Super Sami Roll (PC) – Unexpected Kinetic Fun

PhantomZ2 rolls into action to track down and stop the evil Albert VII in Super Sami Roll! Thank you to both the Japanese indie developer team Sonzai Games and publisher XPlus for providing us with a review code.

With plenty of titles that fill the Steam store on an almost daily basis, you’ll be sure to pass over titles that look like cheap cash grabs and unenjoyable experiences that will serve as being wastes of money. However, given the chance to review a game that I definitely would’ve glossed over if I was browsing the Steam store on my own, Super Sami Roll reminds me that fun can be found in the most surprising of places.

Story

Like many games of the now retro age or just in regards to mascot platformers, Super Sami Roll introduces a simple story and motive to get the player into gear. While Sami and his friend Vera are enjoying a fun and relaxing day on the beach. However, within the land, a brooding villain named Albert VII wants to replenish his collection of exotic animals and treasures. Aiming to complete this, Albert VII captures Vera and takes her off to his collection. Now, Sami must travel across different levels and areas in order to fight against Albert VII and rescue his friend!

From that point, you’re thrown straight into the game – so let’s get into it.

Gameplay

Sami, this little… dinosaur or some sort of reptilian doesn’t simply rely on walking, running, and jumping in order to traverse the different levels and obstacles he’ll come across. In fact, he doesn’t walk or run at all. As the title of the game implies, Sami rolls! With a single touch of the control stick, Sami will curl into a ball as his method of moving around. Of course, with different types of topography and surfaces that you’ll be rolling across, those will also have an effect on how you roll around – descending ramps allowing you to go faster, sand slowing down your movement, and ice creating less traction and causing your movements to become slippery, and more. However, you have two abilities to help traverse through these treacherous areas – Sami’s tongue latch and bounce.

While Sami does have the ability to wall jump by getting close to and pressing the jump button in the opposite direction, Sami’s tongue ability allows him to project his tongue out, dragging himself towards walls and flying batons used to somersault towards other platforms. In fact, it can be done to almost any type of surface or object. With this ability, you’ll be able to not only experience exhilarating, usually consistent, and kineticism that allows you to take shortcuts and clear stages faster, but also allows you to save yourself when you’re about to fall off platforms.

Finally, Sami has a bounce that allows him to quickly crash into the ground and get some more jump height. Additionally, it can also be simply used to get yourself back on the ground for recomposition. However, don’t expect to use it against any enemies as Sami touching any enemy in any way will cause him to soar into the air, flailing about. Thus, in this state, you will have to wait for Sami to return into a ball for you to be able to use his bounce to get back onto the ground or his tongue and attempt to grab yourself back into recomposition or attempting to get back onto the stage.

Amongst the first two worlds, the game is pretty easy. The stages are quite straightforward and leisurely introduce the mechanics, while also challenging the player’s sense of timing and momentum. If you want a very leisure experience, you can set the game to Relaxed and not have to worry about the stage timer and get access to multiple checkpoints. However, I decided to play on the Normal difficulty – which means levels have a set time that can be replenished by coins that are lined across the stage and there is about one checkpoint per stage, but the amount does depend on stage length. If you want to make the game easier or more difficult, you can do so at any time from the pause screen.

After the first two worlds, the game increases in difficulty pretty quickly. One example of how this tends to occur is through enemies and recovery time. Since touching an enemy causes Sami to flail into the air, the ability to recover or attempt to will become stripped from you in a lot of instances where the platforms are very thin and you’ll miss it, Sami will latch onto the wall but won’t be close to the edge or be able to grab the ledge due to platform shape, or the out of bounds area is too close. Additionally, because you don’t carry enough momentum during your flail, you’ll also face difficulty attempting to catch up to moving platforms. These factors may cause you, as it did for me, to die a number of times in a row as your ability to recover is impeded by your hurt animation for a tad bit too long. Another example of a huge difficulty spike results from the difference in terrain and angles. While it does make sense that something like rolling across an ice floor will result in a challenge of you having complete uncontested control of Sami, it is difficult to understand what resulted in Sami going completely off the intended direction when using his bounce. Finally, I felt as if there were plenty of instances where Sami’s tongue would reach to platforms and rails that are pretty far away but wouldn’t reach to ones that were closer, thus making the mechanic somewhat inconsistent – especially in instances of using it to recover.

Presentation

As stated at the beginning of this review, Super Sami Roll is a game that I would’ve passed up due to the way it looks. However, there are some surprises in regard to its presentation! Upon starting the game, you’re introduced to a well-done short animation that leads into the title screen. Along with that, you’ll hear some upbeat and energetic music. While the intensity of the title screen art doesn’t carry the same intensity as the animation, the music within the game is just as good as the music of the animation sequence.

If it wasn’t obvious, the game’s menus and UI clearly take influence from Mario and Sonic – two of the biggest platforming franchises. While I do wish Sami had some of its own identity instead, it definitely feels like a respectful tribute as the gameplay and stages do carry a mixture of the essence of Mario, Sonic, and I’d even say Super Monkey Ball as well given the whole rolling aspect.

Final Verdict

While I do think Super Sami Roll is surprisingly fun, it can also be pretty difficult and aggravating at times. However, I don’t play platformers too often so maybe I’m just rusty in comparison to people who do play them often. Nonetheless, Super Sami Roll is a reminder that fun can be found in the most unexpected places.

If this game interests you, the game is available for you to purchase on Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4. Additionally, I’d suggest keeping up with Sonzai Games as the previous game XPLUS Games they provided support on, Smelter, looks pretty cool and the game they’re currently co-developing with XPLUS Games for a 2022 release, Bat Boy, looks to be a 2D action platformer retro-throwback that also has some very kinetic aspects.