Marble Blast Online
Genre: Monkey-Free Marble Rolling Action
Platform: GarageGames Proprietary (Browser)
Developed by: GarageGames
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The Scoop: Marble Blast Online is my favorite kind of free game. It’s a browser-based port of of the Xbox Live Arcade title Marble Blast Ultra, a game I bought for $10 and absolutely LOVED, a couple of years ago. The reason its my favorite kind of free game is because the entire time I was playing Marble Blast Ultra I couldn’t believe how much of a steal it was – so many levels, so much gameplay, so many modes, all for $10. And now, the same thing is available for free. In your browser.
For those that haven’t experienced the Marble Blast games, they’re a little bit like the Super Monkey Ball games. Just… without a monkey. For those that haven’t experienced either series, allow me to break it down for you. You roll a colored rubber ball throughout a variety of stages, either trying to make your way straight to the goal, or collecting gems strewn about the stage, and then into the goal.
The gameplay is pure, and skill-based. Your only real buttons to speak over are the four cardinal directions you can roll your marble in, and a jump button. The real skill is in managing your inertia, so you can hurtle through a stage without flying off the age. As you progress moving platforms, pinball-like bumpers, wind, gravity modifiers, and all kinds of other crazy obstacles are slowly introduced.
As you can tell by the screenshot above and the multiplayer video below, Marble Blast Online is a fully 3D title. It isn’t exactly going to win any graphics awards, but the visuals are sharp and distinct, and the entire thing runs very fast and very smooth. Instant Action developed their own browser technology to make 3D browser games like this a possible, and the results are impressive. This is no flash game. They’re employing some crazy wizardry to make games this complex possible.
I personally had more fun trying to set and then beat my high scores on the game’s 60+ single player stages. But for more competitive gamers, several multiplayer modes are also included. Needless to say, for the low low price of FREE, it’s a great value.
(9 votes, average: 4.89 out of 5)
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Links:
Instant Action Q&A
Wikipedia Entry
Gameplay Video
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