andheld systems seem to attract puzzle games. The old-style GameBoy had its Tetris, and the PSP Lumines. The DS gets its puzzlers in the form of Lumines sister title Meteos, and also Polarium. Polarium presents you with a grid of black and white tiles, and tasks you with the duty of flipping them over so that they make lines of one colour, and thus all disappear. Although- and here’s the twist- you can only flip tiles over by drawing a single, unbroken line over them which doesn’t cross over itself with the stylus. When you finish drawing the line, the tiles flip and may- or may not- make the single-coloured lines you seek. Primarily you will find the titles in pre-set patterns- there are 100 short puzzles ranging from the simple to the entirely illogical. However, the majority of your time will be spent in “Challenge” mode- where many lines of a larger puzzle are periodically dropped into the play area to be changed into a con-coloured state until you’ve either run out or the play area fills. The major downfall of this mode is that it is very limited. Lumines, Meteos and Tetris can be played forever if you’re good enough, and will be different every time. In Polarium’s case, the Challenge mode only goes on for 1000 lines- and the same 1000 lines every time. This makes Challenge mode immensely unappealing, as restarting the entire game with the same tiles and everything each time becomes more and more tedious the further through the game you progress. Equally, the increasing speed is at odds with some slightly suspect stylus detection. Moral of the story? Nice try at giving the DS a puzzler to call its own. Sadly it falls over when compared to other puzzlers, and slightly let down by the hardware. Still, Nintendo have had the foresight to mark it down as a budget release at £20 rather than the full price of £35- it’s worth it if you’re willing to overlook the title’s shortcomings. Mark Kelly