Roller Champions

What would you get if you crossed roller derby and football with a heaping helping of physics and physicality, topping it all off with just a pinch of futuristic flair? You'd get something a lot like Ubisoft's free-to-play competitive sports entry, Roller Champions. There's no shortage of team-based competitive matchups on the market, though most usually involve big guns, bigger explosions, and usually an ever shrinking barrier of some kind. What makes Roller Champions stand out is that, for all its bright colors and flashy personality, it still manages to feel like something you might see and even play in the real world. The game's relatively simple controls hide a lot of nuances in movement. Still, skating up the side of the arena, tucking in to build extra speed, and even coasting on your teammates' coattails before getting whipped ahead to gain that crucial extra ground are all surprisingly natural and fluid in the game. Thankfully, unlike in the real world, you never have to worry about stumbling with your balance here, although there's something satisfying about bowling over an entire opposing team with one well placed tackle.

Matches in Roller Champions tend to end really quickly or eat up every second of the seven-minute play clock. Either way, matches are short enough that they never feel like a repetitive grind. Where things can fall apart, though, is less an issue with the game itself and more an issue with the players. It's inevitable that you'll come across trolling and toxic players in random matches that actively sabotage their own team. This can range from behaviors like tackling teammates, hoarding possession of the ball, or even intentionally throwing it away from the goal. This can quickly suck the fun out of a match. Ideally, it's not something that happens frequently and, due to the short duration of matches, it's not something that has to be put up with for very long when it does.