Polarium

"The Perfect Puzzle?"

Before I even bought a DS, I bought the games Puyo POP Fever and Polarium. I knew that Puyo POP would be way better than the GameCube version, and it was, and Polarium was a game I was really excited about. Polarium in no way was disappointing. While it is a simple game, in never gets tiring, even after you have completed everything.

Gameplay

Now, Polarium is not a standard block-dropping puzzle game where you have to quickly turn pieces around to match each other. The pace of Polarium is a lot slower, and you'll be using deep thinking rather than quick thinking.

The game design is simple -- you are presented with a square grid full of black and white squares. You can draw a twisting line that is one square unit thick anywhere on the grid. When you've finished your line, you tap the end and every square that was under it will change their polarium: black squares will change to white, and white squares will change to black. If a horizontal row of squares is all the same color, they will disappear from the screen.

There are three main ways to play Polarium. The one that I spent the most time with was the Puzzles Mode. In this mode, you are presented with ten puzzles: each is a simple grid and you must clear the entire screen of squares with only one drawn line. Once you have completed the ten puzzles, you will unlock the next ten. In all, there are one hundred puzzles to complete, each with increasing difficulty and new, interesting patterns to drawing lines. While it sounds simple and easy, some of the puzzles can stump you for hours and even days, or even longer. If you're not as good at the puzzles, you can turn on a hint feature, which, after playing on one puzzle for a long time, will give you the starting point for the line. If you play even longer, you'll get the ending point. It may sound like it gives away the answer, but it is still pretty difficult. If you really are into puzzles, you can turn off the default hint, which shows you the line that you drew on your last attempt.

The second main mode is the Challenge Mode. In this mode, blocks of squares will fall from the top of the screen into your two-screen deep play area, where you must prevent the squares from stacking over a line at the top of the screen. This mode is a lot faster paced, but you also must practice it a lot. The patterns of the blocks of squares that fall from the top of the screen are actually the same every time you play, and are divided into ten sections, totalling 1000 lines. Your goal is to make it to the end of all 1000 lines. As the game goes on, the blocks drop faster and in more difficult patterns. You can practice the individual 100-line sections, too. Once you've completed all 1000 lines, you can try again and again to beat your previous scores on the high score table; scoring is based on various things such as the number of lines you can draw in a row while clearing squares every time, or clearing large amounts of squares at once.

The third main way to play Polarium is the versus mode. It's probably the least used mode, but it is still fun. To play, you turn your DS on its side (and a friend does the same) and you now are faced with a ten-line play field. You play by clearing the squares as quickly as possible. Whenever you clear a line of squares, the line is sent to your opponent and the squares' colors are randomized (it's set to one of many random patterns). You also can get "attack items" that change the speed of incoming or outgoing lines or prevent your opponent from using the outer
ring of "free space" to draw his or her lines.

All three game modes are fun and easy to control, and the controls are simple and intuitive, taking only minutes of practice to master. With three ways to play, the game provides for endless hours of fun.

Graphics/Sound

Graphics and sound are probably the least important features to this type of game, however, they are a bit worth mentioning in a review. When a game such as Polarium has very bad graphics or sound, it can be a horrible thing; however, Polarium's graphics and sound are very fitting. The menu is nothing more than a bit of text, in a font that looks like it is made of blocks. There really isn't much to it at all, and it really fits the mood of this application. The sound is very simple and light, and it falls into the background quickly, as it should for this type of game. There is no distracting sound at all. In fact, the sound can be a good white noise when you are playing. I think the graphics and sound for this game fit wonderfully and were well-designed for this style of game.

Other Features

There are a few other features in Polarium, three worth a mention.

The first feature is the tutorial mode. This is extremely helpful in explaining this game to someone who has not played before, as the game is a bit hard to explain in words alone. It also helps you get a quick feel for the game, stepping you through everything carefully. You start simply by learning how to touch the screen with the stylus, and each lesson moves up until you're solving puzzles, giving you every skill you will need to play the full game in any mode. The tutorial is optional to play through and also moves swiftly while being very helpful. I really like the tutorial.

The second feature is the demo that you can send friends via DS's wireless download feature. This demo allows your friends to play the complete versus mode against you, and it also allows them to try out 10 demo puzzles. Nothing gets too difficult, leaving your friend wanting to play the full game to play the harder puzzles. It is a very fun demo for someone who likes this type of puzzle.

The third and most appealing feature is the custom puzzle feature. You can create up to 100 of your own Polarium puzzles and even share custom puzzles with friends who have the game. This adds for even more enjoyment solving your friends' puzzles and creating puzzles for your friends to solve. You can even work out puzzles on paper and then put them into your game later. This mode will have you thinking about Polarium puzzles all the time.

Overall

Polarium is a very simple game. There are no flashy graphics or exciting combo moves to pull off. It is simply puzzles for you to solve, so this game is not for everyone. However, if you like thinking hard and trying again and again, getting closer and closer to solving a good puzzle, this is the game for you. While there is not a lot of fast, quick-thinking action, this game is great for people who love to think and solve puzzles. The game will trap you in and you'll never want to put it down, and you'll be showing all the puzzles to your friends. Solving each puzzle leaves you with great amounts of satisfaction. Another great part is that since you spend a lot of time figuring out each solution, you can come back to the game a month after playing and rework all the puzzles, because the answers aren't something that you'll memorize once discovering. With three fun modes of play to go to when you need a break from one, puzzle lovers will find non-stop fun in Polarium.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/06