Watch your step, for you’ve just entered the Graveyard. Inside, we’ll be digging up games that have long been without a pulse. You’ll see both good and bad souls unearthed every month as we search through the more… forgotten…parts of history.

Xbox Live Arcade's impact upon the industry resonates to this day as consoles have embraced digital downloading in ways that never could have been imagined even a console generation before -- where Microsoft tested the waters with an XBLA disc to allow users to download small games onto their consoles for a small price point. That evolved into the Xbox 360's XBLA setup where the same thing was possible, but with more kinds of games and the requirement of a free demo to help ensure that people didn't waste their money and at the same time, build up consumer confidence in the entire concept since you were able to try everything before buying it. Personally, the first XBLA game that ever hooked me was Marble Blast Ultra and it's been a regular part of my gaming rotation for about fifteen years now.

As someone who loved Marble Madness and especially Super Monkey Ball, the idea of having a ball-rolling game/obstacle course was appealing and the end result clicked into place perfectly. The pacing of the stages was nice and gradual with a slow, steady ramp up in difficulty alongside the thrill of local and online leaderboards to keep things fresh and new content in the form of DLC. There's a ton of gameplay variety packed in "get a marble to the goal" that keeps players wanting it to not only return in ported form, but keep getting new versions as time goes on since the concept of a marble roller is one that you can release as a service and just release new content on forever.

MBU features things that help it meld the best of platformers and exploratory platformers together, like jumping up small staircases or collecting gems before you can get to the exit to help the player get into the habit of exploring. The player is always given smaller examples of something before a tougher challenge -- like ice -- is thrown their way. In that instance, it will start as a small sliver of ice to get you used to the handling before adding in things like bumpers to add to the challenge. The ever-evolving ladder of skills needed to succeed grows and lets the player focus on learning them before then turning their attention to mastering the skills and thus posting better times.

Power-ups like wings and super jumping springs enable the player to do things that simply couldn't do be done either in Monkey Ball, Marble Madness or even prior Marble Blast games for PC. Marble Blast Ultra was the definitive experience for this style of game and something that remains a standard-bearer across the board. We have seen many marble-rolling games hit the market to varying degrees, and after playing a ton of them on the Steam Deck recently, it gave me a new level of appreciation for Marble Blast Ultra because of how perfectly it nailed the feel of the marble and the controls as a whole -- even factoring in that you can only use a 360 controller to play it.

While the Xbox 360 pad was great in its time, it was improved with various Xbox One controllers and due to the loss of publishing rights, we never saw Marble Blast Ultra make it over to Xbox One/Series console with backwards compatibility. One of the biggest improvements for the X1 pad was the analog sticks, which had a lot more grip to them than the 360 ones, although thanks to putting stick covers on my controller, this issue is minimized to some degree. It's not the same as using an overall better stick, but still helps when it comes to gripping the stick with your thumb and ensuring that movement is as accurate as possible.

Careful movement is the way to succeed here and going with bold movements on a glorified tightrope of a platform to work with is a recipe for disaster. Small adjustments enable the player to succeed in tight spots and then going back and challenging yourself for a better time makes you a better player across the board. Having a time to always work towards, whether it's set into the game itself or just beating a friend's time, makes you want to be better and adds a competitive element to a single-player experience. Wanting to beat your friends' time remains something that will motivate players to do better and want to learn the intricacies of a game.

Here, that comes in the form of nailing the timing of jumps and ensuring that you always keep a forward momentum to your actions when there's room to work. When there isn't a lot of room to move, the key is to avoid falling and keep your times as intact as possible without restarting. Learning how each surface affects your moment is a big part of succeeding at higher-end stages as well as the hazards like ice and bumpers. Focusing on learning how to use bumpers to boost yourself forward and properly-angle your marble against them to hasten up your performance is thrilling, but also terrifying since it's trial and error. You will fail, but you'll have a lot of fun doing so.

For a small downloadable game from fifteen years ago, Marble Blast Ultra has held up nicely today thanks to its usage of reflection effects on environments and on the ball itself. It doesn't look on-par with things like Marble It Up today, but still fares far better than other games of that time like Switchball. It's a good-looking game overall and since it wasn't able to aim for "cutting edge" in its day, it winds up being a good-looking title to this day. Ditto the soundtrack, which is melodic and relaxing and plays host to the pitch-perfect sound effects that nail what the marble-rolling should sound like across all surfaces. There isn't a ton to the A/V side of the game, but what's here is fantastic overall and has aged gracefully.

Marble Blast Ultra as a whole is a must-play and while it isn't playable on an Xbox One or Series device, is readily-playable on PC and offers up newcomers the chance to experience the game at higher resolutions than were possible on the Xbox 360 version. It remains a gold standard for marble-rolling games and stands atop the mountain for game in the genre of that time even if Marble It Up has in some ways surpassed it for modern-day Switch and PC players. It's still an outstanding game and without it, you don't get successors like Marble It Up or the many marble-rollers on Steam and even Dreams on PS4 that aim to try and replicate its greatness.