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[Matlock]

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Marble Blast Ultra Available on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade

Indie Built Arcade Title Blasts Into The New Year On Xbox 360

January 26, 2006 – Eugene, OR – GarageGames, the leading publishing label for independent games and professional game makers, is pleased to announce the launch of Marble Blast Ultra on Xbox 360 Live® Arcade.

"Multiplayer functionality and HD graphics represent an amazing evolution in the Marble Blast franchise, and unveiling Marble Blast Ultra alongside the launch of Xbox 360 is a historic moment for GarageGames and independent game developers," said Mark Frohnmayer, President of GarageGames. "We hope Xbox 360 users have as much fun playing Marble Blast Ultra as we have."

Marble Blast Ultra is the latest in the classic Marble Blast series. It is an online multiplayer arcade action masterpiece that is suitable for players of any age. The game takes place in a futuristic 'astrolabe' arena suspended high in the clouds, where players compete with each other by navigating their marbles through moving platforms and dangerous hazards, collecting rare gems and power up enhancements, all in an effort to complete each course in record time. Adding to the fun and excitement, players may compete with up to seven opponents in ultra blast multiplayer mode, where the race to collect gems combines with full on marble bashing to see who ultimately wins all the marbles.

"We are thrilled that Marble Blast Ultra is now available on Xbox Live Arcade on Xbox 360", said Ross Erickson, Games Portfolio Manager for Xbox Live Arcade. "This enhanced version of Marble Blast represents a quantum leap forward in graphical fidelity and gameplay fun over the original Marble Blast. GarageGames has done a fantastic job of taking advantage of the unique technologies in Xbox 360, creating a great single-player and multi-player experience for Xbox Live Arcade."

"Marble Blast Ultra has an extremely high fun-factor and a high level of visual polish that we were able to achieve in a relatively short timeframe using our Torque engine technology," commented Jay Moore, GarageGames and Torque Evangelist. "The Torque Shader Engine allowed us to quickly and easily take advantage of the extensive graphical capabilities of the Xbox 360, while our award-winning netcode delivers high quality and fast-paced Live! play, while maintaining rock solid performance."

The Torque Shader Engine for Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft enriches the game through the use of its graphical features - marbles reflect the world using dynamic cube maps and power-ups glow using the glow shader. Marble Blast Ultra is a visual feast of refractive glass, vividly colored tile, reflective metal, and glowing checkpoints set within a multi-layered, animated sky.

The demo is available for free directly on the revolutionary Xbox 360 Live® Arcade service, which allows for delivery of a wide variety of smaller scale, unique titles that quickly deliver a healthy dose of fun. The full version is available for only 800 points.

 

[krypt0nian]

http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=66918&highlight=official+arcade

 

[bobbyconover]

I'd buy it right now if this Full Auto demo would hurry the f up. It's been 40 minutes now and I'm still at 20%! >:O

 

[Matlock]

Fuckin' late PR mailings. :X

 

[Bog]

I'd buy it right now if it wasn't 800pts.

 

[Community Forum]

Indie Built?

 

[krypt0nian]

Indie Built?

Garage Games.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Indie Built?

Translation: Buy our game. We're the Good Guys.

The game takes place in a futuristic 'astrolabe' arena suspended high in the clouds, where players compete with each other by navigating their marbles through moving platforms and dangerous hazards, collecting rare gems and power up enhancements, all in an effort to complete each course in record time. Adding to the fun and excitement, players may compete with up to seven opponents in ultra blast multiplayer mode, where the race to collect gems combines with full on marble bashing to see who ultimately wins all the marbles.

I literally got goosebumps reading that. It's like the definition of old-school goodness.

 

[TekunoRobby]

I bought it!

 

[LakeEarth]

Translation: Buy our game. We're the Good Guys.

That's one of the selling points to me. Support the smaller guys. Why not?

I haven't boughten it yet. I usually take a few days before I decide to buy non-400 point games.

