Marble Blast Gold

Marble Blast Gold is a 2003 Puzzle Game created by Garage Games. It shipped with several mid-2000s models of the iMac and iBook, but is also available for PC.

The game is a puzzle/adventure game in which the goal is to control a marble from a start pad to a finish pad in various levels. Some levels involve the gathering of a set number of gems and/or PowerUps to complete. Every level has a "gold time", a usually-challenging time which can be beaten just for the sake of beating it. Some also have a qualify time, where you have to complete the level within a certain time limit to proceed.

An upgrade, Marble Blast Ultra, was released in 2006.

Tropes used in Marble Blast Gold include:

• Camera Screw: The camera controls can get a little wonky on angled surfaces.
• Diagonal Speed Boost: The gold times for most levels require some amount of diagonal running to achieve.
• Fake Difficulty: Many, many, many of the custom levels.
• Floating Platforms: Pretty much the entirety of every level, though there are also some within some levels.
• Forced Tutorial: Technically, most of the beginner levels are tutorials.
• Game Breaking Bug:
  • It's possible to get stuck in a wall, forcing a restart. This usually happens only on custom levels, and seems to be a glitch based on scaling and rotating the game's built-in panels.
  • At least two of the built-in levels feature glitched out-of-bounds triggers, so if you restart the level just before going out of bounds, it'll declare you out of bounds as soon as the level resets.
• Gravity Screw: Made possible with Gravity Modifiers.
• Kaizo Trap: Many custom levels place the end pad in an out-of-bounds trigger. If you don't hit it fast enough, the level will declare you out-of-bounds just as you hit the finish pad.
• Leap of Faith: Level 4 advanced is called just that, but perhaps an even better example is level 48 advanced (Icarus), which requires a long chain of super-accurate jumps using the Super Bounce powerup.
• Level Editor: Not only can you make your own levels with existing panels from the game, but you can also upload your own panels to make more levels.
• Lift of Doom: Several.
• Mad Marble Maze: Of course.
• Mutually Exclusive Powerups: Sort of. You can't hold more than one powerup at once, but it is possible to use two powerups in rapid succession to get an added effect (for instance, a Super Speed followed by a Super Jump will give you a very high, long and fast jump). Many custom levels take advantage of using multiple powerups in a chain.
• One Hundred Percent Completion: 100 levels in all, though completing them all allows little else than the ability to play any level.
• Pinball Zone: Level 42 advanced, Pinball Wizard. Made very difficult as the whole level is at a 45-degree angle, making control very difficult.
• Super Speed: One of the powerups is just that. Guess what it does.
• Wall Jump: Possible but very hard to pull off. Some custom levels require one to complete.