Hello Kitty: Roller Rescue

"A great pick for a Sanrio fan."

As a fan of the ever-cute Sanrio characters and the Gamecube, Hello Kitty: Roller Rescue was hard for me to pass up. After playing it, I almost wished that I had. But there were things pulling me back, too.

First of all, as you've probably already guessed, this game is not for the obsessive gamer. Being Hello Kitty, it has basically no difficulty at all. You can even almost beat the final boss by standing still. But if you like Hello Kitty or you're not just very good at games, this might be the perfect thing for you.

Gameplay

Let's start here, as it's the most important thing. You control Kitty as she travels through different stages saving her friends from a bunch of blocks. She is constantly wearing in-line roller skates, and it feels like it as you move. She sways back and forth a bit as you move forward. But is this distracting from the gameplay? Actually, no. Roller Rescue actually has great controls. Moving Kitty around feels very natural and easy, and there are no glitchy or difficult parts. You can also jump, double jump, and attack. The attacks can be done at certain times to create attack combinations (like jump, double jump, attack will cause Kitty to shoot an energy ball toward the ground from above her enemies). You can also do a couple of special attacks with the Y button when your special attack meter is full.

The controls are very fluid and comfortable. There are many times in which you'll have to figure out a combination of moves (usually just double jump) to get up to a ledge or something.

While a lot of reviews claimed that the game was part platforming action and part puzzle, the "puzzles" in the game are extremely weak. Usually the hardest puzzle is nothing more than following arrows to the next button (usually Keroppi is on the intercom telling you exactly what to do in each "puzzle".)

A more interesting aspect of the gameplay is your helpers. As you rescue your friends throughout the worlds, some of them will join up with you and become helpers. They follow you through your adventures (or you can choose to fight alone) and battle enemies with you. Some helpers like Runabouts the car and Pochi, Badtz-Maru's pet alligator, will attack the enemies directly. Some helpers have a more indirect attack, like Purin's flan toss that stops enemies from attacking you for a bit. There is even a healer helper, Melody, who gives Kitty sweets to regain her energy throughout the level.

Not only do these helpers assist you, but you can find "power up" items for them that in a way give them experience points. Grab enough of a specific helper's power up item (like flans for Purin or supercapes for Pochi) and they will level up, increasing their stats (attack, speed, and parry). You can max them out at level 3, which adds a little depth into the unlocking/completion to the game.

Which is the next fun part that kept me playing Roller Rescue: completion. While not everyone is as obsessive about it, we all at some point love trying to collect all the items, get all the trophies, or something like that in a game. Hello Kitty has plenty of unlockables to keep a completionist satisfied. The first thing that you can collect are outfits. Beating levels and things usually get you an outfit, but there are some outfits that you must perform special or secret acts to unlock (sometimes the game hints to these). You can change Kitty's outfits to anything you have unlocked and wear it as you play the game. There are also two extra weapons outside of Kitty's starting wand to unlock.

You can also unlock profiles of all the characters you meet, all of the FMV cutscenes, and all of the music soundtrack. Once you've encountered these things in the game, you can buy them with the coins you collect through the levels. This doesn't just mean you go through the game then buy them all; some cutscenes or characters will not be found if you just play through the game normally. You'll actually have to uncover the secrets to finding them.

While some things are hidden or difficult to find, though, anyone who has some skill with a Gamecube controller will be able to breeze through the game, and only minimal thinking is required to find the secrets (although, there are two outfits that I can't unlock for the life of me). So if you like collecting regardless of difficulty, you'll love getting everything in Roller Rescue.

Either way, this game is fun. If you need a challenge or get bored with easy games, it won't be fun for you -- but if you just want to play around, look at Sanrio characters, and unlock things, you'll enjoy Roller Rescue.

Sound/Graphics

The sound in this game is not much. Some of the background musics are really fun to listen to, and some of the sound effects are okay, but a lot of it is just kind of there, and it won't really stand out to you. Also, there is a lack of voice in this game. I was expecting Kitty and friends to actually talk to each other, but all of the dialogue is completely text (and sometimes there is a lot of text, so this game might not be the best thing for children who are just learning to read).

The graphics, on the other hand, are amazing. If you like Sanrio, this game is definite eye-candy for you. All of the characters and environments look great. There are very few problems with things like camera angles or glitchy graphics. The FMV cutscenes are amazing, and they play beautifully with no skipping or strange errors in them.

Everything Else

I would go over the story of this game, but it's not much. Your friends and family are all around the town trapped by different members of the block clan, and you have to go find them and help them out. The block clan is trying to take over Earth and destroy it, plain and simple. So your second task is to work with your friends to save the planet.

The game difficulty, as I stressed, is non-existent. You can complete the game in five or six hours, and unlock everything in around ten. I have about 15 gameplay hours on my file, and I have unlocked everything (but those two confusing outfits) and maxed out my helpers and coins.

Overall

It was hard to decide a rating for this game. Considering what it is, it is pulled off very well. I want to give it an 8 or 9, but it's misleading. That's only an 8 or 9 for a Hello Kitty game. As a game on its own, it's not that great, but the graphics, characters, and gameplay really pull it up away from its simplicity and such. So I decided to go with a seven.

So is this game for you? Well, $30 is a bit steep for just getting to see Sanrio characters. I'd wait until it got a lot cheaper, but if you like Sanrio and Hello Kitty and don't mind a very easy game, you will love this game very much. Of course, if you're not much of a Sanrio fan or if you're looking for at least a little challenge, stay away from Roller Rescue. But as long as you think you'll like it, it's not the number one game to go out and buy, but if you can find it for a good price and you have the extra cash, go ahead and pick it up. You'll enjoy it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/04/05