There are five distinct backgrounds with 10 levels each. The entire game involves carefully tilting the well-put together apparatus so that your ball can make it safely to the goal while collecting all the crystals along the way. If you miss a crystal and make it to the end, you’ll have to start over. In the harder levels, there are checkpoints where if you’ve gotten all the crystals along the way, you can start from the checkpoint.

At first the game may seem a little repetitive, and it is, but as each level goes by it starts to become addictive. There are 50 squares set up on the board, and it doesn’t seem to take that long to uncover them all, but it did take almost 3 hours to get through the first 45 levels before unlocking mirror mode. The first time through, you’ll need to complete all the stages that are open before the next 5 are unlocked.

The controls were tight, which helped a lot and made it fun to play. One of my Wii-remotes needed to be recalibrated, so that made it a little more difficult, especially when the level required you to tilt almost in a full circle. Playing late at night isn’t helpful, as soon as you start to lose patience, you’ll find yourself spending too much time on the same stage.

In the manual it said that the green crystals only show up in single-player mode, except that so far I haven’t come across any. I ended up playing most of the time with another player in split-screen mode. That way, as long as one of us gets to the goal, we could move on to the next level. There is no penalty for falling off except that you start at the beginning again, which makes the game relatively easy, especially if you choose an easy ball to roll with.

Part of Marble Mania’s charm is that there are different “marbles” to choose from. The animal themed ones make funny noises, especially the panda bear. Using the rugby ball is also interesting, given that it rolls like a rugby ball. There are other balls that have different abilities, some bounce better than others and some roll faster. You don’t really get anything out of using a harder ball, except maybe bragging rights and an increased stress level.

The first 10 levels are set in a jungle-like background, which can come across as dull, especially when you need to slug through the first few levels. It might be the candy, but the next area where you are rolling across pastries and different types of candies is much more appealing. There are a couple of sky scraper backgrounds which come with fun stages but it was over relatively quickly. The timer is always running, so there really isn’t much incentive to replay the level unless you care about high scores.

The music can range from a catchy a Latin beat to some calm elevator music. There’s nothing that stands out; it’s a simple soundtrack to a very simple game. You have the option to choose what kind of music you want in your level once you’ve unlocked the music. It’s not exactly the greatest of features, but it’s still there.

Kororinpa: Marble Mania is worth a rental, but it doesn’t last very long and I have a hard time thinking anyone would want to play through the levels again once they’ve been completed already. It’s a simple concept, one that’s been done before but it still presents a good challenge. The visuals aren’t jaw-dropping but it’s well presented so that it’s an attractive game. Again, that could be just the candy levels skewing my perception.