![]() But it’s even simpler than Marble Madness in some ways, like the fact that there are no real enemies - just moving platforms, blocks that will push you off the ledge, ramps that change the gravity of the stage allowing you to wrap around certain platforms and areas, and a whole bunch of hills, ledges, and narrow paths to traverse.īecause the weight of the marble is so perfectly balanced, everything you do to screw up is your fault. You have the ability to hop, and there are some additional power-ups you can collect to do things like boost and high jump. Unlike Monkey Ball where you are moving the actual level around like a wooden maze game to move the monkey, here you are controlling the marble itself. It has just the right amount of inertia, weight, and resistance. (You can argue about the $19 price tag among yourselves – I have never been too shook up about game pricing personally.) But the reasons why it works are specific mechanical ones, and to understand why Marble It Up! is better than just a throwaway mobile experience, I need to get into them.įirst is the way the marble actually feels. It’s a short game, but a well-executed one, and that’s all it needed to be really. Because Marble It Up! has some tricky spots later on, it’s a fun one for completionists. I don’t have a problem with this general flow. You try to go for the high score and get gold medals on each of the forty stages. In Marble It Up! you navigate a rolling marble around a 3D level and try not to fall off the edge. There are obstacles and enemies in your path. (Prove me wrong.) The game was simple you navigate a rolling marble around an isometric 3D grid trying not to fall off the edge. Never mind Marble Madness on the NES, Sega Genesis, and arcade which was arguably the best marble-based game on those platforms. That’s a pale comparison from where Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 sat on the GameCube, as a couple of the best arcade-style games on the console. Cheese’s and was nothing but bad ticket-earning fodder. Sega has been slumping when it comes to that property the last one I played was at a Chuck E. Even the slightest loss of concentration will send your ball to the nethers of the abyss! As I mentioned earlier though, where there is definitely a challenge, the level designs are so cool that you will want to find every explorable option.The one thing we need on Switch is a new Super Monkey Ball. Instead of big open corridors, you will be navigating your ball down very slim passageways. ![]() Around the time you are on the 3rd chapter, you will notice the difficulty level really start to spike. Naturally, the beginning of the game is very simple and does not consist of too much challenge. The most concise and obvious path that you want to take is never the way to get the elusive Diamond medals. When you are determined to get the fastest time possible, you will quickly discover how well the levels are constructed. Realistically, you do not have to get the Diamond time to advance through the levels, but beating those times is what will draw you to replay a level over and over to find what corners you can cut to shave off seconds. Other than that, you have a button to jump and one to use special abilities that you pick up on the course.Įach course is timed, offering a variety of medals based upon your completion time. ![]() The left analogue stick moves the ball around while the right stick controls the camera. I played the game using an Xbox One controller, rather than with the mouse and keyboard, and found the controls to be quite comfy and easy to operate. It serves up as a fairly simple to follow tutorial that demonstrates that the game has relatively easy controls. Naturally, the first chapter is a tutorial on what you will encounter as you play the other chapters. There are a total of 50 levels spread throughout five chapters. Sounds simple right? There is no crazy narrative for you to have to succumb yourself to, no Princess to save, no Metal Gear to destroy not even any Gym Leaders to battle! Just nice and simple gameplay. So, what is the concept of Marble it Up!? It’s very very simple, you control a ball which you must roll and jump your way from the starting point to the end of the stage in a specific time limit. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen or played other games that gave me that same vibe, so when my editor asked me to review Marble it Up!, I knew instantly that I would enjoy the game.ĭevelopers Blueteak, The Engine Company, Shapes and Lines, and Arcturus Interactive (under Bad Habit Productions) have not only captured the feeling well, but they have also been great at supporting the game with updates post-release. Marble it Up! instantly caught my eye as it reminded me of one of my favourite games to play on the Nintendo Gamecube, Super Monkey Ball. I am a massive fan of bringing back ideas from games of the past that are no longer around.
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