Marble Madness review - Sega Master System

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.