I ultimately like Super Sami Roll, but I wish I liked it more. Its concept sounds fantastic on paper (master a simple toolkit to handle weighty rolling-heavy movement), but its execution left a bit to be desired on my end. It certainly didn't help that some perceived inconsistencies regarding its mechanics made the learning curve that much more frustrating.

The simplest way I can put this is that Super Sami Roll is essentially a modern take on the classic speedrunning platformer (think: momentum-based platformers where speed is not so much a given as it is a reward for mastery) that also has a lot of nuance to its toolkit. The key is figuring exactly how to link your moves together to retain speed while never falling into the abyss: for example, you can use your tongue-grapple to latch onto distant platforms/walls, chain that into an instant jump off the grapple to retain aerial momentum and gain height, then immediately ground-pound right over a platform for a quick dash of speed and bounce even higher, etc. It's a really satisfying feeling when pulled off, and allows for some crazy player-discovered shortcuts that are heavily encouraged via the secret "Maestro" ranks.

The problem here is that for me, these highest-level challenges feel too inaccessible because of the game's inconsistencies. Certain key mechanics feel "off" and are utilized often enough to where they actively marred my experience:

- Sami's tongue-grapple is somewhat context-sensitive: to aid players, there's a white-line prompt displayed in front of Sami to show where Sami's tongue would latch onto when activated. However, if Sami is going at too quick of a speed in relation to the object that the player is trying to latch on, the tongue will often outright fail to latch onto the object and miss entirely, causing Sami to fall into the abyss.

- Trapezes stumped me for some time, because they don't function off of stored momentum much like most of the game's movement. Here is a MS paint diagram to try and illustrate my point. Fundamentally, every 3D platformer I've played with a swing/trapeze wants you to jump halfway between the bottom and the apex of the swing while rising for maximum height: this gets you the most speed for your jump while still retaining a velocity pointed upwards. However, Super Sami Roll's trapezes apparently ignore gravity, because Sami will swing in a complete circle around the trapeze losing no speed at all, and the direction you jump off of the trapeze is independent from your prior swing velocity. As a result, it's more favorable to jump at the exact apex of the swing or slightly beyond that, which really fucked with my intuition until I learned exactly how it operated in contrast to traditional physics.

- Sami's ledge-grab window feels way too tight, and if you contact a wall right before the ledge-grab margin, Sami will simply bonk his head against the wall instead of grabbing the ledge or immediately wall-sliding. I find that traditional 3D platformers tackle this issue by either giving a generous ledge-grab area of impact, or giving a slight wall-slide velocity upwards upon wall contact to allow players to hit the window, but because Super Sami Roll does neither, it's way too easy to just slightly miss the ledge-grab and fall too far into the abyss to recover. As a result sequence-breaking with the tongue-grapple + wall jump often feels too risky and inconsistent, even though the game really wants you to do so in order to snag those Maestro ranks.

In addition to all of these issues, I unfortunately found Super Sami Roll a bit tedious. Most of the mechanics are introduced fairly early on, but levels don't just get harder, but also get longer. This isn't a huge deal if you're playing on Normal mode with checkpoints, but on Advanced mode with no checkpoints (and only no checkpoints as the only difference... it certainly would have been appreciated to add in stricter time limits or more obstacles to spice things up), it often feels like banging your head against a wall over and over again. It's a tough learning curve to swallow, worsened because sometimes your tongue simply won't grapple as planned or Sami will bonk his head against the wall while wall-climbing, so consider this my warning that a lot of patience is necessary.

Oddly enough, I think this functioned better in my mind as a casual platforming experience than a hardcore speedrunning platformer. Once I accepted that the tighter Maestro ranks were not within my visible reach (and turned off Advanced mode in World 4 due to how punishing the game became), the rest of the game became much easier to swallow. That does make me wonder though: what audience does Super Sami Roll really appeal to? Casual players who dabble with the occasional 3D platformer might find it overly frustrating even with accessibility options if they're not used to the weighty toolkit (there's only so much you can accommodate for if you're falling off all the time!), but more hardcore players might find the advanced mode rather tedious due to level length and a lack of general level design variability (they're mostly long-winding curvy corridors with no differences in rollable surfaces whatsoever). There are some other minor nitpicks like the shoehorned-in boss fights (boring three-hit dodge-and-punish fights with tons of waiting around), but even if Super Sami Roll isn't completely my cup of tea, I can at least appreciate what it brings to the table. I need a break from 3D platformers in the meantime, but there's still content left with the many hidden exits to be discovered + the unlockable 5th world, so who knows? My mind can be changed.