 

[Community Forum]

I read it as Indie Built, of Amped and Links fame...

But yah, its not.

 

[VALIS]

I'd buy it right now if this Full Auto demo would hurry the f up. It's been 40 minutes now and I'm still at 20%! >:O

Something is wrong there. It took me about 5 minutes to download the 600mb on a standard cable line. You should check your bandwidth with a speed test when you're done.

 

[Speevy]

I wonder what the 3D to 2D ratio for XBLA will be before this generation is over.

 

[scarybore]

I'd buy it right now if it wasn't 800pts.

Pretty much the way I feel, 800pts feels too high for some of the Arcade games standards but im probably in the minority on this. A lot of them feel like cheap, nasty flash games and in Hexics case it is . If SF2 is 800pts (I feel 400pts will be viewed as too small for a Capcom that likes to resell the streetfighter series so much) then that will be my first 800pts game.

Tried the demo of MBU and can't say it does anything for me, but whatever floats yer boat.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Pretty much the way I feel, 800pts feels too high for some of the Arcade games standards but im probably in the minority on this. A lot of them feel like cheap, nasty flash games and in Hexics case it is . If SF2 is 800pts (I feel 400pts will be viewed as too small for a Capcom that likes to resell the streetfighter series so much) then that will be my first 800pts game.

Tried the demo of MBU and can't say it does anything for me, but whatever floats yer boat.

I think it depends a bit on the features of the game. MBA (according to the press release) has sixty single-player levels and ten multi-player ones, with eight players at the same time over Live. Tack on achievements and that sounds like a game worth $10 to me - if you're at all interested in the genre.

 

[LakeEarth]

If you care about them, the achievements all seem pretty doable.

 

[.Abras.]

I didn't liked the offline demo.

But when I played with some friends, online, we all bought it right away.

This game online is so FUN!!!


And offline is a good game too, the 2 maps on the Demo aren't good.

 

[eeyore the donkey]

hey aren't you one of the guys that run this site? why do you have the red warning status

 

[kaching]

Something is wrong there. It took me about 5 minutes to download the 600mb on a standard cable line. You should check your bandwidth with a speed test when you're done.

I don't think anything is wrong with his connection. Downloading anything from the 360 Marketplace simply takes longer than does an equivalent download from just about anywhere else on the net, via my 3 yr old PC hooked up to the same network connection.

 

[gstaff]

i dont know, it took less than 10 min to download the full auto demo for me. as for the marble game, its not too impressive. i did get around to playing zuma for the first time, which i really liked

 

[joeposh]

I don't think anything is wrong with his connection. Downloading anything from the 360 Marketplace simply takes longer than does an equivalent download from just about anywhere else on the net, via my 3 yr old PC hooked up to the same network connection.

I think the Full Auto Demo just got slammed last night. I downloaded it shortly after it went online and it took nearly 4 hours to finish... and I'm on a t-1 connection. Usually download times are much faster, so I don't think the problem is on his end.

 

[kaching]

download times have been getting better on Marketplace, but there's no doubt they've been generally slower for me than any other similar downloads I do with my net connection.

 

[IJoel]

What the...

Geez, people! This is a pretty good deal. 800 points is just $10 for a game with 60 levels and online multiplayer, and certainly with good graphics for an arcade game. I would've paid $15 for it.

MBU rocks!

 

[Fowler]

Let me add my name to the chorus of calls of "We'd buy Marble Blast but we're still waiting for the Full Auto demo". And for the record, my downloads blaze on the Mac here -- I top out on downloads at just under 800k/sec -- but I've been on the Full Auto demo for over an hour and I'm only at 32%. This is typical of all Marketplace downloads.

 

[LakeEarth]

Thats weird cause it only took 20-25 minutes over here. Download speed seems to vary greatly from person to person, apparently.

800 points for this game is a good deal, keep in mind the only other 3D game for XBLA is 1200 points.