Marble Mountain Review

Marble Mountain is a fairly relaxing adventure game with a load of puzzles and secret area’s thrown in to keep you occupied along the way, some a lot more taxing than others. It reminded me Screwball Scramble which was an actual physical board game in the 1980’s so I’m showing my age now, as well as Marble Madness on the NES which I remember playing for hours.

Like those, you control a coloured marble while negotiating your way through intricate levels as they get progressively harder and harder. It’s the first game I’ve owned which has the new virtual reality support for Steam, although my PC could probably handle it I don’t have a headset to play it in VR mode although I’d love to give it a try. I played a few games in virtual reality at EGX/Rezzed as well as a Game of Thrones exhibition and the emersion is incredible.

It’s a surprisingly chilled out game and I got quickly drawn in by its simple to play levels, easy controlling and it’s pretty awesome and very colourful graphics. All of which add up to produce a very enjoyable and slightly addictive gaming experience. Each stage is also filled with irresistible collectables which take the form of golden tokens that are sometimes in plain sight and other times in hidden or secret areas. When collected these golden treats can earn you a different coloured marble to play with if you snag them all. However some levels will only give you their treasures if you complete them within a set time limit.

There are some cool little extras and additional things to collect like in the level “No Bridge For You” in which you find the skeletal remains of a well-known explorer, don his iconic hat (sadly no music to accompany the awesome feat) and then plunge through a waterfall to complete the level.

I used a controller for the game which for me made it a lot easier to guide the marble round its various obstacles, puzzles and paths. In my opinion I would definitely recommend the controller for this particular game as it makes the experience a lot easier. You manoeuvre your little sphere along narrow paths, up perilously steep hills and extremely tight cornered tracks. You will slide down slopes, over ramps and bridges, negotiate seesaws, get shot out of cannons and watch as you follow intricate roller coasters to your next destination.

The camera angles move automatically and unlike some games they are fantastically well placed. Even though I have fallen off the map a few times (thankfully you do respawn) I’ve not found any level a major frustrating struggle yet and I have enthusiastically replayed levels to gather as many collectables as I could. I did however run into a bit of an issue which caused a few crashs (now been resolved) but the development team are fantastic, are very easy to talk to and together we managed to resolve the issue.

I am really looking forward to completing the game but to be honest it’s got a fair amount of replay-ability if you want to collect all the marbles, golden tokens and achievement. Especially as the game is only £6.99 so it’s great value for money, it’s a game I’d probably have bought because it different. I score this game 8/10 and if I only had VR to allow its full potential it would probably score higher. I hope a lot more indie games give an option to play in virtual reality as that would give them a massive edge in the next era of gaming.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.