In the realms of fictional sports games, Roller Champions is far from the most outlandish effort. There’s nothing quite like it in reality, but with two small teams of three facing off in a large oval, scrapping over control of the ball and trying to score points, it’s like a cross between roller derby and basketball.
We got to go hands on early with the Roller Champions closed beta that will be kicking off next week on 17th February – here’s how to sign up for the Roller Champions closed beta.
The rules are relatively straightforward to pick up, and the basic controls just as easy to grasp. The aim of the game is to grab the ball, take it a full circuit around the oval counter-clockwise, and then chuck it through a hoop on mounted up on the wall. One lap nets you a single point, two laps gets you three, and three laps earns you a game-winning five points.
Skating is as simple as pointing in a direction, using the ramps and doing a quick pump to gain a little more momentum as you descend, or grabbing onto allies and slingshotting yourself forward at high speed. All the better to catch up to the opponents and tackle them, sending the both of you clattering to the ground, and dislodging any ball they might have in hand, breaking any progress through a lap if your team is able to pick the ball up again.
For gamers of a certain age, Rollerball was a game that was “played” on the playgrounds of secondary school. Inspired by the 1975 sci-fi sports film, it basically boiled down to kids kicking a football up in the air and whoever it landed next to would get a kicking. Rollerskates weren’t required.
Such shenanigans were quite a way before my time – I heard about it from my dad, who was a teacher during the knee-scraping fad – but Roller Champions sometimes manages to conjure up the same mental imagery, just much more colourful and cartoonish. Specifically, I’m talking about the times where you take a flying, two-footed leap into your opponent’s face. Don’t worry, everyone quickly stands up again totally unharmed.
There’s a lot of rough and tumble through the game, though it’s generally more in line with that of a roller derby than just senseless violence. Making a tackle is all about position, direction, momentum and timing, whether you’re catching up to another player to try and smack the ball from their hands with a shoulder charge to the back, acting as a blocker to protect your teammate, or yes, flying feet first into an oncoming opponent. It’s definitely on the forgiving side for the would-be tackler, but that makes it easier to pick up and play.
The trouble is that there’s the immediate feeling that this is a game that’s going to really need to be mastered, and not just on an individual level. Playing for a few hours, I quickly grasped the basic controls, but then started to realise that any of the more advanced tricks on the road to victory are going to need team play and communication. You can quickly throw the ball between you to either evade a tackle or speed up a lap, but passes rely on timing and teammates getting open space to pull off cleanly. You can slingshot yourself forward off an ally, but that requires that they are in position ahead of you to do so. It ain’t going to be easy for someone trying to lone-wolf in the matchmaking queue.
That’s bound to be a big part of the appeal for those that choose to get invested in the game. There’s an immense amount of satisfaction to figuring the kinds of tactics that can work in close teamwork, and figuring out when you need to be together and when you want to break off and head off an opponent’s play. With a set team of three players, you can start to take on particular roles to shift in and out of.
However, one thing that was notable was the handful of players that hadn’t paid attention during the introductory video and not realised the intended direction of play needed in order to score. You’re meant to go one specific direction around the track in order to quickly pass through the four checkpoints in turn, because going the other direction takes three full circuits before the goal opens. Then again, this would be quite the power move for a superior team to pull off!
There’s something to Roller Champions, but I think it will take more effort for players to find it than in, say, the inherent charms of Rocket League – and let’s be honest here, Roller Champions is 100% trying to pinch some of Rocket League’s lunch. It’s well worth giving a try though, especially if you can grab some friends to join you, with the closed beta kicking off next week on 17th February for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
