Puzzlin' Polarium news @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on February 03, 2005

News: The former One-Line Puzzle has a new name and a new release date.

Puzzle games and handhelds just go together. Nintendo proved that in 1989 when Tetris single-handedly made the Game Boy the handheld of choice. Nintendo hopes to catch lightning in a bottle twice as they're readying Polarium for April 18.

Formerly known as One-Line Puzzle, Polarium drops black and white tiles on the player and has them use the stylus to draw a line over the tiles. Swiping a tile will change it's color and when a horizontal line is all one color, it disappears.

Nintendo had this to add:

Ready...set...SWITCH! As patterns relentlessly fall from the top screen, draw lines to reverse their polarity and make them disappear. The more you clear, the faster they come...

Use your head! A hundred single-screen puzzles await! Each can be solved by drawing a single line, so take your time and think them through. Not only that, but you can design your own puzzles and send them to a friend via wireless link!

Cross out your pals! Play wireless multiplayer matches against a friend; as you clear lines, they'll appear on your opponent's screen, which is visible to you on the upper screen of your DS. Clear lines with question marks on them to get power-ups that make your lines clear faster, block out your foe's border, reverse his or her tiles and more!

Polarium will also feature one of the coolest things I think a handheld has ever done. Players will be able to send a demo version of Polarium to anyone else with a DS wirelessly. Talk about your word-of-mouth marketing.

We'll switch up more news on Polarium as we hear it.