Bad Habit Productions’ Marble It Up! has just received its second major update with the Challenge Update. This adds a slew of new content, such as a plethora of marbles, Weekly Challenges, and an expert-level chapter. All of these are welcome additions to the game and have the potential to be incredibly fun. The update addresses many of the problems found in our original review, which makes this an incredible experience.
When I first sat down and reviewed Marble It Up!, I was immediately captivated by its presentation. Its physics, graphics, level design, and even soundtrack were fantastic and made me want to play as much as I possibly could. Unfortunately, finishing the base 40 levels took only about an hour, so I was left racing my own times and aiming for high scores. Since the game’s launch, an additional 20 levels were added, including the Challenge Update’s 10. Now, there is plenty to tackle and can last well over the previous hour of gameplay, which can depend on one’s skill level.
Racing ghosts and past times help bring replay value, but the levels themselves are enough to feel like you’re getting the most out of this in its current state. Because of the difficulty, levels sometimes lasted nearly 10-15 minutes on a first run resulting in the whole chapter lasting a little over an hour, which is well over the previous hour of gameplay from the first four sections.
Another complaint that I had from my review was that there was no real challenge until Chapter 4. In the update prior to the Challenge Update, Chapter 5 had been introduced and included a bit of a challenge, yet not enough to feel too complicated only enough to satisfy. Chapter 6, on the other hand, is where things get completely shaken up. From the beginning moments, frustration and skill are mandatory to progress to just the first checkpoint. So much trial-and-error is required to finish things, it can feel a bit daunting at times.
Running through levels takes precision and perfect timing, yet it also needs the aforementioned trial-and-error. While trying to rush through a few levels, particularly Stratosphere, little obstacles could throw things off and reset me back to the checkpoint. Jumps, spins, slides, you name it, it all had to be to a tee in order to advance or you could end up going over the edge. This could make things very annoying but when it’s over that feeling of victory is so sweet.
This section here, though, is the bane of my existence and took me over 10 minutes to complete:
Lastly, the update adds Weekly Challenges that add a twist to already released levels. At the time of writing, the one that was available to play featured less gravity than normal. Jumps were longer and moving wasn’t as tight but that’s what made it so much fun and unique. Now, there is something else to look forward to rather than just racing towards a new high score and medals.
In addition to these twists, there were also new power-ups that had been introduced. Anti-gravity is one of many which make gameplay feel brand-new even though it’s been experienced before. To top it all off, there are 30 new marbles that can be unlocked, not counting custom unlocks. These still act as achievements, however, keep an eye out on Twitter for codes to download new and interesting designs from the developer’s official account.
Overall, Marble It Up feels much better since it first launched, which says a lot because of how good it was before. The Challenge Update adds a new level of difficulty that isn’t for the faint of heart. By including this, more gameplay hours can be logged and players will want to keep coming back for more. Bad Habit Productions has stated that even more is yet to come and, at this point, is just the icing on the cake. Many of the problems found previously in our original review have seemingly been addressed and make this a perfect game for puzzle-platformer fans. If you haven’t jumped into this title yet or are just looking for a new excuse to dive back in, now is definitely the time.