July 28^th, 2005 (1:02am) - One of the first Nintendo DS puzzle games, Polarium, will be coming to the Game Boy Advance this October in Japan. According to the latest issue of Famitsu, this GBA version of Polarium (called "Tsuukin Hitofude" in Japan) will not feature the DS version’s unpopular Challenge Mode, however, it will include a beefed up version of the game’s Puzzle Mode, featuring triple the amount of puzzles stages, with a total of 365 stages in all.

The game will offer three ways to play challenge mode. Stage Mode will allow players to select a stage and solve the game’s puzzles without time a limit. Time Attack mode will select random levels and have players face the challenge of solving the game’s puzzle within a certain time limit. Finally, Edit Mode will allow players to create their own puzzles just like in the Nintendo DS version of the game.

Originally, Polarium only offered two types of panels to toy around with in the game; white panels and black panels. In the GBA version, new panels have been added to the game and those are Kotei Panels, Hurdle Panels, and Multi Panels. Kotei Panels are fixed panels that cannot be moved until they are erased, and once they are erased, all the panels that were above them come crashing down. Hurdle Panels are no different than their namesake and are merely obstacles that players cannot go through. Multi Panels acts as both white and black panels and can be used as a wildcard of sorts.

The game will see a release on October 13th in Japan. No word on whether Nintendo plans to publish the game in North America.