Rollcage (PlayStation)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.2 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Joe Fielder
• Reviewed on: 04/06/1999
• Updated on: 05/02/2000
• Released on: 03/31/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: Rollcage (PlayStation) Review

As Namco's Soul Blade was a fix for fans between installments of the Tekken series, so is Psygnosis' Rollcage a fix between installments of the Wipeout line. It's a very similar animal to Wipeout and Wipeout XL, in fact. It's a futuristic racing game where you pick up weapon, shield, and speed power-ups to help you race past or vex your competition. The main differences from the Wipeout series are that you're now piloting a four-wheeled vehicle that can drive on walls and ceilings, and the game isn't nearly as good.

The meat and potatoes of Rollcage is its championship mode. In it, you'll race in three different leagues on three difficulty settings, choosing from a variety of four-wheelers that vary by top speed, strength, acceleration, and tire grip. Other options include time attack mode, practice mode, two-player split-screen races, and two-player split-screen deathmatches.

It's very easy to get spun around within a race, and that's something that makes Rollcage a little tough to get into at first. Bumping into an obstacle at high speed will send you flying and spinning. Coming up against an opponent tire-to-tire will likely turn you around. Touching a wall can make you flip back. It's a maddening feature of the game, until you get used to the controls and how quickly you can right yourself once you know how. There's a single button that will turn you around the right way when playing on the easy difficulty setting, which lets you concentrate on the other elements of the race. While this spinning problem can be surmounted, there's another that can't. The real fatal flaw in Rollcage is that there are tons of areas that you'll get stuck in, causing you to lose many valuable seconds. This frustrating experience (which is a lot more irritating than losing all momentum by touching a wall, like in the original Wipeout) happens so often that it takes a lot away from the game.

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