Rollerdrome

Though best when taken in small portions, this challenging and acrobatic third-person shooter puts an interesting, unique spin on both the action sports and shooting genres. In Rollerdrome, you're a competitor in the titular televised blood sport, which requires you to roller-skate around elaborate skate park-like arenas, shooting other people before they shoot you, blow you up, or smack you upside the head. The kicker is that your ammo is limited, and is only restocked when you do tricks, while your health is only replenished when you kill someone. But, on the plus side, you can slow time mid-jump like you're Neo in The Matrix, but in small doses. All together, this makes for a frantic, exhilarating, and unique shooter, one that really tests your skills as both a gunner and an acrobat.

As fun as it may be, though, it's not for everyone. And that's not because the default controls are awkward and oversensitive, since that's easily fixed by adjusting the settings in the options menu. No, the potential dividing line comes because your enemies are tough, and the game doesn't have any options to adjust the difficulty (just some cheat code-like ones that make it devoid of any challenge). You also have to complete a number of specific challenges, as well as kill everyone, if you want to progress to the next level. As a result, some people will find this to be really frustrating, while others will enjoy the challenge ... alongside the twist of having to play the same round multiple times until they figure out a plan of attack. That makes this a game best played sporadically, in 20- to 30-minute bursts, with breaks to collect yourself. For players who are into that, Rollerdrome excels as a unique and acrobatic shooting sports game.