Marble It Up! spun onto our Switch screens back in 2018, and the updated Ultra version expands on the kaleidoscopic first release while remaining a joy to play through if you love well-rounded arcade games. It's part sequel, part update — owners of the original Marble It Up! will be happy to know that they can download Ultra for free, and Ultra fans who want to investigate the original will be able to download that for free as well.
Right off the bat, this game is bright, colorful, and packed full of synth-heavy music. Despite the myriad of neon tones immediately thrown at you, the interface here is clean and simple to navigate, presenting a wide variety of ways to play and a marble-rolling game (a "roll-playing game" according to the PR — c'mon, that's not bad!) that's easy to get into.
You get over 100 levels, six worlds, and four bonus worlds. The first level, predictably, starts things off simple, teaching you how to roll through a cheery, psychedelic marble run. The tutorial is split up into various stages in the first world, and they go by quickly. It’s a fairly standard but nice way to show the player a lot of features without it feeling overwhelming.
The feeling of the levels rolling by too quickly is somewhat of a common theme, though. While the game does offer plenty to do, it doesn’t take long to work through each world. The first and second world can be completed in roughly 20 minutes or less, with a sharp difficulty spike appearing around the third.
Despite this, the core gameplay loop is good, simple fun, with plenty of unique elements popping up from level to level, like treasure chests with collectible skins inside, speed boosts, and glowing green wings that make your marble fly. The controls are simple and feel responsive for the most part, with the only complaint being that the jump button can be a little unpredictable in places.
There's also a great bundle of online multiplayer options, with the ability to play cross-platform, either in quick matches or private rooms. Games are easy to set up, and the cross-platform matches are seamless. (There's a Weekly Challenge mode, too, although this was inaccessible to us during the review period). You vote for new maps and game modes between each round, and it includes everything from a zombie chase to a gem-collecting mode that feels like the coin-collecting games from the Mario series.
The visuals are fun and lively, and the sound design is great. The marbles sound incredibly realistic and the noise of them on ice is oddly satisfying. While the gameplay loop of this title might not be for everyone, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a vibrant, snappy game that offers a nice handful of content for both single players and people looking to play with friends. Super Monkey Ball fans will get a kick out of it, too.
Comments 27
I remember Marble Blast on the 360. A group of friends used to constantly compete on the friend leaderboards for better times. Put 100+ hours in easily. I got the 2018 game and I didn't like it as much. It's still a good game though.
I'm so excited for this!
I'm a bit disappointed in this review though, because it seems like you fully ignored what gives this game most of its fun, challenge, and longevity... the collectibles and speed run medals! That's where the game goes from good to great (based on the prequel).
Sure, you can blast through the levels if simply trying to reach the end, but that's a little like playing every grand prix track on F-Zero GX on the easiest difficulty, finishing in an hour and saying it's a short game. It's in working towards mastery that the game's true genius is exposed.
@sketchturner
Absolutely, the true joy in this game is going for all the hard to earn trophies and diamond times. Whilst simplying clearing each course is fun by itself, mastering all of them is where the real fun is, as you learn the nuances of control and how to use each course's terrain to your advantage.
Wanna talk about some dedication?
Something important for owners of the original version of Marble It Up, in case you overlooked this part in the review.
You should be eligible for a completely free update to the new version that launches next week!
I just checked the game listing on the Nintendo UK website, and was pleasantly surprised to see the 10% pre-order discount reduced to a 100% discount!
Just a shame the price of the original game went up by 10 euros as of today …
Just noticed this was free on the eshop for owners of the previous game. Awesome news!
NL always seem to find a way to compare third party games with first party nintendo stuff in their reviews. Even if the two games are nothing like each other NL will always find a way.
@Commandervide0 ?
@Commandervide0 If you mean Super Monkey Ball, that’s Sega, not nintendo.
If you mean the reference to Mario coin-collecting stuff, well, I assume it’s a comparison more so in concept and not in gameplay to give readers an idea what it’s like. Either way, pretty harmless this time.
