NESessities of Life – Marble Madness

Genre
Uhhhh… hell if I know

Dominant Algorythm
Roll/Swear/Throw Controller

Gameplay
It couldn’t be simpler. You use the d-pad to tell a marble which direction it should go in a series of increasingly complicated Echer-esque maze towers. The physics engine is as dense as one could be considering the hardware. The marble is affected not only by the users influence but also such variables as gravity, friction, wind, angle of incidence and collisions.

Sweetness
Interesting physics and clever level design will keep you fascinated. There are surprises around ever corner. No gag is doubled up in this game.

Weakness
The physics are overly ambitious and occasionally feel inconsistent. While not a deal breaker, it does put a strain on the relationship occasionally.

Invaluable Life Lessons Which I Still Apply To This Day:

1. The game will randomly give you a 10 second bonus from time to time. However, it will never randomly punish you. This is an appropriate way to behave. Surprise the people you care about with small tokens of generosity. Let the natural flow of the universe deliver the challenges.
2. Working with a partner can be heaps of fun or pure torture depending on the people involved and the ultimate goals.
3. Everything you know is wrong.

Still Fun?
Absolutely. This is a masterpiece of creativity that will consistently surprise and challenge you from beginning to end. It’s a shame that this is the only game in the genre.

Relevance Satellite to the Paradigm Shift from my Youth:
Very little, which is strange. Upon its release, the arcade cabinet shot up to the biggest money-maker at the time. It was among the first games to have true stereo sound and an original score. It is recognized in the Guiness Book for its “technical, creative and cultural impact”. The game was subsequently ported to a multitude of home consoles, with RARE (of Battletoad fame) handling the port to the NES, selling well on nearly all of them. A 17-level sequel was developed and tested but never received a wide release.

Since then, the game and the genre it invented have largely remained dormant.

Fan art is scarce, but if you want to see the whole sha-bang-a-bang, here it is:

Also, it’s not fan art, but here is some concept art from when the game was being designed. Note the things that didn’t make it into the final version, a swaying platform and a teeter-totter scale.

All right. You got me. There is one piece of fan art out there. It can be found at BLOWN UP.

Jesse Koester is a film producer working in Tokyo. His work can be seen at www.iceblockfilms.com. Jesse had a modem in Japan, but it was only used for financial services.