INTRODUCING MARBLE IT UP!, THE NEXT REVOLUTION IN THE ROLL-PLAYING GAME GENRE
Get Ready To Roll In This Psychedelic Platformer, Coming In September To Nintendo Switch™
EUGENE, Ore. – Aug. 28, 2018 – Bad Habit Productions has announced the next-generation roller: Marble It Up!, launching on Nintendo Switch™ in September. A spiritual successor to the Marble Madness and Marble Blast series, Marble It Up! is a high-speed puzzle platformer that harnesses the subtle thrill of racing the clock and embraces the pure joy of rolling.
“The core goal of Marble It Up! is to bring gamers into a state of flow. We aimed to marry the precise core interaction that is emblematic of today’s hit action titles into a game that is all-ages, family-friendly, very colorful, and very vibrant,” said Executive Producer Mark Frohnmayer. “We believe what makes it so immersive is the coding team’s merciless focus on true physics – the way that the marble interacts with the world.”
In Marble It Up!, players jump, bounce, boost, roll, and master marble physics through 40 breathtaking levels of moving platforms, icy terrain, gravity-bending surfaces, and kinetic platforming puzzles. Players use power-ups to slow time, launch into the air, and glide to the finish line as quickly as possible while exploring gloriously colorful and brilliant worlds filled with secret collectibles, unlockable marbles and more!
Marble It Up!’s dynamic replay system lets you watch and race against the ghosts of your best efforts, as well as those of the world’s top players on the online leaderboards. Test your wits and reflexes in a challenging experience that rewards skill and determination, all running beautifully in both docked and handheld modes at 60 fps with HD rumble.
“An intense love for the genre, for the subtle joy of rolling, led us to develop Marble It Up!” said Technical Director Ben Garney. “It’s unique; it has a trancelike quality… you get into this flow and this focus that you don’t necessarily get in a lot of games. Of all the products I’ve worked on, this is the one of which I’m most proud. It has the most compelling gameplay, the best looking art, and everyone on the team building it are people I really respect.”
Marble It Up! is a collaboration between true independent studios. Launched by Bad Habit Productions and developed by The Engine Company, Alvios, Arcturus Interactive, and Shapes and Lines, the Marble It Up! team brings a deep and fresh breadth of game development experience to the Nintendo Switch. Notable past titles led by members of this team include Starsiege: Tribes, Tribes II, Marble Blast Gold, Marble Blast Ultra, the Torque Game Engine, Social City, QuiVr, and Disney City Girl, to name a few.
“We’ve made the game we were dying to play,” said Fletcher Armstrong, Public Relations lead. “A simple, refined, lasting experience that challenges you and, at the end of the day, puts a smile on your face. We grew up on games like this, and, with a focus on community, Marble It Up! is a game that will grow with its players. We believe Nintendo Switch is a fantastic entryway into that collaborative enthusiasm.”
For more information, visit http://marbleitup.com and http://twitter.com/marbleitup.
About Bad Habit Productions
Bad Habit Productions exists to bring highly distilled fun to the masses of perspicacious gamers the world over. Learn more at http://badhabit.com.
About The Engine Company
The Engine Company is a developer of games, rocking cloud code, streaming video technology, and embedded and AR/VR technology. We like to solve hard problems. Start your engines at http://theengine.co/.
About Arcturus Interactive
Arcturus Interactive builds awesome indie games and provides UI, UX, gameplay, and monetization design consultation services.
About Alvios, Inc.
Alvios, Inc. is an independent game studio that strives to explore the interesting path over the purely profitable one. We engage in radically open communication with our community.
Join us at http://alvios.com/.
About Shapes and Lines
Shapes and Lines provides visual development, content production, and outsourced solutions for all your art needs. http://shapesandlines.com/.
With Kiryu being the best hope for potential peace, he is given a task through the fifth chairman’s dying wish to try and bring peace between these factions by forming a brotherhood with the leader of the Omi while also bringing a new chairman to lead the now failing Tojo Clan. Of course, things are never easy as Kiryu learns that there is now someone else calling themselves a “Dragon” in Japan’s yakuza and it just so happens to be someone that not only has a history with the potentially new chairman that Kiryu is sent to retrieve, but also one that is more than willing to let the East and the West go to war.
It is interesting to note that one of the first abilities that players have the ability to unlock as Kiryu is to mark all sub-story locations on the map. This is a major bonus as players previously had to stumbleupon most of these events and now they can easily seek these out. As per usual, these sub-stories range from endearing to outlandishly weird. A number of new sub-events have been added into Yakuza Kiwami 2 that weren’t in the original but returning players will also notice that a handful of other events have been removed entirely. It is also worth noting that a few locations found in the original PlayStation 2 version are also missing but players shouldn’t be too concerned in this regard as a number of new side areas and additional content has been included to make up for these lost locations.
Also worth noting is that the game has now added the ability to take weapons dropped by enemies and, instead of simply using them for the fight and losing them when it ends, and store it away for later use. This makes for a more interesting mechanic that allows players to build up an arsenal for a harder battle rather than only relying on their surroundings. Speaking of harder fights, Yakuza Kiwami 2 has made a few modifications to the boss battles in the game making them quite a challenge but not annoyingly so like in Yakuza Kiwami. That being said, most boss fights still end with a “Feel the Heat” style finishing move that sees Kiryu charge up a special attack to give the fight some cinematic flair.
These points can be spent on random side skills such as improving the amount of money earned in fights or unlocking the ability to see sub-story locations as mentioned earlier as well as used to increase Kiryu’s running speed, various stats, and even new special moves to expand his ever growing list of attacks and crazy Heat moves.
With this release of Yakuza Kiwami 2 Sega has made sure to go over the game with a fine tooth comb to make sure that they have handled all of the goofy and obscure translations necessary to give this game its charm. The only voice track available is the original Japanese which is absolutely what fans should come to expect at this point as these characters have become iconic in this series.
