NYCC: Marble Saga: Kororinpa

February Sixth, I entered New York Comic Con but a small fan of labyrinth style games. February Eighth, I left Comic Con a huge fan of marble based games. Marble Saga: Kororinpa is the sequel to a small and slightly unknown gem known as Marble Manaia: Kororinpa; it was released amongst the masses of great good games in 2007 and quickly fell to obscurity (as well as price gouging on e-bay). Enough about that though, this is about Hudson’s new Kororinpa game! Hit the jump to find out almost everything about it.

Hudson’s new game Kororinpa caters to the Marble fan whose interest is taking a different marbles through various designed mazes. Each area generally has a bunch of various hazards and marble effecting areas that cause your marble to either shrink, grow larger, stick to a wall, or shoot it across a chasm. You would think that would be a challenge in itself, but then you throw in different types of marbles you can use with different stats and handling abilities and you get a very well open ended game.

The story of Marble Saga Koririnpa is based on an Ant who is named Anthony. Anthony is set out on a quest to find the fabled Golden Sunflower; which his colony needs to get in order to survive. The goal of the game is to help guide Anthony’s marble around the Ant World to gather essential items, other marbles, and various powers until you ultimate goal to reach the Golden Sunflower.

The controls are pretty simple for Marble Saga, as you generally either use the WiiMote to balance the stage and move your marble along. However, if you feel like that isn’t challenging enough, you can crack out the Wii Balance board and use that instead. Which can make the game a really fun party game, especially since you can customize your own marble with a Mii give it it’s own design and stats.

Customization plays a huge role in Marble Saga, as not only are you allowed to create your own marbles but you can create your own fully working stages. Which you can share with your friends over WiiConnect 24, and see which one of your friends could complete it the fastest. Along with racing people for stage completion times, you can also compete with the whole world over with the WiFi Leader boards.

The game also contains over one hundred and fifty all new levels which are split up in seven different areas around the world of Kororinpa. If that wasn’t enough to keep you playing the game after a while, Hudson is also planning to release extra levels for download over WiFi. [No word if they are planning to charge for the DLC]

Marble Saga Kororinpa also supports “Four Person Multiplayer” where you can go head to head over split screen. You can play with three other people on the same map as you race to the finish line to see who gets there first. With the perfect mixture of Puzzle, Party, and Creation, this seems to be one of the games you should definitely consider getting on the Wii. Also the game is a must if you ever played and liked those marble labyrinth games. Has anyone ever played the original Kororinpa? Anything to add? leave it in the comments.

An artist from New York. Will has been writing, designing, and loving video games since he was young. He has traveled across the United States, and parts of Canada in order to learn more about the world of gaming. After visiting E3 for the first time in 2009, he has vowed to return there and show off a game of his own. In his spare time he tinkers with electronics, programming, and of course collecting video games.