Mark’s Magnificent Marble Maze is the gaming equivalent of Werther’s Originals. It’s rustic, homely, warm and inviting, as if you are about to spend an afternoon with your grandparents doing something sedate and relaxing. Everything in this game recreates the loving and relaxed environment to get lost in an old school toy – the wooden marble maze.
I never had one of these as a kid. Instead, I had Screwball Scramble but the premise is the similar. Before you is a wooden box with 200 mazes to conquer. The maze can be tilted in any direction and in doing so the marbles will roll with it as you guide the marble to the exit portal. Each puzzle can be done in 20 seconds maximum if you have skills but it takes skill to get to that level. Instead you’ll be rolling off the edges, smashing glass marbles, getting stuck building bridges or rolling off circular slopes. Tilting requires precision and smoothness. If you are jerky, the marble momentum builds up quickly and so staying calm is the way to go here. The ball physics are very weighty so be prepared to take a few minutes to get used to exponential momentum building up and being tricky to halt.
Everything here is built in real world mechanics, similar to a cam toy. Parts do move but are tied to motors and levers so they are based in reality. Metal rods bend around like mini motorways to roll along. Jump pads act like small springs to get you over obstacles. Sometimes lots of other marbles are in your way as they roll around to confuse you. Nothing is weird and wacky, it’s all grounded in classic wooden toy creation. This also allows Mark to take the training wheels off you over time. The game has a habit of returning to a similar level lay out but with increased difficulty. The first time you visit and uphill turn, it’ll have walls. Next time one wall will be gone and after that its a narrow, wall less balancing beam. This level design makes you feel like you are learning, progressing and getting better over the 200 levels. If you get stuck, you can skip up to three levels in a row before you must clear one. This is handy for when timer switches are used as sometimes you get into a frenzy and play much worse than you’d normally do. A break is as good as a rest.
Mark’s magnificent Marble Maze is magnificent most of the time. The six environments look beautiful although occasionally the lens glare from the lightning really blooms out on glass levels so it is difficult to see what you are doing. It also has some less than great keyboard controls. On keyboard, the lack of nuance makes it very difficult to play where as using a controller means you are less stuck on 4 axis movements. There is also an experimental VR mode which allows you to place a VR controller on a stiff mat or tray and use it like a balancing surface, tilting the tray like your maze. Tilt 5 works with this too. It looks very cool but I don’t have VR on PC or Tilt 5 to try it.
I have loved playing this warm and wholesome game. It is a mixture of childhood homely vibes and addictive just one more go marble maze gameplay. Mark has done a very good job indeed.
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