Game Review: Rollaround (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

Rollaround does not have any pretentious plot, thankfully, and explains the game simply.  You must collect all the crosses that are required to complete each level, and the crosses come in six colours.  Only the correct number of crosses will do.  There are edges and holes to fall down which will kill you, as will the many aliens if you come into contact with them.  You can also jump as needed to jump over the holes or land on other squares as you need to during the level.

The instructions mention one other important aspect: each level is in a grid of 3×3 squares, so nine screens in all.  You will need to explore them to find the best route to get all the crosses you need, and roll over the normal squares and special squares which will help you.  So, a square with an X is a cross of that colour to collect, a flip square with a grid turns a plain square into an X (and vice versa) and a flip square with a H turns squares into holes (and vice versa.)  There are also clock squares to slow down the timer, and aliens, and a mystery square, which can either be points, an extra life, or death.

You Gotta Roll With It

The first level gets you into the game and allows you to get used to the controls.  There are 50 white crosses to collect on the opening screen, which should be straightforward enough.  As the grid is isometric, it is useful to know that up goes to top right, right to down right, down to down left, and left to up left.  If you rotate your joystick 45 degrees clockwise, that reflects how it looks on the game.  Getting used to that is key, as well as the fire button to jump – you can hold down fire beforehand as this makes it easier and means you will not necessarily fall off a platform as easily as you may do otherwise.  A jump is also quicker than most of the aliens move, so you can use this to outrun the aliens along the way too – very useful to note for later.

Arctic Roll

The second level has two screens of the nine which are useful – the top left one has the first flip grid square, which turns the plain squares into ones with crosses.  You need to jump to it and avoid the aliens, and indeed avoid them to collect the coloured squares.  All bar blue can be completed here, with the remainder of the blue to the bottom right screen of the nine, and using the flip H square flips the grid and reveals a flip grid square so you can then get all the other blue crosses you need.  Once you have worked this out, that becomes rewarding.

At the end of each level, you get the chance for a score bonus or an extra life.  Like the Showcase Showdown on The Price is Right, stop the grid with the fire button to reveal the square.  You may get 100 points, or 10,000 points or a bonus life, but often you will get zilch – 0 points, and move on to the next level.  You do also get an extra life each time you complete a level which means you can build up lives nicely for the difficult later levels, a neat touch which adds to the playability.

Meat Pie, Sausage Roll

There has been considerable thought gone into the gameplay to make the game fair and a good challenge at the same time.  If you get to level four on your previous game, on the next game you can press F1 during the game to skip a level, and skip all the way to the last level you reached.  This allows for practice on later levels with more lives, and this also eases the burden of having to play through the earlier levels again.  If you really stuff it up, especially on later levels, you can also use the A key at the cost of a life, to abort the level and restart from scratch.

In addition, there is also the nice additional touch that once you exit a screen, whatever crosses you have collected remain collected, and will not show when you re-enter.  This can be useful if you are collecting many crosses with aliens around and gives you some of them that you would not have to repeat again.  It is almost like you have exited safely and keep whatever you exited with, and a definite improver on the gameplay to ease frustration.  You also cannot use the diagonals, so you would not go off the wrong way by using one of those four directions, and means you do stay on the grid a lot more.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are functional but effective, with your ball well defined and a nice rolling effect as you roll around.  The aliens are also simple but well drawn, and the grids with the squares, in isometric fashion, are perfectly visible and it is clear what you must do.  There is also a neat title screen by Andrew Morris that would have probably been the loading screen if using the previous loader (this game uses Invade-a-load) and a lovely little cute title theme tune by Shaun Southern on the title screen too, which adds nicely to the polish.  Sound effects are functional and do the job, and a little note each time you collect a cross.

Final Thoughts

Rollaround may seem a little difficult and frustrating at first, but once you get used to the controls and start to progress, it is an addictive game that you will find hard to put down.  There are many levels to explore, all with their own puzzles to solve, and the sensible control method, the fact you can start at the previous level you last got to, and the fair difficulty curve means that you will be rolling around into the small hours, compulsively wanting to complete a level and see the next one.  It is well worth checking out and has a charm all its own.

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