Nintendo Blog

Everybody remembers the famous “maze games” that have brightened our youth. A wooden tilt support, balls, holes, a maze and it was started for hours of fun. In the twenty-first century, this recipe is still a miracle. We have a proof here with Marbles! Balance Challenge, published by Konami and released on the Wii in late spring, or rather “tumbling” on Wii should we say.

Being part of the very first Wii games that showed a little imagination, Kororinpa had not had a very big success. This has not discouraged Hudson Soft from producing a sequel, simply named Kororinpa 2 in Japan, its country of origin, but renamed Marbles! Balance Challenge for the American market. A way to draw a line under the past and start on a new footing. However, for those who have not had the opportunity to approach the first Kororinpa near and far, note that in its sequel, Marbles! Balance Challenge, the concept could not be simpler. The goal is to bring a ball from point A to point B, making it run on a swivel. Incidentally, we have to pick up a few items and be careful with the few barriers to access to the next level. A scenario? Yes there is one. Finally speaking, we will have to help ants to find artifacts to retrieve a “Gold Sunflower” Temple hidden in a tree, a priori sacred. So to find the sunflower, we have to roll the balls. What is more logical! Now you know that the story line in Marbles! Balance Challenge is a (bad) excuse to sell the concept to a young audience, often reluctant to break his head on games seeking for address and patience. Because it will take patience to overcome some 150 levels that make up the title by Hudson Soft, and not just a little! Unlike Kororinpa that was shining especially in its short life, Marbles! Balance Challenge is unlike strong enough. And with its level editor as a bonus, it will allow more fans to create their own platforms to keep the ball rolling. Otherwise the logic will remain the same, as each finished plate will provide new balls with their own physical features directly related to the gameplay (for example, if the ball is heavy, it rolls more slowly, and the game is easier).

If once the Wiimote in hand, the concept of Marbles! Balance Challenge has not budged an inch over Kororinpa (you must tilt the remote to move the platform), the other big novelty is the possibility to use the Wii Balance Board. So, a whole other game is available to us. In absolute terms, nothing fundamental has really changed, it must be admitted that the task proposed here (find the right tilt to roll the ball to the right speed and in the right direction) is quite different once stood on the board thought by. Much more successful than Vertigo, which also proposed a (bad) compatibility with the enhancement, management of the balance in Marbles! Balance Challenge tends at first to make the game more complex, especially for those who are already struggling to stand up on a skateboard at a standstill. Yet after a few hours of gaming, we soon realized that its latitude of movement is more than reduced, the Wii Balance Board is less capricious than the Wiimote and eventually simplify the sequence of levels.

Longer, more complete and more beautiful than its predecessor, the very average Kororinpa, Marbles! Balance Challenge has a weight advantage: its compatibility with the Wii Balance Board. This addition to the gameplay makes the challenge more interesting than simply using the Wiimote.

Some Marbles! Balance Challenge pics