Man this game was an absolute gem to play as a kid. The techno music, the robot assistant narrator, and the space sky all contribute to an immaculate vibe of futuristic wonder. Machines that seem to serve no real purpose other than to serve as an obstacle course for no one in an endless void. All that remains now is your sentient marble with its goal of reaching the beam of light to ascend itself to the immortal realm.

As a kid, I got more joy out of seeing how far I could launch the marble out of bounds through being knocked around by obstacles, or by picking up tremendous speed with the rocket powerup, or by gaining an obscene amount of momentum in Black Diamond than by actually trying to complete the level with its sometimes wonky (but still fun) physics. When I was playing, all I wanted to do was to launch my marble into the endless void, much like how one would want to explore the depths of space from the comfort of their own bed.

This game is representative of the aimless and carefree playstyle that I could only get by plopping myself on the couch with a controller with nothing better to do. While I'm proud of myself for being able to play games in a more engaging manner and interact with them in a meaningful artistic way, I will always miss the days when my mind was only a single marble bouncing around in an abstract space.

first off - doesn't this just look incredible? the previous title, Marble Blast Gold (or Marble Blaster) had this pretty fun and amateurish-looking art style with super saturated colors and complete ignorance as to what colors go together well. i do like that look, but Ultra looks soooooo stylish! still blocky, but the square-ish shapes look sharp as hell against the marble's sole roundness.

the ever-present sky is so heavenly. If you look downward, you will see only clouds. upwards, a clear sky looks back. the colors change with each set of levels, but they're all wrapped in what looks like some rulers. some move and rotate around, and some don't. this, together with the single trance song that plays throughout the whole thing, makes this game look completely immaculate. some professional and genuine Y2K visuals here.

when playing through the 60 main levels, you can bounce around like crazy and ignore most of the more traditional level designs. but it doesn't even feel like cheating or anything, it's just an alternate playstyle. it works in layers: you can beat each level with different kinds of experimentation depending on what you're comfortable with. i personally enjoy doing crazy stuff more in the collection levels where, even with only a slight daredevil mentality, you can get minutes ahead of the par time. doing it in the platforming-focused marathons makes me super anxious. but maybe you'd have fun doing that in those!

these physics are so impressive. they're completely merciless. you can bork even the simplest jump by accident depending on the floor shape or even the marble's rotation angle at the time of impact. you can also use corners to bounce miles off where the game thinks you're supposed to go and turn it into a genuine strategy. try bunnyhopping. it's hard to stop the marble once it gets going, but the game begs you to test the limits of where you can push the physics.

many levels even play around with gravity. those collectathon levels i mentioned really love playing with those pickups that make you change gravity so you can walk on ceilings (or just floors made for inverted gravity) and get those gems. as soon as you start one of these, try looking around: the level looks incomprehensible. you just gotta make it make sense :>