Not since Gary Coleman got arrested for beating up a female fan has something so small caused so big a fuss. Sony's PlayStation Portable landed in North American stores on Thursday, kicking off the Japanese giant's first foray into portable gaming. One that seems to be aiming directly at the heart - and bottom line - of countrymen competitors Nintendo, who have lorded over the handheld gaming market for nearly two decades.

In honour of the little game machine's big debut, we're doing four pint-sized reviews of PSP launch titles this week (Ridge Racer - Tony Hawk's Underground 2: Remix - Dynasty Warriors), sampling the handheld's surprisingly deep software selection right out of the gate.

I know what you're thinking: Just what we need, another version of Tetris. What are we up to now - 892 different puzzle games that involve rotating falling shapes into snugly fitting rows and columns?

But this ain't no clone of the Russian classic that helped propel the original Game Boy to superstar status, even if it does share the original's level of delightful addictiveness.

The idea behind Lumines (pronounced "luminous" and not "loo-meens" as I'd stupidly been calling it) is pretty simple: you take falling blocks made up of coloured squares and drop them into rows and stacks that create rectangular sections of identical colours, which are cleared when a scrolling line moves across the screen.

Wow, I've played the game for countless hours and that description doesn't even make sense to me. Suffice it to say, once you start playing the game and dissolve into that zone of blissful concentration, you'll understand.

A lot of things make Lumines greater than its simple premise. Designed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the mind behind Sega's innovative Space Channel 5 and Rez, it's visually stylish throughout and has some kickin' original tunes. Each new "skin" you unlock gives the game a new look and vibe, and the head-to-head and puzzle modes mix things up nicely.

While it might be an easy game to overlook, especially for those desperately weary of Tetris ripoffs, Lumines is a must-buy for the new PSP owner. Because man cannot live on racing ridges alone.