Rolling Hero Review

If you can't tell from the images, Rolling Hero is a charming and colorful new game from Chillingo. Really, this is something you can set your watch to. It's as if the only guarantees in life are death, taxes and a cute Chillingo title. In the case of this game, we have a hero that rolls around on the ground and must save his girlfriend. Why? Well, because he doesn't have any arms or legs and she's in trouble! Sounds like a rolling hero is just what this situation calls for.

Right after starting up the game, the premise is laid out for you: our little yellow rolling hero must save his girlfriend from the evil Redman. Sounds just like the classic video game premi... wait a second. The evil Redman? Yeesh, Chillingo. I hope that's a reference to one half of the notorious rap duo. Either that, or one of the developers who adapted this old flash game must be a diehard Cleveland Indians fan. Aaaaanyway.

The rolling hero of Rolling Hero has just found out his lady has been kidnapped. Now there's only one thing left for him to do: start rolling! And you get to help by turning his world upside down. No, no ... put those glow sticks away. That doesn't mean you get to head to the Mediterranean island of Ibiza and enjoy to the latest tunes from that Tiesto character. Not that kind of rolling. Instead, you must rotate the 48 different worlds of Rolling Hero, tilting them back and forth to help guide our little yellow blob of heroism to the end point.

The controls are as simple as this premise sounds. When you tap the left side of the screen, that's the direction the level will rotate and our rolling hero will slide down the slope you just created. You must tap either side of the screen, rotating the world to guide him to the level's exit. More or less, the gameplay is like a side-screen view of those old marble maze toys, only with a bunch of dangers in the way.

While the core gameplay doesn't deviate from this simple concept, the levels get more and more complex as you move through the five different worlds of Rolling Hero. In any level, you can usually get to the exit easily enough.

But the further you are in the game, the tougher it gets. And you will also eventually have to snag a key that will unlock the exit. The key is, unsurprisingly, never conveniently placed. You can also collect flowers that are randomly scattered throughout certain levels.

While it's not that hard to make it to the exit of most levels, the flowers provide the real challenge of Rolling Hero. If you're an obsessive completionist like me, the only way to fully complete a level is to collect all the flowers.

Doing so really requires you to map out a route and figure out the puzzle of each level. But you can save all that for after you've rescued your girlfriend. She'll probably want some flowers anyway after you let her get kidnapped, you negligent monster.

Likely because it's a polishing up of a flash game, Rolling Hero is a simple and fun little game. In a somewhat refreshing turn, there are no extraneous trappings to be found -- no skins to unlock or extra levels available for an in-app purchase.

What you see is what you get. And what you're getting is a well-made little puzzler that makes for a solid bit of time killing. Rolling Hero isn't trying to re-invent the wheel, but there's good variety and solid game mechanics on display here. And it's all packaged with that signature Chillingo sheen of cuteness that pretty much anyone can enjoy.

App Store Link: Rolling Hero for iPhone and iPad | By Chillingo | Price: $0.99 | Version: 1.0 | 73.7 MB | Rating 4+