MARBLE IT UP! ULTRA Review - Controlling A Wild Roller

PC Review Code Provided by The Marble Collective

Sometimes you never realize how difficult a game can be until you actually sit down and play it. I have to say that I highly underestimated the difficulty of a marble rolling game because my initial playthrough of Marble It Up! Ultra from The Marble Collective didn’t take long before it got frustrating. That said, I would have hated for this game to have been a breeze to get through, so I’m glad they had so many elements to keep things interesting.

Gameplay

It’s a pretty straightforward game. The direction you want the ball to roll, you simply hold the left analog stick in that direction. If the ball is in the air, it will keep spinning which means you will end up building speed that way. You are also able to jump, which is incredibly helpful when climbing uphill as you can jump while holding the spin to build small bursts of speed. Lastly, the non-organic mechanic, you can also rewind. While rewinding does forfeit the official completion of a level, it lets you practice difficult areas before proceeding or re-attempting the level leading up to that moment.

The game is full of obstacles and elements that change the movement though. You have yellow pads that bounce you high up, you have gravity changers that let you roll into a new perspective of the level, and many more obstacles. What really changes the game up though are the power-ups. You can collect different one-time use power-ups such as speed boost and super jump.

While some levels are just a race to the goal pad, there are some levels that increase the challenge of completion by simply adding gems you have to collect first. These gems completely change the way you look at the pathway of a level because you absolutely have to collect them for the level to be completed. In the early stages of the game, this isn’t a big deal, but around the fifth chapter of the game, you will find that this can make an easy level into a very difficult one.

Of course, if you get tired of going through the standard game progression, you have two other options. Both of these options are challenge options though. First, you have the special levels that can be unlocked by getting Gold medals from speedy level completions. The second option is on the main menu as you can do a Challenge run. This is an option that is regularly updated so there is always a new challenge to be faced.

To top everything off, every level - from the stories to the challenges - has its own leaderboards. The speedrunning community is sure to take off with this straightforward metric of level completion speed and a challenging yet entertaining gameplay experience!

The thing that makes this game stand out though has to be the online play! There are so many different game modes to enjoy and they are all very familiar. Once you feel comfortable with your skills after all the solo-play options, head online and try the zombie, sumo, soccer, and other game modes. They definitely lift the whole experience of the title!

Audio and Visual

While the level design was sometimes really interesting, there isn’t a whole lot to the aesthetic aspects in this game. The colorful patterns typically all have different meanings and keep the visuals vibrant while players can roll their customizable marble through each map. While it isn’t a crazy style, it is a clean and straightforward visual experience.

The music is good for the game and keeps to being background music. At no point was the music super interesting, but at the same time it did its job at filling the air while I focused on completing levels and challenges.

Replayability

Thanks to the leaderboards on all the levels, the customization options, the time trial speeds on each level, and the constantly changing challenge section of the game, there is plenty of replayability! Whether you want to try and beat your previous speed, take turns racing a friend through levels, or want to just improve your ability to control a marble on a crazy course, there is plenty of reasons to play this game over again.

This doesn’t even take into account the online play and the many modes that friends can enjoy facing off against each other in!

What It Could Have Done Better

I think it would have been fairer to make the use of rewind count as time against the run rather than canceling the run completely. If I were to get a five-second penalty for every time I hit the rewind button, that would have been fair and I would have been more likely to use that feature more. Instead, it is a run killer so I avoided using a mechanic that is built into the game.

Verdict

Marble It Up! Ultra is a fun game that provides an entertaining and challenging experience! If you enjoyed the Super Monkey Ball series, then there is no doubt that you’ll love this game. It has all the exciting factors of a ball rolling quickly while trying to maintain some form of accuracy in a maze of an obstacle-laden course but without the risk to any monkeys. This is a definite recommendation to at least check out the game before moving on.

Marble It Up! Ultra will be available on August 17th for PC via Epic Games Store and Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.