All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Sometimes you wonder what the point is of taking a perfectly good activity that you enjoy in the real world and taking it into the digital realm through a touchscreen device. But when something turns digital that you were never very good at and gives you a new experience and a new competence due to the changed nature of having to adapt that activity to a touchscreen, it can be just fantastic. So it is with me and marble games on the iPad.
Marble games got an early showing because Labyrinth 2 HD and other marble run games were perfect for showing off the accelerometer and gyroscope capacity of the Apple mobile devices. And, while that game did have me in its grasp for a short time, it has been the movement of marble games into the two-to-four player sphere that has got me hooked. It is a combination of the fact I was never a great "marble flicker" and now on the iPad a swipe of the finger is all it takes to deliver an accuracy my fine motor skills could never attain. When you combine that with the fact I can sit my kids down at the table and we can play marbles for a good hour or more and you've sold me. There are not enough apps that explore the potential of adults and kids playing and engaging together. My two favorite marble games do just that though.
I recommend them. Download them. No marketing team has promoted this review -- just a newfound passion for marbles on touchscreens. Introducing RAMPage Soccer and Marble Mixer.
RAMPage Soccer
RAMPage Soccer is a cross between marbles and foosball. Only, rather than having rotating handles and players at the side, you have marbles to shoot from each end with which to try to protect your goals. The actual process for shooting marbles is both easy, responsive and fun. You only get a limited amount of marbles on the table at any given time, so you have to not waste them and manage your excitement.
The game offers both one- and two-player game modes. The one-player mode is a penalty shootout where soccer balls are sent towards your goals and you have one marble at a time to defend your goal by shooting it towards the soccer ball and sending it away. A simple, and addictive, premise. The difficulty increases as the soccer balls speed up and the goals get larger. If you can rebound a ball into the opposing goal, you can save a life. It is great.
My boys and I have great fun with the two-player game where you face off at either end of the field (or iPad) with 15 marbles each and a soccer ball is thrown into the middle of the field. There are a range of tactics you can employ and the responsiveness and general design of play makes it fun and challenging.
The graphics aren't A+ and the music gets a little much at times, but the game play is great. Marbles + soccer = foosball for the iPad — who would have thought of it? Well, the folks at Ruma Studios, obviously.
Marble Mixer
Marble Mixer offers a more traditional style of marbles for up to four players. You shoot marbles in three different game boards from the corners of the iPad. While the usual dexterity isn't required for flat marbles on a flat screen, what is required is some finesse and softness of touch to land your marble on the highest scoring area of the table or it will fall down the hole in the middle. And, just to make things more difficult, the table spins.
The three games on offer are:
Table Tactics - players take turns, have 10 marbles each, and try to get the highest score by landing marbles in the 50, 25 or 10 point rings.
Space Mania - an all-out assault where all players get as many marbles as they can to land on the 50, 25 or 10 point scoring arcs within a designated time period. Madness ensues. I can say from experience that just trying to knock other players' marbles out of the way is a poor strategy.
Monster Picnic - where the aim is to fire as many marbles as you can into the mouth of the spinning "monster."
Indeed, marble games are great. Any games on tablet devices that allow you to sit around a table and launch, and engage and talk with your kids are very fine things.
