by Amr (@siegarettes)

Roof Rage has a strong pitch. It brings the aesthetics of Asian martial arts films and melds them with the acrobatic combat of platform fighters. It feels almost obvious. It helps that each of the genres have become so culturally ingrained. The flow of the game feels familiar thanks to my time with games like Smash Bros and Rivals of Aether, and each character front loaded a lot about how they play through the use of martial arts archetypes. It’s mostly successful, though it stumbles at times, failing to interrogate certain aspects, or communicating its ideas inconsistently.

Roof Rage’s biggest inconsistency is in its theme itself. It tries to deliver as many flavors of East Asian martial arts as possible, but it relies on the symbology and archetypes of each style a bit too much. Despite lengthy biographies, characters rarely feel like more than a stand in for their genre–there’s the old kung fu master, the wuxia spear wielder, the samurai–each lacking specificity to the point where they sometimes come off as caricature. And when they do diverge it only stands out more: Hoon, the taekwondo artist, is really a take on Street Fighter’s Ryu, Thyra is clearly a lady Thor, and Leon…well he’s Jean Reno’s character from the film Leon the Professional, equipped with a variety of assassination tools, including several firearms. It’s not that their inclusion isn’t fun, rather its that they draw attention to the other inconsistencies with the use of the East Asian aesthetics, and make it feel that much more disjointed. My feelings here get complicated fast, but suffice it to say the cast feels more like something out of a Shadowrun tabletop campaign than the films that inspired them.

What I do have clear feelings on is the combat. There’s a strong sense of weight here. Hits inflict big stun, and the sound design, hit pause, and visual effects sell it. Roof Rage also has clear focus on combos. Those stun times frequently allow you to link other attacks and juggle opponents to inflict more damage. Leon even has the nasty ability to juggle enemies a half-screen away if his bullets are timed right. To counter-balance this there isn’t much in the way of “jabs”, or quick hitting attacks that allow you to safely push into your opponent’s space. There’s definitely moves that are quicker and safer, but many attacks will leave you open enough that a smartly timed dodge or block will get you in trouble. A perfectly timed block will even stun the attacker, leaving them unable to move for a second or two, enough time to set up a decent combo.

Paired with a more traditional health bar system (as opposed to the popular damage percentage style), this gives Roof Rage a more considered style than other platform fighters. It gives you more leeway than the one shot kills of other local competitive games, but still allows attacks to keep a sense of lethality. The precarious stage layouts also keep you moving, as solid footing is sparse, and gets sparser as more players are added. You’ll have to make good use of aerial attacks and wall jumps to stay alive. It’s generally a good balance, and offers enough of those moments that communicate the intense choreography of the films it takes from, even if it doesn’t always allow for the most dramatic comebacks.

There are a some other inconsistencies that get in the way, however. There are moves that behave in unpredictable ways, which can cause some frustration in the heat of battle. Hoon’s forward attack (even now I’m not sure which one is triggering it) can turn into a grab that throws opponents in the opposite direction, and Leon’s air special, which launches him upwards while shooting bullets, can be a bit confusing. As far as I can tell you can pull it off by attacking both up and down, though if your aim is slightly off it’ll turn into an upward version of his forward special, a grappling hook that will leave you limp in the air without an option to recover, which caused quite a few deaths. 

There’s a few small problems like that throughout the cast, with not all characters having a special attack for a certain direction, or having variants on them that lead to unexpected results, and it leads to a sense of inconsistency that makes it feel like you’re not always in control. There is a movelist, and with practice it’s something you can used to, so it probably won’t bother long term players as much. But that, and a few other conveyance problems, like which part of buildings can be fought on, or where there are breakable wall to open up parts of the stage, does harm Roof Rage’s ability to be picked up and immediately enjoyed, since it introduces complications that aren’t immediately intuitive.

There’s a solid core here, and it should be noted that Roof Rage is currently in early access, so nothing is set in stone yet. As it stands, it’s a promising and satisfying multiplayer game, and a welcome addition to the platform fighter genre.