A short training run on a course of its own: steering, the boost and the corners. Steering is a stick now: touch anywhere and push sideways. Steering assist starts OFF, so every corner is yours to drive; FULL and LOW are in Settings. A new marble keeps your settings.

A new look on every screen — paper, ink and a hard shadow, the voice the story already spoke in. A new icon, with a dark version of its own. The race talks back now — a count at the start, your place at the line, sparks off the rail and knocks you can feel. The podium spends: the camera comes down among the field, the stands light up, and a final looks like a final. Vibration and shake each switch off in Settings.

Marblers plays on iPad now, in both orientations — the same bench, a wider hill. The courses lean into their corners, and a corner taken badly costs you speed. Your marble stands in the world it races in, on the bench and in the paint shop. The salvage offer now says what it pays, in bearings, before you take it. The podium is a ceremony in the race’s own world, and the story is drawn anew.

The paint shop has a second shelf — eight colours to go behind the fourteen finishes. Yes, you can clash. Your first race shows you the controls, once, then leaves you to it. Skip it and it never asks again. Seven road surfaces, and the road tells you which one is coming before you get to it. See the whole course before you race it — measured off the real road, not drawn from memory. Every course ends somewhere now: an amphitheatre, dressed for the day, the field's own kit on the floor.

Nothing new to play this time — just a little housekeeping behind the scenes. The shop, the seasons and the marbles are exactly where you left them.

We gave the marbles a polish and finally opened the shop. Thirteen finishes to choose from — or take the case and get the lot.