Polarium

Pros • Compelling and simple puzzle gameplay • Puzzles mode is especially challenging and satisfying • Edit mode to create your own puzzles and swap them wirelessly • Only requires one game card to play Versus mode • Uses most of the DS' features	Cons • Very plain graphics
Bottom Line Simple, challenging, fun, and it makes use of nearly every feature of the DS. A must have for DS gamers.

I've been saddled with too many WarioWare-ish games lately, so playing Polarium on the DS was both refreshing and a relief. Here's a zesty puzzler that makes full use of the touch-screen input, and most of the DS' best features.

Polarium takes place on a grid. On the grid are rows of black and white tiles, all mixed up. Your task is to clear the grid by making the rows of tiles all one colour. You do this by highlighting the off-colour tiles with your stylus. Tap the last highlighted tile with your stylus, and your highlighted tiles will change to the opposite colour. Be careful not to highlight the wrong tiles, or you will mix up the rows even further.

It's the mark of a good puzzler--a ridiculously simple to grasp premise, followed by insanely captivating gameplay. Polarium has three modes based on this idea. The first is the Challenge mode, a Tetris-like action game in which rows of tiles fall down the screen and pile up at the bottom. You must quickly change the rows to one colour before the grid fills. To help you out, the grid is surrounded by a neutral grey border, which you can stray on to when highlighting in order to make longer lines. Long continuous lines will eliminate more rows at once, but don't get too greedy and keep your hand steady; otherwise you might accidentally flip the wrong tiles.

The second mode is the Puzzles mode. This time, you have a grid that's already full. You must be sure each row has only black or only white tiles, but the trick is you can only draw one continuous line to do it. Once again, you have the grey border to assist you, and you have an unlimited amount of time in which to consider your move. In a nice touch, the top screen shows what you tried on the last attempt.

Once I tried Puzzles mode, it immediately took my brain prisoner. The first few puzzles are easy, but it's not long before they get tougher. Some of them you swear are impossible, but all of them have solutions. In some cases, multiple solutions. It's just a question of finding them. There's a real sense of triumph when you do. It's also lots of fun to show someone else how to complete a puzzle, if they haven't worked it out yet. It will make you one smug SOB.

Polarium also uses the wireless capabilities of the DS very well. Which brings us to the third mode, Versus. You and another player compete to be the first to clear your grid. Only this time, as you complete rows, you send them over to the other player to contend with. Only one game card is required. The other DS will download a demo, so your partner can play Versus mode against you, and sample 10 puzzles.

This mode isn't bad, but I prefer working on the puzzles. Lucky me, Polarium has yet another card to play here. The game has an Edit feature, which allows you to create your own puzzles, and swap them with other players wirelessly. I love doing this. And don't worry about the other player cheating--creating an impossible-to-solve puzzle is, well, impossible. When you work with the puzzle editor you are required to solve the puzzle yourself before you can save it. There's a tool to help you--as you draw your line it flips the tiles automatically so you can see if you've filled in the rows correctly.

There is one ability of the DS that Polarium does not use to its fullest extent, and that's its graphical capabilities. Polarium is predominantly black, white, and grey. At a casual glance it looks very plain and unexciting. Now admittedly there's only so much you can do with a grid and squares, but look at Lumines on the PSP. It had lots of music and skins to give the game some audio/visual flair. Polarium could at least change the colour of the tiles once in awhile.

So the game might not have the surface glitz, but it has real gameplay substance underneath. Lots of it. My favourite mode, Puzzles, has 100 grids to clear, to say nothing of the custom puzzles you can swap with your buddies. Three modes, an Editor... there's a lot happening in this simple game.

Like all good puzzlers, Polarium is exceptionally easy to learn, and it makes it very hard for you to turn your DS off and get your work done. Tired of collections of minigames that last two seconds each? Give Polarium a go.

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