Phil here - wow, thanks for the kind words! :) Cool to hear people liked my levels… I think I was heavily inspired by the levels in Marble Blast Ultra, trying to create an “extension” of those, as vague as that sounds. Music… zero formal experience, but at the time I was addicted to GarageBand, and I tried to come up with something to match the aesthetic. Even though I’m not basically involved with the community today, I still think about these games every now and then. There are other “ball rolling” games, but nothing like these imo. I also like the direction Marble It Up went in, with its full rethink of the mechanics, and only keeping what is most important. Really well put together video as well, in-depth but kept it funny :P Cool to hear analysis of something I don’t think anyone on the team had any kind of formal experience in. I also pretty much agree with the criticisms around MBP/PQ too, you pretty much nailed it. But like Threefolder in the comments said, they were a learning experience for all of us, and there’s tons that I think we’d all do differently today.
I loved it - helped me endure several boring university lectures. The ultra hyper difficult levels, I just skipped. It was such a great game to play while listening to podcasts or audiobooks :)
@@FHT1883 glad to have helped! I always wanted to make a fun game for people, and it's so nice to hear from people I don't know about how they enjoyed it.
Don't know if you'll see @HiGuy this but as someone who has every ultimate time in pq I can assure you there's lots of us out there that may not be active in the community but enjoyed the game a lot....Thank you for the hundreds of hours of entertainment :P
Wow, it was really surreal and exciting seeing such a well-made and entertaining video essay about a game I worked on when I wasn't even in middle school yet! I'm credited as "Ian" for MBP. I had a stupid grin on my face that whole segment you were describing Recoil Training, which yeah, in hindsight was way better than most of my other levels (probably by accident). The funniest thing to me about the general amateurism of the development for MBP is some of the god-awful textures that I threw together in Photoshop (barely knowing how to use it) that somehow ended up shipping in the final game. Those rainbow teleporter grid tiles? The blurry bouncy floor texture that doesn't even title properly? Those were all me, baby. No idea why those were never replaced. 😆Still probably better than that teleporter station 3D model though... Anyways, loved this video!
For some reason it didn't occur to me to check whether the production house of the thing i was harshly criticizing was populated partially by actual children, sorry abt that lol.
@@Patricia_Taxxon I think "primarily" would be more accurate; from what I can remember Matan (the lead) was the only one over 18 at the start of it. 😆 The Marble Blast community was incredibly young at the time; a lot of kids (myself included) were introduced to it because Marble Blast Gold came pre-installed with Macbooks (iBooks?) around the mid-2000s. It's totally fine though, your critiques are all accurate and it's hard to take them personally when we're all pretty much entirely different people now!
My favorite detail of the entire video editing wise is how Patty's old avatar gets hit by a marble at 38:37 right before she became doggy lol. Like the old avatar is being killed and replaced with the new one, idk just a cute detail I noticed
For a good half of the first 35 minutes I was thinking “why is she still using the painting girl to represent herself if she’s gonna be this aggressively furry?” And SURE ENOUGH
And she's still a horrible musician. I have no clue how someone who directly rips off Neil Cicierega is considered great. Her music is so overstimulating that I always get angry just listening to her sampling. Just listening to her mashups make my brain hurt.
I didn't know this.. i don't like furries ( I dont harrass them or anything, it just leaves a general distaste in my mouth, not for me) and i love Marble Blast lol
Really enjoyed the video, super funny and interesting even if it was a bit harsh in places haha. As a PQ developer I agree with basically every piece of critique - working on that project was a huge learning experience for the entire team and there's so much I'd do differently with it today. And yeah, Phil is absolutely the GOAT.
@@FHT1883 If you have a mac, Every version from catalina onwards has stopped supporting 32 bit programs, which MBG, PQ, and all the other mods are 32 bit.
Well, this is sort of a surreal moment for me. A couple months ago, I started watching Summoning Salt's videos on speedrun history. I noticed that there was this consistent song he always used to indicate when he was about to cover some incredible breakthrough or demonstration of skill. After some digging, I found out it was called "Wavetable - Patricia Taxxon". I've been listening to that song on a loop whenever I need to get shit done at work because it fits so well with my ADHD. It has enough energy to keep my hyped and allow me to focus while still (and I mean this in a good way) not having anything that pulls my attention away from a task. I guess the way I can say this that conveys how mush I like it is that Wavetable is the song I use as the "time to get shit done" song in the soundtrack of my life. Anyway, I reached a point where RUclips recommended this video to me and I watched it and loved it. But it was weird because the person who created this song I love also had a video essay? So I checked out your channel page and, this is the surreal part, I noticed that a whole bunch of your essays were flagged as having already been watched. And I had no idea what was going on because I didn't remember ever seeing anything from you before I got obsessed with Wavetable. But then I rewatched your "capitalism and art" and it hit me. I had been watching your video essays, like, four years ago. If I had to think back on it, I think it might have been because of a shoutout from Non-Compete about how copyright does nothing but stifle artistic expression but I can't remember for sure. Anyway, it's just so crazy to me that, in the vast world of the internet, I would ever have this experience of randomly running into you twice, years apart, for different reasons. Chances are this doesn't matter, or even make sense, to anyone but me. But I just wanted to share it. Shout it out to the void, I guess.
That’s actually so wild to think I’ve been listening to Patricia taxxon’s music for a while now since I’ve been watching summoning salt’s vids for quite some time. And now found this !! AMAZING !!!!
I downloaded this video as an mp3 to listen to at work. "Puppy" confused me a bit. "Pawful" got me thinking "this person might be a furry." Then I was forced to learn about a furry visual novel... That I will be playing tonight.
I enjoy the decision to put a non-sponsored sponsor segment for an unrelated [citation needed] furry visual novel right in the middle of this video and if I ever make video essays I am going to do the exact same.
"The trap door is used once on a 30 second level and then once on *shit ass fuck shit fuck ass shit* " perfectly sums up the amazing glory that is Marble Blast Gold's harder levels. I'm not even convinced Elden Ring is harder than that was.
That's because Elden Ring isn't really that hard. People tripping lol. The Dark Souls games have never been "Difficult" they have just required patience and perseverence.
The reason why diagonal movement is faster is bc of a common bug existent in pretty much every single early 2000s 3D game. Basically the movement keys increase movement by a certain % instead of having that % as the maximum, instead holding two movement keys at once will cause the %'s to compound on top of each other, resulting in faster movement at diagonal angles.
This is actually a super common issue in games that feature movement in four directions- in RPGs you might discover walking diagonally is faster, which is because if you move one pixel up and one pixel left, your total distance covered is actually more like 1.4 pixels. Super common issue, and super ease to solve by just normalizing the movement vector. But it's cool to see it in some 3d games
IIRC Phil was 12 when he started working on the levels and music for Platinum. Even still, the sharp contrast in quality between his work and everything else in Platinum is something to behold. Really loved your analysis, and as someone who growing up spent many hours after elementary school laboring at those brutal Expert-category levels, your remix of the main theme was especially touching.
12 - I can believe that. The amount of time I spent on the game in elementary - middle school was ridiculous. Obviously most stuff i made was garbage but the creativity you need to make unique stuff in the game is really best done by a kid's brain.
@@yahkimicki236Dude I think they're right, there's other comments from other MBP developers saying that only one of the people on the development team was over 18 and I think that's incredible.
This video was an emotional rollercoaster. There is sometimes a subtlety in your editing that is sublime (loud ass leather chair). I'll be disappointed if I don't see that new avatar again. Viewer tears too.
The excessivley simple and redundant tutorial levels were very important to me as a kid. I wanted to be a Gamer™ like my older brother, but I was very small and very stupid. Those levels were the only ones I could beat lmao rip 💀
It's very refreshing to see critiques about the level design from someone who grew up playing the first game, but didn't end up speedrunning it or the few fan mods. A lot of the level design comes from the perspective of players who are also top level speedrunners, so it's easy to see how some of the mechanics might fall short for a novice player. While a lot of it hasn't aged well, there are definitely some redeeming qualities. Namely Phil, Phil's levels, and Phil's music. Excellent video!
Yeah, even if the critiques she gave were stuff I've heard before, its still great that a name as known as hers is covering this underrated (underrepresented?) genre of gaming. The Pianoforte remix at the end was the best way to top it all off too :) Even if MBP and especially PQ are shitty mods to play for the average user, I love em regardless (speedrunner bias ofc). Hopefully she sticks around the marble scene for a little bit and checks out every world record rampage we have to offer
I laughed a lot at "That thing that every gaming youtuber said was an impossible combination because they were disappointed with some Sonic games and people believed it for some reason."
i donated 15 dollars to the echo visual novel. that game fucked me up, i was feeling weird with leo's route, because it confronted something i romantized that was fucked up and it showcased it to me.
Phil is god. Without any question. As someone who's played for upwards of 15 years now, this was such a delightful video to watch. Not a whole lot of MB or commentary content makes me laugh out loud, but it was awesome to see that happen with both. I have so much appreciation for you for putting the effort in to make an hour long video. Lovely job. (By the way... there's another MB mod on the way to be excited for :))
hijacking top comment replies to shoutout Great Marble Adventure too lmao, it has mb's game mechanics and contains even more levels inspired by mbp style platforming and has insane routes
me before the video: HECK YEAH! I love Marble Blast! me after the video: clicking on the hidden skip level button is an allegory of realizing that you can be trans without feeling that you need to 100% complete the really bad levels of gatekeeping.
