Let’s get this out of the way immediately: this game is going to ruin your life. Rolling Sky is easily as addicting as any of those freemium base simulators, but its even easier to get into and harder to stop playing.
After lulling you into playing “just one more time” for the hundredth or so time, it will also dawn on you: this game is pure evil. We’re talking about difficulty on par or worse than some of those infamous NES platformers. If you have a few dozen (or hundred) hours to spare, you can grab Rolling Sky here:
Rolling Sky Basics
The basic concept on display is incredibly simple. The idea is to roll your ball continuously forward while not falling off the edges and not hitting any obstacles. These obstacles can be literally anything – trees, hammers, big blocks, etc. The only object you ever want to collide with is a gem.
Hey, this looks pretty easy!
That sounds simple enough. Roll around pits and don’t hit things. How hard could it be? The problem is that the terrain is rapidly changing, with floors falling out from beneath you, tiles suddenly shifting position, vast chasms having to be jumped over, etc.
All of this must also be done with your device in vertical position, which may be annoying if you have a large tablet and aren’t playing on your phone.
You can pick any of the levels at any time without having to progress through previous levels, but trust me, you want to start at the beginning before really feeling the pain.
This is where the trauma begins
When you run out of balls (and you will run out of balls), you can get 10 more free by watching ads, or get unlimited by spending a little dough.
Because of how fast the terrain is moving beneath the ball, any lag is immediately deadly, so the better your device’s specs the better you’ll do, and obviously don’t play in battery saver mode.
Most infuriatingly of all, you have to start the level over at 0% each time you lose a ball, no matter how close to 100% you had reached. I hope your phone has accidental or intentional damage insurance.
This is when I started screaming…
Rolling Sky Strategies For Success
First and foremost, always keep your finger on the screen and slide left or right. Don’t ever lift up and set back down, as the ball follows where you are pressing and holding.
In general, its better to make small, minute corrections rather than gigantic ones where you scroll all the way across to the other side, as its too easy to over-correct and end up falling off a gap in the floor.
The exception to this rule occurs in the small number of places where you need to leap from one edge of the screen to the other, like the halfway point of level 3. In this case, you need to very quickly slide from one edge of your device to the other without letting go, which is another way that larger tablets actually make this game harder.
Always pay attention to the color scheme on the floor – this is generally a good indicator as to whether a segment of floor is going to fall away. If there are two obviously different patterns and one of those leads a trail to the end of the area, that’s where you want to go (or not go, as the case may be).
The edges of this segment are going to fall away when you hit them
The closer you get to 100% on any level, the more outrageous the obstacles become. Instead of falling away, the floors might roll left to right and force you to move with it. An apparently clear path with suddenly be flooded with deadly laser beams, and so on.
In areas with rotating obstacles like the hammers that spin, there’s usually one solid path that requires no moving left or right at all. Instead, you can just simply roll straight through between the movement of each obstacle as it passes.
This is usually (but not always) right in the middle. Look for a spot where the obstacles meet and that’s usually where you want to go for a hassle free ride through areas that are otherwise difficult.
Follow the middle rather than wildly spinning left and right
As you play any given level, try different screen finger positions and stick with one. I found that when my finger was near the bottom edge of the screen, I’d accidentally swipe too low when moving quickly and bring up the Android menu.
This is especially critical in later levels, as the speed greatly increases at level 3 and there’s no room for error in having to reposition your finger if it falls off the screen.
Using Different Rolling Sky Tactics
When you get frustrated by a part that seems impossible to pass, try coming from the opposite direction of where you usually lose a ball. For instance, if you are normally rolling from the right and can’t make a jump or slam into an obstacle, re-think your plan and try coming from the left slightly earlier. This can make all the difference.
Those areas where the floors move beneath you can actually become insanely easy if you are coming from the opposite direction, since you will roll right over all the moving parts as the flow under you.
This rolling segment seems impossible – until you hit it from the right angle
It’s All About Memory
Like with the absurdly difficult but addictive Mr. Jump, the idea here is essentially memorization over skill. You just have to learn the pattern and follow it with your finger in exactly the same way each time to hit 100%.
The game’s music changes when the colors on the floor change, and it also gives clues as to when something bad is going to happen, like a laser firing or a giant hammer falling. If you are playing with the volume up, learning the music is useful to memorizing the level’s pattern.
When you hit the right pattern and fully memorize a level, it should only take between 1:30 – 1:50 to beat, which will probably provoke bouts of extreme rage after spending days failing at the harder levels.
Have fun, and don’t smash your phone with a hammer!
