Marble Madness / Klax

"I beat level 3! Now on to level fo--, hey! Where's level 4!?"

There have been few games that I have played that have disappointed me as much as Marble Madness / Klax. I had played MM at the arcades, on an old computer, and on the NES. I had played Klax before, but I was never impressed with the gameplay. I had high hopes that Marble Madness would provide me with quick bursts of enjoyment -- something I could pick up and play for 5-10 minutes while on breaks at work. Well, I can still play it at work, I suppose, for all of a whopping 3 whole minutes. Bummer.

--- Marble Madness ---

Man, I'm disappointed! Marble Madness isn't an overly complicated game. You are a marble (what else?) that rolls down different platforms, trying to reach an "END" platform at the bottom. You bounce off of walls, fall of of edges, have to work your way around very narrow paths, and avoid "enemies" which will eat/absorb your ball. The gameplay is quite simple. Playing this game is not.

To begin with, the controls are terrible. You are literally moving the ball downward as you progress through the levels. However, the down directional button doesn't work worth a damn. You can't really use diagonal pressing either, as neither down/right or down/left work, either. None of these buttons moves the ball like it should. Your ball moves incredibly slow, which is a problem since you have a time limit to finish each level. The right and left directional buttons are almost too responsive.

The end result is a game that doesn't leave you any way to make decent time through a level. You can't push downwards at all, as your ball barely moves. On narrow paths, where one wrong move sends you off a cliff, you have virtually no control. You will never beat even the 2nd level if you stick to downward button controls, as they move your ball too slowly. You can push the right or left button and move more quickly, but you cannot use the downward buttons to give you any sense of control as you play.

Simply put: The controls stink.

Also, while the game looks and sounds (although muted) like the arcade original, there are only 3 levels. Yes, only 3 levels! What happened to levels 4-6? No one knows. They aren't here. There is no excuse to leave out these levels. The only reason I can possibly imagine is that the game designers knew that the last 3 levels were so difficult originally, that the player would have no chance to beat them with the horrible control scheme they devised. There is no way that the GBA's memory was an issue; these two games don't take up much. The designers were just flat out lazy.

Bottom Line: I swear, the designers didn't bother to even play the game before they put it out. They would have immediately noticed that the controls are severely unbalanced and that they forgot the last three levels of the game. I mean, how do you forget something like that? What it really means is, you can beat all 3 levels in about a minute apiece. So you have purchased a game for 3 whole minutes of enjoyment (provided you "enjoy" not being able to control the one item on screen that you are using). Thrillsville, let me assure you.

--- Klax ---

Now Klax isn't that bad. Bear in mind that I am not much of a fan of Klax. I don't care much for the type of puzzle gameplay that it uses. That's just me. I know a lot of older friends of mine that loved Klax, and the GBA version is dead on with its presentation.

In Klax, you have a 5 x 5 grid that you can fill in with different colored tiles. The tiles falls down a "conveyor belt" (I'm not sure what it is called, but it kind of looks like one) one at a time. You attempt to put the tiles down in a 3, 4, or 5 of a kind row either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, depending on what level you are one. Getting at least 3 in a row is called a "Klax." You can also "hold" up to 5 tiles at a time on the object that you use to "catch" the tiles. You lose if your grid gets completely filled or if you let a certain number of tiles fall down the "belt" without catching them (the belt moves faster as you progress through levels).

On the plus side, like I mentioned, the game plays exactly like it used to. The appearance and music is also ported nicely. The controls work pretty well, although sometimes on later levels, when you are trying to set down tiles and pick up new ones as fast as you can, the game doesn't recognize that you were in position to catch a dropping tile, and it costs you, even if it appears that you made it on time. That's no biggie, as the original game may have done the same.

My problem with Klax is, well, it just isn't that fun. Each level has an objective of some sort (get 3 diagonals to finish the level, get 5 Klaxes of at least 4 in a row, score a certain number of points to advance, etc.). These objectives add some gameplay depth, but not enough for me. Once you've made completed a level, you end up with the same objective again later, it just goes faster. I've always found Tetris to be addicting, and I wish I liked Klax more, but I don't. You, as the player, just don't get enough to do to keep yourself interested for long.

Bottom Line: Klax plays just like it used to. If you liked Klax before, you won't be disappointed with this port. However, if you have never played Klax before, you probably won't much care for it. It isn't that it hasn't aged well, it just isn't fun.

--- Overall Bottom Line ---

This is a pretty sad pack. I can see why they sold the games together, as no one would buy Marble Madness with only 3 levels by itself, nor would someone shell out some dough for Klax by itself either. Klax holds up well, but in my opinion, it isn't much fun, and Marble Madness is a mess riddled with massive control issues and completely missing the last 3 levels of the original game. Even for $5, this game will try to rip you off. Unless you have fond memories of Klax, avoid this game. Klax is the only decent reason to ever pick up this pack.

Peace.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 05/08/07