The "Shock Absorber" powerup noise has lived in my head for almost my entire life and I just... it feels so good to have this game acknowledged by another living being. Nobody I've ever met has known about this game I almost started to think it wasn't real
Marble Blast Gold made me a furry, programmer, dance musician & trans. Making levels was the first modding community I was a part of, which led me to the Torque engine, which lead me to a terribly dated machinima made in Torque that did an episode on Second Life. Teen Grid SL is where I discovered the furry community, honed my scripting skills & got interested in dance music.
Yeah, that all tracks. The most dedicated fans of cult classics are almost always going to be furry and/or trans, and discover some MASSIVE amount of talent. Like attracts like, and eventually, you have a super formative launchpad for lots of people!
Loved the video through and through. Got a little bit confused at the part where you said I had to play a furry horror visual novel which may or may not break me in more than one way, but I'll give it a go, for sure.
Fantastic animations by biodegradable. seeing ur little tail wag when you got hyped was a real treat. (Also the unrecoverable tone shift was a treat too!!) It was fun to see the use of both the old icon that u speak with and the puppy, and i really enjoyed the "no im not going back" transition. Im really hoping we get to see more puppy in future vids
above average marbler was something I didn't know I needed to have in my vocabulary. glad to know there's an audience for "left alone with your dad's iMac" nostalgia
Okay, about a week ago I started making a little game in Unreal engine where you roll a ball around. after a while i noticed the main fun factors were in like, spinning fast in mid air so it affects what happens when you land. I set up some different physical materials with different friction and bounciness. I have never played MB or heard about it until this vid, but I was somehow in the process of remaking it when this vid was uploaded. I don't know whether to stop or continue with more enthusiasm now! Maybe if I get anywhere with it Patty will do some music...
Spiritual successor, in the sense that you were possessed by the same spirit that possessed its creators. ;) Definitely continue with more enthusiasm, see where you can take that mechanic, give it the time and attention and level design it deserves. Especially since you can take lessons from MB's successes and failures, rather than having to do those successes and failures yourself.
Fuck, I didn’t think I’d be hit with a twist not-sponsored sponsor segment about a furry visual novel my BF suggested I play a while back, but here we are now!
never have i hoped an artist on youtube would see my comment more. i cried multiple times during this video. it's beautiful. i played marble blast on a classroom computer many many times in elementary school. i love you so much for making this. thank you thank you thank you
Hey Patty, watching this again I feel compelled to say this is such a sneakily great video essay. It feels very low-key and almost unedited because of how little edits draw attention to themselves, but paying more attention to it I can really apreciate how consistently the footage matches/qualifies what you're saying (and I imagine it's a LOT of footage). But more importantly, the animations go kinda hard ? In the "Editing Patty" part you had absolutely no reason to do the chair movements and noises but that makes it so funny and special. There are so many little sound and animation gags that must have taken a lot of work to do and I love all of them. (also your fursona is SOOO CUTE) Plus it's obviously very well written, structured and delivered, but that's just what you always do. Must be one of my favorites of all time. anyway love you bye
Huh, never thought I'd be seeing a more entry level friendly video on Marble Blast. A lot of fair criticism and praises, it's amazing how long the community for the game has been going.
Yeah! Maybe I give this game a little too much credit because of how much I love it, but it does have its issues just like any other game. That doesn’t make me love it any less though! And yeah the community is still alive after all these years! Still playing multiplayer, adding custom levels online, playing multiplayer… The list goes on Also congratulations for your 3.985 Obstacle Course getting featured in the video!
theres a weird obscure marble blast game that came in a multi installer with platinum a few years ago called "fubar", its impossible to find now but theres a few videos of it up on youtube. Its pretty neat and has some of the strangest levels in the series. Worth checking out if you can find a copy imo.
oh, you can still play it. there wasn't a good place to talk about it in this video but i might have to eventually, just because the level design is so fucking weird. real one of a kind experience.
I remember always wanting to play that mod when I was like 9 years old but back then it was a closed beta for some reason and only a few people had access to it and no one wanted to share it with me -.-
I don't know how to start this; but this video (And especially Song for a friend) touched something raw for me, and for that I really have to thank you so much and couldn't leave this unsaid. I'm also gonna apologize ahead of time because I'm still teared up and my thoughts are entirely unorganized. I also had a really rough childhood, and escaped to so many friend's houses whenever I could to get away from it. Play some dumb or silly games with them to forget about it. Marble blast was never one of them, but. I still suffer a lot because of those years of my life, and I have a very hard time just releasing those pent up emotions. I don't know if its because I was disarmed by all the rampant but adorable furriness and a silly video about a game I vaguely kinda remember, or if I was just absolutely caught off guard by seeing that the friend you escaped to was named Adam (my chosen name), but Song for a friend touched a part of my soul I forgot I had and I've been crying off and on for the half hour its been since hearing it and while typing this out. And it feels so cathartic and good. I know I may not be your Adam, and I know its sappy and probably a bit dumb, but I saw it, I'm out here, and I'm a little bit more alright than I was before watching this.
Hey so... I've never played any of these but... can we talk about how brilliant it is that Marble It Up uses "pearlescent" shaders on surfaces (so the color shifts when viewed from different angles) to give an IMMEDIATE sense to the player of the changing slopes on a surface, so the player can predict what's going to happen when they land and plan their routes accordingly? At first I just thought it was some pretty art design, but then I realized what was really happening and, yeah, someone deserves a medal for that
I had no clue that Marble It Up was part of a much larger series! It was wonderful to learn about this strange marble world that’s been beneath my feet this whole time, and despite your best wishes I am absolutely playing through the entirety of Gold and PlatinumQuest
As you should! I think it's better than Marble It Up personally, since I'm so used to the physics of Marble Blast Gold/Platinum[Quest] that Marble It Up just feels so difficult for me to play. I encourage you to play PQ online so that your scores are saved, and see what you think.
Coming here from the Celeste video, and man, your flavor of media analysis is something so rarely seen. Effortless funny, and thoughtful. I am excited to keep seeing your channel grow!
23:45 Ah the tutorial telling you moving diagonally makes you move faster because the square root of 1 y + 1 x is 1.22 and that you should use it... I see you have returned from Turok.
@@supC_ Nah, Minecraft normalizes the vectors properly, moving diagonally is effectively the same as moving forward. Also sqrt(2) is closer to 1.4, which is a massive boost when it actually exists so it's fairly easy to notice if a game has that issue.
@@animowany111 No, minecraft really doesn’t. Sprinting is just so much faster you don’t notice normally. But try bridging while looking diagonally and you’ll notice you go faster (specific to java because of needing to look down).
58:25 I think the other half of that experience (at least for me personally) was found in Venineth. Idk aside from being a puzzler, I found that that game constantly asked me to do very precise marble movements in order to progress forward. I wasn't a Marble Blast kid growing up tho (most of my marble game experience comes from Super Monkey Ball), but I really enjoyed Venineth for how much it asked me to understand the physics around the marble.
I love your puppysona so much!! Her little tail wags and paw wags are sososo cute and I love how she has a grippy toy for stimming and she's just so sweet aaaaaa
the marble physics are really fun to watch and feel. ive spent most of the video just watching the marble bounce and clack against things because its so nice. the cannons are awful they feel like im being hit over the head with a pool noodle
I really want to follow your recommendation of Echo, but I don't do well with horror, how intense do the horror elements get? Is there any other ways I could experience the story, or does it really only work first hand?
Most of the horror is just in the story being emotionally quite harsh, but there are a few isolated terrifying moments that definitely made me suffer as a fellow "bad with horror" individual.
I think one of my favorite pastimes is watching retrospectives on games I've never heard of before. There's just something so interesting about looking into someone else's childhood and seeing how they experience things. The way you explain things is both interesting and on occasion humorous. I like it. (and your music is pretty cool, just took a look at your catalogue after finishing the video.)
I haven't ever played marble blast, and I probably never will. But I've watched this video at least half a dozen times already, because *your style of video essay is so great and I need more like it* I hope to one day be able to make something this funny and charming. Love your work!
The most legendary video about Marble Blast series I've ever seen so far. There's so much analysis about these games which I probably wouldn't think about. Great job! As I write this comment, there's a Marble it Up! Ultra announcement which I'm really excited about. Different multiplayer modes (like the classic Gem Hunt, Zombies, "another Rocket League ripoff"), whole new chapters in singleplayer, some other cool stuff is coming to this update. What do you think about it?
I spent the entire time wondering if you were going to bring up Venineth. Do you know about that game ? I've only seen ONE comment mentioning it down here. I guess it's just a really obscure game that everyone missed entirely ? (I only knew about it because I watch Jacob Geller's channel) EDIT: completely forgot to say, great video !
Nice to see some more appreciation for Venineth. I thought that was an excellent experience. It shares Marble Blast's platforming as a base but uses it to build something more like an adventure instead of a disconnected set of levels. Also thought it's set of special abilities were far more interesting and thoughtfully taken advantage of than the high jump/speed/gyrocopter were in the original games. Also if you are looking for another marble adventure InFlux is worth a playthrough. Like Venineth it is structured more like a world that you are exploring but it swaps Venineth's cold, artificial isolation for a warmer more natural vibe. It's a bit short and not particularly challenging but I still quite liked it.
