Anderson Waelchli

My past three days have been almost entirely dominated (aside from starting classes of course (i’m being a good student uww blog moderator dont worry)) by the free demo on steam for this game called Rollin’ Rascal, and I am so in love with this game you guys.

Rollin Rascal is a 3D mascot platformer developed by indie studio Curiomatic. Curiomatic has done work for a couple different games in the past, including some model work on classic indie banger A Hat in Time. Rollin Rascal is a game heavily inspired and functionally a tribute to Sonic the Hedgehog, more specifically 2D sonic. In modern days, sonic gameplay has been defined by the boost formula where if you press x you can boost and it instantly sends you to top speed. Compared to older sonic games without boost, you are inclined to use sonic to build momentum. Rollin Rascal is all about momentum. Rascal’s gameplay is defined by his two forms, regular standing and ball form. At any time, you can press the left trigger to send Rascal into his ball form, this is used for many things, Curiomatic created an excellent 3D spin dash with it. Most importantly though, Rascal can tuck into a ball to gain momentum significantly faster on a downhill slope, and then pop back into running form to go back up a hill or off a jump or up a wall or around a wall or anything really. Rollin’ Rascal’s gameplay revolves around momentum and Curiomatic has designed some excellent playgrounds available in the demo. Everything feels just right, from a slight bit of magnetism to walls so running on walls feels smooth and right, to the way the camera tilts and follows Rascal through the stages.

Let’s talk about these stages why don’t we. In the free demo of Rollin’ Rascal there is only one complete final game stage available to play (complete is a strong word, Curiomatic has said that the level will continue to change and grow before release). This level, buccaneer’s beach is simply one of the best 3D platforming levels I have ever played. It is genuinely up there with things like the metro kingdom in Mario Odyssey (my personal fav game of all time). 2D Sonic is known for it’s levels with many paths that reward you for learning the mechanics of the game. Rollin’ Rascal takes this and dials it up to one million, buccaneer’s beach is absolutely jammed full of paths. Each segment of the level has at least three or four main ways to get through it, from rails to grind on, ziplines to ride, enemies to ride on (it’s a mechanic), and also just jumping, running, and rolling to go as fast as possible. On rollinrascal.com, Curiomatic bills the game as one made for self expression, and that is so so so true with the way this level is designed. Small level pieces can flow into one another in so many different ways, but they all still work towards keeping you fast and heading towards the end. Buccaneer’s beach is a linear playground and I love it, each run can be completely different but still as fast and fun as the last one. The sheer amount of things you can do and how they all work together and work with the mechanics of Rascal are simply addicting, I played buccaneer’s beach for two hours straight last night without finishing it. I restarted the level a lot, the flow of the game feels so good that when I mess up or something goes wrong, I just wanna do it all over again from the beginning, buccaneer’s beach is such a fun level. As I was learning buccaneer’s beach (I still have not done every fun looking path in the level yet and I’ve put like 6-7 hours into it over the past couple days) one segment I got through using a completely unintended function and didn’t even realize I wasn’t supposed to do that until way later. But that’s the thing, there is not a wrong way to play this game, Curiomatic wants you to do everything and try everything, even if it’s not what was initially intended, again the game is about self expression through your gameplay. Embedded below this paragraph is one of my runs through the level, I feel like since it is a game made for self expression, it makes sense to share.

The excellent design is bolstered by the graphics of the game and the smart and engaging combo system. Visually Rollin Rascal is obviously cartoony, which makes total sense for a game of this genre and it totally works. Buccaneer’s beach is beautiful and full of life and visually full of gameplay opportunity, looking ahead, most pieces of the level pretty clearly show you how they are supposed to be used after you get a basic hold of the game. However, you do not have to use them the way they were intended. The combo system adds a whole new layer to the gameplay of Rollin’ Rascal, the system earns you points for “goin’ fast”, “wrecking stuff”, and “flexin'”, all kinda self explanatory except for flexin, which is earned while doing scripted things like riding a rail that goes in a cool looking way. As you do one of these three things, a star for it will start to fill up on the left side of the screen, doing any one of these will keep your combo bar full, but if you don’t it will go down and you will lose your combo. You can fill up to 5 stars in each category, and each additional category that you are comboing in adds a multiplier to what you earn. Now, what do you earn? There is a star currency that is gained through the combo system, you can earn up to 45 stars from a single combo (5 stars * 3 categories * 3x multiplier) these stars do not have a stated use yet, but with how rewarding they are to earn I really hope it ends up being used for something interesting.

The rest of this demo is absolutely jammed full of stuff for a free demo, along with the almost masterpiece I consider buccaneer’s beach to be. There is a full online multiplayer mode with a set of three maps made just for it, these are unthemed race maps, but damn are they fun. The first one, club foot race shows you how much speed you can really get in this game and it gives you some really fun stuff to do with it. There is also full color customization of Rascal and several outfits for him to wear, a small but fun thing to make this demo feel much more full. If anyone wants to play the multiplayer with me let me know cause I have not played it with another real person just random races online, still super fun that way. The toughest race map is kinda poorly designed at points, there was maybe one point where it felt like it was difficult to be difficult and not to be fun to overcome. Other than that there is some jank every once in a while in buccaneer’s beach, an enemy won’t react properly with the environment or you may magnetize to something small you don’t want to, but even then the magnetism is so light it barely makes a difference. Curiomatic has clearly listened to fan feedback as in July, maybe 4 months since the demo originally came out Curiomatic released an update along with their Rollin’ Rascal Rolldown nintendo direct. This update revamped the enemy takeover mechanic to work more smoothly with the game itself and changed and improved buccaneer’s beach slightly and definitely for the better. As someone who played the demo before and after this update, the enemy takeover mechanic is actually fun and useful to use now which is absolutely amazing cause it’s actually a neat mechanic. Another mid-demo addition is air tricks, when Rascal goes off a jump fast enough he will do a trick in the air with different tricks depending on how fast you are going, because Rollin’ Rascal is not just about going fast, it’s about looking cool and having fun while doing it. Air tricks are really a super small addition, but I think it adds so much life to the game, it makes Rascal feel like an actual character rather than your input device to interact with this world.

If you are reading this, I cannot recommend Rollin’ Rascal enough, the game is expressive, fun, and feels perfect to play. The demo for Rascal is probably my favorite new game I’ve played all year (haven’t played astro-bot or that new zelda yet though) and it is totally due to the clear love, thought, and care put into each aspect of the game and it’s design. Rollin’ Rascal is a love letter to Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay and improves on it in almost every way. AND IT’S FREE ON STEAM RIGHT NOW. The game isn’t even finished yet even and It’s amazing, there is going to be a full story mode on release. You can learn more about rollin’ rascal at the website for the project.