Super Rolling Heroes is a simple premise that spends its entire game training you for the ultimate challenge – to complete its entire game in one go with one life. I’ll never make that challenge personally but it didn’t stop me having a blast enjoying its 100 stages towards ascension.
In Super Rolling Heroes you play as customisable and very popable ball. You start out looking like a Kirby whose enjoyed too many all you can eat buffets but your colour, face and clothes are all customisable with currency unlocked through completing levels. Initially I thought the game was going to be a crazy downhill slalom game viewed from a slightly skewed isometric/top down hybrid perspective. It is at its core but the key here is to smash up as many destructible elements on the level as you roll down it and then hit the exit crystal. Doing this also means not slowing down or you’ll pop. You’ll also need to avoid all the barbed wire, spikes and cliff drops. Your character handles like a heavy beach ball and is slow to course correct when you are at slow speed so you have to commit and commit hard to your steering directions or you’ll pop too.
Levels are short – ranging from 7 seconds to more substantial 25 second affairs. They’ll position several destructible things on your path and you’ll usually need to hit about half of them to get a pass. There is a natural flow to levels though as houses will rebound you off down paths or barbed wire funnels you down chutes to knock things over. The key is not getting caught on trees and angling the rebounds correctly. This is made tricky initially as the viewing perspective isn’t quite head on, so sometimes you are surprised of a fatal hit or that you’ve made it through a gap. I quickly got used to the quirk of view though and as your ball has momentum based movement, I got used to semi reliable physics too. Only a few levels gave me “why?!” vibes which is a great ratio out of 100.
Earning passes and beating par times (which are insanely tight) earns currency to buy upgrades which are visual only. The 100 stages will take a couple of hours to complete and that in itself is great fun. If you want all golds, you’ll be there a few hours more. The real challenge is Hell Mode though. Here, the 100 levels you passed individually are joined together like a mountain and you have one life to clear the lot. The challenge here is huge. I was so delighted when on one fluke run I got to level 47, I’ve already decided that’s the best I’ll probably ever do. It will require master precision and platforming chops to do it and good luck to anyone trying. It’s really this mode that gives Super Rolling Heroes is hardcore stripes – the main game itself I found relatively straightforward to get through and progress, even if I was getting silver medals not gold.
Super Rolling Heroes is a fun diversion for a few hours. The game does have a slightly inconsistent difficulty curve and whilst powerups for jumps, explosives and missiles add variety, its the core rolling and smashing that kept me entertained. For those of you worried by the hell mode challenge, I still felt that without that added challenge, there was plenty of fun to be had here. Its approachable and micro levels mean respawn frustration is kept to a minimum. You’ll get through each level after a few goes as its clear where to learn from your mistakes and that makes Super Rolling Heroes ultimately a rewarding experience.
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