So I’m watching this video because I watched your banger of a Celeste essay that recommended this video and am immediately surprised with the *homemade, freshly baked subtitles* and I am loving it
Edit: after the last section on marble it up, please dear God play crumble. Every level can be cut down to a fraction of the time if you master the momentum, grapple and angles.its the only game I've played that makes me want to go that fuckin fast and it's my favorite platformer I e ever played Ok I'm not done with the video but every one who reads this, please try out the game crumble. You're a squishy ball with a tongue grappling hook and most of the world is completely physics based and falls apart as you use it. It has a similar vibe as marble games but it's fuckin bonkers
WOW this video feels like a culmination of so many things I love, as someone who has played for years I feel like this is a perfect culmination of many peoples feelings towards the marble blast genre. Really loved this whole video from start to finish, I know this will become a video I rewatch many times, thank you!
this video was absolutely astounding, thank you for creating this experience :) also ur rantsona is soooo cute the little tail wags!!!!! she brings joy to my heart
ahh i remember playing marble blasts gold and platinum back when i was a little pup too. i can recall putting time into the multiplayer but not the actual platinumquest levels, i think i was doing them in order and never got that far. those were some good times. personally the really long levels which i would spend upwards of 30 minutes on felt like a proper adventure, like i was exploring an open world except it was linear. glad im not the only one who doesnt like those janitorial levels though, when they come up on the weekly marble it up challenges i die a little inside. i only have the game on switch which makes me envious of all those steam workshop levels. incredible song by the way :)
you just unlocked so many old memories of coming home from school and booting up Marble Blast Ultra and just replaying levels with my friends and just messing around. miss that game so much
Thank for precising which game is canon or not. There are a lot of Marble Blast games and was like "They made all of these?!". Modders doesn't realize that gems are made to prevent taking shortcut, like you made a basic a-to-b level with obstacles but add gems. Don't make their presence annoying but worth it. Bigger doesn't mean better. Marble It Up is the ultimate experience of Marble Blast. Not only the level are designed for casual player, it is also for speedrunner as seen in record.
HOW DID I MISS THIS VIDEO COMING OUT??? No seriously, Marble Blast Gold was my childhood. It got me completely hooked on reflex and time based gameplay at a time when all I had played was turn based RPGs. It's so simple but so cool and NOBODY talks about it or seems to have played it. I hope it gets revisited more after this.
It’s clear that something has been lost as time goes on. Everyone has those friends they know that they will never meet again, or friends they never got to meet properly. There’s experiences that have been lost, and fading memories of priceless moments. The song at the end of this brought up the same sentimental feelings I get for my childhood, years of mystery and learning, a time when I could believe all the crazy tales, and I would lose weeks thinking about inconsequential things. I have a pretty bad memory, but I know there’s countless people who I loved but will never meet again, and countless experiences that I can only try imitate, trying to get that same feeling again. I often get stuck on the past, and it always makes me sad. I always want to know and do everything, and knowing that I no longer can fills me with sadness. I hope that, by some miracle, you manage to meet your friend again. That song at the end made me tear up. Thank you for sharing your stories.
There's something that Fred Brooks talks about in The Mythical Man-Month, called the Second System Problem. In his experience managing software engineers working on operating systems, he noticed that, during the first system they worked on, engineers would have a bunch of ideas that way outstripped their ability to implement them, so they'd save them all for their second system, while making their first system simple and straightforward. This resulted in a first system that was sleek, lean, and small, and a second system that was bloated and unwieldy, with way too many disparate ideas in it. That's really what Platinum vs Platinum Quest feels like. They were working on Platinum, had a bunch of ideas for what to do in the engine that they couldn't pull off yet, then put all of them into PQ.
God I'm so glad Echo gets more recognition, this game broke me and got me into more visual novels and great fanfic stories We really need more echo stories I hope you make a Echo VN analysis video
Since this is a long video, I have a lot to say about it. 14:01 I wouldn't say those mods are 100% bad. I've tried out almost all of them, and there are some moments I enjoyed: MB Powered Up is like a slightly improved, less broken version of MB Gold. It fixes a few glitches, like sticking to walls. It does add a ton of new game mechanics just like PlatinumQuest, however, most of them are optional and only in custom levels. MB Emerald has some fun level design. MB Future has a great soundtrack. 2 or 3 mods introduced a hub world, which is not a bad idea if it's done right. If you wanna play MB Ultra, there's an unofficial PC port. (I can't post the link, search "marble blast ultra marblevortex".) Similar to Powered Up, it has some fan content added to it, but it's optional. The main part of the game is still identical to the Xbox version. Sometimes "jank" things can be charming. For example, pixel art and 8-bit music is purposely low quality, but good. I like some of the jank things in Gold, such as the imperfect geometry of the power-ups and sign posts. It has a Looney Tunes feeling. Something you didn't talk about at all was the aesthetics. I like the cartoony art style and sounds of Gold, the glossy, polished style of Ultra, and the sort of neon, cyberpunk style of Marble it Up. I like the visuals and music of PlatinumQuest more than Platinum. I can't really explain it... it feels more happy and sunshine-y I guess. Platinum is more dystopian (the expert levels have dark, depressing lighting).
That bit about canonizing speedrunning mechanics was super interesting and could be it's own video. Game designers should be discussing this stuff, it's fascinating.
Thank for having a well animated(?) character! Too many times are there just too few expressions/poses that a character can do, so I'm very glad to see someone go the extra mile and do it well.
This video unlocked a memory. In elementary school, marbles were really popular. Like the game where you flick your marbles against your opponents marbles. Once i got a set of marbles i gave them personalities and would play with them alone. I was also scared of playing the intended game with them because i didnt want to lose any of my marbles or for any of them to get hurt.
After seeing the comment on Marble It Up's lack of bounciness, yeah I think you would have liked Ultra a fair bit, the tuning isn't just stages, but the physics on the... wall jump was re-tuned to be somewhat more controllable. I ended up using it a lot in the online multiplayer especially!
I deeply appreciate the Echo plug in this video, because there is so much to that game that truly goes beyond what I think the average "recommendation from a friend" can provide to prime someone for it, and it really does deserve more attention! I swear to the lord on high, Echo contains genuinely the only jumpscare in any media which, for me personally, felt earned enough and effective enough to warrant being included, and I hate jumpscares. I was so blown away by the depths that the writing was able to achieve, and really haven't experienced something like that since. Sorry to make my whole comment about Echo lol! This entire video is fantastic and I definitely am going to play some of the Marble Blast as well.
So originally I was going to wait to leave my traditional New York Times Best Seller Essay in the comments section of my favorite videos on this site knowing I have an interview with a big meteorologist for something I'm working on, but I am unable to sleep without just leaving my essay here. I found this video out of random nostalgia of just, randomly searching up marble blast on the RUclips search to see how it was doing, and I found this hour long analysis on the game series itself. I grew up with Marble blast as my mother got a physical copy that for some reason was called Marble Roll I think (Whatever it was, it wasn't called Marble Blast Gold on the box art) and it was a game that the two of us bonded with a ton over. Marble Blast eventually got my family into games such as Super Monkey Ball and some penguin marble blast type game that I don't remember the name of at all. Regardless that was my history with it, as my childhood on PC gaming was much more reminiscent of games like Luxor or "Marble popper" Games as they are called. Watching this whole video just reminds me of how I just randomly want to make videos on topics that just intrigued me, or on games that I really loved in terms of media. Everything from the deep level analysis of the franchise as a whole starting from Marble Blast Gold, all the way to Marble It Up (Which fun fact: I didn't know until this video that Marble Blast Platinum was a fan mod, huh), I finally understood in a way put into words why I loved the original Marble Blast Gold so much. Games that even have the simple concept that shared any similarity with the base gameplay of Marble Blast Gold, specifically Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD (Which yes: was I guess the closest thing to a Marble Blast Game that came out before Marble it Up, even though Banana Blitz has it's OWN set of issues but, that's neither here or there). When it comes down to it, your analysis of the whole franchise is top notch and it blows me away to a point of where I think I will have to watch this over again if I need a refresher for how to properly analyze level design, as this video is a perfect example of level design analysis. The video was also really funny as well, caught me off guard quite a lot in regards to making me chuckle and burst out laughing while laying down on my bed. The mini-tangents that don't seem to be relevant at first but end up being very relevant at the end is just a trope I could die for. It is handled so well that I can't even begin to talk about why I just love it (Probably because I do it way too often when in friend group calls, in which they often ask me what I'm doing with my life). I will definitely give Echo a shot, not because I'm a furry, but because I'm a sucker for games with fantastic stories, hell, a good story is the entire reason why Tales of Berseria is my favorite game of all time (Give it a shot if you don't mind JRPGs). Marble Blast Gold is a game that is in my heart, as a game that I was obsessed with as a small child alongside RPG Maker games such as Aveyond, and Marble Popper Games like Luxor, Zuma Deluxe, and Atlantis. I'm super glad that I found this video, and I can't wait for what you have to offer next! You did this game series justice and gave it a voice that I don't think anyone else I can think of could!
Watching this video was the first step in us being a little more confident in our own therian-ness, along with other brain stuff. So thank you, Patricia.
