Rollerdrome (2022)

Rollerdrome is my version of Mirror’s Edge. It has become a game that I hold really close to my chest since its release a few years ago. Ever since it has only grown in appreciation for me due to its post development history. For those that do not know, after 2k took in over $5 billion dollars in profits, they cut a bunch of jobs including their Independent label along with the whole studio of Roll7. Their story reminds me of Tango Gameworks with Hi-fi Rush but Roll7 hasn't come back. Which is such a shame because frankly they nailed their first 3d space game so well it was all I could play for the last two days straight. Before I get into it I want to make sure people know that they should play this game but should not support 2k games who own it. None of the team exists anymore and won't receive a penny of your money. That said, let's get into Rollerdrome.

Roll7 is best known for the OlliOlli series which was mostly just a 2d skateboarding platformer. I played the very first one, thought the movement was fun and moved on. I don't know how they were able to jump from 2 to 3d with no issues. There is a long development history of making that jump that hasn't always paid off. Hell, people still might say Sonic hasn't entirely figured out 3d. That isn't me reporting it as fact, it is just what I have heard but I also know people like the 3d Sonic games. Essentially it isn't uncommon for there to be worse or missteps but in Rollerdrome it's as smooth as the pavement you glide on. The only issue I had was the camera being a little wonky when you get underneath bosses. With that out of the way let's talk about why I love this game.

Rollerdrome has you step into the skates of Kara Hassan who is competing in this year's Rollerdrome tournament. It's a competition between skaters and house players (the people you are fighting against in the arena). It isn't for the faint of heart or for the poor. In fact Kara has taken out a $342,000 loan to cover for her $348,000 entry fee. The stakes are high but to win it all means to become immortal in the Rollerdrome.

While you can just bounce from one battle to the next and mindlessly take in the spectacle of the battles and leave. It pays to walk around the areas when you are able to, listening to conversations, reading emails and looking at what else is around the place to get a history of the world. After all, what kind of world would have a person go into so much debt to compete in a tournament?

The outer world of Rollerdrome is only ever hunted at, but it makes quite a loud statement if you decide to delve deep enough. Sure it is a corporate oligarchy using sport as weapons testing in an end times capitalist hellscape where the best way for people to make money is to sign up and become a house player because if you are killed, your family will get a huge life insurance payout. It's a world where the corporation in question, Matterhorn, has signed a contract with police to make them a paramilitary organization. It's the kind of world that fixes matches and kills those who become “too political.”

The main crux is between Kara, Casper and Morgan who are all players in Rollerdrome. You see, Morgan was last year's champion and joined The New Action Army, a movement that seems to sabotage and oppose Matterhorn. It seems like it is an open secret at this point that she speaks out against Matterhorn and participates with this opposition force. She even sends you a message along the lines of how Matterhorn will try to take you both out with lethal force. It means that Kara is gambling with her life every time she steps out into the arena. There is a clear relationship of mentor mentee between Kara and Morgan and it only makes the story feel more real as it goes on.

The clear comparison to the real world here would be Colin Kaepernick who was blackballed from the NFL for protesting during the national anthem. All he had tried to was to bring attention to police violence towards African Americans in the United States. It cost him his livelihood and while he wasn't my favorite player, it was a shame to watch him be kicked out of the NFL for not playing along. The NFL and all other sports leagues have large partnerships with police and military so it is clear to see why that happened. It felt like a bigger slap to the face when the NFL had everyone kneel during national anthems several years later. What a spineless league.

Speaking of spineless, where Casper fits into this is he is essentially being set up to become the new champion. He is working with Matterhorn and making public statements about how he doesn't let politics get in the way of sports. For someone you don't see, the game does a great job of setting him up and giving you insight into the man. There are a bunch of great little insights into his way of thinking, my favorite of which is when you can peak into his locker and find an earlier picture from a different level framed and Kara remarks jokingly that of course he got it framed. This man will sell his soul and sell out at a moment's notice. There is even a funny little gag at the end that confirms this. I won't spoil it too much but this game really does so much with so little.

