is the

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

puzzle game A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle ...

Polarium is a puzzle game developed by Mitchell Corporation for the Nintendo DS. It was a launch title in Japan, Europe and China. In the game, players use a stylus to draw lines on the DS's touch screen, flipping black and white tiles to clear puzzles. ...

''. ''Polarium Advance'' was developed by

Mitchell Corporation Mitchell Corporation (株式会社ミッチェル) was a Japanese video game developer based in the Suginami ward of Tokyo. Roy Ozaki served as president, and Koichi Niida served as vice-president. Some employees were former Capcom and TAD Corpora ...

for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

. 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.

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

, 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 A D-pad (short for directional pad or digital pad; officially referred to by Nintendo as a +Control Pad) is a flat, usually thumb-operated, often digital, four-way directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern vid ...

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

The game received "average" reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave it a score of three sevens and one eight for a total of 29 out of 40.

Notes

References

External links

*{{moby game, id=/polarium-advance
Tsuukin Hitofude - Official Game Page - Nintendo.co.jpMitchell Corporation - Official Site
2005 video games Atlus games Game Boy Advance games Nintendo games Puzzle video games Falling block puzzle games Monochrome video games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games Virtual Console games for Wii U