I absolutely adore the pawful of dog based wordplay you sprinkle throughout this incredible video. It's really validating seeing someone else refer to their younger years as being a pup. Thank you
Thoroughly enjoyed this as someone who grew up with Marble Blast and a bit of an enthusiast for Marble It Up. I've been beta testing Marble It Up Ultra! and I think you're going to love it. It's definitely more of the fast, racing levels and not really Mastering the Marble, but what it does, it does really well most of the time.
I love that your little quirks of speech change when you transition into your feisty & furry “rant-sona” (may I suggest “grr-sona”?) It’s adorable as heck.
Ngl, that Echo plug messed with me so hard. Can't wait to play the game, hadn't heard of it and it sounds up my alley. But OH BOY when I was just listening to this in the background while working and was like "Echo? That's an interesting name for a marble game. In the style of a Furry Visual... novel? Huh? Where the marble tho? *checks phone to see its just a visual novel* Oh but it sound good, looks well drawn too. Whatever. Oh back to marbles? Yay!" Anyways, awesome video!
never expected to find two people doing both video essays and music, but here we are found the channel through music featured in some of jan misali's videos, now I'm finding some of your video essays, you've deffenitely earned my subscription.
@@d_ngltron Oh well I think "puppy" is a cute word so calling young you a puppy instead of just saying "when I was a child" is a cute instance of furryspeak imo.
something probably heavily inspired by these games that came out a few years back is Marble Marcher. it's made by a youtuber called codeparade as a demonstration of ray marching to render fractals. the physics are bouncy and interesting and you move through fractals as they morph in real time with basically infinitely complex geometry. it's pretty neat.
The video I didnt know I needed on a topic I never thought about before, Thanks CJ the X for pointing me here and thanks Patricia for the hour long trip down this rabbithole
holy fuck this brings me back, it used to blow my mind how cool the levels were as a kid. I'd spend hours in computer class trying to skip to skip sections and cheese the game, I never really managed to do it unfortunately. Maybe now's the chance to try again
Absolutely fantastic video; I didn't expect you to go full on puppysona mid way thru and omg am I glad you did! Those images are absolutely adorable aaa! Absolutely loved every part of this; your humor; the editing; the MUSICAL finale with feelings all too relatable. Simply fantastic! Keep up the amazing work I am so excited to see even more from you! :D
For the wavedash section, it's also true that because you're starting in midair, you are able to buffer the jump, whereas with a hyper, you can't, because pressing jump early would mean doing a regular hyper instead of an extended one. This means that a correctly positioned wavedash has a much larger window (up to five frames more, iirc) where you can jump and hit the wavedash. Positioning is more readable than timing, so, essentially, you got it right; it is the better designed mechanic because of that, but it isn't "strictly less consistent" than a hyper. It just involves more inputs. Excellent video, really well done analysis :)
I'm so glad to see this huge essay from you so I can listen to you talk for a whole hour, but my god, we have come a long way from discussing the diagesis of Funny Games
Man you ever find a new corner of youtube that you had no idea existed but promises to be just full of great content? And there's that little scrabble to try and get a sense of the person making it from the scraps you find throughout the video, like "ok is puppy just a one-off joke or is this person a furry that's going to anypony every anatomical reference in the video?" I did like the painted pic tho Anyway, I want to play marble blast now. EDIT: WAIT. PATRICIA TAXXON? LIKE THE SONG PERSON TAXXON I FUCKING KNEW I RECOGNIZED YOUR VOICE FROM SOMEWHERE AND IT TOOK THAT IDIOSYNCRATIC SONG AT THE END FOR ME TO REALIZE IT ... how are you also here making great video essays on fking marble blast I feel like I got cold-cocked by a cinematic universe at the end of an indie film. Not that I'm complaining. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you're out here being all multidisciplinary and shit anyway this comment got way away from me
"marble blast, but I ignore the only entry in the franchise that has a blast meter" for real though, I adore Ultra over everything else, even MIU. Every time you praised MIU I felt myself go, "thats how I feel about ultra". I feel the physics of Ultra is where this series peaked. And the blast meter is the single greatest aspect of anything marble related, which honestly is my biggest grievance against single player marble it up. (though the multiplayer is pretty sad too..)
MBG and MBP are both a major part of my childhood and I still come back to play through Gold at least once every 2 years or so just for the memories, though I'm also godawful at it and my playstyle has always been completely different from yours or pretty much anyone else I've seen (especially within the core fanbase). my ADHD brain is not focused enough to handle pretty much any kind of dedicated speedrunning so I always ended up gravitating towards a lot of the much slower-paced levels of Gold like Skyscraper, Three Fold Maze, Money Tree, Twisting The Night Away and A-Maze-Ing minus the wall-bounce shortcut which I could never quite get right, even the "janitor" levels just often felt oddly satisfying to me and I'd see myself coming back to more often because... idk they just looked cool? and no one at my school really played those levels, it was almost as if I was playing a different game from everyone else Platinum meanwhile... I have good memories of that one and a barely functional macbook from the mid-2000s which we keep around purely because it has an old version of the game that runs smoothly enough and is still fun to come back to periodically, I'm unsurprisingly far worse at that game than I was at Gold and in most of the levels that weren't basically just the "janitor" ones I'd constantly relied on the low gravity cheat in order to get anywhere, playing so much differently from the core fanbase meant I was left in the dust (and when you went into a tangent on speedrunning tactics in Celeste I was like "yep I already know exactly which parts of MBP this is referring to".) still didn't stop me from spending a lot of time with it, game just looked really cool and having once beaten that big skyscraper level with a finish time of like... an hour? was an absolutely triumphant moment in my life it is possible I'm just not very good at video games but hey it is what it is
God, the little song at the end had me crying out of nowhere, holy shit. I don't think I've been affected by music in that way before. It was nostalgic, sweet, the kind of thing that immediately had me thinking back to old sitcoms I'd watch with my family. Great job??
I just wanna say that the aggressively furry language in this video has inspired me to be more open with my dogginess as well, so thank you for being unapologetically you and fuck everyone giving you shit
I thought about getting Marble It Up a while ago and wasn't sure how good it would be so many years after Marble Blast Gold was so fun.....but now I had better get it soon. Thanks so much Patty.
Phil here - wow, thanks for the kind words! :)
Cool to hear people liked my levels… I think I was heavily inspired by the levels in Marble Blast Ultra, trying to create an “extension” of those, as vague as that sounds. Music… zero formal experience, but at the time I was addicted to GarageBand, and I tried to come up with something to match the aesthetic.
Even though I’m not basically involved with the community today, I still think about these games every now and then. There are other “ball rolling” games, but nothing like these imo. I also like the direction Marble It Up went in, with its full rethink of the mechanics, and only keeping what is most important.
Really well put together video as well, in-depth but kept it funny :P Cool to hear analysis of something I don’t think anyone on the team had any kind of formal experience in. I also pretty much agree with the criticisms around MBP/PQ too, you pretty much nailed it. But like Threefolder in the comments said, they were a learning experience for all of us, and there’s tons that I think we’d all do differently today.
God bless you.
- Sincerely, the entire community
the basedlord has arrived
thank you for everything phil
We love Phil
thank you based phil
I have learned 2 things about Marble Blast.
1: Someone named Phil is a god of level design
2: ECHO is a cool furry phycological horror
What do algae have to do with ECHO?
3. I have bought marble it up
@@poccer7722 congratulations
Those where the takeaways i took away
@@timothymclean Why is a raven like a writing desk?
I spent like 8 years of my life making pq and this is pretty accurate
Thank you for all your work
I loved it - helped me endure several boring university lectures. The ultra hyper difficult levels, I just skipped. It was such a great game to play while listening to podcasts or audiobooks :)
@@FHT1883 glad to have helped! I always wanted to make a fun game for people, and it's so nice to hear from people I don't know about how they enjoyed it.
@@HiGuyMB
Don't know if you'll see @HiGuy this but as someone who has every ultimate time in pq I can assure you there's lots of us out there that may not be active in the community but enjoyed the game a lot....Thank you for the hundreds of hours of entertainment :P
shoutout to phil
please unblock me, i didnt do anything wrong
holy shit jan misali commenting on a marble blast video. what the fuck
@@thegreatautismo224 mitch and patty have collaborated many times
phil my belil
@@tux1468 tux moment
who's your favorite game designer?
broke: hideo kojima
woke: suda 51
bespoke: phil
this is a comment that 2 hours ago nobody could have ever convinced me would ever be written. holy shit
....toby fok
Headache Kojungles
Who is suda 51
*Bennett Foddy has entered the chat*
Wow, it was really surreal and exciting seeing such a well-made and entertaining video essay about a game I worked on when I wasn't even in middle school yet! I'm credited as "Ian" for MBP. I had a stupid grin on my face that whole segment you were describing Recoil Training, which yeah, in hindsight was way better than most of my other levels (probably by accident).
The funniest thing to me about the general amateurism of the development for MBP is some of the god-awful textures that I threw together in Photoshop (barely knowing how to use it) that somehow ended up shipping in the final game. Those rainbow teleporter grid tiles? The blurry bouncy floor texture that doesn't even title properly? Those were all me, baby. No idea why those were never replaced. 😆Still probably better than that teleporter station 3D model though...
Anyways, loved this video!
For some reason it didn't occur to me to check whether the production house of the thing i was harshly criticizing was populated partially by actual children, sorry abt that lol.