While the story of the game has a lot of insight with very little focus on it, you could be the person who just leaves the locker room in order to get to the action faster. I wouldn't do that but I definitely cannot blame you because the gameplay in Rollerdrome is just so good. This feels like a moot comparison but it feels like Tony Hawk meets Mad Max. You skate around the arena chaining together kills and tricks for a combo to try and get the highest score possible. In true Tony Hawk fashion, there are a bunch of challenges for you to try to complete.

It cannot be understated how good it feels to play this game. The rhythm is like a tug of war where you use your bullets to get kills and do tricks to refuel your bullets. You also have a reflex and critical reflex that slow down time. You are balancing all of these things against multiple enemy types and trying not to die. I love that there are no bailouts in this game like Tony Hawk because if you ever stopped, you would be dead. Either a sniper would pick you off or those homing missiles would finally catch up. Each enemy type the game introduces to you is distinct and fun to deal with.

Somehow the game does not just become visual noise and clutter either. In this game there are mines, snipers, beam cannons, mechs, homing missiles and giant area of effect moves that are constantly vying for your attention. The game never feels overwhelming and has a clear language it communicates to you through gameplay and through the visual design. Of course to me what makes this so satisfying is that all of the threats can be equally lethal to you. Approaching a ramp and seeing multiple targets to take out and deciding your order of operations is a genuine adrenaline moment for me. By the end of it I was chaining grinds, with grabs, with wall rides and taking out multiple enemies while recharging my own. It feels otherworldly when you get the hang of the game and are given all of the fun toys to play with.

The weapons and expression each player can use feels so different as well. I loved replaying levels and trying new things and learning new tricks to pull off. It is exhilarating and I could probably watch YouTube edits of people who can combo full levels which is a thing the game can and will ask you to do in the challenge levels. It's a game that understands itself and asks you to push yourself to the limit in those challenge levels at least but even in the main game it is nothing less than satisfying. Don't let the kind of lame tutorial fool you here. Rollerdrome is kinetic and it is adrenaline inducing.

I'm gonna end by bringing back up that the development team that made this game no longer exists and that you should not support 2k with your money. I know it's a weird line to be on but I was lucky to have this game before the studio folder and I was even more lucky to have played it with my friend when it came out. Rollerdrome like Mirrors Edge isn't necessarily the loudest game politically but what you, the player, can gleam from it makes it something truly special. It's a game that posits, should athletes take stands especially during times of struggle? Real world examples of this have happened. Bill Russell of the Celtic's led a boycott of the NBA in the 60’s during civil rights activism. The Milwaukee Bucks in 2020 boycotted the playoffs due to the shooting of Jacob Blake just 3 months after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police. Kara and Morgan are loud even though you never hear them speak. People need to be loud in times of struggle like the current state of the world and athletes should not just shut up and dribble.

Rollerdrome is a unique idea that is, for the most part, executed brilliantly. It beautifully meshes two very different genres and defies all expectations coming into it. The style practically drips out of the screen as Roll7 delivers one of the most unique and exciting games in recent memory. Aside from a few ultra-specific quirks, traversal feels intuitive and looks ripped out of a stylish action movie.

Challenges and high scores give the game ample replayability, and the campaign is addicting enough to complete in just one or two sittings. After the brilliance of OlliOlli World, Roll7 has outdone itself with Rollerdrome, delivering one of the most mechanically accomplished, beautifully executed, and unique arcade-style experiences around.

This game came to my life exactly when I needed it (Thank you PS Plus!).

I was getting a little overwhelmed by big games with big maps and didn't want to follow my impulse to persue another platinum in one of those, so I started Rollerdrome on a whim. I forgot the subtle charm of playing a level over and over again, mastering to reach higher scores, beating your old record and then your friends'. Even better playing just because is fun and overcoming a difficult section feels really, really great.

Loved the cel-shaded art, music and thrash-80s-movie tone. Hated that the provoking plot goes nowhere. Will play it again just for fun and to get better. I needed that.

Also, I suddenly wanna go back to Neon White.

