RollerGames (Nes) Playthrough / When an entertainment program turns into a fight for survival.
1RollerGames (1990) by Konami is a game based on some TV show where two teams of roller skaters compete for points in a kind of game that involves fistfights and other close encounters staged by the producers.
After watching just 5 minutes of such a spectacle, I decided never again to waste my precious minutes of life on this fake and poorly acted creation.
The game from Konami, on the other hand, is only based on the characters from the show, which is fortunate, as it means we have a loose adaptation of this nightmare. And I have to admit that something that was, at least for me, hopeless and boring... has been transformed into a pretty good game.
In the game, we play as one of three representatives of the “good teams” Rockers, Hot Flash, and T-Birds, whose task is to rescue the main organizer of the RollerGames from the hands of the “bad teams” Bad Attitude, Maniacs, and Violators.
The plot sucks, and to be completely honest, I didn't expect anything more from this mediocre show.
The game itself is a side scroller, focused mainly on mini mazes full of traps, access levels, and easy hand-to-hand combat.
Graphically, the game reminds me a bit of a poorer version of Batman Returns, with nicely animated characters but little detail. Although the gameplay itself doesn't make much of an impression, it is definitely acceptable. However, the game cannot be denied that it sometimes displays many layers of parallax scrolling and contains many moving elements in the environment. Often, a lot will be happening on the screen at once without any significant slowdown in animation.
The music and sound design are another example of the high quality that could be expected from Konami at that time. The soundtrack is truly dynamic and engaging, and the sound effects for basic actions such as hitting opponents or explosions are satisfying.
The gameplay is very basic here, namely we can move our character in 8 different directions, plus we have a basic jump attack and a special attack, which we can use 3 times per level, and our indicator telling us how many of these special attacks we have left is... eeeee I don't know, 3 vials or something like that in the lower right corner of the screen, and on the other side of the screen, we have a vertical health bar.
The fight consists of a basic attack that turns into a combo, a jump attack, and a grab that activates automatically when we slightly circle around the opponent and enter the center of their sprite.
From what I've noticed, the strength of the attacks is basically the same no matter how many times we hit a standing opponent. They only take damage when they hit the ground, at least that's what my observations show. Sometimes it takes many blows for the opponent to fall to the ground, and sometimes the character delivers a kick that almost instantly knocks the opponent to the ground.
Each level is basically a maze of traps, often deadly chasms, water, or spikes that kill us instantly.
This is basically the most difficult element of the game, avoiding these terrain traps, because we are always accompanied by momentum, which is our greatest enemy. The same applies to the access levels, where we have to reach the next level represented by another evil faction of skaters :P Our greatest enemy is our momentum and the terrain traps.
Fighting opponents is a walk in the park, and every boss fight is a one-sided massacre... Well, maybe except for the last boss, who is easy to defeat if you find the right approach. Fighting him head-on is not recommended, as his attacks either have priority or simply have a longer range :P Despite this, it's still a ridiculously easy fight and a rather weak ending to the game.
In one respect, the game is trivially simple, but when it comes to completing a level without dying, it's a different story. I admit that I died here really often and quickly. The vertical perspective takes its toll here and will often contribute to our death, especially in the last level where we jump on moving treadmills surrounded by spikes on all sides.
You can work up quite a sweat here :D
Overall, I think RollerGames is a really solid production created on a hopeless license, which the masters at Konami somehow managed to make good use of.
Definitely an interesting and unusual title, worth playing. I like it.
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"Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"