Marble Abduction! Patti Hattsu is an interesting marble platformer. For one thing, it has a plot. You’re a guy who gets abducted by aliens. They force you to roll around in a round vehicle and complete time trails and challenge runs. Their spaceship is called “Main Menu.” It’s not serious and doesn’t make much sense, but for some reason it works. Next Marble Abduction promises seventy “hand-crafted” levels, which is an odd thing to sell the game based on, because I assume that the levels would be hand-crafted. The game takes place in a weird world where suburbia has been remixed, houses and roads float in midair. As you continue, the world makeup will change slightly, with alien houses for example, but still the same general Idea.

In Marble Abduction, you move with the L stick and Jump with L. ZR gives you a boost with a five second cool down. ZL give you an automatic stop with a parachute, with a five second cool down. All the levels are built to take advantage of the boost, jump and automatic stop. I would even argue that automatic stop is critical to completing certain levels are the curved paths are very narrow. In each level, are extra pickups, like an extra star(you get up to three depending your time). There are others, but I ignored then as I was focused on just getting through. Most levels in Marble Abduction are simply reach the exit, but some will have you collecting gems before you reach the exit.

Marble Abduction passed by largely unnoticed. I can see why. The game gets tedious and punishing after awhile. It plays more like a platformer than a marble racer. I mean there are elevators you have to ride at times. Its biggest strength is ultimately its biggest weakness, the hand-crafted nature of the levels. The developer had very specific routes in mind through all the levels. For example, at certain points if you don’t automatic stop in time, you’ll careen off the course and have to start over(or from a checkpoint). In the end, I just shrug my shoulders and move on. Marble Abduction! Patti Hattu gets a Your Mileage May Vary verdict with a six back end score.

Overall: Marble Abduction! Patti Hattu advertises hand-crafted levels. However, that selling point is also it’s biggest flaw.

Verdict: YMMV

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P,S. This isn’t the only marble racer I’ve reviewed. Try Marble Parkour.