The fiendish puzzler Polarium was one of the stars of the quite limited DS launch line-up: a Tetris for the new generation, if you will. Now there’s news of a sequel - well, more of an expansion, coming to Japan at the budget price of 2800 yen (about £14).
Called Tsuukin Hito Fude (the original was called Chokkan Hito Fude) the title apparently has something to do with travelling, which seems reasonable enough for a handheld game. Features are listed as 365 new puzzles, a Time Attack mode and a colour edit option - exactly the same features in fact, as the recently announced GBA version. The price and the features got us wondering – are the DS and GBA versions in fact one and the same? The DS has a GBA cartridge slot after all, so you could use it to play the GBA version. The only thing missing would be an instruction to the machine to use the touch screen and stylus support. Perhaps this is why they are calling it an expansion pack and not a sequel – you need to use it in conjunction with the original game card for full functionality.
We’ll clear this confusion up as soon as we can, but it certainly got us thinking about the DS cartridge slot in a new way, regarding expansions to other games. There's no European release date yet, but it's not unreasonable to expect one to be announced soon.
Called Tsuukin Hito Fude (the original was called Chokkan Hito Fude) the title apparently has something to do with travelling, which seems reasonable enough for a handheld game. Features are listed as 365 new puzzles, a Time Attack mode and a colour edit option - exactly the same features in fact, as the recently announced GBA version. The price and the features got us wondering – are the DS and GBA versions in fact one and the same? The DS has a GBA cartridge slot after all, so you could use it to play the GBA version. The only thing missing would be an instruction to the machine to use the touch screen and stylus support. Perhaps this is why they are calling it an expansion pack and not a sequel – you need to use it in conjunction with the original game card for full functionality.
We’ll clear this confusion up as soon as we can, but it certainly got us thinking about the DS cartridge slot in a new way, regarding expansions to other games. There's no European release date yet, but it's not unreasonable to expect one to be announced soon.
Games:
Polarium
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Comments
Praxis 10 Aug 2005 15:07
1/2
The DS has a GBA cartridge slot after all, so you could use it to play the GBA version. The only thing missing would be an instruction to the machine to use the touch screen and stylus support.
Not quite; when you choose the GBA cartridge slot, the DS automatically shuts off the second screen and the ARM9 processor and wireless and the microphone, and stops receiving input from the tough screen. Before it even boots the game. It's impossible to run a DS game off a GBA cartridge without some physical hardware, or flashing the DS firmware.
The trick homebrew modders use is called PassMe. You plug this device called PassMe into the DS slot, and put your GBA cartridge with a DS app in the GBA slot. It reads PassMe as a game; when you boot in DS mode, PassMe gives the appropriate headers for a DS game then tells the DS to grab the .nds file from the GBA slot.
So yes, a GBA game could be used as an expansion pack; where you need both the original game and the GBA one, as you suggested; but it cannot be used as the full game.
Joji 10 Aug 2005 15:19
2/2
I've seen the first Polarium on the DS onsale and to the untrained eye it's not much to look at. But beneath its rather boring exterior lurks something addictive.
A sequel to a game like this so soon is a good sign, and if GBA owners get a dose too that's also good.
A sequel to a game like this so soon is a good sign, and if GBA owners get a dose too that's also good.