Marble Souls blends Dark Souls with Marble Madness and I just know it’ll drive me up the wall
Remember Marble Madness? I do, because I’m practically crumbling to dust; it was an arcade game that saw you guiding a marble across a selection of perilous levels. It was frustrating, yes, but it was such a rush when you finally felt you’d mastered control of your spherical avatar. Now, a small group of developers have mashed its mechanics up with Dark Souls to create.. Marble Souls!
It sounds ridiculous but there’s something rather appealing about the notion of rolling around gloomy Dark Souls-esque levels. Coming to Steam this year, we’ve seen Marble Souls compared to Monkey Ball. However, the difference appears to be that, instead of tilting the screen, you’re directly controlling the character, sealed inside a glass globe.
Its developers, who previously worked on wibbly-wobbly sim Mosa Lina and the vertigo-inducing Fallstruktur, say that, “Instead of overcoming enemies, you’ll be forging your way through an interconnected open world, upgrading your physics driven marble to suit your own personal playstyle.”
You can watch the trailer above, which also offers a taste of the game’s Soulsesque soundtrack, from composer ThorHighHeels. The trailer doesn’t show your character plunging to their doom but you can bet there’ll be few a rage-inducing falls involved in your average Marble Souls playthrough.
I’ve got my fingers crossed that Marble Souls can match Marble Madness by delivering the right balance of fun and frustration. Surprisingly, it isn’t the only gloomy roll-em-up on the way. The Canon of Balls, which cites Shadow of the Colossus as its inspiration, lands on PC this August 13th.
Marble Souls is set for release sometime this year, published by Stuffed Wombat. In the meantime, you can wishlist Marble Souls on Steam.
