MARBLE MADNESS

Marble Madness is an arcade game originally released in 1984, in which you roll a marble down a series of obstacle courses that get progressively more difficult. The game is unique for having a gated eight-direction diagonally mounted control stick, that lets you point the stick in the direction your marble is moving in the isometrically drawn course. In this Game Boy version, since the D-pad is mounted 90 degrees at all times, the game lets you choose between the traditional 45 degree control style, where pressing left sends you left and up and down sends you down and left, or 90 degrees where down goes down and up and left at the same time goes up-left.

The game is brutally difficult, and during my time playing I was never able to get past stage four. The one-two punch of the vacuum tubes and the bit where the floor pops you up and throws you off the stage are huge time killers.

Ok, uh, I don't know how to say this. This isn't a puzzle game. Moby Games says this is a puzzle game, but it's not. There's no puzzle to solve, there are obstacles to navigate. I can't outwit the piston floor. It's a very faithful and fun port of marble madness but, it's not a puzzle game.