I almost feel like I have to start this review by justifying why I bought it. Very quickly: the friend who introduced me to the sport was around, and I thought it could be funny. Also, the reviews were pretty good, and as Simba said at some point, "You people have too much money". Fair enough. Now that that's out of the way, is the game worth YOUR time and money? Well the fact is, the game may be slightly better than you think it is from looking at its trailer.


Yes, the textures are poor, and the transition between animations make it appear very janky, but the truth is that Roller Derby, fundamentally, seems very well suited for the transition to a video game, and that fact shines through the poor production value of this Wiiware game.

As you may or may not know, Roller Derby pits two teams of rollerskaters against each other. Each team has one "jammer" that starts behind the pack of other skaters. First, each the jammer has to break through the pack in order to become "lead jammer" and have the advantage of being able to call off the "jam" (or round). Then, the jammers start getting points each time they pass a member of the opposing team. In this game, you only play as the jammer, so the role of the other members of the team is a little less clear to me, but obviously the general idea is that your team members will try to help you out, while the opposing team will attempt to slow you down.

Effectively, the game ends up playing like a Mario Kart game, if MK had you going around a track for 10 minutes and pitted you against only one other racer, and you racked up coins by passing other NPCs, so to speak. But maybe the MK comparison comes to my mind mostly because of the different power-ups that help you slow down the other jammer, or protects you from her attacks. Of course, those power-ups aren't part of the real life sport, Frozen Codebase (the developer) simply went for a more arcade-style game, probably a wise decision. That arcade feel is also reflected in some of the levels, with wacky obstacles and shortcuts strewn around the tracks.

As a Wiiware aficionado with admittedly money to burn on games, I do not regret the purchase. The game ended up being fun and feeling like something new. But eventually the one song that loops constantly during the game, the limited number of tracks and the fact that the game is a little too easy (even though I played it on Hard difficulty) diminished my enjoyment, to the point where playing through just one season (about 10 games) was more than enough for me. I won the finals and my reward was the chance to play through a second season, which I am going to pass on. Overall, my $10 gave me a little over 2 hours of enjoyment, which isn't so bad compared to certain other forms of entertainment, but for that price there are so many Wiiware games that offer a better value or are just plain more interesting. The base is solid here, but there isn't anything to make me go back to it.

Ultimately I walk away from this game with the feeling that it was fun while it lasted, and the strange idea that Roller Derby needs to be a mode in the next Mario Kart game.