This last weekend at Portland Retro Game Expo we had a Marble Madness High Roller Score Tournament. I decided to run with Marble Madness for the score tournament on NES because I think that's one of the best ports of Marble Madness and also because the game is really unique. Marble Madness is a game where you roll a marble around an obstacle course and it only has 6 levels. I'm a huge proponent of small games and Marble Madness is a really great example of that and is also a fun game to watch a speedrun of. That said, it has been sometime since I played Marble Madness and I forgot about the magic wand.... which actually is supposed to help you, unless you are speedrunning the game and the Troll Wand Compilation above describes why it doesn't help.

"Name: Magic Wand
Appearance: A wand appears from nowhere.
Effect: It gives you ten extra seconds except on Race 5.
First level: It appears random."

http://www.ign.com/faqs/2004/marble-madness-walkthrough-542789

Wait so the wand is supposed to be a good thing in that it gives you 10 seconds EXCEPT on level 5 for some reason? And yeah the wand is death for speedrunning but since it's random it does make the game more interesting to watch... sometimes.

I picked up the loose cart of NES Marble Madness at a local retro game store before Portland Retro Gaming Expo for $7 and if you were looking to get a version of the game that's the one I recommend. I've also heard really good things about the Gameboy version so I think i'll get that when I find a copy.

Special thanks to LeviathanMist for sharing the troll wand video!