Original Release: Konami, 1990, Arcade
The second roller derby game (and the first to take at least half a real crack at representing the actual sport), based on the one-season cult TV series
Rollergames (Arcade, Konami, 1990)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
The first attempt at a roller derby game in nearly a decade (since Nichibutsu took a halfhearted crack at it in 1984), Konami tied this in with the short-lived Rollergames TV series. The game seemed to have an equally short shelf life, but not so much due to the fortunes of the show as that they didn’t seem to know what to do with it.
Konami was known for their quality arcade game conversions of licensed properties in this period, but they also almost always defaulted to beat-em-ups. They went to their comfort zone with this one too, throwing out the convoluted roller derby rules about earning points for passing and physical contact and just turning it into Good Natured Brawling in which you get points for thrashing the opposite team and throwing their carcasses off the screen.
The result is very repetitive and not all that fun to play. Every race has the same pattern, beginning with a wall climb and ramp jump that involves mashing the buttons (as the crowd chants “Rol-ler-bears!”), then transitioning to an endless loop of beating up respawning mooks until time runs out. You get a point for every mook you toss, a CPU opponent (or second player) is doing the same thing to your team’s mooks. You can attack the other team’s avatar, but they have a long life bar, you only get one point for beating them, then they come right back with full health, so it isn’t really a good strategy to focus on them.
There seems to be a “rubberbanding” element that keeps the CPU within one or two mooks of you most of the time, but despite that the game is strangely easy for an arcade title. I breezed through most of it on my first play, eventually quitting due to boredom and it eating up too much time rather than being defeated. Each level concludes with a one-on-one duel between you and the other team’s “jammer” which is way tougher than the base game (and seems to have been recycled from Blades of Steel), but if you’re in front by enough points it doesn’t seem to matter if you lose this.
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