Marble Blast Ultra - Xbox Live Arcade review

This just in: marble madness is still fun

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

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    Super detailed textures

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    Plenty of different game modes

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    White-knuckle multiplayer

Cons

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    Wonky marble bounciness

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    Unfortunate multiplayer lag

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    Falling to your death

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In the long history of video games, the act of frantically rolling balls around multileveled tangles of track has a proven appeal. From Marble Madness to Super Monkey Ball, navigating your orb through a ridiculous obstacle course in record time is the pinnacle of arcade satisfaction. Marble Blast Ultra is the high definition realization of this time-honored concept.

A decent single-player game, MBU presents a challenging 60-level campaign to test your stick-twiddling thumbs. Rolling your marble through the tutorials will give you all the knowledge you need to master a wide variety of special maneuvers. Super-jump, super-speed, mega-marble (beefs your marble up to super-size) and the game's namesake marble blast (an explosion you can trigger to boost your jump or devastate other rollers) deliver enough of a twist on the old-school roll-around game to keep you interested.

More info

GenreFamily
DescriptionRoll your ass around 60 thumb-crushing levels or jump online to go ball to ball with up to seven other marble madmen.
Platform"Xbox 360"
US censor rating"Everyone"
UK censor rating""
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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