Play Marbles: Must it really be this complicated?

I never played marbles as a kid. By the time I was seven or eight, television and video games were king, so except for the occasional game of checkers I was almost 100% digital in my self-entertainment.

That doesn't mean I can't appreciate the simple beauty of the game. A perfect circle, carefully placed rows of marbles, and a set of easy-to-follow rules. When I got an opportunity to explore "marbles" on the iPhone via the application Play Marbles, I was excited.

In general, the game satisfies. If you get your kicks from shooting marbles into a ring and knocking other marbles out of the circle, you can get your fix here. The game looks beautiful, too, complete with 3-D camera moves and an environment that you can view from almost every angle.

And that's where the problems start. In truth, the design is a little too nice for its own good. Sweeping camera moves draw you in, but also slow down gameplay and eat up processing power (I'm still working on the original 3G phone, so I can understand if this is less of a problem with the newfangled devices).

When you let it rip, the camera moves just a little too much, never giving you the simplest and most straightforward shot--overhead. Instead, you have to rely on a scoreboard to tell you how you are faring.  Marbles fly offscreen, and you are unsure of their fate. After I take my shot, I'd rather just see the entire ring from above so I can guage my progress. But that isn't fancy enough for Play Marbles.

The sound and music are well done, the menus are great, and there are plenty of options for true marble connoisseurs--including two-player modes of "pass and play" and even "network" (a great feature), as well as multiple versions of the single player mode (quick play, league, tournament, and career).

So I can definitely say that this is the most robust version of marbles available on the iTunes store.  And it's well done.  Sometimes, though, simple is better--especially for a simple game.  I think this app could excel if the developers just took a deep breath and figured out a few ways to enhance the fun-ness of gameplay.  

You can buy Play Marbles HERE.