Marble Blast

Marble Blast Gold is a 3D platformer game. It was pre-installed on some Apple Inc. computers like the iMac, iBook and Mac Mini. It is also available for Windows operating systems as well as various Linux distributions. Basic gameplay involves moving a rainbow-colored marble from a start pad to an end pad, without falling out of bounds. Levels may contain hazards to make this more difficult. The player controls the marble spin, and therefore movement, and can also make the marble jump. There is a variety of power-ups available to the player, which are collected by touching them with the marble. Some levels must be completed within a Qualification time, to increase difficulty. Each level also has a "Gold Time", an additional challenge to complete the level in a specified time-frame. Each gold time is always possible, but usually involves finding hidden powerups and/or taking shortcuts. Some levels require a number of gems to be picked up before the level can be finished. There are 100 levels, divided by difficulty: 24 Beginner, 24 Intermediate, and 52 Advanced. And there are 7 power-ups available to the player. Non-inventory power-ups are activated automatically on acquisition, and inventory power-ups are activated by the player. Only one inventory power-up can be held at a time, although multiple power-ups can be in effect at the same time, if acquired and activated before the previous power-up expires.