If one was to ask me my favorite genre of games, I'd likely say the 3D Platformer. As such, I watch Nitro Rad a lot, and generally respect his opinions. I've certainly disagreed with him, but he's introduced me to games like Hypnospace Outlaw, Anodyne 2, and of course, Glover, the magnum opus of humanity. Anyway, when he made a video about Super Sam Raimi Roll, I decided to wishlist and eventually stimulate the economy by purchasing it.

And uh... This game is surprisingly great. Most indie 3D Platformers are fairly underwhelming, but this one nails almost everything gameplay wise. Your core moveset is fairly simple: You can roll around, jump, do a ground pound bounce akin to SA2's, and the tongue whip that Sam Raimi can be seen doing on the game icon thingy. You have to use these moves to run through some sixty odd linear stages. Be quick though, because each stage has a time limit, and oftentimes these can be pretty strict. Or not if you play easy mode. I actually played the hard mode, which had no checkpoints, so the game was fairly difficult for me overall, but you can change difficulty at any time with no penalty, which I'm sure many will appreciate.

There's two main collectibles: These yellow gems that give you a bit more time to complete the stage and one raspberry in each stage. They can be difficult to get on occasion, but if you collect it and die you'll retain it. Both of these can be used to unlock some new looks, modes, items, and stage secrets. Anyway, I really like the way they health, or rather, the lack of it. Getting hit by an enemy/obstacle will just send you flying up a little for around two seconds. That may not seem like a big deal, but two seconds could be the difference between completing the stage and not. It also puts you at risk to fall off the stage, the only other way to die besides a timeout. It's just a cool simplification of the idea of health in a 3D Platformer.

In general, everything is pretty streamlined. There's no boring combat sections, a very simple level select screen, and a classically phoned in story. Way too many 3D Platformers are insecure and shove in a lot of annoying minigames, so I gotta appreciate that. However, there are bosses, and they're pretty underwhelming. For the most part, it's the same 3-Hit system Platformers have been using for decades, and they don't really use the moveset in any interesting ways. This is probably the only notable gameplay stumble aside from a few level design nitpicks I have.

The other thing holding this game back is a lack of theme or unity. I said the story was 'classically phoned in', and yeah, it is. An ape kidnaps Sam Raimi's friend, so he goes after him. The presentation switches between 8-Bit still image cutscenes/level selects and the 3D levels. The worlds are kind of themed, but aside from said themes being very basic, sometimes the backgrounds and level assets clash. The gameplay is really the only cohesive element. A game like Streets of Rage 4 also has a pretty basic and miminalized story, but its presentation really sells the idea of it being a 90s revival with its comic book artstyle. Considering this game seems to be a spiritual successor to the obscure N64 series Chamelion Twist, they could've attempted something involving that? At the very least, better presentation would've helped, although I'm sure the team did the best they could.

But yeah, this is actually one of the best 3D platformers I've played. 8/10.