@@Patricia_Taxxon I think "primarily" would be more accurate; from what I can remember Matan (the lead) was the only one over 18 at the start of it. 😆 The Marble Blast community was incredibly young at the time; a lot of kids (myself included) were introduced to it because Marble Blast Gold came pre-installed with Macbooks (iBooks?) around the mid-2000s. It's totally fine though, your critiques are all accurate and it's hard to take them personally when we're all pretty much entirely different people now!
Those weird surface textures are very nostalgic now lol
My favorite detail of the entire video editing wise is how Patty's old avatar gets hit by a marble at 38:37 right before she became doggy lol. Like the old avatar is being killed and replaced with the new one, idk just a cute detail I noticed
She became a doggy when she started talking about the furry game.
Get marble bonked, become doggy.
For a good half of the first 35 minutes I was thinking “why is she still using the painting girl to represent herself if she’s gonna be this aggressively furry?” And SURE ENOUGH
I started combing through the videos to see if there was anything furry.
just spent the time at the start to weed out people who wouldn't stick around without "scaring" them off
And she's still a horrible musician. I have no clue how someone who directly rips off Neil Cicierega is considered great. Her music is so overstimulating that I always get angry just listening to her sampling. Just listening to her mashups make my brain hurt.
@@ModricoTV TF
@@ModricoTV
You look and sound like you’re 12 years old.
came into this fascinated, came out of it with a degree in level design and a zip file containing Echo on my computer, thank you patty
Achievement get: furry
@@mystifoxtech new theory: patty is making everyone a furry secretly and descretely.
It worked
@@Zanophane_GamingI have a couple of friends that are furries, so I developed an immunity to transforming into one XD
@@vcool122 you *_FOOL!_*
@@Zanophane_Gamingthey can't complain about things being crammed down their throat if they never notice
Today I learned, more than anything else, that marble blast is somehow a pipeline into furryism
I didn't know this.. i don't like furries ( I dont harrass them or anything, it just leaves a general distaste in my mouth, not for me) and i love Marble Blast lol
im pretty sure correlation doesnt equal causation but sure buddy if you say so
@@bevweb it was a joke, of course it's not causative
@@bevweb actually no I’m very sure that marble blast turned its players into furries through some crazy mind control shit
Well I played Marble Blast as a wee lad and I'm a furry now, so I think you may be on to something
Really enjoyed the video, super funny and interesting even if it was a bit harsh in places haha. As a PQ developer I agree with basically every piece of critique - working on that project was a huge learning experience for the entire team and there's so much I'd do differently with it today. And yeah, Phil is absolutely the GOAT.
Based Threefolder
Is Matan/IRD still around? And do people still play PQ? It stopped working on my old laptop in 2019
@@FHT1883 If you have a mac, Every version from catalina onwards has stopped supporting 32 bit programs, which MBG, PQ, and all the other mods are 32 bit.
Do you know who Phil was? Or maybe what they’re doing now?
@@manwithabucket9166 Phil's still around, he's fairly active in the Marble It Up! community and has made a few custom levels for it.
Well, this is sort of a surreal moment for me. A couple months ago, I started watching Summoning Salt's videos on speedrun history. I noticed that there was this consistent song he always used to indicate when he was about to cover some incredible breakthrough or demonstration of skill. After some digging, I found out it was called "Wavetable - Patricia Taxxon".
I've been listening to that song on a loop whenever I need to get shit done at work because it fits so well with my ADHD. It has enough energy to keep my hyped and allow me to focus while still (and I mean this in a good way) not having anything that pulls my attention away from a task. I guess the way I can say this that conveys how mush I like it is that Wavetable is the song I use as the "time to get shit done" song in the soundtrack of my life.
Anyway, I reached a point where RUclips recommended this video to me and I watched it and loved it. But it was weird because the person who created this song I love also had a video essay? So I checked out your channel page and, this is the surreal part, I noticed that a whole bunch of your essays were flagged as having already been watched. And I had no idea what was going on because I didn't remember ever seeing anything from you before I got obsessed with Wavetable.
But then I rewatched your "capitalism and art" and it hit me. I had been watching your video essays, like, four years ago. If I had to think back on it, I think it might have been because of a shoutout from Non-Compete about how copyright does nothing but stifle artistic expression but I can't remember for sure. Anyway, it's just so crazy to me that, in the vast world of the internet, I would ever have this experience of randomly running into you twice, years apart, for different reasons.
Chances are this doesn't matter, or even make sense, to anyone but me. But I just wanted to share it. Shout it out to the void, I guess.
That’s actually so wild to think I’ve been listening to Patricia taxxon’s music for a while now since I’ve been watching summoning salt’s vids for quite some time. And now found this !! AMAZING !!!!
I downloaded this video as an mp3 to listen to at work. "Puppy" confused me a bit. "Pawful" got me thinking "this person might be a furry." Then I was forced to learn about a furry visual novel... That I will be playing tonight.
ilove this comment so much. did you enjoy the game?
Answer the question luigi McDingle
Answer the question luigi McDingle
Answer the question luigi McDingle
Answer the question Luigi McDingle
I enjoy the decision to put a non-sponsored sponsor segment for an unrelated [citation needed] furry visual novel right in the middle of this video and if I ever make video essays I am going to do the exact same.
with the amount of furries i've seen in the mb community over the years it's related even if it's only by the tiniest bit
Why are furries like this
@@dangelobenjamin coward
This explains the “puppy”
@@dangelobenjamin because it's funny
"The trap door is used once on a 30 second level and then once on *shit ass fuck shit fuck ass shit* " perfectly sums up the amazing glory that is Marble Blast Gold's harder levels. I'm not even convinced Elden Ring is harder than that was.
Elden Ring is at least fair. Fuck that shit
That's because Elden Ring isn't really that hard. People tripping lol. The Dark Souls games have never been "Difficult" they have just required patience and perseverence.
@@HadalStreetlightsyou would be surprised how difficult those are for some people.
@@tortis6342 Maybe I would! But I stand by my position.
The reason why diagonal movement is faster is bc of a common bug existent in pretty much every single early 2000s 3D game. Basically the movement keys increase movement by a certain % instead of having that % as the maximum, instead holding two movement keys at once will cause the %'s to compound on top of each other, resulting in faster movement at diagonal angles.
This is actually a super common issue in games that feature movement in four directions- in RPGs you might discover walking diagonally is faster, which is because if you move one pixel up and one pixel left, your total distance covered is actually more like 1.4 pixels.
Super common issue, and super ease to solve by just normalizing the movement vector. But it's cool to see it in some 3d games
i am a middle aged woman and i haven’t ever heard of this game but i am so very enthralled. love every time you pop back in, patty 💕
There is a switch game called marble mania that is a spiritual successor, pretty much.
IIRC Phil was 12 when he started working on the levels and music for Platinum. Even still, the sharp contrast in quality between his work and everything else in Platinum is something to behold.
Really loved your analysis, and as someone who growing up spent many hours after elementary school laboring at those brutal Expert-category levels, your remix of the main theme was especially touching.
12 - I can believe that. The amount of time I spent on the game in elementary - middle school was ridiculous. Obviously most stuff i made was garbage but the creativity you need to make unique stuff in the game is really best done by a kid's brain.
You're lying there's no way
@@yahkimicki236Dude I think they're right, there's other comments from other MBP developers saying that only one of the people on the development team was over 18 and I think that's incredible.
@@ravensworkshop8106 that's fucking insane, congrats to all of them on their achi vementa
Achievements
This video was an emotional rollercoaster. There is sometimes a subtlety in your editing that is sublime (loud ass leather chair). I'll be disappointed if I don't see that new avatar again. Viewer tears too.
The rantsona is here to stay.
The excessivley simple and redundant tutorial levels were very important to me as a kid. I wanted to be a Gamer™ like my older brother, but I was very small and very stupid. Those levels were the only ones I could beat lmao rip 💀
It's very refreshing to see critiques about the level design from someone who grew up playing the first game, but didn't end up speedrunning it or the few fan mods. A lot of the level design comes from the perspective of players who are also top level speedrunners, so it's easy to see how some of the mechanics might fall short for a novice player. While a lot of it hasn't aged well, there are definitely some redeeming qualities. Namely Phil, Phil's levels, and Phil's music. Excellent video!
Yeah, even if the critiques she gave were stuff I've heard before, its still great that a name as known as hers is covering this underrated (underrepresented?) genre of gaming. The Pianoforte remix at the end was the best way to top it all off too :)
Even if MBP and especially PQ are shitty mods to play for the average user, I love em regardless (speedrunner bias ofc).
Hopefully she sticks around the marble scene for a little bit and checks out every world record rampage we have to offer
I laughed a lot at "That thing that every gaming youtuber said was an impossible combination because they were disappointed with some Sonic games and people believed it for some reason."
such a niche topic and then theres just a random segment about a furry visual novel. best video ive watched in months
and then theres like a ballad at the end?? about the marble game.
i donated 15 dollars to the echo visual novel. that game fucked me up, i was feeling weird with leo's route, because it confronted something i romantized that was fucked up and it showcased it to me.
Phil is god. Without any question.
As someone who's played for upwards of 15 years now, this was such a delightful video to watch. Not a whole lot of MB or commentary content makes me laugh out loud, but it was awesome to see that happen with both. I have so much appreciation for you for putting the effort in to make an hour long video. Lovely job.
