Chances are, you forgot Roller Champions was announced all the way back at E3 2019, just about 3 years ago. It was originally supposed to come out last year in 2021 before being delayed until recently.

So the question is, was it worth the wait? Is Roller Champions the next sports themed hit? Or just another free-to-play game ready to shut down in the next year?

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Microsoft Windows (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: May 25, 2022
Players: 1
MSRP: Free-to-play with microtransactions

For me when I first saw Roller Champions it didn’t look anything too special, but I did want to give it a chance. I’m a huge fan of games that have this sports theme to them, and I don’t mean of sports that exist in real life.

I mean something where the universe treats the game mode as a spectator sport, with all the fans, presentation, and sponsors to go along with it. Games like Monday Night Combat, Jet Moto back on the PS1, etc. So even though the trailers for the game didn’t look that amazing to me, I was still interested for the pure sake of the premise.

Unfortunately it’s not the sports themed fun I was hoping for. I really did want it to be good. I went into the game cautious optimistic that this could be a fun time to be had. But from the matches I’ve played so far, it’s a really underwhelming game.

To describe the game, one can definitely see inspiration and attempt to work the same magic game Rocket League its popularity. Players face off in 3v3 PvP matches in an oval roller arena, similar to what you would see in a real life roller derby.

There’s one single goal both teams are attempting to score in and in order to do so, a team must get the ball to move through 4 predetermined “gates” to complete a loop. Then the goal will be open to being scored.

They mix that formula up a bit with some risk/reward. If you loop once, then you get 1 point. If you do a second loop, then that turns into 3 points. Finally a third loop will give a team 5 points, which is how much you need to score in order to win the game.

The risk in this situation is that if the other team tackles you while you have the ball, you can lose it and turn it over. In that case, all you hard work vanishes and you have to do a loop all over again just to score once you get the ball back.

And that’s kind of it, which makes Roller Champions a bit repetitive from the casual matches I’ve played so far. It’s somewhat challenging to move the character around, as you are all skating on skates/roller blades. So there is a bit of flow, and for the most part I think it works.

It’s enough that you have to pay attention to your movements and your teammates positions in order to make the plays needed to score. Though so far in my online matches, no one felt the need to say anything over voice chat. So the best there is for communication is through one button asking to get the ball passed to them.

Now I know Roller Champions did just recently release and it features something most people can’t say they’ve ever played before. So it’s hard to gauge where my skill is compared to others, even during casual matches.

Some of my first matches, my opponents couldn’t do anything against me, allowing me to score without needing to pass the ball. Other times it feels like I can’t hit my opponents as they weave effortlessly around my team and I. This is a game that feels like there are hugely separate tiers of skills among the player base.

I wish there was more I could say about the gameplay. This is really all there is to it, every match feels the same. You get in, roll around in the oval trying to either tackle the ball carrier or avoid people tackling you if you have the ball.

Then once you complete a loop either try your luck or score. Every time you score feels the same, regardless of the how much risk you put behind it. I’ve scored 1 point goals and a 5 point goal and if you watch them, they all look the same.

It’s not like in Rocket League where people can pull off either insane shots, whether through skill or luck. Not to mention it’s exciting to see others attempting to make defenses, of which it only happened once in Roller Champions in my time of playing. I can also count the number of times I’ve witnessed someone make a nice shot with one finger. It’s just not engaging.

Now moving from gameplay, what about the presentation of the game? After all, a part of the reason I was interested in playing Roller Champions was because of the sports theme. But unfortunately this is another department this game falls short in.

An interesting idea for this game is that each player has “fans”. One way they use this mechanic is in regards to their season pass, which I’ll get to later. But the part where fans take a bit more into gameplay is that this affects the crowd in-game.

The main arena I played at states that it seats 20,000, where those seats get filled up based on the 6 players that get matched together competing in game. It was funny playing for the first time where everyone is new and therefore didn’t have any fans. So the arena was devoid of fans like it was a WNBA game.

And that’s all I have to compliment when it comes to their fan system. As I’ve said, number of fans are also a part of the season pass where people are obviously going to grind them up and pretty quickly those seats filled up.

There was so little they did with the fans in the seats that honestly it was more interesting seeing an empty arena than a packed one. There’s barely any animation with them and you hardly see them during gameplay. Not to mention they’re surprisingly quiet as well even when a team scores.

There was so much they could’ve done with the crowds to really pull in the theme they were going with the game, but ended up leaving so much on the table. If they wanted to bring in something where each player is the reason for there being a certain number of fans.

Then it would’ve be a nice touch to see something like a home field advantage where the audience cheers for one side doing well and boos the other when they score. Instead we end up with a gimmick that’s only noticeably for the first few matches, then you just get the same fan interaction that every other sports game has.

Lastly I just want to get into the graphics of the game and say they’re pretty awful. The developers of Roller Champions decided to go for a bit of a cartoony art style. One which draws comparisons to the popular free-to-play title Fortnite. But it looks really terrible once you get into the game.

First thing you do is create a character, which is normal for games like this. And most of the options don’t look appealing at all. It’s quite clear given the language they use in this game Ubisoft wanted to be “gender-inclusive”.

Yet in trying to do so, most of the body options only ever seem to make men. Not to mention a few of the body shapes you can choose are so ugly I can’t imagine anyone using them outside of YouTubers making a comedy video as a joke.

There are also very few options to choose from. So you end up looking like a lot of other people just starting out in the game. I assume this is likely due to them wanting to encourage you to buy the cosmetics or earn items through their season pass.

Of course since Roller Champions is free-to-play, so this is how they make their money. You’ll see the same options you’ve likely seen in a million of other free-to-play games, along with the same prices as you’ve come to expect in this area.

Finally, I want to say how terrible and lazy the game ending screen looks. There’s hardly anything going on and the dancing animation for the winning team makes this look like a cheap indie game. Not something that I’d expect from a AAA developer like Ubisoft, even if this game is free-to-play. Honestly, the dancing animation from House Party’s start menu looks better than this.

Given Roller Champions was apparently in development for at least 3 years, I’m surprised at how barebones it is. There’s functionally one map, the casual and ranked have different skins, but are laid out the same.

Pretty much one mode since it’s the same between casual and ranked. The game also has a “surprise event” mode, but there’s nothing currently running for it so despite me having it unlocked so I don’t know what they plan on bringing with that game mode.

Basically I can’t recommend this game at all. It is free-to-play, so if you really are that interesting in trying the game out you can without any charges. But it’s really not worth it at all when games like Rocket League exist to scratch that on wheel sports-themed itch. I believe this is going to be a game that shares the same fate as Ubisoft’s Hyperscape, which recently had it’s servers shut down back in April.

But if you’re still somehow interested in playing Roller Champions. It’s out now on PC (via Ubisoft Connect), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. There are also plans on the game coming out for Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, and Amazon Luna at a later date.

Roller Champions was reviewed on PC via the Ubisoft Connect launcher. It is free-to-play and we did not receive an early access copy of the game by anyone. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.