Growing up, I didn’t have the luxury of paid TV stations (my Dad is still under the impression TV should be free), nor did we have a huge assortment of video games (comparatively speaking). We had enough, and that collection grew as I aged, but screen time as a kid for me was much different than it is for my kids today. One of the physical games I played belonged to my dad when he was young, which was a wooden labyrinth. There were holes throughout the maze, and it was your goal to navigate a marble to the end without falling. While not the only factor, I’m sure it’s this that had some hand in me enjoying the likes of Marble Madness, Super Monkey Ball, and now Marble It Up! Ultra.

The game starts out really simple, teaching the basics of how to navigate levels by jumping, turning, increasing speed, using power ups, etc. Each level has a time goal for silver and gold, as well a hidden goal for diamond. Anyone can get to the end of a level, but doing it without mistakes and as quickly as possible is a large draw here. Being able to restart a level immediately if you mess up or exceed the desired time ensures no additional time is wasted while trying for a new personal best.

By the time you get to the fourth world of levels, things are getting serious. The hazards are aplenty, and sliding by with all golds won’t be quite as easy. Finish the normal worlds, and there are four bonus worlds to overcome. And if you intend on getting diamond medals on each level, you’ll need to really explore the physics of the game to come up with shortcuts to bypass obstacles. I liken this to all the available shortcuts in Mario Kart 64, be they “legitimate” or not. There’s something exciting about exploring a level beyond the straight forward layout and learning what you’re truly capable of doing within it. And as you get better, you’ll unlock crazier looking marbles.

In addition to the large collection of single player levels, there are weekly challenges. These place you in the same levels but pit you against others in a leaderboard. If you’d rather play directly with others, there are online multiplayer lobbies that include things like gem hunt, zombies, and soccer. Gem hunt tasks you or a team with collecting the most gems in a level, zombies is basically a game of tag, and soccer plays similarly to Rocket League with marbles knocking a ball into the opposing goal.

One of the stranger aspects of multiplayer is that the games and lobbies will populate with or without other players. The first couple rounds of gem hunt saw me alone in a map, while soccer was empty until the last 20 seconds of a match, when one other guy joined. We played a few different modes together, but the online community, at least on PlayStation, is minimal at best. For trophy/achievement hunters, you’ll probably need to boost the multiplayer requirements of 4v4, as I barely got 1v1. And I was playing it a week after launch. Adding bots may be beneficial, if the team is willing to add in AI components. Other issues are perceived lag with button presses and the game requiring a reboot when it gets stuck in menus, either in a level or outside of it. Load times aren’t bad, otherwise this would be a larger annoyance.

Marble It Up! Ultra is an absolute joy to play for anyone that has enjoyed the physics based marble rolling games of past decades. If you’ve never partaken in 3D marble platforming, there’s no better entry point than this. Just don’t expect the multiplayer lobbies to be fully populated without bringing your own group of friends.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Huge Assortment of Levels
• Custom Marbles
• Leaderboards and Multiplayer Modes

Cons

• Multiplayer Lobbies are Barren
• Occasionally Gets Stuck in Menus
• Not Always as Responsive as Desired

Marble It Up! Ultra was developed by The Marble Collective and published by The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild. It launched on NS, PC, PS4, PS5, X1 and XSX/S. The game was provided to us for review on PS5. If you’d like to see more of The Marble It Up! Ultra, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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