I seem to be giving a lot of games 5 stars recently but hey, credit where credit is due, and Rollerdrome definitely deserves all the stars it can get in my opinion.

Imagine if the aesthetics of early Wipeout games had a love child with an early Tony Hawk skating game and then the 80's decided to be the foster parent... you might end up with something like Rollerdrome. Right off the bat the menus, music, and incredible visual style just hit the spot. Thumping electro beats shoot straight towards your ear holes as the wireframe styled menus and maps give you a very rough insight into what you're about to be thrown into - and make no mistake you are thrown right into the action from the get go which is refreshing.

There's nothing too complicated about Rollerdrome. You select a level and then next thing you know you're rolling down the entrance into the arena ready to shoot bad guys. This is an action / sports, almost rhythm game where well timed shots and dodges whilst skating around a multitude of arena levels is the name of the game.

To add some much welcomed flavour you've got grab tricks (tricks in mid air) that are done via holding down a button and pushing the movement stick in a certain direction, and then theres grinding tricks which are the same thing but done on rails! The beauty of these tricks is not only do they look good whilst adding some level of skill to pull them all off, but they're also the only way to regain ammo - serving as a really neat gameplay mechanic!

So picture the scene, you're picking up speed, dodging bullets, missiles, melee weapons, you jump over a ramp, do a flip, land on a rail and grind half way across the level whilst holding down the aim button to slow time down. You watch rockets explode around you in glorious matrix-style slow-mo and then you pull out one of 4 weapons, a grenade launcher, and fire it at a group of enemies, launching them into the air whilst heavy 80's electro snyth fills the room. It's magical.

The levels can get extremely chaotic with around roughly 7 or more different enemy types, sometimes all spawning at once around the map. Progression is also simple, each level has a variety of challenges that you have to complete in order to earn tokens and progress to the next map. That's it. There is no need to 100% each level, at least to my knowledge, but doing so will be satisfying for completionists!

Rollerdrome is the most fun 'pick up and play' kind of game I've had the pleasure of experiencing in a long time. If you're looking for something that cuts through the noise and just delivers a simple, but solid experience with a unique art style reminiscent of the PS1 / PS2 games but with a clean finish, look no further than Rollerdrome!

Specifically it's the competition levels in THPS, but without the strict time limit. And it turns out that time limit was actually a boon, because as the levels balloon in scope repeating them becomes more and more onerous. I just can't handle trying to keep up that level of performance for 4+ minutes, let alone over and over again at increasing levels of frustration. So while I fully cleared the first 4 or 5 stages, by the end I was just trying to get a Victory, and I quit after half a dozen or so failed attempts on the first level of the "Out For Blood" secondary campaign.

What I would be able to handle, and would kind of love to see them try even though I don't know how it would actually fit the world, is to make a sequel with more expansive levels that encourage pockets of intense of engagement but don't require you to sustain it for long periods of time. Which is essentially what THUG and THUG2 do so well, teaching you how to master each individual part of a level, and then giving you a mission that ties it all together. It's that chunking strategy that Rollerdrome doesn't really do—their challenges are great for teaching you combat strategy, but nearly useless at teaching you about the level, at most giving you one or two level-specific challenges (e.g. "Air out onto the tower", "Wallride the ski lift") that are too disconnected from anything else to really help. And there's no guide as to what enemies will spawn where when, and it's not like you can really keep track of that in the middle of a firefight, so even though those things are presumably predetermined they can seem arbitrary, which contributes to a feeling of being overwhelmed if things are going badly. There's just a lot to process when you get tossed into a room with a bunch of people shooting at you, you know?

But that's just me, and I don't want to imply that they failed to do what they set out to do, or that what they set out to do isn't worth doing (somethingsomething the Dark Souls of skating games somethingsomething). And they did it with style and panache—sometimes I found myself just getting lost in the beautiful graphics and fluid controls and not really caring what I supposed to be doing.

What if you could play the old Tony Hawk games, but now you have a gun and a bunch of creeps and robots shooting at you?

