 2 groups, both of which you can control at the same time.

Honestly, 95% of the reason I play this game is because it is just so beautiful. There are crystals scattered around the Lumini’s path which light up as you pass them, different areas of the map that present a different theme, and bright, contrasting colours (for example the bright colours the crystals emit inside tunnels) throughout the game.
I also thoroughly enjoyed going through the concept art (can be found under ‘extras’), which displays a huge amount of artistic talent.

One play through of Lumini on the easiest setting takes roughly 2 hours. After completing the playthrough on ‘normal’, a harder difficulty will unlock. The replay value is highly dependant on whether you get bored of games easily, as it is fairly repetitive and linear. For me, the artwork is definitely reason enough to play it through numerous times.
There are enough achievements to give you a few playthroughs before you complete the game.

The soundtrack, much like the rest of the game, is incredibly calming. It’s enthralling, blissful and flows beautifully with the gameplay.

The first playthrough of Lumini is on the easiest setting, ‘normal’. It’s honestly very easy, and would be a good difficulty level for someone who is more interested in taking in the art of the game (rather than in engaging in more difficult combat), or even children. Because you have a whole swarm of Lumini, it’s hard to fail; you’re likely not going to lose every single one before the game ends, at least not on normal. After you’ve completed the game on this setting, a harder setting will unlock.
The controls are very easy to use (it is also recommended to use a controller), and the gameplay is very simple with very few dangers along the way.

Lumini very quickly became one of my favourite games; I could probably play it over 100 times and it would still have the same serene effect. With the different difficulty levels, I really think Lumini has something to appeal to everyone. For me, it was definitely worth the price.