Marble Madness review - Sega Master System

So, you like the occasional game of marbles eh? Well, perhaps you should try out Marble Madness for the ultimate in small sphere-related activities!

This isometric 3D game puts you in control of what must be the toughest marble of all time, and it's your job to guide the orb-like item around the many hazards that make up the Marble Madness course. Your objective is simply to reach the end of the stage before your time limit expires. Rather helpfully, the end of the course is marked GOAL! So, you know what to look out for. Any remaining seconds you have are added on to the time limit of the next level, so storing up time on the easy levels is a good tactic.

There are six levels of arcade action in Marble Madness, packed with strange meanies, cunning traps and hazardous landscapes. Do you reckon you can handle the action?

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Marble Madness has been converted to most other consoles and just about every version has been completely brilliant. While this version is graphically superb, the control method ruins the game. The control system is just not intuitive enough - one tiny press of the D-pad sends your marble flying across the playing area. The game is also very easy - even with the difficult controls, I saw most of the levels in my first setting, and it doesn't take a games playing genius to finish the game very quickly. Another thing I noted was that game was quite a lot slower than the original. The easiness of the game is a problem on most of the other versions too, but at least they were fast and enjoyable to play.

Graphically this is as close to the arcade original as you could hope. Sadly, though, the gameplay doesn't quite live up to the same standards. The control method is rather fiddly and lacks the "feel" that made the coin-op original and other console conversions such a joy to play. The game also lacks challenge - it's just too easy to go all the way through the game. I still went back to it to try and notch up near perfect scores, but didn't enjoy it as much as I had done with other versions. Marble Madness fiends are bound to enjoy what's on offer, but at the end of the day you're left feeling that just a little bit more polishing in the gameplay department would have resulted in this being a perfect conversion, rather than just a good one.