Marble Blast Ultra

Visually the game is very crisp, clean, and quite frankly the best-looking Live Arcade title we have seen yet.

This title brings back all the memories of Marble Madness but with countless alterations and improvements.

I love this game. It's one of those games that when you just don't want to play anything else, or your tired of the racing and sports games, this is something you can turn to that is fun yet challenging. And playing online is a blast.

An absolutely incredible value. For just ten dollars you get sixty stages of marble rolling fun, plus a full Xbox Live multiplayer mode playable with up to eight players. The graphics are outstanding, the soundtrack is good. Everything controls exceedingly well, and the controls are solid.

An excellent "Marble Madness" clone. It is all about skill. A few more levels and multiplayer modes would not have hurt, though. [Mar 2006]

At 800 Microsoft points (about $10 USD), Marble Blast Ultra is a solid game with some refreshing gameplay ideas for those who have grown weary from this years recycled arcade titles.

Part puzzle game, part platformer, and part competitive multiplayer action title, Marble Blast Ultra is a good value for players wanting a quick dosage of fun without getting tied up into a marathon gaming session.

This title brings back all the memories of Marble Madness, but with countless alterations and improvements. There are a few things I wish could be improved, such as the camera and music, but these shouldn’t prevent you from spending the $10 for all the content this game provides.

Marble Blast Ultra is not just a lot of fun to play; it's(dare we say it?)a blast. [Jun 2006, p.60]

Marble Blast Ultra is easy to learn and simple to play, but the increasingly difficult progression of puzzles always manage to throw something new and challenging your way with each new level.

The single player levels start off simple enough but become almost epic in scope (well, for a marble game!) later on.

It has plenty of replay value in terms of getting higher scores on the leaderboards and acquiring achievements, plus the multiplayer adds some additional game time.

Sure, it's not going to win awards for its longevity, but its instant playability and rampantly addictive qualities make is damned near irresistible. A fitting update to an enduring classic.

The real pay-off of Marble Blast Ultra is in the swear-inspiring multiplayer.

Too addictive. [Issue#5, p.120]

For 800 points, this is near essential.

While the game would have benefited from more enhanced graphics and sound effects, it's a solid title. It's fun and addictive and offers a chance to not just complete the single player and be done but compete against friends and others in a faster paced setting.

Be careful though, rolling the marble is so addictive that 30 minutes will go by before you know it!

Overall the question of the day is whether or not this upgraded version of Marble Blast and distant cousin of Marble Madness is really worth your 800 points. To be honest, due to the addictive nature of the gameplay and the set up of the multiplayer, dropping the money for this download is a no brainer.

The multiplayer is probably the best part of this game. It combines simple fun and “pick-up-and-playability” very well.

A fun game for what it is. Rolling a ball, or marble only can be entertaining for so long. You really need patience and enjoy rolling puzzle games to get into this for the long run.

This is a great looking arcade game with a very solid feel to the gameplay. It’s appeal is definitely retro in terms of the game’s simplicity, but lends itself to Live multiplayer brilliantly.

A fantastic title for the Xbox Live Arcade because it's easily accessible and a game you can spend hours or minutes on.

While Marble Blast Ultra is an entertaining distraction, it's not much more than that. There are plenty of unique physics to how the ball performs on different surfaces and flies through the air, lots of different textures you can apply to the marble with distinctive, appealing effects, and a few cool sound effects, but the game will get old faster than you'd like.

Offers a decent challenge, but boring multiplayer a lack of variety drag it down a bit.