(By the way... there's another MB mod on the way to be excited for :))
hijacking top comment replies to shoutout Great Marble Adventure too lmao, it has mb's game mechanics and contains even more levels inspired by mbp style platforming and has insane routes
me before the video: HECK YEAH! I love Marble Blast!
me after the video: clicking on the hidden skip level button is an allegory of realizing that you can be trans without feeling that you need to 100% complete the really bad levels of gatekeeping.
[sounds of breaking eggshell] .......... hey
@@LoverOfMuch welcome
ha
The "Shock Absorber" powerup noise has lived in my head for almost my entire life and I just... it feels so good to have this game acknowledged by another living being. Nobody I've ever met has known about this game I almost started to think it wasn't real
Marble Blast Gold made me a furry, programmer, dance musician & trans.
Making levels was the first modding community I was a part of, which led me to the Torque engine, which lead me to a terribly dated machinima made in Torque that did an episode on Second Life.
Teen Grid SL is where I discovered the furry community, honed my scripting skills & got interested in dance music.
what
Yeah, that all tracks. The most dedicated fans of cult classics are almost always going to be furry and/or trans, and discover some MASSIVE amount of talent. Like attracts like, and eventually, you have a super formative launchpad for lots of people!
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 lmao do you have any idea what channel you're on
@@colbyboucher6391 clearly a pro-pedo channel
quick hide, sparklex3 is gonna cancel us
Loved the video through and through.
Got a little bit confused at the part where you said I had to play a furry horror visual novel which may or may not break me in more than one way, but I'll give it a go, for sure.
that's just to hook you into becoming a furry, you can never go back after you go in! ;P
Based
DId you play it? Did you play it? If not, why not?
Well?
Fantastic animations by biodegradable. seeing ur little tail wag when you got hyped was a real treat. (Also the unrecoverable tone shift was a treat too!!) It was fun to see the use of both the old icon that u speak with and the puppy, and i really enjoyed the "no im not going back" transition. Im really hoping we get to see more puppy in future vids
Thank you! :^)
Ppuuy
Furries are cringe
Finally someone that mentions the song, it was honestly my favorite part of the video, i loved it so much.
above average marbler was something I didn't know I needed to have in my vocabulary. glad to know there's an audience for "left alone with your dad's iMac" nostalgia
Okay, about a week ago I started making a little game in Unreal engine where you roll a ball around. after a while i noticed the main fun factors were in like, spinning fast in mid air so it affects what happens when you land. I set up some different physical materials with different friction and bounciness. I have never played MB or heard about it until this vid, but I was somehow in the process of remaking it when this vid was uploaded. I don't know whether to stop or continue with more enthusiasm now!
Maybe if I get anywhere with it Patty will do some music...
Well now you can, you know, do the thing!
Continue with more enthusiasm!!!
this is like how every shooter that adds movement tech becomes titanfall, but with balls
Spiritual successor, in the sense that you were possessed by the same spirit that possessed its creators. ;)
Definitely continue with more enthusiasm, see where you can take that mechanic, give it the time and attention and level design it deserves. Especially since you can take lessons from MB's successes and failures, rather than having to do those successes and failures yourself.
40 minutes into this deep dive on an obscure indie marble madness spiritual successor and I get a "Play Echo". Anyway I'm following you now
Fuck, I didn’t think I’d be hit with a twist not-sponsored sponsor segment about a furry visual novel my BF suggested I play a while back, but here we are now!
Patricia I really missed your video essays. I think I could hear you talk about anything.
The extended-hyper and wavedash part was brilliant
never have i hoped an artist on youtube would see my comment more. i cried multiple times during this video. it's beautiful. i played marble blast on a classroom computer many many times in elementary school. i love you so much for making this. thank you thank you thank you
Hey Patty, watching this again
I feel compelled to say this is such a sneakily great video essay. It feels very low-key and almost unedited because of how little edits draw attention to themselves, but paying more attention to it I can really apreciate how consistently the footage matches/qualifies what you're saying (and I imagine it's a LOT of footage). But more importantly, the animations go kinda hard ? In the "Editing Patty" part you had absolutely no reason to do the chair movements and noises but that makes it so funny and special. There are so many little sound and animation gags that must have taken a lot of work to do and I love all of them. (also your fursona is SOOO CUTE)
Plus it's obviously very well written, structured and delivered, but that's just what you always do.
Must be one of my favorites of all time.
anyway love you bye
Huh, never thought I'd be seeing a more entry level friendly video on Marble Blast. A lot of fair criticism and praises, it's amazing how long the community for the game has been going.
Yeah! Maybe I give this game a little too much credit because of how much I love it, but it does have its issues just like any other game. That doesn’t make me love it any less though!
And yeah the community is still alive after all these years! Still playing multiplayer, adding custom levels online, playing multiplayer… The list goes on
Also congratulations for your 3.985 Obstacle Course getting featured in the video!
theres a weird obscure marble blast game that came in a multi installer with platinum a few years ago called "fubar", its impossible to find now but theres a few videos of it up on youtube. Its pretty neat and has some of the strangest levels in the series. Worth checking out if you can find a copy imo.
oh, you can still play it. there wasn't a good place to talk about it in this video but i might have to eventually, just because the level design is so fucking weird. real one of a kind experience.
If you want to know it is on the launcher
I remember always wanting to play that mod when I was like 9 years old but back then it was a closed beta for some reason and only a few people had access to it and no one wanted to share it with me -.-
I don't know how to start this; but this video (And especially Song for a friend) touched something raw for me, and for that I really have to thank you so much and couldn't leave this unsaid.
I'm also gonna apologize ahead of time because I'm still teared up and my thoughts are entirely unorganized.
I also had a really rough childhood, and escaped to so many friend's houses whenever I could to get away from it. Play some dumb or silly games with them to forget about it. Marble blast was never one of them, but. I still suffer a lot because of those years of my life, and I have a very hard time just releasing those pent up emotions. I don't know if its because I was disarmed by all the rampant but adorable furriness and a silly video about a game I vaguely kinda remember, or if I was just absolutely caught off guard by seeing that the friend you escaped to was named Adam (my chosen name), but Song for a friend touched a part of my soul I forgot I had and I've been crying off and on for the half hour its been since hearing it and while typing this out. And it feels so cathartic and good.
I know I may not be your Adam, and I know its sappy and probably a bit dumb, but I saw it, I'm out here, and I'm a little bit more alright than I was before watching this.
Hey so... I've never played any of these but... can we talk about how brilliant it is that Marble It Up uses "pearlescent" shaders on surfaces (so the color shifts when viewed from different angles) to give an IMMEDIATE sense to the player of the changing slopes on a surface, so the player can predict what's going to happen when they land and plan their routes accordingly? At first I just thought it was some pretty art design, but then I realized what was really happening and, yeah, someone deserves a medal for that
I had no clue that Marble It Up was part of a much larger series! It was wonderful to learn about this strange marble world that’s been beneath my feet this whole time, and despite your best wishes I am absolutely playing through the entirety of Gold and PlatinumQuest
As you should! I think it's better than Marble It Up personally, since I'm so used to the physics of Marble Blast Gold/Platinum[Quest] that Marble It Up just feels so difficult for me to play. I encourage you to play PQ online so that your scores are saved, and see what you think.
I straight up thought i dreamt up these games. Haven't even heard of them since 2010 at the latest.
Coming here from the Celeste video, and man, your flavor of media analysis is something so rarely seen. Effortless funny, and thoughtful. I am excited to keep seeing your channel grow!
40:30 "or if you think Leo is hot... scratch that, *especially* if you think Leo is hot" carries real 'Those Who Don't Know vs Those Who Know' vibes
23:45 Ah the tutorial telling you moving diagonally makes you move faster because the square root of 1 y + 1 x is 1.22 and that you should use it... I see you have returned from Turok.
Ah, bunny hopping, my old friend, my old foe, I see you again.
A surpising number of games fall into this exact same trap. Minecraft and Subnautica are 2 big examples.
@@supC_ Nah, Minecraft normalizes the vectors properly, moving diagonally is effectively the same as moving forward. Also sqrt(2) is closer to 1.4, which is a massive boost when it actually exists so it's fairly easy to notice if a game has that issue.
@@animowany111 No, minecraft really doesn’t. Sprinting is just so much faster you don’t notice normally. But try bridging while looking diagonally and you’ll notice you go faster (specific to java because of needing to look down).
58:25
I think the other half of that experience (at least for me personally) was found in Venineth. Idk aside from being a puzzler, I found that that game constantly asked me to do very precise marble movements in order to progress forward.
I wasn't a Marble Blast kid growing up tho (most of my marble game experience comes from Super Monkey Ball), but I really enjoyed Venineth for how much it asked me to understand the physics around the marble.
The puppysona is the cutest thing ever and if I wasn't subbing for the marble commentary, it'd be for that alone
"It's difficult to imagine how a free fan mod could end up falling to feature creep."
*Flashbacks to Fallout: The Frontier intensifies*
I love your puppysona so much!! Her little tail wags and paw wags are sososo cute and I love how she has a grippy toy for stimming and she's just so sweet aaaaaa
You saw someone for the last time yesterday, ever. You're never going to see them again.
@@farquhaad3209 I know, I'm sorry about the loss of your mother. She was really good in bed.
