I played quite a bit with Marble Blast Ultra last night on Xbox Live Arcade. It's quite a bit of fun, but is just shy of Geometry Wars and Mutant Storm Reloaded.

The game's premise is very simple. You control a marble, using the left stick to move it and the right to change the camera angle. The goal for each level is to reach a glowing disc. Sometimes you just have to get to it, other times you have to accomplish specific goals first.

There are also a number of power-ups you can use to do super jumps, fly, speed and the like.

The single player mode was pretty straightforward and it doesn't appear that it will be that hard to churn through. The multiplayer mode was a lot of fun as well, with players trying to smack each other off the platforms into endless abysses or collect a set number of gems first.

The controls are fairly solid and I like the crisp sound of the marble rolling around on the floors, but I just didn't find it as captivating as some of the other games I've played on Arcade.

It's definitely worth the price, but not much more. I kept thinking how much fun it would be to play with a ball controller, like Marble Madness.

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