December 07, 2004 - One of the more subdued games in the Nintendo DS' launch line-up is a very, very simple touchscreen-heavy puzzle game published by Nintendo: Chokkan Hitofude, better known to English-speaking DS fans as simply One-Line Puzzle.

The reason the game's referred to as One-Line Puzzle is its extremely simplistic design: the idea is to use the stylus and touch screen, and "draw" a single stroke line in the game's squared grid. Where the line starts and stops, the grid will change all touched black tiles to white, and all white tiles to black. If a player forms a horizontal line of white or black, it disappears to make room for the rest of the tiles falling into the bin. There are also "neutral" gray tiles which won't change to any color if the line touches them, so players can use these tiles to keep the continuous line going without worry of changing specific tiles to the opposite color.

It may be tough to grasp the concept in a description, but when you see it in action you'll understand just how basic One-Line Puzzle really is. And that's certainly not a bad thing, because its easy-to-understand design makes for an easily recognizable and addictive gaming experience.

There are several modes of play, including the standard endless mode where a bin continuously replenishes, as well as a cool puzzle mode where players must remove all of the on-screen tiles in one single stroke. Players can even create their own set of puzzles and either transfer them to other players wirelessly, or via email with a long string of password text.

One-Line Puzzle focuses much more on gameplay than graphics; the game doesn't go beyond offering a black-and-white, blocky gaming experience. But what it does is show a new style of puzzle design that utilizes the unique touchscreen element of the Nintendo DS system. Its simple nature and ease of control has the potential of making the game the next "Tetris".

No idea if Nintendo plans on releasing One-Line Puzzle in the US, but it would definitely make for a decent "budget" title if Nintendo decides to bring it stateside.