Customer Reviews

Marble Saga Kororinpa

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Marble Saga is a GREAT game. It's 2006 predecessor (Kororinpa:Marble Mania) was the best and most underrated game of the Wii's first year, along with RE4 & Zelda:Twilight Princess. This is the sort of game for which the Wii is truly intended: It's a game every man, woman, child, and grandparent can enjoy, and it makes great use of the Wii Remote and hardware.

Marble Saga is everything Kororinpa:Marble Mania was and more. Marble Saga is pick up and play, but challenging as well. The first Kororinpa had 45 levels, Marble Saga has 180 (150 Wii Remote, 30 Balance board. For those complaining about balance board support, this game's balance board support is 2/3 of the entire original game for $20 less than the $50 original).

Marble Saga is a modern re-imaging of old hand-held "labyrinth" marble games. However, instead of tilting a board to have a marble navigate a maze, the player tilts the Wii controller, leaning the game's entire 3-D environment in order to navigate various obstacle courses. For example, when you tilt the controller forward, the course tilts that direction, and what was previously a level surface becomes an incline that the ball rolls down until it either hits an obstacle or the controller is tilted a different direction. The balance board levels you use your body to complete the levels, similar to the mini game in Wii Fit, however these Balance Board levels here are long and well thought out. I would compare Marble Saga to Super Monkey Ball, but it really is the Super Monkey Ball killer. Once you play this, you could never go back. Farewell to the frantic race to get to the end, and welcome to the mind bending challenge and completely unique control that Marble Saga offers.

The most fulfilling puzzles involve quickly rotating the game board onto its side so that walls become floors. It's a simple game mechanic that makes incredibly full use of the Wii Remote and Balance boards unique control via motion. In fact, the controls are responsive and tight without ever becoming too frustratingly sensitive.

Also challenging you will be cannons, sliding panels, ice, sticky floors, tubes, piball bumpers, and more. Marble Saga boasts 180 levels, (30 Balance board levels, and 150 Wii Remote levels) and a handful of special courses. This is a lot compared to Kororinpa:Marble Mania which had a total of 45 (and then let you play mirrored versions of the 45). Each course will take the average gamer a minute or two in the earliest levels, and more than 10 to 15 minutes on the more advanced levels. The last 75 to 80 levels provide a significant challenge.

There are a number of unlockable levels and marbles. Early on, the slow marbles are the best choice for simply completing the courses, while the fast and heavy ones are more dangerous, but reward the skilled player with a better time. Some marbles are lightweight, quick, and darting; others are heavy, slow, and unwieldy.

The 4 player multiplayer provides longevity to the experience, though your competitors appear as ghost marbles only, maybe next time you will be able to bump them off the mazes.

Like the original Kororinpa:Marble Mania, Marble Saga remains one of the best uses of the Wii's unique controller I've experienced. It offers some very fun gameplay as only available on the Wii remote and Wii balance board. 5 out of 5 stars.

Buy this game now, the first game is VERY hard to find and often sells used for more than $50. There's a reason for this... this is the type of game the Wii was made for, get this one now before it become a rarity as well....

I played marble mania and enjoyed the game. Looking for that game I discovered it is not available anymore and this marble saga was the sequal to marble mania. I found the game locally, got it home and played it and loved it... This was not super hard even for the wii player that is not a "gamer". There seems to be many levels of the game and it got harder has you went through. It says you can use the balance board as well. I haven't tried it yet. You can change the orientation of the wii mote to play the game in options (horizontally or vertically)...nice option. I would recommend this game to anyone at any level. I'm glad I got this game since I couldn't find marble mania at a reasonable used game price.

This game was heavily advertised as a balance board game, (I've been reading reviews for months) but no where I ever saw stated "but you can only play CERTAIN levels with the Wii board." (until the reviewer right before me. should have checked Amazon right before I bought it.)

The graphics are nice, and the controls are very intuitive and fluid. If you enjoyed the first one you'll probably enjoy this one, just note that despite the fact that the set up for the balance board is there (shown in the fact that you CAN play a handful of levels with it), it is not really a balance board game. Why the company did not make it an option for all the levels when they already created the programing for a few levels, (and not the story line levels) I would really like to know.

For me, the fact that SOME levels can be played with a balance board but not all, really alters my opinion of the design of the game. It should be either none or all.

So I truly loved the first game, so I figured this would be even better. Wrong... First, the controls are not nearly as intuitive as the first games (this is my husband's complaint). Second, you can't make progress through the game if you want to play multi-player or use the balance board. Third, this game is geared towards the younger crowd and seems to have many quirks that are neither neccessary nor funny. For example, the ant in the lower left corner says distracting things like "aren't cookies yummy" and "I'm hungry". Fourth, there are several glitches. For example, when you pause during gameplay one of the options is the map, clicking it doesn't work. Also some of the platforms that move up and down, don't always come back down if you miss them the first time. Finally, one of my favorite things about the first game was that you could often fling your marble to other places on the board and bypass some of the beginning. Perhaps this was a flaw on the first game, but I personally felt it added an extra level of skill. If you try to fling your marble to any other parts on the new game, you loose almost every time. I guess for (...) it's not too bad, but I would have paid (...) if it had better controls and options.

This game is awesome with or without the wii balance board full of thrills and excitement this is a game you can play over and over for hours

I had a wii girl's night in party last night with women ranging in age from mid 20's to mid 40's and this was the last game we played and loved it! It's challenging but fun to lay and watch each other figure the mazes out. It was worth the money.

Well, this has been a big hit with my boys. It is quite similar to Monkey Ball Jr. in the rolling through mazes. BUT you can use the wii balance board to go through them OR the controllers. My kids have really enjoyed it. I like that they have to get up to do it with the balance board. You do get dizzy though watching it for a while... it moves fast and changes angles.
Tina

We only have a handful of Wii games, because I'm not a fan of gimmicky games tied to new movies and such - I've been very picky about what I've purchased since we got our Wii for Christmas '08. After reading the reviews for this game, I felt the amount of play and appeal to all ages made it worth spending my money on. Wow, am I glad I did!

The first night after it arrived, after my kids went to bed, my husband and I tried it out for the first time - we wanted to give it a run before the kids got ahold of it! We had so much fun, we played until our bedtime!

The next day, our oldest (age 9) got into the game right away and really enjoys playing against her dad. My youngest (age 6) was more cautious and just watched, not wanting to compete against everyone older than her... then about two weeks later, we found the mini teaching segments where you learn the basic skills of the game in short levels - it will pause during the level and explain how to work with specific obstacles. She asked to try when she figured out there wasn't as much pressure with this section, and worked her way through all of these segments rather quickly, which gave her the confidence to play a "real" level. Now she gladly plays the whole game with us without hesitation!

We don't own the balance board, so I cannot comment on that aspect of the game.

However, I can tell we are going to get a LOT of use out of this game, and for that I feel it was completely worth purchasing for the whole family.

I found it very difficult to play this game, probably because I am not super coordinated. However, my 5 year old loves this game and can work the remote very easily. He loves mazes, puzzles, and video games, so this is a good combination of all of those things.

This is a MUST HAVE GAME FOR YOUR WHOLE FAMILY. It is so much fun
and you will be laughing the whole game. It takes a steady hand
and a be careful or you will find yourself yelling at the T.V.
when it is you moving not the T.V. You need to add this game
to your WII you will not be sorry it is A MUST HAVE GAME LOTS OF FUN