Hands-On Preview: Marble Saga: Kororinpa
Do you like to roll marbles? How about marbles shaped like ADORABLE ANIMALS? Then perhaps you’ve heard of Kororinpa: Marble Mania, which came out last year for Wii. I took a look at next spring’s sequel the other night at a Hudson event.
Seven areas, 150 levels, 20 marbles–including one that will house the Mii of your choice whose stats are completely customizable. I played as a blue Angler fish in a not-too-nooby, not-too-tricky level. The gimmick was this certain type of block, sort of like an accordion, which would expand and contract–usually right as I was trying to roll over it. Sometimes they made a horizontal bridge, but sometimes a block would expand upwards like an elevator. With a well timed tilt (it’s all motion-controlled) and jerk, you could hop over impatiently, but it was pretty hard to hop and not fly completely off the level. This seems like nothing compared to having to flip over in crazy space stages with weird gravity, though.
The major new feature for Kororinpa this time around is the inclusion of balance board support in a separate mode. It looked pretty functional, but tendinitis kept me from taking it for a tilt, myself. You’ll also be able to create and share custom stages via Wi-Fi, which will undoubtedly add tons of replayability. Probably shouldn’t underestimate four player split-screen, either (even though we’re all spoiled from not having to share the screen via Xbox LIVE.)
