Marble Madness (NES) Playthrough
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- A playthrough of Milton Bradley's 1989 puzzle/racing game for the NES, Marble Madness.
The 1984 arcade hit Marble Madness was a landmark game for several reasons. As the flagship title for Atari’s 16-bit System 1 arcade hardware, it flaunted its state-of-the-art muscle with its convincing pseudo-3D graphics, unique trackball controls, and the first ever implementation of true stereo sound in an arcade machine. It was also one of the first games ever designed by Mark Cerny.
Taking place across six boards of increasing difficulty, Marble Madness tests your reflexes and your understanding of physics as you race your marble to the goal as quickly as possible.
When you finish a race, whatever time is left rolls over and is added to the clock for the next race. It's a nice incentive to do your best on each race, and it's in your best interests to max it out as soon as possible. The difficulty level spikes considerably between each race, and while the 99 second limit may seem generous at first, you'll be surprised at how quickly you can burn through all that extra time in the last couple stages.
Practice is a simple downhill path, but if you're feeling adventurous, you can risk jumping off of a ramp for bonus points. Beginner, the second board, introduces Steelie (the murder marble) and Marble Munchers (a wormy green thing that can eat your marble), as well as branching paths. The Intermediate board trots out puddles of marble-dissolving acid and a wavy carpet thing, the Aerial board features catapults, vaccuums, pistons, and hammers, and the Silly race flips everything on its head - altered gravity makes moving uphill easier than downhill, the miniaturized enemies that can be squashed for extra time, and birds make the marble explode on contact. The aptly named final race, Ultimate, takes everything from the previous levels and mixes in textured surfaces and disappearing platforms.
Though lacking any characters or story, Marble Madness‘ personality shines in its presentation. If you fall from too great a height, you'll smash on the floor and be swept up by a dustpan and broom. If you clip an edge too hard the marble will become dizzy, and if you misjudge your speed and take a plunge into the void, the marble lets out a hilarious “Ahhh!” noise.
The graphics hold up well on the NES - isometric viewpoint gives the graphics a nice sense of depth and it's easy to read the angle of the slopes - and I thought that Dave Wise's take on the soundtrack was even better than the original arcade music.
The controls have been adapted surprisingly well given the NES pad’s lack of a trackball. Two options are offered: with the 90° control scheme, the marble moves in the same direction as you're pressing on the d-pad. The 45° control scheme, however, attempts to cater to the perspective - you hold the controller at an angle and each of the arrow buttons corresponds to a diagonal. Both options work well, though I tend to prefer the 90° portion.
While Marble Madness can be played as a single player game, it truly shines with a buddy. The two-player races quickly devolve into chaotic bashing battles, and it's fantastic. The two-player mode also helps to offset the largest problem with Marble Madness: its longevity, or lack thereof. The entire game can be completed in five-minutes, and though each course takes a considerable amount of practice to master, there's not much content here.
Still, it was an NES game that I played to death as a kid, and it's still one that I go back to fairly often. Marble Madness was a classic arcade game, and Rare's NES conversion does it justice.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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I always thought this game had such OBVIOUS modding potential.. The fact that people haven't been making custom stages (and music) for this game consistently over the last 30 years is a crying shame.
We got the source code for all these old NES games. A coder can make one if they put in the time and effort.
Rare did a bang up job on this conversion of the classic physics-based arcade game.
Rareware always made good graphics in every game they did in the old days.
Beating a NES game such as this without a GameGenie is a pipedream to me , , , it's right next to first TMNT , DuckTales , and any Contras, , ,😋😋
It was tengen
One can only wonder why Rareware didn't do any NES ports of Taito games like Gladiator or Rastan.
Wow this is like an world record 😊
As a kid I could consistently get to the Ultimate Race, but what always tripped me up was the disappearing, or I guess moving sections right at the end. But man I loved playing this game!
The Rare soundfont is the sound of my childhood. This is so much more pleasant on the ears than the Genesis version.
Agreed. The music in the American Genesis version was pretty rough.
I only ever made it to Silly Race as a kid and, watching this, I can't believe I was so close to the end! This was yet another early example of experimental games training the original gamers to be open to new ideas.
That music is very dramatic for a game about a marble rolling downhill!
Solid Rare Ltd. Conversion. Ending up with the dustpan when you lose a marble can be very frustrating, but it feels good when you beat this game.
Among my favs of my kiddo days during the NES Era... :) (Among the few I ever beat as well, though it took me years...)
Oh interesting, a playthrough of Marble Madness. I cant wait to kick back and it's done.
Going Balls …on your iPhone 📱… reminds me of marble madness 😅
This is one of the NES my uncle used to own. I remember looking through the instruction manual, and found it weird that the game gave you the option to hold the controller at 45 degrees to play.
I never understood that part, but then again, I was never good at Marble Madness. Does the angle difference mean how sharp you can turn?
