Over the years I’ve enjoyed many spherically-based games, dating way back to the arcades and my beloved Marble Madness. Over the years there have been others in that vein, whether the adorable Hamster Ball on PC (my girls still ask to play it), or the likes of the Super Monkey Ball series, and others. Not all of them have been quite the same, and certainly their degree of polish have varied, but I’ve invested some time in ball-rolling titles, enough to know what I like.

While I’d love to say that I really liked Super Rolling Heroes Deluxe, or even enjoyed it, instead I’d say I ended up somewhat indifferent with it. In it you’ll play as a weird spherical little alien, here to crunch through all manner of objects like benches, fences, cars, and more… but who really needs to look out for anything with points on it as they’ll pop you in an instant. So on these generally bite-sized stages you’ll get dropped in, and then try to maneuver around the pointy things while plowing through anything that isn’t, and staying on the lookout for any special pick-ups on the way as well.

The problem is that I can’t say at any point it really captured my interest or started to feel fun. Whether the issue is the relative simplicity of most of the slopes you’ll work though, most of the time feeling quite similar in their general design, the pretty low stakes of everything, or just the controls that feel deliberately hamstrung, it was a pretty underwhelming affair. Whether you choose Normal or Hard honestly doesn’t make a tremendous difference, outside of the level of frustration you’re looking for, since none of it makes the courses you’re working through feel more varied, interesting, or fun. There’s a certain feel and flow to solid arcade-style rollers and this just never felt like it could get into that zone.