Polarium Advance

Polarium Advance[lower-alpha 1] is the sequel to the Nintendo DS puzzle game Polarium. Polarium Advance was developed by Mitchell Corporation for the Game Boy Advance. The object of the game is similar to that of Polarium. Black and white tiles fill a grid, and by drawing a single line in the grid, tiles can be flipped from black to white (or vice versa). Solid, horizontal lines of all black or all white tiles are erased, and the goal is to erase the entire grid in this manner. The game received a re-release on Wii U Virtual Console in late-2015/early-2016. The game was planned to be released in China for the iQue Game Boy Advance system, but this release was cancelled due to high piracy. However, the Chinese translation was fully completed, and it can be played through emulation. However, the game's DS predecessor was released in China.

Polarium Advance
Developer(s)Mitchell Corporation
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Takamitsu Hagiwara
Composer(s)Tomokazu Abe
Toshiyuki Sudo
Platform(s)Game Boy Advance
Release
  • JP: October 13, 2005
  • EU: March 31, 2006
  • NA: November 13, 2006
  • CN: Cancelled
Genre(s)Puzzle
Mode(s)Single player

Game modes
  • Stage
    • Daily Polarium: This mode consists of 365 puzzles - one puzzle for each day in a year - and your goal is to solve one puzzle per day.
    • Polarium Reference: Here you can play groups of puzzles you have already cleared in Daily Polarium.
    • Edit and Custom: In these modes you can create and play, respectively, your own puzzles (up to 100). Initially, the only Special Tiles that can be used in your own puzzles are Hurdle tiles, but the other Special tiles can be unlocked during the regular game. You can also input puzzles by password, and the game is backwards compatible with passwords for Polarium.
  • Time Attack: In this mode, you're given either 5 hard or 10 easy randomly generated puzzles, and have to solve them as fast as possible.

Unlike its predecessor, Polarium Advance was released for the Game Boy Advance, with some significant changes. The unpopular Challenge Mode was removed, and the game focuses more on the Puzzle Mode, which features 365 puzzles - nearly four times as many as Polarium. Each puzzle stage can be played in Stage Mode, with no time limit, or Time Mode, where the player aims to complete a puzzle as fast as possible. Edit Mode for creating custom puzzles makes a return in Polarium Advance as well.

The color scheme is changeable from black and white, to add a bit of customization and color to the game.

How to play

As in the predecessor, the goal is to select tiles by drawing a line over them with one, continuous stroke. Polarium Advance uses the D-pad for controlling where Polarium used the DS stylus, and the A button (or L, for playing single-handed) for starting or ending a stroke. Selected tiles will flip from black to white or vice versa, and the puzzle is completed if each horizontal line consists of a single color afterwards. Surrounding the main puzzle area are gray "neutral" tiles that have no effect on the puzzle but can be used to flip disconnected groups of tiles in a single pass.

Special Tiles

In order to add some variety to the gameplay, three new tiles have been added in addition to the standard black and white ones. Solid tiles cause all tiles above them to fall when erased, Hurdle tiles cannot have lines drawn over them, and Multi-tiles are "wild cards" in that they function as white or black panels.

Reception
Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic73/100[1]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Eurogamer8/10[2]
Famitsu29/40[3]
GameSpot7/10[4]

The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[1] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of three sevens and one eight for a total of 29 out of 40.[3]

Notes
  1. Japanese: 通勤ヒトフデ Hepburn: Tsūkin Hitofude
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References
  1. "Polarium Advance for Game Boy Advance Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  2. Bramwell, Tom (April 24, 2006). "Polarium Advance". Eurogamer. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  3. "This week's Famitsu news (Page 4)". NeoGAF. October 5, 2005. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  4. Kasavin, Greg (December 18, 2006). "Polarium Advance Review". GameSpot. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
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