There’s an array of cartoony body types to choose from, and then you’ll slowly start to unlock (or pay for) cosmetics from different clothes and sports kit parts, to great hairstyles, banners, emotes, and beyond. Roller Champions has a nice and chunky artstyle that lends itself well to the kinds of customisation that Ubisoft have come up with. It’s straightforward and effective, drip-feeding you new things to look at without locking ranked away for too long. Through your first 10 matches, you unlock the different customisation areas for your character, and then eventually gain access to ranked play after that tenth match. Speaking of which, there’s a good, quick progression to unlock all that Roller Champions has to offer. Hopefully this feeling can be tuned out as the game gets into public hands, because while acceptable for casual play, ranked and competitive play won’t be so keen on any kind of latency. Some of that is by design, as someone whiffs past a timely dodge or thanks to the magnetism of passing throws.
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While I know that some of the press players I was facing before launch will have quickly cottoned onto how to dodge, I also feel like I was being hit by people that I’d just passed by, that there was some lag-induced elasticity on show here. That last point in particular will be what makes or breaks Roller Champions for a lot of people. Being able to weave down the straights continually ramping to maintain speed, coordinating with a buddy to slingshot and outpace rivals, communicating positions that can be seen through the glassy centre of the arena, and simply being able to properly time and angle a tackle or dodge, all of this will quickly become relevant. Once you’ve picked up the absolute basics of control from the opening tutorial, of how to ramp up speed by tucking in as you go downhill, of passing, and the general form of the game, it should quickly become clear how high a ceiling there is for team play and individual skill. You can either hare after the ball-carrier and try to tackle them from behind (likely having to get past or take out a blocker at the same time), or turn around and go for the riskier head-on tackle which requires better timing. The other thing you realise pretty quickly is that there’s two ways to defend.
It’s a real hodgepodge of ideas, but Ubisoft Montreal has been able to pull them together into something coherent and relatively easy to understand.
It lifts the general form of roller derby (likely brought to some non-Americans’ attention by a film like Whip It or Rollerball), but then fuses it together with ball games, most easily compared to basketball or… well, Rocket League. The core loop – heh – of Roller Champions is remarkably well thought out and put together. That opportunity came in early 2021 with a public beta test, before the game was shoved back by over a year to its 25th May 2022 release date – hey, that’s tomorrow! I don’t know why the game has taken so long to come together, as simplistic as its core concept is, but game development is hard at the best of times, let alone with an ongoing pandemic to contend with.
It already felt like Ubisoft were a bit late to the future sports game party when the game was revealed at E3 2019, but it was still something that I was looking forward to checking out. It’s surprising how long ago Roller Champions was announced.
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