Jelle's Marble League

So let me get this out of the way by saying that I'd only recommend this game if you're already a fan of Jelle's Marble Runs. Otherwise, your enjoyment will quickly disappear when you realise that there is no way to control your chosen marble(s) after the event starts and the only thing you can change prior to the start of the event is which marble is competing and rotate them around in the starting block. So every match has a completely random outcome that you, the player has absolutely no control over and have to watch as you hope for your chosen marble(s) to succeed. Which sounds dreadful and it kind of is. But then your brain begins to pick up patterns and they usually are very similar to those found in the real ML. You start noticing that your team does worse when you use your team's reserve marble. You'll notice that you have a marble on your team that is the ace of your team and always seems to do well. You start looking on the Jelle's Marble Run fandom wiki to see how your team did in certain events and which marble they chose to compete in which events. You start looking ahead at resting certain marbles on your team before big individual events to "keep them fresh and well-rested" so they have an advantage over their competitors. Does any of this make a difference? I honestly do not know. I'm noticing a difference both in my team's performance and my overall enjoyment of this game. Just like the real Marble League, I have completely bought into the idea that some marbles and teams are better at certain events and I have no desire to try and dive into the code to see if this is or isn't true. For those of you who want to see their in game decisions have an actual tangible impact on the outcome of the game, Big Head Games clearly plans to add in features like the locker room which should help make it easier to see the impact your decisions have on your team's performance. The game is clearly unfinished and still a little bit buggy. The good news is the dev team is still working on the game and as it gets more features and more polished, it should be more enjoyable.

In its current condition and for the asking price I can't recommend this game even to fans of Marble League. Unlocking anything is pure RNG grinding, game is ugly, content is lacking, sound is lackluster. I'd expect the crowd to react to the presence of O'Rangers, details like that.

I guess most countries in the world have an application or website, or an application that is both a website, showing both funny and viral videos, the country I live in doesn't have anything like that, of course, unless you count the news websites that occasionally show a viral video that you saw 10 days before on that application or website, that's why I use an application from a neighboring country, where I saw a video of Jelle's Marble Runs for the first time a few years ago, the origin of 'Jelle's Marble League and also a youtube channel dedicated to building and demonstrating giant sized marble tracks or marble races that allow these small colored balls to roll a reasonable distance, if you look at his youtube channel you will also see that he even holds complete marble championships and you will never be able to estimate which marble will cross the finish line first. On top of all these detailed finishes you get a professional sports commentator commentating on the races as if it were a real race with cars, these videos are both very fascinating and very entertaining to watch, you can find his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JellesMarbleRuns/featured But now about the game, while Jelle's Marble League is still in its very early stages, there is already a lot of fun to be had both singleplayer and multiplayer, you have different modes such as sprint and races but also parkours where you have to cross the finish line last, it also seemed that you are not in control of your marble in every mode or maybe you will have very difficult control control over your marble but during the racing levels or the talisman challenge you will have clear control control over your marble, in modes such as the 'Marble Parkour' you will always have to complete objectives to be able to play the next level of the mode, so not all modes are limited to 1 stage. watch early access gameplay here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZqKptG6rWU You will need to unlock marbles to unlock modes, gold, silver and bronze marbles, these are unlocked by your place at the end of the event, and the number is determined by the place, 1st, 2nd, ... also by completing objectives you will be able to win more marbles, You can then spend these gold, silver and bronze marbles to unlock other modes that each have a prize and this is where these gold, silver and bronze marbles come in handy. I love watching the marble run videos so I'm definitely looking forward to future updates to this game, what would certainly be nice is to eventually make longer racetracks that could last as long as the races in the videos, it was a bit disappointing that the levels in the game (currently) are always quite short, longer levels can boost the replayability, or a steam workshop would be even better! And not only for the maps, marble costumization could also give the game a creative boost. However, I admit I haven't unlocked all the modes yet so there is a possibility that longer racetracks are already available at the moment. Anyway, the game is currently mostly fun to play in groups with others online, the unexpected remains in most racing which can cause screaming fits of laughter among the players.

[copy/pasted from a previous reply] While this is an early access game, there are some troubling signs that the developer is out of step with the quality fans of Jelle's Marble Runs have come to expect. First, the ads. This game is $20, and the static advertisements are constantly flipping, making it not only a huge distraction but also cheapens the Jelle's brand. Are these paid ads? Why are they so low quality? It really screams "free-to-play mobile game", not something I paid $20 to play. In my opinion, the developer should remove them entirely, especially if they are not sponsors of Jelle's Marble Runs themselves. Second, there doesn't seem to be any thought put into streaming or competition with friends so far. This game will directly compete with Marbles on Stream. Fans will want to recreate the YouTube experience for themselves, their friends, and maybe followers. There is very little here to do that. Third, and I don't think anyone will disagree, the graphics are sub-par. This is likely a problem with the developer themselves not being technically proficient or simply more experienced with mobile games. The "Best" quality appears to run at 640x480 resolution or something similar. The menu and buttons look like a mobile game, with no thought into how a player would use a mouse. Arrow keys aren't even an option for menu navigation. If Jelle's Marble League is intended to attract any interested audience beyond those superfans, it should stop and reevaluate whether Big Head Games is capable of delivering a final product that meets the level of quality they demonstrate with their real-life marble runs, that has earned a huge following. The brand frankly has huge potential, and a great videogame could lead to brand growth far beyond anything they have achieved so far. A bad videogame inversely could actually hurt the brand and disappoint/anger fans, especially at a $20 price tag. No one likes a rug pull.

