HAVENSKATE.COM

     We received Rolling the game for Playstation 2 (PAL) just after its release and haven't stopped playing yet. While the game isn't perfect, Rolling the Game is very addictive and the best rollerblading game yet. It also comes with at least an hour of amazing video footage. Everything about the video edits is perfect. If I was reviewing this as a video, it might get a perfect score!

     Rolling has gone through a lot of trouble to be released, but it is finally here thanks to Indy Games and SCi Games.
Rolling looks and plays almost exactly like Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Some of the obstacles and challenges are very typical of "extreme" style games; these strange objectives include grinding power lines to get to certain objects. This isn't bad, but was it was a surprise to me. These are things that make the game fun, but definitely
make you realize it is a game.

     This game is addictive. It's almost too easy to balance grinds, but overall does a good job of feeling just right. While it may be very difficult to do huge combos and link them together with cess slides and heal/toe rolls in real life, you wouldn't have guessed from this game. The difficulty of the objectives and the game in general is well balanced.

     Every aspect of skating is incorporated into the game such as skating fakie and doing cess slide tricks. The goal of the player is to gain a reputation as a skater. This basically amounts to you having to complete all the objectives on all the levels. A very interesting aspect is that you get to CHOOSE who your sponsors are as you move through the game. This is what opens up the choices you have for your skates, clothing, etc. This is very cool and makes you want to play just to customize your skater to have the skates that you use.

     The levels are huge and filled with obstacles to skate and well-known locations.

While an objective of collecting items on level may not seem hard, it can be difficult to find. The game also has cameramen spread throughout the levels. This is where you have to do tricks for the camera! This part is great, but unfortunately you can't get multiple pictures from the camera. The cameraman doesn't have a voice either. In the competitions there is speech and I don't see why they couldn't have a real cameraman talking here. Imagine how cool it would be to hear Jess D's voice asking you to do a specific trick for the camera. The same thing goes for when you have to match the tricks of skaters. It would have been cool to hear the real voices of the skaters. Oh well, maybe in number 2!

     Some of the best features of the game are the ability to create a custom skater, the complete set of tricks, and a sound track. Once you unlock everything, there are over 50 brands with 1200 items to choose from. You can choose from skates, frames, wheels, and many different types of clothing.

     The game is very good, but there should have been something more to pull you in. The game seems almost too task oriented, but it's a lot of fun to play and a good game as is. Rolling leaves some room for further improvement and additions in game play. Overall, it's a great game with awesome video edits and a killer soundtrack to boot. If you need me, I'll be Rolling.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR NON-UK & MAINLAND EUROPE RESIDENTS: The only version of Rolling available at the time of this review was in the PAL video format! This format is different from the NTSC versions of games or videos that play in most other parts of the world including US & Canada. The Sony PS2 will only play games from the region where that PS2 is from unless you use a modchip or a swap method. Using modchips and modifications to the system may fix this, but it is possible that you will only see the game in black and white unless your TV supports PAL...