jeffdsmith

I came across this game today I've never heard of called Polarium. It has a puzzle mode which in fine and dandy, but the versus and attack modes looks like serious amount of fun. Is anyone else heard about this game before or looking forward to it? Click the first "box" to watch a video that demo's the modes. (Broadband only)

BeanDip0001

never heard of it, but i don't keep track of anything the big N does. i feel their games are't bloody enough for me. anyhow that thing looks cool i watched the video and the one of the dog thing where you've got a virtual dog that looked fun.

darkside

I prepaid for it months ago as soon as it went up for preorder. Can't wait for it to come out. The screens and videos I have seen so far look pretty cool.

jeffdsmith

I thought of you when I saw it actually, I recalled how excited you get about Bejewled and thought you might like it.

BeanDip0001

bejewled is awesome, i had that for my palm. talk about wasting time in class or at work.

Josh H

I don't get the hype over Bejeweled.

I like Tetris Attack (and it's offshoots) much better.

I like the faster pace (with having to keep the blocks from reaching the top of the screen) and being able to horizontally swap any two blocks rather than only ones that are instantly completing a 3+ pattern. Adds a lot more strategy.

Edison

I imported this a while ago, as it's been out in Japan for a while. There it's called Chokkan Hitofude, and for a while was listed in the US as One Line Puzzle. The main part of the game is Challenge mode which has 100 puzzles for you to work through. The cool thing is you can add puzzles to it, by typing in codes, so people can design them and share them with others. There were already some on Nintendo's Japanese site, and you can find more on GameFaqs. The timed mode where the puzzles fall from the top continuiously and you just keep clearing as much as you can is okay I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

darkside

I loved Tetris Attack and Kirby Star Stacker. Never really a big fan of the standard Tetris falling tile games in general, but Polarium puts a nice twist on the puzzle genre that looks fun and unique. I may pass on Meteos though. I never could get Lumines down as well as I liked and lost interest in it after a few weeks, Meteos is another Tetris type game and I may end up not liking it.

My favorite modes on most puzzle games are the "puzzle modes" and Polarium looks to really shine in that area. Even with Lumines I spent most of my time beating the puzzle mode.

Ringo20000

If you guys like puzzle games you might want to check out Toki Toki Boom over at yahoo games, under arcade games. It's kind of a hidden gem, my friend got me playing it. Its a really fun multiplayer puzzler. Good to kill some time.

darkside

The reviews so far are pretty mediocre. Gamespot gave it a 6.9, IGN gave it a 7.8, and 1up gave it 7.5.

Reading into the details of the reviews though convince me this is exactly the kind of game I'm going to enjoy. However, it doesn't have big seller written on it at all. It will be another in a long line of quirky games I love, but no one else I talk to will have ever heard of.

jeffdsmith

The feature of making your own puzzles and posting the codes online is cool for sure. Only thing I worry about is if people can make a puzzle that can't be solved and still share the code. That would suck...

darkside

I think you have to be able to solve it to create it and get a code for it.

Centurion

Aahhhh...how sweet.

Polarium looks cool.
It reminds me of my favorite spin-off of the original Tetris game. It's a game on the SNES which was available only in Japan. In this game, the blocks falling from the top are shaped exactly like those in Tetris but some of the blocks will have 1 or more magic orbs in them which are used to accumulate spell points. You select a Hero from a list of about 7 or so. Each Hero has their own special group of spells that you could use to either help your stack of blocks clear-away or interfere with your opponent's stack to make it harder for him/her to clear-away. The spells consisted of four different levels, the fourth being the most devastating.
The Heros were strange: A ninja, a princess, a pumpkin, 6 Mariachi midgets, a Samurai Wolf, a rabbit, and maybe 1 or 2 others which I can't recall. A very unlikely bunch indeed, but the best part was watching each of the Heros perform the spell. The game was completely in Japanese but you didn't have to read any of it to understand/enjoy the actual gameplay.

jeffdsmith

Just curious, do you read this somewhere or are you conjecting?

darkside

In the IGN review.

Hrothgar

Polarium reminds me a bit of Picross with it's simple, graphically sparse, but ultimately intriguing puzzle action.

I am looking forward to Meteos, however. It reminds me of those great hyper puzzlers like Kirby's Star Stacker and Tetris Attack.

darkside

If only Nintendo would release a new Picross game.

Hrothgar

T'would be perfect for the DS, but not going to happen given the abyssmal sales of the one and only Picross title to cross the Pacific.

darkside

I'd be happy with them releasing it in Japan. I'll be more than happy to import it.

jeffdsmith

I've never played the game you speak of, but it seems to me if Nintendo is willing to give Polarium a go, they might consider giving it a try.

Spiderbite

I saw this game new at ToysRUs for 10 bucks today and was curious if anyone had played it here. Even with all the posts in this thread it looks like very few actually played it (and many posts were around the time it first came out).

Any opinions since the game has now been out for some time?

Michael Corvin

I picked it up for $7.50 at Target a couple weeks ago. Haven't gotten into it too much. Mario, Magnetica & Brain Age are eating up my time.

MasterofDVD

If I could find it for 10.00 I'd certainly take the plunge. I've played the game on the demo kiosks and it's not the best game ever but it seemed pretty fun. I've been waiting for it to come down in price before I pick it up.

The Bus

Everytime I look at games, I always get confused by Polarium, Magnetica, Meteos, etc. They all look the same to me and I know one or more of them are pretty bad, so I never end up getting one.

Josh H

Meteos is very good. Though I think overhyped by some as it still doesn't touch Tetris Attack IMO.

Haven't played the others.