Not saying they don’t often reference the first party nintendo stuff, just an odd review to choose to point it out on.
@jfp LOL, the "greed" of the developer is the reason I never bought the first game and now they increase the price. Lovely. Marble It Up! never went beyond a brief small-time discount when it was first released many years ago.
They've got every right to value their product that high, but it's also the only reason why I never bought it. And since it never went of sale since then, it is in fact on the bottom of my 300 game Wish List, making it the game that's been the longest on there. Every other game I've ever wanted has had a significant sale.
Look out Zelda. The GOTY is here.
@RupeeClock Awesome, I was wondering how to get this for free as a player of the original. Looking forward to release!
I had the original in my wishlist for well over a year, waiting patiently for a price drop. Then the price went up, ha! But I've pre-ordered the new one as it's slightly cheaper at the moment, comes with DLC that will (apparently) be exclusive to pre-orders, and lets me play the one I've been hesitant about. Not sure I would've had access to the pre-order content had I bit the bullet earlier, I count it as a win.
@Mario_maniac
Yup, it's one of those games that has apparently never really gone on sale, lol.
https://www.dekudeals.com/items/marble-it-up
The price increase reflects the wealth of new content, anyway.
Multiplayer is a completely new addition, although I'm not sure I'll play it.
@Takoda I was talking about the mario comparison. If you play a lot of nintendo first party games then you have basically played every game in existence according to NL. Its lazy and uncreative writing.
@Commandervide0 If the comparison is fitting, the writing is just fine. There’s a higher chance of people having played Mario than anything else on this very nintendo-focused site. You can disagree with it, but from a writing perspective it does what it’s supposed to do if the comparison is fitting.
I admittedly haven’t played this game and I struggle to even tell what the coin-collecting games from Mario were exactly besides just… collecting the most coins, I guess? But with the fact they literally use super monkey ball in highlights here, feels like you chose the wrong article to point out they only use nintendo first party comparisons with a sega comparison right there…
@Commandervide0
Do you have a better reference that more people will recognize?
@Takoda NL need to be more original and imaginative with their writing instead of using comparisons all the the time. They aren’t needed. Indie games are far more original than first party games yet they keep getting compared with each other unnecessarily. NL are especially bad for this.
Great article! I tried super monkey ball when it went on sale, and I definitely like Marble it Up better. Like the reviewer states: the sound, the visuals and gameplay all combine to make a great happy game.
Thank you, Nintendo Life, for letting me know about Ultra!
@Commandervide0
I dunno, people will always asks ‘what does it play like?’ Two comparisons that feel fitting are hardly ‘lazy writing’ when the review isn’t made up of two sentences or anything. There’s plenty of stuff here that isn’t just comparison. Nobody gets anywhere with ‘your writing is lazy, write better’ anyway. I’d love to hear your alternative if you had one in mind.
My favorite marble games are Kororinpa: Marble Mania (Wii) and the all-time classic Marble Madness (NES, Arcade). Maybe I should take a look at this, but I think I'm not in a period of my life where a marble game is what I'm looking for. I wish it luck, though.
@Takoda Well i’m not a games journalist thats studied for it getting paid for it and I’ve not played the game either. But here’s what I’d put.
A gem collecting mode that has players scrambling for that sweet sweet treasure within a tight time limit, which will really push your platforming prowess to its limits.
@LeChuck holy cow that was a great game!! I was praying it would make the cut for backward compatibility! Gotta fire up my 360 and give it another go it’s been years! Lol
@RupeeClock I saw that!! I was all over it! A No brainer!
@whitemage Marble Mania was legit. One of the few games my wife and I both enjoy.
@Commandervide0 Comparisons paint a vibrant picture much more efficiently than trying to start from scratch.
If you tell me "Kaze and the Wild Masks" is like "Donkey Kong Country," that tells me a lot of information with just two titles and two additional words. What's the problem?
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