Polarium (Nintendo DS, 2005)

I purchased Polarium because I love puzzle games. I also wanted a game to utilize the Nintendo Double Screens, which it does. I only rate this game as Average. Polarium's graphics are dull and boring, and it's objective gets old in a hurry. I dislike that I payed retail for this game, to add to my Game Library. I recommend Meteos, or Tetris for the Nintendo DS with 5/5 ratings.

If Othello and Tetris had offspring the result would without a doubt be Polarium. You use the touch screen and stylus to change the colors of tiles in a line from black to white or vise versa. When all the tiles in a row are the same color -POOF- the line vanishes. The idea behind the puzzle mode is to clear the stage in as few strokes as possible, while the freeplay mode has more rows of tiles falling while you're trying to clear the lower rows. It can at times be challenging, but sometimes easy enough for kids to try their hands at puzzle solving. All in all I'd say good for adults and kids alike.

If you are patient and if you draw well, they will come. That is the squares and bricks from the Polarium. Change the colors, match the puzzle, solve the level go to next. First few levels are very easy, almost did not have to be there, but once you advance to the next levels you need to take your time and plan ahead to win the game. Learn the basics of the game from other review sites. Don't buy it if you don't like puzzle games, you will get bored, especially if you are the type that wants to pass levels very quickly. This game requires good thinking after certain levels, once you solve it you realize that it was right in front of you all along. This should be 3 to 3,5 points.

OK.....where do I start with this game? Well, there are no graphics........there's pretty much nothing. You get a screen, with tiles.....turn the black tiles white.......that's it. When I purchased this game, I was thinking it was kinda like tetris.....WRONG! This game is soooo boring! There aren't even any mini games or different stages. Oh please save your money!!! Don't purchase it unless you can get it for around $5, that's including shipping! I hope you all find my review helpful. I wish that someone had warned me about it before I paid FULL price!

Great buy. I love the game. It is like a modern Tetris. Can't put it down. The price was great and the game was in excellent condition. Really love playing the game.

I love puzzles in general. I like Rush Hour Traffic Jam puzzle (a board game where you try to get your car through traffic) as it makes you think of moves. Polarium is like that. A thinking game. No timer. Just strategies. This game reminds me of Othello where you have to flip the tiles to get all in one color. That's basically it.

You try to flip tiles in one move to get all in one color then you move on to the next level. Real cute. I enjoyed it. Then there's another game where you have to beat the time. Flip tiles, clear, next one comes down for you to solve, hurry flip, clear then more and more. That was fun. I haven't done the multi-player one yet. I'm sure that makes it fun competing with someone, seeing if you can solve it first.

The graphics are okay. Not colorful or great but it does the job. Glad I bought it. It's a good addition to your puzzle collection.

Windows shipped with Solitare so people would have a fun way to get accustomed to using a computer mouse.

Polarium feels / looks / plays / like a game whipped up to just get you used to using the touchscreen... then they decided to ship the thing like a full product? It should have been included free built-into the DS for people to do SOMETHING with the bare unit.

But unlike Windows Solitare, Polarium isn't really all the addictive or fun. To me, the puzzles felt kind of simple and obvious... the tetris-like challenge mode is better, the puzzle mode rather boring (and I think only 20 puzzles are included? could that be true, or are there more to unlock? I don't know I got bored around puzzle 17.

Polarium is, well... different. I'm a big fan of puzzle games, and the added technology of the touchscreen on the DS seemed to spell out bigger and better puzzle games to me. In a way, it did, but there are definitely some concepts that are just confusing. When I first popped Polarium in and tried to play it, I lumped it in with the confusing DS puzzle games that I'd never get the hang of and was sorry I'd spent money on it. For whatever reason, I gave it a few more chances and it's really grown on me.

The point of Polarium is to draw shapes on the puzzle grid that will flip the tiles from one color to another - the goal is to get it to all be one color so the tiles will clear. You're trying to clear as much as you can with one move. It's actually a little more confusing than it sounds.

Although I enjoy the game, I still find it to be pretty difficult. I'd recommend this title to only hardcore puzzle game fans. I haven't been able to get past the third level, honestly, and in puzzle mode, I'm screwed. I don't think it's the sort of thing that would be enjoyed by everyone, unlike, say, Tetris or Wario's Woods.

I got Polarium for the DS because I thought it was going to be similar to Picross. I was sadly mistaken. The game sucked, online play was complicated. I played for 2 hours before I decided to put it down. This is one game to avoid.

My husband & I had heard that this was a good program and we were not dissapointed!!! Lots of new challenges ! If you like Brainage 1 & 2..this is right up you alley.

It's a really fun game, but some of the levels are way to easy. I am not a person with full of patient, if I got stuck in a level for a long time, I will becomes exhausted and just don't want to play that game anymore.

Good price, good quality, and good delivery time. I will definitely purchase from this person again.

