Marble Viola’s Quest review – marble at this puzzle shooter

Marble Viola’s Quest is an action puzzler in which you have to help the eponymous protagonist Viola save the world’s magic. In real terms, that involves matching coloured marbles to free dragonflies. Presumably, they contain the magic you’re trying to recover.

You have to tap to fire a marble out of an insect’s mouth at a collection of coloured marbles that are slowly making their way across a snake-like circuit. Match three or more of the same coloured marbles and they’ll burst. If the marbles on either side of them are the same colour, and there are more than two of them, you can create a combo that gives you a serious boost in score.

If you can’t find anything to match, you can tap on your insect friend to swap to a different coloured marble. You can only hold two of these at once though.

Marble Viola’s Quest is a blast

Mingled in between the marbles are dragonflies, and you release them by letting them escape a cat’s mouth at the end of the circuit. Be careful not to let any marble’s escape though – if even a single one falls out of the cat’s mouth, it’s game over.

That’s not the only challenge though. You also have to aim for a decent score in each level if you hope to get three stars. That starts off easy, but the longer you play the more challenges the game throws at you.

Marbles will be frozen in ice, for example, and you’ll have to break it before you can match that particular marble. The new ideas come thick and fast, so you’ll have to be on your toes if you hope to keep that score high. Fortunately, you have a few magic powers to help you. These either come in the form of boosters, or as rewards for chaining combos of marbles together.

Desmond’s despair

There are as many different modes as there are power-ups and debuffs as well. You’ll face boss battles (against the pesky Desmond who stole your magic in the first place!), time battles, and score chasers.

That’s good, because genres like this, while hideously addictive, do tend to get quite stale after a few levels. Due to the sheer amount of new content Marble Viola’s Quest throws at you with alarming regularity, you don’t find yourself getting bored often. Just as you’re about to grow a bit tired of the formula, something new comes along to shake it up.

It also helps that the game errs more on the relaxing side than the frantic one. If you’ve had a tough day and just want to unwind, Marble Viola’s Quest isn’t going to get in the way of that like many other action puzzlers that will have you tearing your hair out.

It’s also a game that rewards patient players. After only a short time with the game you’ll unlock Viola’s Garden for example, which gives you a chance to utilise a range of upgrades and powers.

This gives you even more of a chance to play Viola’s Quest exactly as you want to – meaning it’s not just another tired, set in its ways, marble blasting bore.

Worth a shot

The visuals and sound help reinforce this too. It’s reminiscent of an animated movie, and will appear to adults and children alike. That’s a good thing, as this is an experience no doubt aimed at both.

Marble Viola’s Quest is a very competent example of the match three genre. The new ideas come thick and fast, preventing the experience from ever feeling too stale, and the relaxing nature makes this addictive title all the more difficult to put down.

You can download Marble Viola’s Quest on Google Play (and the App Store!) now.