User Note:
Playing marbles is something I'd never done before. I used to have a lot of those little glass marbles with exotic colorful patterns inside them, but dust mites paid more attention to them than I did. That is, until I decided to get Marble Madness. I never knew playing marbles was so fun or I would've been playing them all my life.

Gameplay:
With just a simple NES controller, you can take the controls of either a blue or red marble (depending on whether you play by yourself or with a friend) and maneuver it from the start and finish of seven different levels. The beginning race is just a short example of what this classic has to offer. You and your marble start at the top of what looks to be a 3-D maze with several midget slopes. After several seconds pop onto the clock at the top of the screen, it's time to get going! Rolling like a wheel through a few twists and turns will take you to the end of the first stage, making the time on the clock seem like an eternity. Man, that was easy! There wasn't any enemies, or really a challenge whatsoever! The marbles have an unlimited number of lives on hand. Whether you get harassed by an enemy or simply fall off the edge of a cliff, you'll be put back onto the maze in one piece almost instantly. Your biggest enemy in the world is time itself. Even though the time you have left over will be added to the amount of seconds that you'll receive after making it through each maze, it never seems to be enough for you to take in a deep breath and relax. Once you reach the second stage, you won't have the desire to rest anyway. Doing such things as guiding your marble at just the right angle down ramps in order to avoid falling into bottomless pits has a way of keeping your eyes glued to the television screen. Your concentration will be so sharp that tunnel vision will almost completely take you over.

Graphics:
Once you beat the game, it'll always be fun to play over and over again. It's not just the engaging gameplay, but also, the graphics look perfect for this sort of game. The maze's environments have that polished 3D look to them, but they don't try to be overly flashy to where they deter your attention away from getting to the end as fast as you can. The enemies and marbles are the same way. I especially like how you can still see the textures of the floor through the living enemy puddles, and how the white patterns on the blue marble roll with your every move. Even if you couldn't see your marble but could see those patterns, you could tell which way you're traveling.

Sound Effects:
Sound effects are just like they should be, such as the sound of banging against another marble, the "Ahhh" sound of falling off the edge, etc. The music really adds to the atmosphere of whichever stage you're currently playing. The first two mazes aren't as difficult or as dangerous as the others, and the music has that sort of cheerful sound to it to mark that. Just wait until you hear the tune that accompanies the stage with red siding, which you'll spend nearly as much time flying through the air as you will rolling on the ground. It promotes the feeling that you're in the most dangerous part of the world, and YOU ARE!

"How's that for a review?" - Kruzer