Marble Blast Ultra

Marble Blast Ultra

Some games are just brilliant in their design, and require nothing else. Marble Blast Ultra is such a game, and yet they added tons of additional features. The basic concept should be very familiar to gamers: You are a marble, and must get to the exit as fast as possible. Dodge obstacles and collect powerups to do so. There are gimmick stages, as well as stages designed for skill and stages that have a "trick" to finishing them in a flash. There are endless pinball bumpers situated on ice terrain that are controller-busting infuriating, and you'll love every minute of it.

The colors are bright, and your options for a ball include several fun options, as well as a few that show off their lighting engine in reflections. The music and sound effects get the job done, with subdued techno thumping and loud, brash sound effects that give audio cues when you use a power-up or 'blast' with your marble's ability.

Some of the puzzles require you to preform moves that aren't fully explained, and there isn't really a "practice zone" to try things without suffering through a long death scene, so it can be frustrating at high levels, but it's a minor complaint that is handled best by "play more, scrub."

But that's not enough. MBU also has comprehensive leaderboards and a pretty swank multiplayer component that features tense, gem-collecting, smack-talking elements while you compete to see who can knock their opponent off the edge the most (not the de jure goal of the multiplayer mode, mind you). They further kept their laurels un-rested by releasing even more DLC, more maddeningly-difficult stages to mess around in. Marble Blast is so good, I want to take it out behind the middle school and get it pregnant.

Graphics: Servicable. Bright colors and abstract landscapes get the point across, crucial in a puzzle game. 3.
Sound: Repetitive but non-annoying soundtrack and jarring (in a good way) sound effects. 3.
Controls: Responsive, but with enough play to make you keep going back to set a new best time. 5.
Tilt: Great puzzles, great action, great multiplayer, great developer attention. 5.
Overall (not an average): 4.