Our Wii game this month was Marble Saga Kororinpa, which Sarah thought would be an interesting puzzle game. The gameplay is like one of those old wooden games where you’re trying to get a marble to a specific point without letting it fall into the holes along the way.   Here, you’re trying to guide your ball through the course, collecting gems without falling off the edge.

We got it home and played for a while with the Wii Balance Board, which was a nice little addition.   Sarah would finish a course, then I’d try to do the same one in a better time than she did, and vice versa.   (This was the only pseudo-multiplayer action we found, even though the game claims that you can “Play with three other people on the same map as you race to the finish line”.)

The next day, I spent several hours going through the story levels and eventually beating the game on “easy”.   (You have to use the Wiimote for these levels.)   There really isn’t much story to speak of, something about an ant and a Golden Sunflower… it’s really just window-dressing on the concept of rolling the marble through the obstacle course.   There were several different worlds to explore, each with a few minor variations in graphics but nothing hugely different in terms of gameplay. There were easy levels and more challenging levels, a little something for every kind of player.

Sarah only played a couple of times, and over the five days that we had the rental, I didn’t even start it up on two of them.   Overall, this was a good rent, but it’s not a game that I would really consider renting a second time or purchasing.   I played what I needed to play, I mostly enjoyed myself while I was doing it, and I’m done.

My final score for Marble Saga Kororinpa : 6/10