* BreatherLevel: In the original challenge mode, from levels 36 to 60 each new skin has a faster timeline and block drop speed than the last, until Holiday in Summer switches in, dropping both timeline speed and block drop speed by more than half. Steel drums and earth-tone blocks set the mood for a long awaited chance to refocus and clean up your screen.
* ContestedSequel: ''Lumines II'' adds difficulty levels, a playlist mode, and a "make your own music" mode, but part of the criticism stems from the less varied skins, as all skins' designs are standardized now. The addition of popular songs did ''not'' please the ItsPopularNowItSucks crowd.
* FirstInstallmentWins: The first game is the best-known in the series, especially due to its [[LevelOneMusicRepresents first stage music]], "Shinin'". It's rather telling that it's gotten not one but two ports: A port on Platform/PlayStation2 and a remake on [[MediaNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames eighth-generation consoles]] and on Platform/{{Steam}}.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The game is much more popular in North America (it sold 300,000 units there) than in Japan (70,000 units), so much so that the sequel featured mainstream American music.
* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: ''Remastered'' gets a fair share of criticism for basically being just a remake of the first game with some tweaks from later games, not bothering to include any skins from those later games or new ones.
* LevelOneMusicRepresents: "Shinin'" from [[FirstInstallmentWins the first game]], not helped by being an ear worm with [[BrokenRecord repetitive lyrics]].
* MemeticMutation: SHININ' SHININ' SHININ' SHININ'[[labelnote:Explanation]]"Shinin'" infamously has the titular word repeat ''ad nauseam'' at some points, made even worse during segments where the current pair of measures loops until the player erases blocks. It doesn't help that [[LevelOneMusicRepresents it's the very first skin]] [[FirstInstallmentWins in the original game]].[[/labelnote]]
* ThatOneLevel:
** Any skin with a high drop speed and a slow timeline. It means your playfield will get pretty filled up before the timeline can pass by to erase the blocks. This is most evident in "Lights," which has the slowest timeline in the game and is [[spoiler:the last stage in Challenge Mode, so the blocks fall at maximum speed.]] "Fly Into The Sky" is another notable mention, as its timeline matches the track's tempo in the first game and its remakes, but is halved for ''II'' where it reprises its role as a late-game skin.
** Any skin whose block designs look similar to each other (like "Meguro") or blend in with the background (like "Working in the Hole"), because that means it'll be hard to see what you're doing.
* ThatOneSidequest: In the original game, "45 Degrees" and "Rodent" are unlocked by, respectively, completing a fraction of Puzzle Mode (the first 26 puzzles, specifically) and playing for 10 hours. However, ''Remastered'' makes these skins ''far'' more difficult to obtain, as they require completing ''all'' of Puzzle Mode (100 puzzles) and Mission Mode (50 missions), respectively. And much longer too, as [[LastLousyPoint all of the other skins can be obtained in about an hour if one clears Challenge Mode and VS CPU in one shot, while Puzzle and Mission Modes will take a few hours for each of these modes]].