Thank you Rising Star Games for sending us this game to review!

Off on a distant planet somewhere are the remains of an alien species.  Out of those remains, a single purple lumini springs to life.  You must guide this bird/insect like creature and gather glowing energy orbs from nearby plants. 

Radiating blue cube structures serve as check points and from the collected orbs, more lumini are created.  They come in various colors and possess unique abilities.  The blue, yellow, and red lumini are easy to regain, but the purple ones are only available in the beginning of the game.  If you can keep a purple lumini alive at the end, you’ll earn one of the few Steam achievements available.

Other Steam enhancements include cloud saves and trading cards.  Controllers are fully supported and recommended.  The left joystick is for guiding the flock of lumini and the triggers can activate their pulse attack which can stun hostile enemies.  Some of the enemies include carnivorous plants, spikey spores shot out from plants, creatures that blast out puffs of poison smoke and baddies that can swallow luminis whole.  

Other obstacles are fans and push buttons that require teamwork to open up closed doorways.  Splitting the luminis requires a lot of coordination and use of both joysticks on the controller.  Each joystick controls a group of luminis.  On a couple of occasions there are two fans that will need to be rotated for a little while to open up a sealed doorway.  If you’re good at patting your head and rubbing your belly simultaneously, you should do fine.  If not, then you’ll be happy to know that some of those double fan obstacles are optional.  Though you will be losing out on collecting a good amount of energy and a Steam achievement for collecting it all.

Some people may grow tired of the same puzzles and enemies throughout the game, but I was not one of them.   While it did drag on a little bit, the gorgeous graphics and soothing music made this a pleasant and mostly relaxing experience for me.  Except when I was avoiding being eaten or being reminded about how uncoordinated I am.

Besides the ability to be eaten, Lumini is a relatively clean game that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.  There are some references to evolution as the world gradually cycles through the rise and fall of several species.

The asking price is $12.99 which is a little steep given that the game can be beaten in roughly two hours.  After completing the game, a hard mode becomes available.  I did run into some stability issues, but nothing a restart couldn’t resolve.  If you find Lumini on sale, I highly recommend picking it up!