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2020/03

Roller Champions Closed Beta Video Previews Soy-Infused Character Creator, Gameplay

Ubisoft’s Roller Champions was originally announced last year during E3, but we didn’t hear or see much about the game after its announcement. Well, some gamers who were invited to the limited closed alpha have been posting up videos from the alpha test.

There’s a near half-hour video from YouTuber Rob Cram, where he covers the limited character creation process, as well as the tutorial, and some of the actual gameplay.

Right off the bat the character creation is completely pozzed. While the skin color options allow you to make fair-skinned whites, the faces and body shapes are mostly androgynous. Thus, it’s pretty obvious the developers were going for the fictional “non-binary” designation for the character creator. It’s very similar to the new soy-themed Xbox Live Avatar system.

You can check out the video below to see the game in action.

The tutorial starts in a oval arena. You hold down the right trigger to skate, and then use the declines on the ramp to pick up speed by pumping.

You can also jump using the left trigger and then pump to pick up speed.

You can pass the ball with the ‘Y’ or Triangle button, or tackle opponents who have the ball using ‘X’ or Square.

You can throw the ball at the goal using the left bumper, where you have to aim and release. You get more points the more you complete laps around the arena while holding onto the ball.

Basically the challenge is that while you can easily score a single point on a single lap, if you can dodge your opponents and hang onto the ball for three or more laps, you’ll be able to nab up to 5 points.

Roller Champions - Problem Glasses

Seven minutes into the video we finally get to see what a match plays out like.

While it seems like a simple setup, it’s kind of an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master scenario where the meta game is in learning how to skate backwards to receive long-range passes, or knowing when to check opponents, knowing how to block the ball on passes, and understanding pass arcs.

Much like other sports games just because you tap the pass button doesn’t mean the ball will automatically fly into the hands of your teammate. You have to be in the right position and they have to be in the right place to receive the pass.

The game looks like a more technical version of Rocket League, but given that the character creator is full of soy, and most of the alpha parts for customizing said character are themed around accessories that will only appeal to the degenerate San Francisco crowd, I doubt that Roller Champions will become the smash hit success that Ubisoft is hoping for.

You can register for the closed beta of Roller Champions right now by visiting the official website. The game is expected to release in full at some point throughout 2020.

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