This game has so many great ports. I absolutely suck at it but it’s addictive.
The music at 0:40 is an all-time great NES masterpiece.
This is pretty fn amazing for 84’
Yeah, especially when you consider how high resolution the arcade game was, and that it was in stereo
I loved this game so much when I was little! I still have it too and it's still great! Thank you for playing it! 💙
Milton Bradley's version of Marble Madness, based on the 1984 arcade hit of the same name, was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in March 1989 (the title screen bears a 1984 copyright, while the box and instruction booklet the year as 1988).
The nes version of Marble Madness is brilliant. 😀👍🎮
Great game, but a bit of a pain to control. I haven't played this game since a couple years ago when those marble racing videos were immensely popular.
I remember playing this in the arcade with a trackball.
The NES had a great port of the arcade game.
one my favorite childhood game i play it a lot XD
Alex is so powerful!
I've heard the entire soundtrack to this version of the game and hands down the very first level when you first start the game has the best music out of the entire soundtrack
We have come a long way huh folks.
Superb conversion, absolutely love the arcade version as well. Atari need to reboot it. But hopefully not destroying the beauty of the original.
Kids today will never understand the stress and intensity of games like this.
I am a "kid today" (I was born after 2000) and I love retro games, and this was one of the games my mom had when she had an NES. We still have a lot of games that my mom had when she was younger and I play them occasionally. I have never been able to finish this game because It's too difficult for me, so I do understand the stress 🥲
Bruh for real. Gives me anxiety rn remember it lol.
Can't believe I had the "marbles" to rent this game as a kid! Actually it was three games left in the video store and I didn't want to go home with shii!😂😆
I remember playing this on my dad's Gameboy. The original one with no color and 4 AA batteries that lasted about and hour. Good times.
This is a great game, don't get me wrong, but imagine paying $50 for 5 minutes of enjoyment for this game back when you were a kid. Not for a game that has barely any replay value.
I thought it had a ton. It took me a very long time to get good enough to finish the last race as a kid, and it was still fun to play for a score after that
This game represented hours of work to beat - not to mention, it was the mid 1980s. LOADS of "5 minutes to beat" arcade games were the rage at the time. Marble Madness was just like the rest of its peers, lol.
@@DoomKid And I like how you assume I _wasn't_ a kid during the era of "five minutes to beat arcade games." Lol.
That's my opinion of _this_ particular game.
Damn 😂 I lost my marbles! No it's a blockbuster video😋
I came to this just to hear the music on the different levels. This game was so awesome and extremely hard I remember.
Still has a deeper story than The Last Of Us
I don't know how that's related to anything 😅 but I do think that the PlayStation brand has gone to complete shit over the years.
What causes the wand to appear and give you another 10 seconds? Never understood that.
Very nice, I hadn't played this game.
1984??? Incredible..
Rock'n'roll racing map at 99 level!
Here we heave a 8bit game with a great phisic!
N... i heave this catridge.
You rock, NintendoComplete!
Ty 😊
Roll them tiger's eyes!
Dude, you ars the Nintendo King! Is there any game you cant play!?😁👍❤️
Tyvm! Haha yeah, they're definitely are. There's a good reason why there are certain types of games missing from my NES playlist ;) Working on them, though!
@@NintendoComplete Right on man!👍 Your better than anyone I've ever seen 😁
@@vdog4799 Thanks again. Much appreciated!
Classic game!
What gets me , knowing that this is NES , at the end with the marbles bouncing around wildly , my guess is they are sprites yet so many of them at once wildly moving in many directions without screen glitches , , ,how can it do that ???? In TMNT 2 - 3 if a total of 3 footninjas appear on screen at once it gets very glitchy , , , ,🤔🤔😕
Rare used the 8x16 sprite mode and filled 32 marbles onscreen (one marble = 2 sprites), which is just right at the 64 sprite limit. Also, I assume it's not that hard to program. It's a simple movement effect here vs complex AI and bigger sprites in TMNT.
@@solarflare9078 keeping that in mind , I wonder if RARE could have made a better looking TMNT 2 and 3 ? ?
In honor of marble madness 2 prototype leak?
Yup
Has anyone ever figured out what triggers the magic wand that gives you 10 more seconds? I've gotten it from time to time when I've played it but not like on this video.
I have no idea.
It's completely random, from what I hear.
This probably cost at least $40
Ive never seen the whole game played
Good job Alex
Thanks :)
I fucking hated playing this game in the arcade ToT I was so bad
👍👍
Verry short it looks hard to controle.
It just takes a bit of getting used to.
Muito legal esse jogo
😂😋This is actually a good simple lil fun game to play for awhile. All jokes aside..😆😂 LGBTQ recommended!
Fun but hard
I have the NES version of this game and I thought it also says "Goal" where the end flags are oh wait it's just the first level that says "Goal" the other levels just have the flags