[h2] In terms of concept I rate this game a 5/5 [/h2]
I loved baletro and I love this take on that style of gameplay.
The way it integrates marbles into this format is impressive and clean.
[h2] In terms of bugs for a new game I give it 4/5 [/h2]
I hardly had any bugs, although the one major one I got killed two of my runs dead in their tracks. I had twice where I put a marble back in the dispenser and then I would get into a bugged state where there would be a marble stuck to my mouse and I could not click anywhere (couldn't discard it, couldn't p[lay it, couldn't mess around in menus to fix it), and just had to end the run and play again. I would propose here a save and quit to menu,/continue run option, both as a potential fix to this problem, and as I felt there were a few runs going longer that I had to step away and come back but had to leave my computer running, would be a nice QOL.
The only other thing that may or may not be a bug, was the enemy targeting felt very odd as sometimes it would just shoot and not even make it into the circle, while other times it would shoot full speed and ricochet off a bunch of my marbles knocking 4+ of them out of the ring (notably it wasn't harder levels that scaled the AI, some early levels would feel harder than later ones if the AI was just acting smarter).
[h2] In terms of overall execution I feel I have to give this a 3.5/5 [/h2]
One of the best parts of the game is the [b] variety of marbles [/b] (and it is a good thing a game about marbles did a good job with this part). I must say in terms of all the marbles feeling unique and inspired, they did really good. The [i] balance [/i] of the marbles did not always feel as good and it certainly seemed some marbles were or were not worth taking after playing with them, even if they had a cool concept. This goes for both the normal and power marbles, where power marbles were one of the coolest parts of the game for me.
That being said...
The pieces are mostly there, but they feel half baked.
An example of this is that [b] marbles have levels [/b] (super cool), but then there are only a [i] small handful of opportunities to use this mechanic [/i] and it doesn't feel like it scales enough.
Another example is I love the idea of [b] point * mult for scoring [/b], but I felt like the [i] balance of things that give mult was lacking. [/i] The main marble that felt useful in this sense was Jungle and I wish there were other options for giving mult. Notable marbles that felt good because they could score well on their own were hotshot and sharpshooter. Other big early game "point bombs" like sand or love were also nice. But I felt like the big problem was trying to get these to scale into the late game. Jungle and battery seemed like the only good ways to make those bombs scale. I wouldn't even be opposed to scaling being more things that let you shoot more marbles, but some of the runs when I got to moon/lava level, I just couldn't get the scaling to get that high without a pretty specific loadout.
In terms of [b] starter kits [/b], they all felt neat, but [i] I wish there were more options. [/i] I also felt like the balance was not really there as especially the two that scaled for playing each level and trying to min/max their bonuses, I just struggled to make them scale into the late game. My favorite kit was the Wave and it felt the most consistent and unique.
I also want to briefly touch upon the [b] enemies in the game. [/b] I feel there could be so much more done to make the levels feel distinct and like the game was getting harder besides just scaling how many points are needed. I think if the amount of points each enemy marble deducted could be versitile. Additionally, certain boss enemies felt much more inspired than others (I really loved the idea of the hammer and trickster bosses). The Catalyst felt too easy to combat (I liked that it was one of few that had a different countdown, but it basically just turned into the only enemy that you could get 4 shots between enemy doing something instead of three). I feel other enemies, especially early basic enemies could have more variety on their countdown timer as some starter kits felt hard to get through early game with them shooting every three shots).
Another thing i felt needs more flushing out was the [b] level skip incentives. [/b] I felt too many of them were just not worth it, especially for the starting decks that require you to scale the marbles by playing as many rounds as possible. One that was definitely worth it was if you got late game the one that reduces the next target score by half was insane and made late that boss just super easy.
I also struggled with limited replayability. Part of the reason I love rogue-lite genre is that there is bonus for playing more games even if in a small way. I felt it should start you with only one deck and you have to win to unlock more decksor something. I mostly want replayability that allows me to unlock things, anything from new marbles that are only added to shop after winning on a certain difficulty to a new menu color if you buy a certain number of items from a shop or complete some other obscure achievement.
[h2] Closing remarks [/h2]
I understand this is a new game (in it's first week of release still), so I leave this review to share my hopes as I would really love to come back to this game if it has a little more time in the oven and goes through some balance and update patches.
[b] Some Highlights: [/b]
-Fun design, many unique marbles
-Simple, effective tutorial
-Clean gameplay loop
-Limited bugs
-Like baletro but with marbles (I like this genre)
[b] Key things I would love to see are: [/b]
-balance of the marbles, specifically around things that have/give mult and being able to scale the starter kits better into the late game
-More opportunities/incentives to level up marbles
-More unique enemy encounters
-More replayability
