Jam City Rollergirls Brings Roller Derby to the Wii

Roller derby's resurgence over the course of the past decade has brought this exciting sport considerable mainstream attention. I've been a roller derby fan since the first bout I saw, and I've just recently started getting involved with officiating for one of our local roller derby leagues. So when I heard that there was a roller derby video game coming out, I was excited to find out more. Jam City Rollergirls, from Frozen Codebase, was recently at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. I stopped by their booth to play the game and find out more.

Jam City Rollergirls is a two-player game for the Wii, in which each player takes on the role of jammer for a roller derby team. For those not familiar with roller derby, the jammer is the team member who can score points for their team by passing other players on the opposing team as they skate around the track. This is the core idea of roller derby-skate fast, pass your opponents, and score points. The Frozen Codebase representative hailed the gameplay as very similar to Mario Kart, and the analogy is a solid one. There are portions of the track that will speed up your jammer, stars that give you the ability to use special powers, and items, like water balloons, that let you impede your opponent.

I found the controls a little difficult to handle, probably due to my lack of familiarity with the Wii controllers. My boyfriend, who played along side me (and proved to be far better at the game than me), felt like the game didn't take full advantage of the functionality of the Wii controller. The only thing you needed move the controller for was to receive a whip from a teammate. Otherwise the gameplay involved pressing buttons and moving a control stick. At the present time, however, Jam City Rollergirls is only slated for a release on the Wii system, though Frozen Codebase may develop this title for other systems at a later date.

While Jam City Rollergirls does not simulate many aspects of a roller derby bout, it still provides a fun race-style game. It may not appeal to non-video game players or those who are only casual gamers who have not mastered the use of the Wii controller. But the game does show the increasing popularity of roller derby, and it may lead the way to more roller derby-inspired games in the future.