It ain’t going to be easy for someone trying to lone-wolf in the matchmaking queue. You can slingshot yourself forward off an ally, but that requires that they are in position ahead of you to do so. 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. 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. 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. It’s definitely on the forgiving side for the would-be tackler, but that makes it easier to pick up and play. 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. 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.

Don’t worry, everyone quickly stands up again totally unharmed. Specifically, I’m talking about the times where you take a flying, two-footed leap into your opponent’s face.

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. 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. 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.įor gamers of a certain age, Rollerball was a game that was “played” on the playgrounds of secondary school. 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.

Roller champions open beta