Slam and Roll

Do you dream of the days when you could put coin after coin into the arcade machines and never want to go home? Then KaleidoGames might have something for you. It's an arcade-type game with some sports mixed in. But, if you're not a sporting fan, the platforming sections are much more prevalent than the sports.

At some point someone woke up and thought: "What if we made Bubble Bobble, but with ping-pong players shooting ping-pong balls at the monsters?" That particular idea never occurred to the game's alien invaders, that they would be fed hockey pucks or tennis balls as they try to take over one continent at a time. That's the whole setup. Aliens are here and you choose a hero to save the world. All of these heroes play some type of sport. We get to start out as a hockey player and gradually unlock new characters. All of them work in the same way where they use their racket or stick to hit balls or pucks at the monsters.

There are really only two buttons used, besides running left or right, and that's one for the projectile and one for jumping. You can spam shots as much as you like and after a monster is hit a number of times they turn into the ball from the character's sport and roll away, hopefully hitting the other monsters to defeat them too. The only differences between the playable characters are their appearance and the fact that they have four different categories, such as speed and strength, where skill differs. For example, Jimmy the table tennis player has three categories, such as speed, maxed out while strength is at the bottom, requiring more shots to defeat an enemy. But at the same time, he has maxed out on how quickly the next shot can be made after the previous one, so it's a balancing act.

In terms of appearance, and I would guess in terms of ideas, it is very similar to a game from 1990 called Snow Bros. A polished version called Snow Bros Special was released two years ago for Nintendo Switch. Enemies appear on different platforms and you have to defeat them without taking damage as the jock dies from just one hit. Classically arcadey, but you don't need to have a fistful of coins ready. There are, however, infinite retries on each track which is nice on especially the bosses. These may need a bit of trial and error to learn patterns and not die straight away. The further into the game you get the more enemies are introduced that have new abilities, like some that spray fire and others spit poison. There is a huge variety of levels. Tour Mode, which serves as the game's main game mode, has 112 different levels, all set in real locations. These range from the Lincoln statue in the US to Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. They are mostly there as background images and have no impact on the game. Depending on how well you do on these missions, you will get between one and three stars on each course, giving you a reason to replay them and try to get a better score.

For a more classic challenge, there's Arcade Mode, where you have to collect as many points as possible. Think back to an arcade machine with Pac-Man or Donkey Kong to picture it. This score resets to zero when you are forced to restart a level. If you want to take your skills online, there are leaderboards in the Chaos Mode game mode. This has 20 selected levels that are replaced every ten days.

A game like this wouldn't work without the right look. Luckily, Slam and Roll has just that. It's like something you might have played in an arcade in the good old days. The monsters may not be very diverse, but they don't need to be. I like the idea of trying to bring something new in the form of the different sports to the classic genre and if you want to play with a friend, you can do so in local co-op.

If you like games like Bubble Bobble and aren't expecting something that turns that whole concept upside down, it might be worth checking out Slam and Roll. It's classic arcade, nothing more, nothing less.