On more complex courses, I’d swear that I could feel the part of my brain which handles spatial relations actually stretching.Īs with seemingly all console games, performing well “unlocks” secret levels and new music tracks. My wife used to think that my body English while playing bowling on Wii Sports was silly, until she watched me trying to maneuver my marble through network of shallow crevices carved into the skin of a big, floating apple. When you’re focused on navigating a series of ramps angled at 140 degrees away from your vertical axis, it’s not always easy to remember that you’re standing in your living room. Roll over the edge and quickly flip the remote so it’s pointing at the ceiling, because what used to be “backwards” is now “down.” Somewhere, M.C. What looks like a drop into oblivion at the end of the track is actually the next section of the course. And then, just when you’ve become comfortable, the game seizes your understanding of “up” and “down” and chucks it out the window. Obstacles along the way include ice patches, puddles of honey, conveyor belts, and whirling magnifying glasses that incinerate your marble in a puff of smoke. The orientation of the Wiimote corresponds to the orientation of the course, which, in the early levels, is flat but for a few dips and curves. Tilt the controller forward, and your marble (which is always front and center) rolls forward. Here, menace is festooned with cherry licorice and plays happy xylophone music. They have been replaced by teddy bears, Lincoln Logs, and birthday cakes. Gone are postmodern tubes, cubes and inky black backgrounds. In softening the title from “madness” to the friendlier-sounding “mania,” Marble Mania reclaims the heritage of the old, wooden maze-and-marble puzzles that entertained generations of kids before the advent of the joystick. In that game, a deranged, out-of-tune pipe organ provided the soundtrack as players raced against the clock to guide their marble through a desolate maze riddled with acid puddles and creepy, faceless tube monsters that leapfrogged around like evil Slinkies. Kororinpa: Marble Mania is a clearly descended from the 1984 Atari arcade classic, Marble Madness. But you still have to start over, and in this game, that’s often bad enough. At one point in Kororinpa, that’s exactly what you must do, and any unintended twitch of the wrist can send you hurtling to your doom. I’m talking about vertigo, the kind of vertigo you might get if you were navigating a three-inch strip of pavement suspended high over a city street. I’m not talking about the rash of injuries and bizarre accidents which have been previously reported by especially zealous users of the Wii’s wireless “Wiimote” controllers. Loss of dignity or even personal injury could result. Journalistic ethics compel me to open this review with a safety tip: If you are playing Hudson and Konami’s Kororinpa: Marble Mania for the first time, do not connect your Wii to a widescreen projection television.
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