@@RaeIsGaee huh
the marble physics are really fun to watch and feel. ive spent most of the video just watching the marble bounce and clack against things because its so nice. the cannons are awful they feel like im being hit over the head with a pool noodle
I really want to follow your recommendation of Echo, but I don't do well with horror, how intense do the horror elements get? Is there any other ways I could experience the story, or does it really only work first hand?
Most of the horror is just in the story being emotionally quite harsh, but there are a few isolated terrifying moments that definitely made me suffer as a fellow "bad with horror" individual.
I think one of my favorite pastimes is watching retrospectives on games I've never heard of before. There's just something so interesting about looking into someone else's childhood and seeing how they experience things.
The way you explain things is both interesting and on occasion humorous. I like it. (and your music is pretty cool, just took a look at your catalogue after finishing the video.)
I haven't ever played marble blast, and I probably never will.
But I've watched this video at least half a dozen times already, because *your style of video essay is so great and I need more like it*
I hope to one day be able to make something this funny and charming. Love your work!
That record scratch interruption was just beautiful haha
This is the 5th time I am rewatching this and it's still confusing why you decided to talk about ECHO suddenly, but I am all for it.
I think she just rly wants us to play it
@@nonbinarybastard Likely, I might play it later
The most legendary video about Marble Blast series I've ever seen so far. There's so much analysis about these games which I probably wouldn't think about. Great job!
As I write this comment, there's a Marble it Up! Ultra announcement which I'm really excited about. Different multiplayer modes (like the classic Gem Hunt, Zombies, "another Rocket League ripoff"), whole new chapters in singleplayer, some other cool stuff is coming to this update. What do you think about it?
I spent the entire time wondering if you were going to bring up Venineth. Do you know about that game ?
I've only seen ONE comment mentioning it down here. I guess it's just a really obscure game that everyone missed entirely ? (I only knew about it because I watch Jacob Geller's channel)
EDIT: completely forgot to say, great video !
Nice to see some more appreciation for Venineth. I thought that was an excellent experience. It shares Marble Blast's platforming as a base but uses it to build something more like an adventure instead of a disconnected set of levels. Also thought it's set of special abilities were far more interesting and thoughtfully taken advantage of than the high jump/speed/gyrocopter were in the original games.
Also if you are looking for another marble adventure InFlux is worth a playthrough. Like Venineth it is structured more like a world that you are exploring but it swaps Venineth's cold, artificial isolation for a warmer more natural vibe. It's a bit short and not particularly challenging but I still quite liked it.
So I’m watching this video because I watched your banger of a Celeste essay that recommended this video and am immediately surprised with the *homemade, freshly baked subtitles* and I am loving it
Edit: after the last section on marble it up, please dear God play crumble. Every level can be cut down to a fraction of the time if you master the momentum, grapple and angles.its the only game I've played that makes me want to go that fuckin fast and it's my favorite platformer I e ever played
Ok I'm not done with the video but every one who reads this, please try out the game crumble.
You're a squishy ball with a tongue grappling hook and most of the world is completely physics based and falls apart as you use it. It has a similar vibe as marble games but it's fuckin bonkers
WOW this video feels like a culmination of so many things I love, as someone who has played for years I feel like this is a perfect culmination of many peoples feelings towards the marble blast genre. Really loved this whole video from start to finish, I know this will become a video I rewatch many times, thank you!
this video was absolutely astounding, thank you for creating this experience :)
also ur rantsona is soooo cute the little tail wags!!!!! she brings joy to my heart
ahh i remember playing marble blasts gold and platinum back when i was a little pup too. i can recall putting time into the multiplayer but not the actual platinumquest levels, i think i was doing them in order and never got that far. those were some good times. personally the really long levels which i would spend upwards of 30 minutes on felt like a proper adventure, like i was exploring an open world except it was linear.
glad im not the only one who doesnt like those janitorial levels though, when they come up on the weekly marble it up challenges i die a little inside. i only have the game on switch which makes me envious of all those steam workshop levels.
incredible song by the way :)
you just unlocked so many old memories of coming home from school and booting up Marble Blast Ultra and just replaying levels with my friends and just messing around. miss that game so much
Thank for precising which game is canon or not. There are a lot of Marble Blast games and was like "They made all of these?!".
Modders doesn't realize that gems are made to prevent taking shortcut, like you made a basic a-to-b level with obstacles but add gems. Don't make their presence annoying but worth it. Bigger doesn't mean better.
Marble It Up is the ultimate experience of Marble Blast. Not only the level are designed for casual player, it is also for speedrunner as seen in record.
HOW DID I MISS THIS VIDEO COMING OUT???
No seriously, Marble Blast Gold was my childhood. It got me completely hooked on reflex and time based gameplay at a time when all I had played was turn based RPGs.
It's so simple but so cool and NOBODY talks about it or seems to have played it.
I hope it gets revisited more after this.
It’s clear that something has been lost as time goes on. Everyone has those friends they know that they will never meet again, or friends they never got to meet properly. There’s experiences that have been lost, and fading memories of priceless moments. The song at the end of this brought up the same sentimental feelings I get for my childhood, years of mystery and learning, a time when I could believe all the crazy tales, and I would lose weeks thinking about inconsequential things.
I have a pretty bad memory, but I know there’s countless people who I loved but will never meet again, and countless experiences that I can only try imitate, trying to get that same feeling again.
I often get stuck on the past, and it always makes me sad. I always want to know and do everything, and knowing that I no longer can fills me with sadness.
I hope that, by some miracle, you manage to meet your friend again. That song at the end made me tear up.
Thank you for sharing your stories.
Your singing voice is quite pretty and me and my girlfriend both enjoyed this video and went and played Marble It Up :3
There's something that Fred Brooks talks about in The Mythical Man-Month, called the Second System Problem. In his experience managing software engineers working on operating systems, he noticed that, during the first system they worked on, engineers would have a bunch of ideas that way outstripped their ability to implement them, so they'd save them all for their second system, while making their first system simple and straightforward. This resulted in a first system that was sleek, lean, and small, and a second system that was bloated and unwieldy, with way too many disparate ideas in it.
That's really what Platinum vs Platinum Quest feels like. They were working on Platinum, had a bunch of ideas for what to do in the engine that they couldn't pull off yet, then put all of them into PQ.
God I'm so glad Echo gets more recognition, this game broke me and got me into more visual novels and great fanfic stories
We really need more echo stories
I hope you make a Echo VN analysis video
Since this is a long video, I have a lot to say about it.
14:01 I wouldn't say those mods are 100% bad. I've tried out almost all of them, and there are some moments I enjoyed:
MB Powered Up is like a slightly improved, less broken version of MB Gold. It fixes a few glitches, like sticking to walls. It does add a ton of new game mechanics just like PlatinumQuest, however, most of them are optional and only in custom levels.
MB Emerald has some fun level design.
MB Future has a great soundtrack.
2 or 3 mods introduced a hub world, which is not a bad idea if it's done right.
If you wanna play MB Ultra, there's an unofficial PC port. (I can't post the link, search "marble blast ultra marblevortex".) Similar to Powered Up, it has some fan content added to it, but it's optional. The main part of the game is still identical to the Xbox version.
Sometimes "jank" things can be charming. For example, pixel art and 8-bit music is purposely low quality, but good.
I like some of the jank things in Gold, such as the imperfect geometry of the power-ups and sign posts. It has a Looney Tunes feeling.
Something you didn't talk about at all was the aesthetics. I like the cartoony art style and sounds of Gold, the glossy, polished style of Ultra, and the sort of neon, cyberpunk style of Marble it Up.
I like the visuals and music of PlatinumQuest more than Platinum. I can't really explain it... it feels more happy and sunshine-y I guess. Platinum is more dystopian (the expert levels have dark, depressing lighting).
Omg i just can't handle it your little furry rantsona is so fucking cute THE LITTLE FACES AAAA 😭
That bit about canonizing speedrunning mechanics was super interesting and could be it's own video. Game designers should be discussing this stuff, it's fascinating.
Thank for having a well animated(?) character! Too many times are there just too few expressions/poses that a character can do, so I'm very glad to see someone go the extra mile and do it well.
This video unlocked a memory. In elementary school, marbles were really popular. Like the game where you flick your marbles against your opponents marbles.
Once i got a set of marbles i gave them personalities and would play with them alone. I was also scared of playing the intended game with them because i didnt want to lose any of my marbles or for any of them to get hurt.
After seeing the comment on Marble It Up's lack of bounciness, yeah I think you would have liked Ultra a fair bit, the tuning isn't just stages, but the physics on the... wall jump was re-tuned to be somewhat more controllable. I ended up using it a lot in the online multiplayer especially!
What an amazing video. Perpetually all the way through and not switching back to the circular avatar was hilarious. Now I need to play Echo...
fianlly someone else who feels the same hatret towards platinum as me
thank you for playing ball game
I deeply appreciate the Echo plug in this video, because there is so much to that game that truly goes beyond what I think the average "recommendation from a friend" can provide to prime someone for it, and it really does deserve more attention! I swear to the lord on high, Echo contains genuinely the only jumpscare in any media which, for me personally, felt earned enough and effective enough to warrant being included, and I hate jumpscares. I was so blown away by the depths that the writing was able to achieve, and really haven't experienced something like that since. Sorry to make my whole comment about Echo lol! This entire video is fantastic and I definitely am going to play some of the Marble Blast as well.
