Like Trials on a treadmill diorama, Rolling Car is part platformer, part balance simulator. The goal is to guide a monster truck to the end of each stage, avoiding hazards and making jumps while maintaining balance and proper momentum, all from a treadmill level design.
Although there are easy-to-see Trials inspirations, this is definitely not Trials. It is its own thing, for better and worse.
The concept of having a stage rotate from under the moving treadmill is pretty cool but actually doesn’t play nice with the player. In fact, it can strongly work against the player by punishing higher skilled attempts as the stage can generate slower than the movement of the car which can cause the player to fall off the front of the stage. Forcing the player to take a slower approach feels like a step back in a quasi-time based racing game.
Stage design is actually more tedious and rage inducing than fun. The typical hazards are here including, spikes, holes, and swinging logs. Momentum is key as jumping with speed will yield different results than leaping from a stand-still. Combine this with walls, platforms, switches, and those hazards, a lot can happen in a single stage. Take a few hits and you’ll need to restart. Instead of presenting the player with a fun choice overcoming each obstacle, all hazards can only be completed in a very specific way. Traps are placed specifically, many of them in purposely designed areas to make you fail, so they can easily cause rage quitting.
There are other issues with Rolling Car that prevent it from being the fun, quick-burst arcade experience it is trying to be. Sure, there are tons of nuts and bolts to collect but the payoff to snag them all is misleading. The jumping sound effect, one of the actions that is performed the most, is ear grating and sounds like someone is sipping an empty glass through a straw. Also, the player can only advance one stage at a time. With the difficulty as high as it is, this is reason enough to cause rage quitting. Stop making me try to beat level 5 when I just want to play level 6!
Rolling Car has potential as you can see care placed between those large tires but several little mistakes results in an experience that requires tenacity and dedication to clear.
Don’t Forget About: Motor Heroz (WiiWare)
Also Try: Joe Danger
Wait For It: a port of ExciteBike World Rally (WiiWare) on Switch
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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