Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game review

If you combined Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater with Mirror’s Edge, you’d likely end up with something like Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game. Created by a sole developer going by the studio name MLMEDIA, it allows you to live out your parkour dreams across several maps set in various environments. And if you really want to show off your prowess, there are various time trial and trick rush challenges to complete, which will allow you to unlock a range of customisation items for your free-runner.

On paper, Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game sounds like a hoot. I bet there are many of us who find parkour impressive, but would never dare jump from building to building in real life or even try to perform a wall-run. This is a game that lets you do both of those things, and more, from the comfort of your home without the chance of even sustaining a scratch. Cool, huh?

The problem is, while Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game is easy to pick up, it’s tricky to master, and that might alienate some of its audience. Especially so considering that its mechanics are particularly deep; it’s just that sometimes they don’t seem to work all that well. There are times when you might boost jump from a small wall to a ledge, for example, only for your free-runner to simply not grab on like they should. And performing a wall-run is made trickier than it should be due to you needing to be positioned just right next to the wall, otherwise your free-runner might just try to climb it instead.

It’s issues like this that take you out of the experience, and make completing the game’s single-player time trials and trick rush challenges more frustrating than they should be. The time trials also rely on you to perform combos so you can make use of the speed boost afforded by a full adrenaline meter at times, which feels a little harsh. Still, for those who put the effort into mastering Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game, these challenges should prove rewarding to overcome.

Where this game will really shine for most, though, is in its multiplayer features. You can hang out with strangers if you want, or you can set up a game with friends and simply enjoy taking part in a bit of laid-back parkour, showing off your skills to each other. You can make things competitive if you want, too, and set up a tag or tricks battle, or play capture the flag.

Add in other neat features such as being able to play from both first and third-person viewpoints, change the time of day at will, and turn into a pigeon to fly around each map and resume your parkour activities from pretty much anywhere, and you can tell that Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game has been a labour of love for its developer. It’s just a shame that, mechanically, it’s a bit iffy at times, and when you can’t be confident that the buttons you press will result in the actions you want to perform, it’s not all that fun.