Review: Rollerball is a fantastic NES game!

Rollerball is a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  My best friend (at the time) introduced me to this game sometime in the late 1990's or early 2000's.  Interestingly, I found that this game was first released for the MSX in 1984.   I'm not familiar with the MSX at all.  I was quite impressed by this game when I played it at my old best friend's house and it influenced me to get the rom at some point.  Early in 2020, I actually bought a physical copy of the game off eBay.  I got a great deal on it.  The game has no real objective to it.  The objective is to score as many points as possible.  That's pretty much it.  No quests, no bosses, none of that stuff found in Rollerball.  The premise of this game is quite simple.  This game is not talked about too much and I don't think it ends up on top lists of games for the NES.

This game was released in 1988 by HAL Laboratories, the same publisher that brought you The Adventures of Lolo and Kirby.  It seems like this game has been lost in the sands of time and it's a bit forgotten.  I certainly haven't forgotten this game!  There are two modes in this.  The first mode is Skyscraper.  In Skyscraper mode, 1-4 players can play.  It plays like a pinball machine you'd find at an arcade except it's emulated.  There's four levels on the emulated pinball machine.  On the highest level, you can rack up a lot of points.  The goal is to get up there as much as possible to rack up big points.  I have provided a video above to show you what the game is like.  No, that's not myself playing the game.  It was played by whoever from the World of Longplays YouTube channel.

The second mode is Match Play.  It is a 2 player mode where you and a 2nd player play at the same time.  Whoever scores the most points win.  The first player has an elephant and the second player has a donkey.  This is in the American version of the game.  Wait a second... so it's basically Republican vs. Democrat!  What was HAL thinking?!  Not a good idea whatsoever.  The Japanese version had a giraffe.  They should have kept the giraffe in!  So if you're a Republican, you're most likely going to be the first player.  Obvious if you're a Democrat, you'd wanna be the 2nd player.  I'm more of an independentt, so it doesn't matter which side I choose if you face me in Match Play.

My only complaint about Rollerball is that you can't move the emulated pinball machine.  There are times where it would be quite helpful.  Besides that minor complaint, it's a fun game and one of the best games for the NES.  It is truly a hidden gem and it's too bad that it doesn't get that much praise.

Rating: 5/5.