Rollerdrome Preview: Extreme Sports Just Got a Whole Lot More Extreme

ign.com:

There are few premises capable of stealing my heart as quickly as Rollerdrome, but after approximately 30 seconds gliding around on rollerskates while shooting enemies in slow motion, I was completely sold. Immediately doing away with any sense of realism or pretext for the over-the-top chaos, this violent roller derby set me against armed brutes in a battle arena that was part extreme sports game about pulling off stunts and part shooter that had me clearing the course of hostiles while flying over halfpipes. Stuff all that awesome inside a beautiful and stylish cel-shaded world and I found myself positively smitten before the end of the very first level.

The concept behind Rollerdrome is simple, yet brilliant. What if you could do tricks, catch sick air, and grind rails like in an extreme sports game, while simultaneously taking on waves of enemies with an extensive arsenal of guns? But what’s impressive is just how well it nails both the skating, extreme sports fantasy and the badass John Wick-esque slow motion shooting mechanics.

For example, doing tricks is the only way to resupply my ammo reserves, meaning that I couldn’t just focus on killing enemies, but I had to do so with style or I’d find myself with an empty mag and quickly get eliminated. This did a great job at mandating the pulling off of dope tricks and forced me to find a balance between flexing on the enemy with my skating prowess and blowing said enemy away with a grenade launcher at point blank range. Learning to perfect that balance and juggle these two objectives to clear levels was an absolute joy and immediately addictive.

The more matches I won, the more deadly weapons I unlocked. Beyond my basic guns akimbo, I acquired a shotgun that was extremely