Review: Marble Woka Woka UWP - it's all too much!
Score:
76%
"It's all too much for me to take!" sang The Beatles, and it's exactly how I feel about this UWP game for all Windows 10 computers and phones. Taking the familiar (ball shooting) Zuma premise, bonuses, powerups, and 'special' balls come so thick and fast that you're left breathless in their wake. Is it worth learning and persevering? Possibly, though it'll cost you, since the IAPs here are swingeing.
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'Zuma' was the original of the genre, from back in 2004, but it has been much copied, most famously on Windows Phone by 10tons, in their Sparkle series. And now we have another implementation, as a UWP game (which has its own quirk) for Windows 10 (Mobile) and which is surprisingly good, though utterly overwhelming at the same time. While Sparkle had laid back mystic music and introduced power ups relatively slowly, relying on quality arcade gaming rather than gimmicks, Marble Woka Woka goes to the other extreme, with jaunty exotic music, visual and audio effects, power ups, bonuses, extras, stars, etc. showered at you in quick succession.
And, being a freemium title, there needs to be a reason to pay extra for more currency, more lives, more powerups, so the 'snakes' get faster and harder, meaning that you'll start dying (or running out of time) more often and will then need to pay (or watch ads) to keep going. It's standard freemium fare (though with crazy £50+ maximum purchases - naughty, naughty, developers!) but I far, far preferred Sparkle 2's 'buy once' model. Maybe it's just me. Or maybe I'm right and it's the freemium world that's wrong?
Note the top bar - it's a quirk of this being a UWP game for all Windows 10 form factors. After launch, just tap the 'full screen' control and then you can forget about it!
Think Hawai and the Pacific, think heat and bright colours, think jaunty music - it's a far cry from Sparkle's ancient world atmosphere, possibly on purpose!
Working my way through the various levels, laid out on the jetty - note the bonus prize chests to be opened, and note the lives, coins and stars along the top...
Woka Woka in action, tap to aim balls that are fired from the centre. More than three balls in a sequence make them disappear and thus gain time on the advancing ball snake, though most of the time you'll be relying on combinations and power ups.
Each goal and power up is highlighted nicely, but do pay attention, you only get told once!
...yet another special feature. Heck, I need to be writing all these down....
The in app purchases - ouch! I take exception to super-high packages designed to trap the unwary (or kids playing on their dad's account and knowing his PIN!)
In addition to paying to rewind the chain/snake after you've failed, you can also watch a video ad, which helps in the early stages, at least.
Did I mention you get Angry Birds' style stars too. Everything but the kitchen sink has been thrown in here!
But begone Mr Grumpy, the action is smooth and fast and Marble Woka Woka is at least current and fully supported.
It all feels a little like the developers have taken game and freemium ideas from many previous titles and shoehorned everything into one 'in your face' whole without any subtlety or curation. Surely, at some point in development, some game editor should have said "Hang on, there's enough added now, just stop!"
I guess I shouldn't complain at a commercial UWP game at this stage in Windows 10 Mobile's existence, but it's just that - too commercial and not enough 'labour of love'. This is a tabloid-esque "Love Island" compared to Sparkle's more gentile "Bake Off"!
Reviewed by Steve Litchfield at