In this review, we race to the finish line in the Game Boy Advance game Marble Madness / Klax. We find out how well this puzzle game plays.
This game was released in 2005 and features both the games Marble Madness and Klax.
We’ve already played the NES version of Marble Madness and thought it was great. Additionally, we tried the Sega Genesis version and thought it was OK. So, we thought we’d see if this game is any better on this system.
Basically, this is a direct port from the NES version, so this part of the review will focus on the differences.
For this game, it seems to stop after you beat the intermediate race. The Silly Race and the final stage have been axed completely from this game.
Additionally, the controls are probably the worst in this version out of all the versions we’ve tried so far. You might accidentally flick off in a bad direction if you try and stop with the arrows. Sometimes, you can turn on a dime while other times, turning is rather difficult. Additionally, when you roll down a hill, you can gather a lot of speed, but unfortunately, stopping is a rather difficult task.
Graphically, things have been reduced down. Effects have been eliminated and pipes are just instant teleporter’s from one part of the course to the other. It does retain some of that charm from the old NES version, but a lot of it is lost in the low end graphics. Pretty poor showing in my view.
Audio-wise, the game does retain the original tracks (what’s left of them), but have been somewhat reduced in quality because of the system. Even the sound effects have been reduced in quality.
Overall, this is a very poor showing in what is otherwise supposed to be a challenging, yet fun game. The controls are pretty bad and the courses have been reduced in quantity. The graphics and audio is also downgraded on top of it all. So, a very disappointing thing to play as you can easily beat this in about 3 minutes.
Moving over to Klax, we’ve already played the Sega Genesis version and found it to be barely passable. We’ve also played the Game Boy Color version of that game and it bombed pretty badly. Nevertheless, we decided to try this version to see if it’s any better.
Since this is seemingly a direct port from the Sega Genesis version, we thought we’d focus on the differences in this game.
The differences is almost non-existent. I honestly couldn’t find any notable differences in this game.
This is the games second attempt on the handheld. Previously, it was pretty bad. This time around, it’s only marginally better. The port is much more faithful to the original. The only downside is that there’s nothing new and exciting with this version.
Graphically speaking, this game is pretty decent. It offers a lot of different playfield themes and manages to retain a lot of the quality found in the console version.
The audio is pretty bland. There’s virtually no music, but the speech samples and sound effects are decently varied. Still, it gets rather stale and repetitive after a while.
Overall, this game is still a repetitive play. While some excitement can be had with the novelty is there, once that novelty wears off, it quickly becomes one of those games that gathers dust on the shelf. A very mediocre game.
So, with both games, I’d say this is one you can easily pass up on. While it might be exciting to see new life breathed in for Marble Madness, this particular port is so bad, you’d think it was made for the Game Boy Color, not the Game Boy Advance. Meanwhile, Klax was never really that exciting of a game. With a direct port on offer here, there is limited replay value with this game. So, this package is probably best left passing up on.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Beat Marble Madness. Died on Wave 96 on Klax (out of 100 waves available).
General gameplay:
Marble Madness: 11/25
Klax: 12/25
Average: 12/25
Replay value:
Marble Madness: 6/10
Klax: 4/10
Average: 5/10
Graphics:
Marble Madness: 5/10
Klax: 7/10
Average: 6/10
Audio:
Marble Madness: 3/5
Klax: 2/5
Average: 3/5
Overall rating: 52%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
