"Tony Hawk with Guns" is one of those meme concepts that is an immediate sell but your aftertaste depends entirely on the small details of its execution. Rollerdrome, rather surprisingly to me, nailed all of the core parts with polish and distinction. It feels just a bit of a shame there isn't much after that, but I'm certainly glad what's here feels very focused.

It's been a long time since I've played the original Tony Hawk games, so my memory of the details are hazy, but the core player controls in Rollerdrome are at least 80% what a I remember and implemented perhaps even more smoothly than those games. The shooting elements are then grafted on with a more "vehicle combat" style where movement is disjoint from your aim. That combination probably sounds rather intuitive to those familiar with both genres, but I was still worried that on its own that would prove overcomplicated to play, resulting in either a steep learning curve or overly simplistic objectives.

Thankfully, they infused just enough Max Payne into the shooting to make it approachable. Namely, bullet-time on the aiming and a dodge. Even better: a dodge that can trigger super-bullet-time with a damage boost. A nice extra detail that gives it an appropriate, action-sport flavor when used with precision but not demanding it when you're just trying to get back on your feet.

Oh, and you do tricks to reload, briliantly creating a natural rhythm between the two objectives of the game. Shoot someone in the face to get a multiplier, then perform a trick to score points and ready your guns for the next face to shoot. Grinding and wallriding are in, too, which always feels awesome.

Levels consist of skateparks with enemies that spawn in waves to harass you, and they end when you've killed the last one. The cleaner you chain kills and tricks, and the faster you do so, the better your score. The layouts are quite solid and the enemy variety is satisfactory.

Simple, effective, easy enough to do but plenty of room to do better.

There are about 10 levels with gradual increases in complexity, then an "Out For Blood" mode unlocked after the first go-through to bring everything up to the end game standard for replays. Very nice.

I do have a nitpick with the gameplay side, though, which is the "Challenge Objectives" on each level which are tied to progression of the game. For the most part they make sense, and they unlock as soon as you do the thing, so there's no frustration with a run ending prematurely after finally getting a tricky one... but that also makes them feel very arbitrary.

There were a few times where I unlocked very few of them naturally and so had to load back into a level and just cheese a few more without regarding anything else. That'd be fine in some kind of freeplay mode, but it feels like a waste with the semi-directed levels. I think it would have been better to tie progression just to a minimum average score, then have the level challenges be things that had to be done in one run to get either a massive score bonus or "extra" unlockables.

As for the rest, the graphical style of this game is wonderful. I wish I had the vocabulary to describe it properly, but it has such a great 70s-80s Euro-sci-fi-kinda vibe with clean graphic design work and excellent movie-poster rendering.

The soundtrack I'm not sure I would be able to distinguish if I heard it in the wild, save for a few key notes in the main menu theme, but it's still a vibe appropriate bop.

The story is an interesting bit. It's more of a background element, but I like its delivery. There are these fun little first-person exploration bits before each major group of levels where you snoop around a room uncovering notes, interesting objects, and voice lines. No more than 3-5 minutes there then a smooth transition into the level proper when you're ready. It creates a cool gap between the action and the context underlying it, which your mind naturally tries to fill in with speculation for that extra texture to the experience.

So, while it's a fairly small experience and feels like it hasn't reached its full potential, this is a hearty recommendation from me for action game fans or those nostalgic for the classic skateboarding games. It's a very unique experience, but not so "unique" that it's a pain to play. If you're a score chaser, then I imagine you'll really have fun with this.

Reviewed on May 27, 2023


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