Games You Should Know About... Jam City Rollergirls

Before I begin, I want to mention a few things, in typical Geek Streak style.

First, I want to wish a Happy Birthday to one of the most awesome people in the world: Me. Yeah, I know, I'm awesome. Today, I'm also 32. Of course, fellow "Streaker" Stranger turned 27 a couple days ago, so happy belated B-Day to him.

Also, I would like to honor the passing of Edith Jeter. Ms. Jeter once wrote in Nintendo Power magazine that she wanted to see Enix bring Dragon Quest VI to the States before she passed away.  That was 15 years ago, about the time that Enix was shutting down before Squaresoft merged with them.  Now, Dragon Quest VI will be reaching American shores on Valentines Day.  Sadly, Ms. Jeter will never see its release, since she passed away on Jan. 3, just over a month before its release.  If you want to see more details on this story, start with this article on Destructoid.  Seriously, this story brought a tear to my eye.  I never knew Ms. Jeter, but she seemed like the coolest grandmother ever.  A lot of Dragon Quest fans have expressed their sympathies and bemoaned the extremely long time SquareEnix took to release this game in the US.  When I get my copy of DQVI, I'm going to name my main character Jeter, in honor of Edith.

Anyway, on to business.  Roller Derby has been around, in one form or another, since the late 1800s.  Back then, the sport was more of an endurance race, similar to something like the Indy 500, but with skates.  After the 1930s, roller derby was retooled into a point-based contact sport, which has evolved to this day.  The sport went MIA after being turned more into sports entertainment, with shows such as Rollergames, in the '70s and '80s.  Recently, the sport has seen a grass roots resurgence in the last few years and is steadily gaining in popularity.

I, myself, got interested in roller derby in the past year.  A friend of mine from Iowa joined her local derby team, the Old Capitol City Roller Girls, based in the Coralville/Iowa City area.  When my wife and I went to Iowa, she invited us to a bout.  I've been enjoying the sport ever since.  My friend's (derby) name is GigaHurtz, number 404.  I've seen her play in a few jams and she's pretty good.

GigaHurtz, a name that follows the classic formula:

 combining wordplay with violence.

Since then, I've watched quite a few bouts, including some from the local team in St. Louis, the Arch Rival Roller Girls.  Then again, this is Games You Should Know About - I'm here to talk about video games.  Last week, a WiiWare game came out that tries to showcase the action of roller derby by those with a love for the sport.  The game is called Jam City Rollergirls and is the only roller derby video game of any substance (unless you count the NES and arcade versions of Rollergames, which you shouldn't).  I will say, it is the only video game licensed and endorsed by the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), which is one of the foremost associations in roller derby (incidentally, the Old Capitol City Roller Girls are under an apprenticeship with the WFTDA).  The game includes five popular teams from the association to play: New York's Gotham City Roller Girls, Seattle's Rat City Rollergirls, Milwaukee's Brewcity Bruisers, Austin's Texecutioners, and Madison's Dairlyland Dolls (of the Mad Rollin' Dolls League).

Jam City Rollergirls is not exactly a sports simulation, like any of the EA Sports or 2K Sports titles.  It has more of an arcade feel.  More to the point, it's like roller derby meets Mario Kart, complete with power-ups, dash arrows, ramps, shortcuts, etc.  Two of the five courses are like your typical roller derby courses: one being a flat track, while the other is more of a banked track, where the track inclines upwards toward the outer edge.  The other three tracks are a bit more... interesting?  They involve jump ramps, shortcuts, sharp twists and turns, and obstacles.

Personally, I don't like these "kart-esque" courses.  They wouldn't be so bad if the controls were a bit tighter, but it's hard to make sharp turns, much less make them while avoiding all the obstructions, like barrels, rats, and tractors.  Speaking of controls, while they are serviceable, I wish they could be better.  You have to use the Wiimote/Nunchuk combo, which is not my favorite control method.  I would like to have seen some support for the Classic Controller.  You also have to shake the Wiimote and Nunchuk to jump and perform tricks.  The jumping may be useful for dodging the blockers and obstacles, but I don't see any point in using the stunts (other than getting extra cash for each bout in season mode).

 As far as music is concerned, there's only about one minute of uninspired punk music that constantly loops throughout the entire thing: main menu, selection screens, gameplay - this music plays through all of them.  Fortunately, you can turn the sound down.  The voices and sound effects aren't bad, though.

The AI, while mostly acceptable, does suffer from some problems.  On the easiest difficulty, you can beat the pants (well, at least the hot pants and fishnet stockings) off the opposing team.  There's more of a challenge on harder difficulties and in multiplayer.  The most glaring problem with AI is your own teammates.  While you can order your blockers to help pull you through the pack, block the other jammer, or keep the opposing blockers busy, they can get in the way, sometimes.  Sure, you can waggle the Wiimote to have them whip you forward, but that slows you, at first.  Not only that, but your blockers sometimes just whip you into the wall.  At times, it's better to just dash through the pack without having your blockers get in the way.

One last complaint: Honestly, I think the Mario Kart type gameplay detracts from the roller derby action.  Things like the dash arrows aren't too bad, but some of the power-ups are a bit of overkill.  Mario Kart wasn't really known for exactly being a fair game and the power-ups were the reason why.  Fortunately, Jam City Rollergirls isn't about racing, but about scoring points.  If you happen to be lead jammer, you can just call off the jam if the opposing jammer throws a wrench in your scoring run with an offensive power-up.

With all these grievances I've had with the game, you may wonder why I'm even bothering talking about it in a "Games You Should Know About..." segment?  Well, for one thing, none of these issues are what I would call game-breaking.  They're all pretty minor, if you ask me.  And, despite these problems, there's actually a core gameplay that's really fun.  One of my favorite things is the season mode, which lets you create your own custom skater.  While skater creation isn't very deep, it does allow you to outfit your skater with different gear, which can increase your stats and make you faster, stronger, etc.  You can even use your custom skater in single player quick matches (but not in multiplayer).  Speaking of multiplayer, I think that mode is the best one, as it allows for some tense competition with your friends, which is much more fun.  Needless to say, this really is best as a party game, where you can have friends battle each other.  Each bout lasts about ten minutes, which really isn't that long, so you could easily set up a tournament night with your pals.  I would recommend sticking with the flat and banked tracks and outlawing the use of power-ups, though.

I think a lot of these minor problems with the game stem from Nintendo's stringent limitations on the file size of WiiWare games.  The guys who made the game, Frozen Codebase, seemed to have a lot of ideas that may not have been fully realized.  Despite it being a little sparse in some spots, there is definitely some fun to be had from this game.  Is it worth the $10 asking price?  That depends - if you love roller derby and can get past the game's minor flaws, I can see getting every penny worth of fun out of it.  It may not be everyone's thing, but there's a lot of potential to this game.  That's why these are Games You Should Know About... (But Probably Don't).

Video courtesy of NintendoLife.com

If you want to find out more about the game, go to their website.  If you're interested in knowing more about roller derby and the WFTDA, check out their site.  If you want to know more about the Old Capitol City Roller Girls, click here.

Next week, prepare to run for your lives.  The Kaiju Rampage is coming...