I saw the game and it was interesting to play .I decided to buy it because it was convienient.I received the merchandise very quickly and it was for cheaper price than department stores were asking for.

Excellent game very challenging and different many different types of
levels. Would recomend for 10 years old and up to adult.

yeah the purchase went smoothly but when it came to delivery there were some problems. i called severall times to my family who i had it deleivered to and they said they hand't received it whilst meanwhile the person i bought it from had been saying it had been delivered already. overall it was average

A lot of the reviews for Polarium were bad, so I was skeptical when I bought it (for a low price-thank you eBay!), but it was surprisingly not too bad. I thought it was only a solve the puzzle and go on to the next level where you solve another puzzle and unless you can solve each level, you can't go on to the next (side note-for these kind of puzzles, you should never have to solve each level to try another one...sometimes your brain just gets stuck on one and you can't wrap your mind around the solution). Anyway, yes it does have a mode like that. But there's also a neat Tetris-like mode, where whole lines fall from the sky and you've got to turn lines into solid blocks of color before the screen fills. That is a neat game and totally worth the money for that mode, even if you never play the puzzle mode. When I put Polarium in my DS, I try to solve 1 or 2 puzzles, then I switch over to the other mode and Tetris away until I get bored or my hands hurt. So if you like puzzle games, Polarium is a good addition to your repertoire. It's very different from Tetris, but still good in it's own way. Plus, it's a game that totally takes advantage of the touch screen and the dual screens. When you're in puzzle mode, it shows your last attempt at a solution on the top screen-VERY helpful! I love being able to see how I screwed up last time...it cuts down on the number of attempts to solve each puzzle. But mostly I play Polarium because the touch screen is fun. I wish my laptop had a touchscreen instead of the dinky laptop mouse.

I like the game but it's tutorial is a little unclear in spots. Very challenging in upper levels. I highly recomend if you like something to pass time. Fun good graphics. I like the ability to get puizzles from others or to create my own puzzles.

I had just purchased my Nintendo DS with one game. I wanted to add a few games to have some choices.
The price was good, but I failed to read the reviews before my purchase. The reviews said it was a boring game and it is. I went through the instructions, but could not find anything that held my interest. It is just taking up shelf space.

Betty Christopher
6506 Apple Branch LN
Indianapolis, IN 46237
317-784-3667

I didn't know exactly what the game was about, but it's a cute little game that makes you think. I'm an older woman who doesn't care much for action games, I prefer "brain" games and puzzles, and this one is right up my alley. Well worth what I paid for it, and the seller was great: very fast shipping, well packaged. The tutorial shows you how to play and makes it easy to get you started. All around, I like it very much.

I have a 6 year old son who LOVES video games. Well I dont want his mind totally brainwashed by all these crappy video games that teach nothing. This one streches his brain out a bit...and he actually has to THINK with this game..not just daze out

This is a great buy for any puzzle lover! Polarium will cause you to spend hours beating your own high scores and is extremely addictive.

The premise is simple: Flip the tiles in the monochromatic patterns to create solid areas of white or black, clearing the board in the process. Don't get too excited though; another round of tiles is falling in place!

It's easy to learn, but difficult to master!

Extremely fast delivery. Wonderful ebayer. Product was exactly matching the description. Very reliable seller. Pleasant to deal with the seller.

This game seems like a good concept. a little bit like othello, you get a grid of black and white tiles. with the stylus, you draw lines, any shape, onto the grid, and each tile you pass over flips to its opposite color. the point is to flip the pieces to get horizontal lines on the grid to be all the same color, so that they can dissappear and the lines above them drop down, like tetris, and to do it in as few moves as possible. all the while, more tiles fall down. its a game that would be impossible without a touchscreen, and is perfect for the DS.

...except its got horrible programming. first, there is basically no graphics, which is fine by itself-what do you really need fancy graphics for on a game like this? the only fanciness going on is this silly little...sparkling...animation when you finish drawing your line/horizontal lines dissappear. again, this isn't a problem by itself, but the simple animation presumably takes up so much memory that the game can't handle doing anything else while the tiles are sparkling and being whisked away to the polarium netherworlds. well, nothing except drop more lines down. like tetris, the tiles drop faster and faster, but as you wait for the stupid animation to complete itself so you can draw your next line, it gets to be impossible to keep up. and if you do try to draw your next line before the animation is complete, then after that sparkling is over, your new line will start off on the wrong horizontal line, and as far as i've been able to try there is nothing you can do to "restart" that line-- you just gotta start off on the wrong part of the grid and try to work around that.

there are multiple game modes, and its the non-timed modes that are the only redeeming parts. there's a 100 level puzzle mode, wherein you have to figure out how to turn all tiles the same color on a grin in one motion. there's also a couple of multiplayer modes.
still, it is a neat concept. if they ever come out with an updated version of this that's capable of thinking as fast as a person, i'll probably buy it, but i would recommend avoiding this one.