That's exactly what Rollerdrome is and, despite how fun it is, I'm not sure if the mix actually works.

The game's artstyle is cute, it controls nicely, the gameplay loop is fun and there's even a funny light backstory going on in between levels. This alone, should be enough to get you to play. Challenges are fun, enemy variety is okay, levels are cool as hell and there's great replayability value here.

But after finishing the game and most of its brief extra content, I don't feel like the game is as good as it sounds. Maybe it's just not my type of game, but no matter how much fun I was having with it, I just couldn't help but feel like it was sort of... a mess?

It's VERY short, not so compelling and it feels a little shallow, actually. What bothered me the most is that there are just too many things going on. How are you supposed to do challenges, kill off 50 enemies while doing tricks to reload your ammo and trying to finish the level on time to get maximum high score? And the extra mode unlocked later is basically more of the same, just even more annoying.

I know it feels like I'm shooting down the things that I said are fun about the game. But there's just something that really didn't feel right here and I can't quite put a finger on what. I blame it on the weird shooter/skate mix.

Rollerdrome is a challenging arena shooter with movement, tricks, and objective design reminiscent of classic extreme sports titles like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. You’ll zip around its 12 stages on roller blades, killing enemies, dodging a range of deadly attacks, and doing flip/grab/grind/wallride tricks to earn points and refill your ammo. Now that's an “active reload”.

It’s a fast and furious setup to a point where it could be overwhelming and messy. Instead, it’s an absolute blast that offers easily some of the best “game feel” of the year.

The four weapons in this game feel very satisfying to use, and different enemy weaknesses smartly have you swapping around between the entire toolkit mid-combo. (If you’re thinking of Doom Eternal, you’re on the right track.) The shotgun in particular feels crazy good combined with the game’s slow-mo bullet time system, letting you deal bonus damage with a perfectly-timed shot.

You’re also rewarded with bonus damage for executing perfect last-second dodges, which you'll do a lot as the game becomes more and more chaotic. Enemies dropping your only source of healing encourages aggressive play, which ends up being the only way to survive. This all makes the game very exciting, and is reinforced with visual and sound effects that pop to make good play feel super satisfying.

What makes this all work is that a couple key mechanics are automated. You'll always perfectly land and balance every trick or jump, and you only need to vaguely aim the handgun and shotgun. These decisions don't make the game easy at all, they just refocus the challenge elsewhere. A variety of enemy types each have various strengths and weaknesses that you constantly need to be aware of, or you can get wiped out super quickly. I found the game pretty hard later on, but it always felt well-balanced, fair, and not overly complex.

This may be a challenging game, but it wants everyone to have fun and make it to the end. In addition to a suite of accessibility options, there is a big list of assists that let you tweak the game’s challenge to your liking. This includes infinite health or ammo, more generous timing on some moves, easier progression between levels, reduced damage, and more. Your only penalty is that your assisted runs won't appear on the leaderboard. I found no level took more than 4 or 5 tries, so I always powered through, but it was nice to know that those options were there to fall back on.

Progressing through the game requires clearing sets of levels with a certain number of completed challenges. Some challenges will be familiar to Tony Hawk fans, including collectibles (S-K-A-T-E style), time and score challenges, doing a certain trick in a certain spot, etc. Some interesting combat challenges gave me useful ideas to add to my toolkit for future levels. There is definitely opportunity for chasing high score and speed records for those who want to do it, as well as general completionism for all the challenges. Lastly, you can unlock a sort of New Game+ mode that's a lot harder if you want to really put your skills to the test.

If this game has notable problems, it's a lack of variety in visuals and boss fights. Both of these areas I think are totally fine, but a bit more would have definitely been welcome. The story is also a bit bare and uninteresting, but that doesn't really bother me for this kind of game. It's very much in the background.

This game gets straight to the point, combining a range of influences old and new to make a unique new flavor of gameplay, and focusing on almost nothing but that. If you’re looking for a long campaign, a strong central narrative, or something more open like Skate, you won’t get it here. But if you want a fresh, fun, focused action challenge to master, this may be the game for you.