Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Tested on: PC
Roller Champions – Preview
Ubisoft has been hyping up their new game Roller Champions for a while now, officially announcing it at E3 2019 with a playable demo and regularly advertising it ever since. With its release drawing ever closer, we took a look at the closed alpha near the end of March to get a taste of the multiplayer e-sport action this game promised to deliver. Luckily, Roller Champions did not disappoint.
Set an indiscernible amount of years into the future, Roller Champions portrays a world where a very peculiar sport has taken over as the main form of entertainment. Being a sort of crossover between roller derby and basketball, many athletes have earned success and big bucks by skating their way to the top. As one of the newer players on the block, it will be up to you to win match after match and rise in the competitive ranks to also become a big shot roller champion. While the story is negligible, as is often the case for these types of games, it does provide some fun context in the form of beautiful cutscenes and the tutorial.
The rules of the game are simple: two teams of three players put on their skates and are dropped into the rink with a ball. The goal is to score points, as is to be expected, until you earn seven total or the time runs out. But it won’t be as simple as picking up the ball and throwing it. To earn any points, a team will first have to take possession of the ball and skate a full lap before being able to score, dodging the other team, which will surely put their all into tackling the shit out of you. Once you complete a full lap, there is one point on the line, but you can try to keep making laps for additional points. If your team manages to hold onto the ball for three consecutive laps, there are seven points to be earned by scoring through the circular hoop attached to the side of the arena. The latter happens to be the number of points needed to win, meaning that if you’re willing to take the risk of holding on to the ball for that long, you can win the game almost immediately. It won’t be easy though.
Good thing you’re not alone in this ordeal. While your opponents will gladly tackle you to make you drop the ball so they can steal it, teammates can try and bodyslam them, in turn, to keep them away or stay open themselves so you can pass the ball to them. There’s a bunch of stunts you can use for this, from impressive jumps to holding onto a friend to get extra momentum and increase your speed. Helping in this endeavor is the fact that the sides of the arena are made of transparent walls you can actually skate upwards and sideways on. Another interesting factor is that there are no rules about which direction you need to follow on the track, meaning you can turn around to meet your opponents face on or be ahead for a teammate’s pass. There’s a lot of different tactics you can pull off this way, though it will still largely depend on your friends’ play styles. Be prepared to keep a mic handy, because communication is key when playing Roller Champions and not being able to talk to your two allied players will make the game near impossible.
The graphics of Roller Champion are also nothing to complain about. There are plenty of customization options already in place to make your skater unique and dress them up to your liking, with more certainly to be added later. The game itself can become pretty hectic, but each team has a color and they are cleverly used to highlight important elements, such as the goal when you’re about to score, or even how many laps you already did.
The soundtrack of Roller Champions is as of now, pretty limited and hard to hear over the cheering crowds. The game makes up for it with the excellently voiced commentator who acts just like you’d expect at a real-life sports match and doubles as a handy way to know what’s going on between the other players when you can’t turn your camera quick enough. While the controls work fine, sometimes it can be a bit hard to move both the character and the camera at the same time, while still keeping an eye on what’s going on in the arena, but practice makes perfect, and every match you win is that much more exhilarating because of it.
Conclusion
At a time when it’s more important than ever before to connect with friends online, Ubisoft comes with an ideal way to spent time together and still get your gaming kicks in. While the exact release date for Roller Champions has not yet been confirmed, we already know this free-to-play game will come soon and is sure to delight gamers everywhere.
Roller Champions - Preview,
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