Way back in the day, I played a quirky little game called Marble Madness. It was a game where you controlled a marble and had to safely roll it through mazes filled with marble eating tube worms and other obstacles, all while trying not to fall off the edge. This was back on the NES so you didn't tilt the maze, you controlled the marble directly, though it still had pretty darn good weight and momentum as you directed it through the M.C. Escher-esque mazes. That's one nifty thing about 2-D. You can use it to draw 3-D looking objects that defy three dimensional reality.
Marble Madness
I never actually got too far into that game. It wasn't until the original Super Monkey Ball rolled along that I could claim I was a fan of the mini genre: the tilt maze game. I never played any of Super Monkey Ball's sequels, well, except for the one that hit Wii. It used the Wii-mote's motion sensor for control, but was so twitchy and oversensitive I found the game unplayable.
No, the best marble game on the Wii, and possibly the market, is Kororinpa. I've been playing this game a bit at a time since it was released and this evening I finally finished the regular game mode and unlocked the last of my marbles (and mirror mode). It's a very pretty game, in an understated way, and has a fun selection of themed marbles. You can roll along with spherical cats and dogs, which make appropriate noises, or you could choose a wobbly football, or even the planet Saturn. The courses are fun and can get pretty challenging but you have infinite tries and no time limit, so even the more frustrating mazes aren't that bad.
Kororinpa: Marble Mania
Recently the news has come out that Kororinpa is getting a sequel. I hope it hits the US. I'm ready to roll.
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