Zumba World – The Crazy Marble Dimension Review

The marble shooter genre is one of the oldest staples in gaming, tracing its lineage back to arcade classics and original home consoles. While many modern clones are content to just “copy-paste” the formula, Zumba World – The Crazy Marble Dimension attempts to inject some much-needed personality into the mix in a genre of game long forgotten. Developed and published by EpiXR Games, this title takes the familiar “match-three” marble mechanics and wraps them in a quirky, dimension hopping adventure.

If you’ve played Zuma or Luxor, you’ll feel right at home here. You control a marble launcher at the centre of the screen, tasked with firing-coloured orbs into a moving chain of marbles. Match three of the same or more, and they vanish. If the chain reaches the “end point” or goal line, it’s game over.

However, the “Crazy” in the title comes from the Hub World. Unlike previous entries that used a simple menu, The Crazy Marble Dimension lets you control a marble-loaded avatar in a 3D plaza. This hub acts as a gateway to four distinct realms:

• Soccer Stadium Fields: A clever twist where the marble tracks are laid out like football formations on a pitch.
• Candy Kingdom: A colourful world where paths are obscured by gates and treats.
• Galactic Orbit: Easily the most visually striking, with marbles floating against a backdrop of space.
• Jurassic Ridge: Prehistoric-themed levels where the tracks wind around volcanic cliffs.

The art style is very family friendly and bright. Whilst it won’t push your console to its limits; it is clear and loading times are quick and snappy which is great for plug and play when you want your fix or ‘Just one more go’ to get grinding through the whopping 1200 levels on display. Zumba World isn’t a walk in the park. While early levels feel breezy, the difficulty spikes significantly even in the early stages I found myself having to restart after getting false confidence in acing a level quickly.

There are a couple methods here that will help your complete levels. Firstly, you can start chain reactions by clearing marbles that cause the remaining line to roll backwards for a “push-back” bonus which gives you a bit of breathing room especially when the marbles are coming in fast. Later levels introduce moving parts like planetary rings or soccer players that block your shots at key moments, so you must be sharp. Finally, there are plenty powerups scattered on the screen you can shoot marbles at to aid you. You get the standard array of bombs, slow-motion orbs, and “wildcard” rainbow marble. Using these at the right moment is the difference between a one-star and a three-star rating or like me failing A LOT.

At a budget-friendly price point Zumba World – The Crazy Marble Dimension is a good recommendation for puzzle fans. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or offer much other than tonnes of content. It’s the perfect “podcast game” something you can play while listening to music or chatting, yet it offers enough challenge to keep your brain engaged for either a quick fix or a longer session of just doing something repetitive which is where it kind of falls flat as other than changes of scenery that’s about it.