SpiffBalls

The only reason to buy this game is to give some financial appreciation to the guys who make the series - it is not a game to buy to actually play. There is no game here. It's no different to watching the series on YouTube except you have to be the one to hit "go" on every round of every event. It's totally random, you have no control over any of events or performances. There's a very basic simulator-style management system but that also appears random and not to have any actual effects on the events. Like other reviewers, I'm a fan of the series (Team Galactic all the way), but cannot at all recommend this for any reason besides giving the makers money.

I'm a huge fan of the Marble League and Jelle's Marble Runs. I do not regret the money I put into funding this project, but I cannot recommend it in its current state. The "commentary" by Greg Woods (the greatest Marble Commentator of our day) is done a disservice, as it consists solely of describing the events, which is nice and well done, but then they consist of one of three or four statement at the very beginning of a race or event (that has no bearing on what actually happened), and nothing further until they come to the end, where his ending description is one of three or four statements that has no bearing on what actually happened. There are a few events where there is a brief description in the middle. The "Season" mode is hopelessly shallow, though there is a promise that certain things (like speaking to your marbles in the locker room) and a message center are "coming soon", but it looks like they're more interested in porting the game to as many systems as possible, rather than producing a completed game. As many have mentioned, even unlocking the individual events is a long, pointless, RNG grind of events which you will grow tired of long before you accumulate the necessary "gems" to unlock the more expensive events. There are a lot of other minor complaints (like you can replace the marble running an event in between the heats and semis or the semis and finals, where any fan knows how controversial it was when the Raspberry Racers were permitted to do the same during the 5 meter sprints a few years ago). Overall, I just can't recommend the game. If the promised updates ever arrive, and I change my mind, I will update this review. For now, if you want to support Jelle's Marble Runs and the 2022 Marble League, spend your $20.00 by giving money directly.

The you tube channel is awesome, the game is NOT. The physics is a mess. The wave - most marbles stop dead before the first wave hit. Jousting - dont even know what goes on there, alot of marbles get stuck behind the big one and just keep sinning. The water is where the worst physics is. Most events your marble stop dead when it hits the side. Ive played 9 seasons. No gold medals, no silver medals, couple of bronze, havent finished higher than 11th, Then online, earning marbles to unlock other events, i dont want to grind a game where i cant even do anything. Ì doubt this game was Beta tested. Not worth the money.

Reviewed on 12/7/21. Despite still being in Pre-Beta early access, Jelle's Marble League [The Game] manages to capture the same excitement and realism that made JMR a hit on YouTube. It isn't fully polished as of writing this, but the game shows a massive upside and is beginning to show an identity. Despite not too much prior game making experience, the devs show a lot of passion for this project, responding to feedback and adding in details like each team's lore background or the various fan sections and marble arrangements seen in the stadium on the YouTube channel. Initially, the graphics and lack of interactive play in the Alpha version was concerning but ever since the early December update came out many of my worries were resolved. The game now looks more polished and runs smoother, and most of that upside I was talking about came with the introduction of the mini games and interactive modes. Online play, while technically in the game since the aforementioned recent update, still has a lot of work to be done before it can be reliably played, but I'm confident it will look much better in a month or two. The quick play mode is very accurate to what individual Marble League events look like. You start with a few events unlocked and simulating them gives you gold, silver, and bronze ball bearings. You collect them until you can afford to unlock other events in quickplay. This shows some huge implications to how the not yet released season mode could look like. Arcade Mode and Online Mode, new modes released in the December update, are the most fun parts of the game right now. The highlight of the new modes is the The Talisman Challenge, a Arcade minigame featuring a Sand Marble Rally-like course filled with Talismans, bombs, boosts, and more. It is interactive, and the controls feel right for how a marble would really behave on a sand course. Marble Parkour is similar, just less bombs and more achievement hunting. Minigames such as Roldo's Entourage show the dev's passion of JMR, integrating the well known Roldo inside joke into the game and making use of the stadium. Online mode right now has four options; two simulation games, like Quickplay but with other people instead of NPC's, as well as two interactive games, like the Talisman Challenge. Another aspect of the game I wanted to touch on is the improved team designer. Custom teams are awesome, really fun to create and name. You can use your custom team in most game modes but I've heard support for all game modes should be on its way. Overall, a consistent game based on the JMR universe bound to appeal to JMR fans and a fresh take on marble video games. Excited to see how it develops!