Skate or Die

You need to play the most explosive sports game ever made ASAP

Why choose between sports and shooters?

by Robin Bea
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
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Newsday LLC/Newsday/Getty Images

Roller derby is already pretty much a perfect sport, combining athleticism, ferocity, and showmanship. But any sport could be improved by adding one thing —

Explosions
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Rollerdrome corrects that glaring omission without harming any of the helmeted heroes playing roller derby in the flesh.

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Rollerdrome is the latest game from Roll7, the developer of OlliOlli.

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While OlliOlli was a skateboarding sim with minimalist controls, Rollerdrome is a maximalism on roller skates.

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You play as Kara Hassan, a scrappy newcomer to the violent world of Rollerdrome — a futuristic sport that combines high-speed skating with mortal combat.

Rollerdrome follows Kara on her rise through the ranks of the world’s most extreme sport.

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In gameplay terms, picture something like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater with guns. The goal of each level is to take out a certain number of enemies while doing sick flips to refill your ammo.

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If that all sounds a bit overwhelming ... that’s because it is
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Despite its schlocky premise

Rollerdrome does not mess around. Building combos, dodging cannon fire, and lining up shots is incredibly demanding.

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The reward for keeping it together is participating in a glorious ballet of airborne stunts and violence.

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Short, first-person vignettes that dig into the dark corporate underbelly of Rollerdrome break up the action.

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They’re surprisingly adept at telling a story in just minutes at a time, but you’re free to skip them if you need to keep the adrenaline flowing.

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That adrenaline will come in handy as the challenge ramps up quickly and never seems to plateau. Early qualifiers have you mostly mowing down goons with bats...

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but before long you’ll battle teleporting beam-snipers, mechs, and a spider tank with a quarter pipe on its back.

Every enemy type has a different way to out-skate and out-shoot them. Fighting even a few different enemy types at once can be as much of a puzzle as it is an action game.

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It’s a lot to deal with

and Rollerdrome doesn’t have any fancy leveling up to improve your skills. That’s on you.

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If you can’t keep up with the frantic pace (pointing a finger at myself), you’re free to lower damage, get infinite ammo, and even remove the requirements to unlock new levels through handy assist options.

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Rollerdrome is a perfect pick-up-and-play game. The action starts almost immediately, rounds last just a few minutes, and even if you lose, you’ll probably have a hell of a good time doing it.

In that way, it’s actually a lot like OlliOlli — just, you know, more likely to be fatal.

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Rollerdrome is available now on PlayStation and PC.

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