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Polarium Advance(JP) is a Game Boy Advance puzzle video game released in 2005 and 2006. It was published by Nintendo in Japan and Europe and by Atlus in North America. The game is a successor to Polarium, which was released on the Nintendo DS.

Polarium Advance later received a re-release on the Wii U Virtual Console in late 2015 for Europe and Australia, and in early 2016 for North America and Japan.

Gameplay[]

Similarly to Polarium, there are black and white tiles on a grid that the player must flip over by drawing a single line over them. When all of the tiles on a line are the same color, they disappear. To use the cursor, the player must use the Control Pad to move and the A Button (or L Button) to select a tile. Once they form a line, the player must press the A or L Button again to flip them over. Just like Polarium, to complete a puzzle, the player must erase all tiles in one stroke.

In addition to clearing them in one stroke, Polarium Advance has a start and finish location (indicated by yellow and green bolt-like objects) that the player has to follow in a specific direction and a certain number of steps. Clearing the puzzles award the player with a blue star for one bolt, and yellow for two.

Polarium Advance also has three different kinds of Special Tiles:

  • Hurdle Tiles: Tiles indicated by a blue X that block off parts of the outside grid.
  • Multi-Tiles: Very small tiles colored black and white diagonally, which then turn into normal Tiles when the others next to them are all the same color.
  • Solid Tiles: Tiles that are linked together and disappear when all of them are the same color. Tiles above these then fall down.

Polarium Advance, unlike its predecessor, offers four modes of gameplay.

  • Stage: The main game, where players must complete puzzles.
    • Daily Polarium: There are 365 puzzles - one for each day in a year - that the player must solve.
    • Polarium Reference: Players play groups of puzzles that have been cleared in the "Daily Polarium" mode.
    • Edit/Custom: Players can create and play their own puzzles, using Special Tiles to make them more challenging once unlocked. There is also a password feature that allows players to import or share puzzles made with their friends. In addition, the player can also import stages from the original Polarium.
  • Time Attack: On either Easy or Hard difficulty, players must complete 10 or 5 puzzles as fast as they can. If they miss any tiles, a time penalty is incurred.

Reception[]

Upon release, Polarium Advance received average ratings according to Metacritic, which rated it a 73 out of 100. It received an 8 out of 10 from Eurogamer, a 7 out of 10 from GameSpot, and a 29 out of 40 from Famitsu.

External links[]

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