***CANNED GAME***

Marble Madness II is the unreleased sequel to the classic Marble Madness. It was developed in 1991 by Atari Games and underwent market testing in a variety of locations, but these were deemed a failure so the game was cancelled and never released.

A number of prototypes were known to exist and were in the hands of collectors, but the game wasn’t leaked online until 2022. Thankfully, it was indeed eventually dumped and leaked so that people could actually play it, and it is extremely interesting to see what Atari was working on.

The designer of the original Marble Madness, Mark Cerny, wasn’t involved in the development of Marble Madness II. Instead the game was designed by Bob Flanagan, who co-programmed the original.

Flanagan wanted to make the sequel more accessible to younger players and introduced a cartoony main character, called ‘Marble Man‘. Marble Man expands the gameplay of the original game with new abilities, such as invisibility, helicopter flight, extra traction and ‘Crusher’ (which makes the marble huge so that it can crush enemies when you roll over them). Flanagan also added pinball minigames between levels.

Intending to address the short length of the first game, Flanagan – with the help of Mike Hally – developed seventeen courses in total, which is almost three times more than the original’s six.

The first Marble Madness II prototypes employed the use of trackballs to control the marbles, like in the original, but – after some testing – Atari decided to change these to joystick controllers in an effort to try to widen the game’s appeal. The version that has been leaked is one of these later iterations that uses joystick controls.

Marble Madness II allows up to three players to participate simultaneously in the familiar ‘against-the-clock’ race format, rolling their marbles down colourful, isometric landscapes.

New features include: electrified lights that mark the route, but if you bump into any when they’re lit you’ll be stunned for a few seconds; bonus point flagpoles – if you collect them all in a level you’ll get a “Super Bonus”; hidden bonuses; a boost button for extra speed, for making jumps on ramps across gaps; glowing surfaces that will temporarily stun the marble (and prevent your control of it) if rolled over; slippery ice surfaces; breakable walls, and multiple exits. And much more.

The levels in Marble Madness II are much more complicated than those in the first game. You still have multiple routes to choose from, but the new levels are pretty confusing to navigate. They lack the simplicity of those in the first game; are dense and chaotic, and even contain dead ends that you have to backtrack from. Each level has a name and theme, but – to be honest – the level designs themselves are not particularly imaginative or memorable.

Marble Madness II, in my opinion, definitely lacks the elegance and simplicity of the first Marble Madness. The ‘Marble Man’ cartoon faces are cute but unnecessary, and the onus in this game is more on avoiding the many hazards than racing through the maze with skill.

When you do reach an exit goal, how quickly you manage to do that affects how much extra time you get on the next course, and the time you’re given doesn’t seem to be enough to keep going – unless you’re super quick. Instead, when you do inevitably run out of time, the game allows you to continue, with additional time, if you put more money into the machine. If you do continue you’re put back to the beginning of the current course and must try again with a re-set timer.

The pinball minigames are interesting because you can control the ball to some degree, and the aim is to hit targets to spell various words. After these you then get to choose what the next level is.

Probably the best thing about Marble Madness II is the three-player mode, which is fun and does make for a good party game. If you can get some friends together to play through it then you might enjoy it more.

It’s relatively easy to find Marble Madness II online and to try it out for yourself, and it’s well worth a look. Should the game have been cancelled, or do you think that it’s good enough to have been released as is? Well, you can now play the game and form that opinion for yourself, thanks to the magic of the internet.

More: Marble Madness II on Wikipedia
More: Marble Madness II on archive.org