Among the first post-launch XBLA new releases, Marble Blast Ultra brings the fun of Marble Madness from the NES and arcade rolling onto next gen consoles. With a ton of single player levels and a fun multiplayer component, Marble Blast Ultra deserves a place in your XBLA collection.

Wanna know why? Roll on to read the rest...

Developed and Published by Garage Games using their own Torque engine, Marble Blast Ultra is another great example of the kind of game that would typically get lost in the crowd if it weren't for Xbox Live Arcade. The gameplay is simple, yet challenging: You must navigate a marble through a series of checkpoints and finally across the finish line as quickly as possible. As long as you complete the course you pass it, but if you do it under par it's all the more special as it feels like a much bigger accomplishment (and more achievements!). Your score is tracked and uploaded so there's always having the best time among your friends to keep you going because Kevin Forbid you don't have bragging rights in every game you play even it if only involves how quickly you can move a marble from here to there.

I don't mean to make the mechanics sound stupid, though the controls are easy to learn there's still a lot to master. You can make the marble hop short distances and you can charge up and get a short speed burst. The marble responds as well as it you'd expect it to allowing for some slinky maneuvering around the suspended in mid air courses. You can also pick up various power ups scattered throughout the boards that often are needed to complete the course. Mastering all of these techniques takes quite a bit of time but the progression of difficulty in the levels is well paced making it easy to practice as you go. The levels are varied enough to keep things interesting and extremely challenging as you go. It's not the kind of challenging that's game-killing frustrating, it makes you want to keep playing because dammit, you know you can do this.

Aesthetically the game is very easy on the eyes. Though there's no complex models anywhere in sight everything is nicely textured, especially the marbles, they shine beautifully and never cease to be fun to look at. Everything moves at a rock-solid framerate and smoothly. Though their not going to knock your socks off the graphics are good enough to be pleasing on a simple level. Though there's not much sound to talk about what is there is nicely done. The marbles make a great sound as they roll across the different surfaces which helps you to gauge how quickly you're moving without even looking. Also, the music isn't as grating as most techno-based game music is.

The multiplayer component is a lot of fun as it mostly involves trying to collect more randomly-appearing gems than the other players. The various power ups and weapons give it a bit of that familiar Mario Kart feel. It's smooth, fast and exciting albeit simple. Really though, there's not much more you could do with it that I can think of. I'm not sure how many people are still playing this online but it wouldn't surprise me if people were still playing it.

Granted, I'm a sucker for these kind of games. Something about moving a marble around just does it for me. I used to play Marble Madness constantly, I had that game down to a science. This game received a ton of play from me but it might not be everyone's cup of tea so give the demo a download and you might be pleasantly surprised.

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