So originally I was going to wait to leave my traditional New York Times Best Seller Essay in the comments section of my favorite videos on this site knowing I have an interview with a big meteorologist for something I'm working on, but I am unable to sleep without just leaving my essay here. I found this video out of random nostalgia of just, randomly searching up marble blast on the RUclips search to see how it was doing, and I found this hour long analysis on the game series itself.
I grew up with Marble blast as my mother got a physical copy that for some reason was called Marble Roll I think (Whatever it was, it wasn't called Marble Blast Gold on the box art) and it was a game that the two of us bonded with a ton over. Marble Blast eventually got my family into games such as Super Monkey Ball and some penguin marble blast type game that I don't remember the name of at all. Regardless that was my history with it, as my childhood on PC gaming was much more reminiscent of games like Luxor or "Marble popper" Games as they are called.
Watching this whole video just reminds me of how I just randomly want to make videos on topics that just intrigued me, or on games that I really loved in terms of media. Everything from the deep level analysis of the franchise as a whole starting from Marble Blast Gold, all the way to Marble It Up (Which fun fact: I didn't know until this video that Marble Blast Platinum was a fan mod, huh), I finally understood in a way put into words why I loved the original Marble Blast Gold so much. Games that even have the simple concept that shared any similarity with the base gameplay of Marble Blast Gold, specifically Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD (Which yes: was I guess the closest thing to a Marble Blast Game that came out before Marble it Up, even though Banana Blitz has it's OWN set of issues but, that's neither here or there). When it comes down to it, your analysis of the whole franchise is top notch and it blows me away to a point of where I think I will have to watch this over again if I need a refresher for how to properly analyze level design, as this video is a perfect example of level design analysis. The video was also really funny as well, caught me off guard quite a lot in regards to making me chuckle and burst out laughing while laying down on my bed.
The mini-tangents that don't seem to be relevant at first but end up being very relevant at the end is just a trope I could die for. It is handled so well that I can't even begin to talk about why I just love it (Probably because I do it way too often when in friend group calls, in which they often ask me what I'm doing with my life).
I will definitely give Echo a shot, not because I'm a furry, but because I'm a sucker for games with fantastic stories, hell, a good story is the entire reason why Tales of Berseria is my favorite game of all time (Give it a shot if you don't mind JRPGs).
Marble Blast Gold is a game that is in my heart, as a game that I was obsessed with as a small child alongside RPG Maker games such as Aveyond, and Marble Popper Games like Luxor, Zuma Deluxe, and Atlantis. I'm super glad that I found this video, and I can't wait for what you have to offer next! You did this game series justice and gave it a voice that I don't think anyone else I can think of could!
Watching this video was the first step in us being a little more confident in our own therian-ness, along with other brain stuff. So thank you, Patricia.
I absolutely adore the pawful of dog based wordplay you sprinkle throughout this incredible video. It's really validating seeing someone else refer to their younger years as being a pup.
Thank you
Thoroughly enjoyed this as someone who grew up with Marble Blast and a bit of an enthusiast for Marble It Up. I've been beta testing Marble It Up Ultra! and I think you're going to love it. It's definitely more of the fast, racing levels and not really Mastering the Marble, but what it does, it does really well most of the time.
I love that your little quirks of speech change when you transition into your feisty & furry “rant-sona” (may I suggest “grr-sona”?)
It’s adorable as heck.
this is the third night in a row I've come home, gotten high, and turned on this video. i just really love amateur game design jank
Ngl, that Echo plug messed with me so hard. Can't wait to play the game, hadn't heard of it and it sounds up my alley. But OH BOY when I was just listening to this in the background while working and was like "Echo? That's an interesting name for a marble game. In the style of a Furry Visual... novel? Huh? Where the marble tho? *checks phone to see its just a visual novel* Oh but it sound good, looks well drawn too. Whatever. Oh back to marbles? Yay!"
Anyways, awesome video!
never expected to find two people doing both video essays and music, but here we are found the channel through music featured in some of jan misali's videos, now I'm finding some of your video essays, you've deffenitely earned my subscription.
Aaah I loved your video essay! Also using "pawful" and referring to your past self as "puppy" is really cute!
the second part is... not so cute.
@@d_ngltron Oh there's a second part I haven't watched it yet
@@jan_h No, the second thing you said.
@@d_ngltron Oh well I think "puppy" is a cute word so calling young you a puppy instead of just saying "when I was a child" is a cute instance of furryspeak imo.
@@jan_h Yeah, it's kinda weird
something probably heavily inspired by these games that came out a few years back is Marble Marcher. it's made by a youtuber called codeparade as a demonstration of ray marching to render fractals. the physics are bouncy and interesting and you move through fractals as they morph in real time with basically infinitely complex geometry. it's pretty neat.
The video I didnt know I needed on a topic I never thought about before, Thanks CJ the X for pointing me here and thanks Patricia for the hour long trip down this rabbithole
holy fuck this brings me back, it used to blow my mind how cool the levels were as a kid. I'd spend hours in computer class trying to skip to skip sections and cheese the game, I never really managed to do it unfortunately. Maybe now's the chance to try again
Absolutely fantastic video; I didn't expect you to go full on puppysona mid way thru and omg am I glad you did! Those images are absolutely adorable aaa!
Absolutely loved every part of this; your humor; the editing; the MUSICAL finale with feelings all too relatable. Simply fantastic!
Keep up the amazing work I am so excited to see even more from you! :D
For the wavedash section, it's also true that because you're starting in midair, you are able to buffer the jump, whereas with a hyper, you can't, because pressing jump early would mean doing a regular hyper instead of an extended one. This means that a correctly positioned wavedash has a much larger window (up to five frames more, iirc) where you can jump and hit the wavedash. Positioning is more readable than timing, so, essentially, you got it right; it is the better designed mechanic because of that, but it isn't "strictly less consistent" than a hyper. It just involves more inputs.
Excellent video, really well done analysis :)
I'm so glad to see this huge essay from you so I can listen to you talk for a whole hour, but my god, we have come a long way from discussing the diagesis of Funny Games
Man you ever find a new corner of youtube that you had no idea existed but promises to be just full of great content? And there's that little scrabble to try and get a sense of the person making it from the scraps you find throughout the video, like "ok is puppy just a one-off joke or is this person a furry that's going to anypony every anatomical reference in the video?" I did like the painted pic tho
Anyway, I want to play marble blast now.
EDIT: WAIT. PATRICIA TAXXON? LIKE THE SONG PERSON TAXXON I FUCKING KNEW I RECOGNIZED YOUR VOICE FROM SOMEWHERE AND IT TOOK THAT IDIOSYNCRATIC SONG AT THE END FOR ME TO REALIZE IT
...
how are you also here making great video essays on fking marble blast I feel like I got cold-cocked by a cinematic universe at the end of an indie film. Not that I'm complaining. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you're out here being all multidisciplinary and shit anyway this comment got way away from me
"marble blast, but I ignore the only entry in the franchise that has a blast meter"
for real though, I adore Ultra over everything else, even MIU. Every time you praised MIU I felt myself go, "thats how I feel about ultra". I feel the physics of Ultra is where this series peaked. And the blast meter is the single greatest aspect of anything marble related, which honestly is my biggest grievance against single player marble it up. (though the multiplayer is pretty sad too..)
came for the banging music stayed for the amazing video essays AND the banging music
MBG and MBP are both a major part of my childhood and I still come back to play through Gold at least once every 2 years or so just for the memories, though I'm also godawful at it and my playstyle has always been completely different from yours or pretty much anyone else I've seen (especially within the core fanbase). my ADHD brain is not focused enough to handle pretty much any kind of dedicated speedrunning so I always ended up gravitating towards a lot of the much slower-paced levels of Gold like Skyscraper, Three Fold Maze, Money Tree, Twisting The Night Away and A-Maze-Ing minus the wall-bounce shortcut which I could never quite get right, even the "janitor" levels just often felt oddly satisfying to me and I'd see myself coming back to more often because... idk they just looked cool? and no one at my school really played those levels, it was almost as if I was playing a different game from everyone else
Platinum meanwhile... I have good memories of that one and a barely functional macbook from the mid-2000s which we keep around purely because it has an old version of the game that runs smoothly enough and is still fun to come back to periodically, I'm unsurprisingly far worse at that game than I was at Gold and in most of the levels that weren't basically just the "janitor" ones I'd constantly relied on the low gravity cheat in order to get anywhere, playing so much differently from the core fanbase meant I was left in the dust (and when you went into a tangent on speedrunning tactics in Celeste I was like "yep I already know exactly which parts of MBP this is referring to".) still didn't stop me from spending a lot of time with it, game just looked really cool and having once beaten that big skyscraper level with a finish time of like... an hour? was an absolutely triumphant moment in my life
it is possible I'm just not very good at video games but hey it is what it is
God, the little song at the end had me crying out of nowhere, holy shit. I don't think I've been affected by music in that way before. It was nostalgic, sweet, the kind of thing that immediately had me thinking back to old sitcoms I'd watch with my family. Great job??
I just wanna say that the aggressively furry language in this video has inspired me to be more open with my dogginess as well, so thank you for being unapologetically you and fuck everyone giving you shit
I thought about getting Marble It Up a while ago and wasn't sure how good it would be so many years after Marble Blast Gold was so fun.....but now I had better get it soon. Thanks so much Patty.