‘Rooftop Renegade’ developed by an Australian indie team, Melonhead Games, is a side-scrolling, speedrunning platformer with high-octane parkour gameplay.

The main objective of the game is to speedrun by platforming your way through an environment writhe with hazards to avoid, with some instances being chased by the sinister cyber police. This requires grinding rails, parkour jumping pipes, sliding under electrified gates, and leaping great distances avoiding all the things in place to slow you down.

As you progress you unlock more abilities to help in your parkour journey. A boost, jump, and dash are some of your initial abilities but later on, you will be given extensions to these such as a super jump or invisibility. Each ability has a cooldown though but they quickly recharge in a very short amount of time making zipping through a level even more fast-paced and energising.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much of a story tacked onto Rooftop Renegade. You play as an unknown female protagonist as you outrun Globacorp, a sinister faction of just douchey-looking individuals. It would have been nice to see a loose narrative added as I definitely could see this character as a ‘sticking it to the corporate man’ type. Just a few lines of dialogue would have elevated the experience with a bit more purpose.

The game has 3 modes; Arcade, Generator, and Party. Arcade has 24 levels and with each level are 8 challenges that can be ranked depending on the speed you complete the run. Generator Mode remixes levels based on the type you enter. This was a bit confusing but the randomise that is also included created some interesting levels to just have some good challenging fun. Party mode is a 4 player-local challenge mode (a rare sight in a modern game but so sorely missed) where one runs as others gun down the track trying to capture or hinder the run time of the renegade running.

The most innovative and frankly coolest part about Rooftop Renegade is the evolutions of the environments. Each stage they develop has more and more interesting challenges to your run. The rollout of powers and hazards such as gravity beams and anti rails is at such a nice pace in comparison to the gameplay flow; neither overwhelming nor too slow it gets boring.

The graphics are generally neon on a white or dark background, contrasting perfectly for seeing rails and hazards in your path. The characters themselves aren’t very detailed but the environments are quite interesting in their cyberpunk-ness but they move past too quickly to truly appreciate.

The backing tracks are pretty generic, and the only real in-level music is drowned out by the environmental sounds of powering through rings, rail grinds, and explosions of piping.

Overall, if you want a nice little commendation for this title, it got my stepson off Fortnite to try to beat times on levels and that in itself is an achievement. He really was having fun with this game. This title just shows that you don’t need to overthink or bulk down a game with overwhelming mechanics and that you just need to make it fun. Rooftop Renegade is why I love and respect small indie teams so much.

Written by: Stacey