Polarium

"A great puzzle game, just not worth $30."

Unfortunately, there aren't that many good DS games out there. The touch screen is, in most games, the primary reason that developers are making games for the DS, due to the fact that it allows them to do really esoteric kinds of things with their games. The idea behind Polarium is just that. Sure, it would be possible to make Polarium without a touch screen, however it would be extremely difficult to pull off most of the things that Polarium does with the touch screen. The fact that the game is built entirely off of the touch screen, however, is not good.

Gameplay:
There are two game modes in Polarium. The first mode is Puzzle, which is what the tutorial helps you with. In it you have a large amount of blocks arranged in a square. The blocks are either white colored or black colored. When an entire horizontal line of blocks is either entirely white or entirely black then it is eliminated, and the blocks above it fall down (similar to tetris). You use the stylus to draw a line across the blocks. The line cannot overlap itself, however there is an outer line of empty space which you can draw in. In the Puzzle mode you are given the challenge of drawing a single line that eliminates every row of blocks in the puzzle.

The next kind of mode is Challenge. In this mode you have a tetris like work area, where smaller sets of blocks, similair to those you see in Puzzle mode, fall from the top. Your job is to continually eliminate the sets of blocks that fall from the top, so that they don't build up and touch the red bar at the top of the screen.

Polarium creates a very unique challenge, and it becomes very difficult as the game progresses. The main problem, however, is the fact that the developers didn't put enough into the game. The basic formula works exceptionally well, however there are only puzzles in Puzzle mode, and the Challenge mode has a set goal of 1000 lines eliminates. The Puzzle mode can be finished rather quickly, and thought eliminating 1000 lines is extremely difficult, it just doesn't last long enough. It would be a great $20 game, however it's selling for $30 or $35, which is just too much.

Sound: 4
Comments: The sound is fine for the most part, however they could have put in a little extra, and with the lack of effort put into the game it couldn't have been that much harder to up the sound a little.
Graphics: 5
Comments: Standard sprite animation. A few things look nice, but nothing above average.

Total Rating: 4
Rent or Buy?: Rent

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/23/05