Ubisoft's Roller Champions is getting a closed alpha next week

Remember Roller Champions? It was, by far, one of the coolest games announced at E3 last year, and now Ubisoft have organised a closed alpha on PC starting next Wednesday to give players a chance to check it out. Roller Champions is basically a 3v3 roller derby with some basketball thrown in, and it looks so colourful and different to a lot of the other stuff Ubisoft are trying to sell us, I personally can't wait to give it a go.

Matt had a play of Roller Champions at E3 and he had an absolutely wonderful time:

"By the 27th minute, due to a series of terrible shots and failed passes where we just about managed to keep control, I was skating up to the hoop with the ball in hand. I passed to my pal, moments before being tackled to the ground. My pal passed once more, avoiding the same fate – and then finally, FINALLY, our third teammate scored. We erupted," he wrote.

"It was joyful in a way I can’t properly convey, and I’m positive I'll never be able to replicate."

The upcoming alpha will let you customise your skaters, use some funky tackling moves, and play across the three different arenas. Unfortunately, the progress you make in the alpha will reset when the game releases fully, but you will get a special in-game outfit to show off that you managed to get into the alpha in the first place.

If you don't manage to get into the closed alpha you'll be put on a waiting list to get into the closed beta instead. We don't know when that'll be yet, but the devs seem to have everything rolling along now, so it's probably not too far off.

You may have already had a little go of Roller Champions during E3 too, because the developers dropped a pre-alpha demo to the public shortly after it was revealed. Other than that though, they've been pretty quiet on it up until now.

All of this lovely alpha and beta business is happening on PC, though when the game is released it will be available on consoles and mobile, too.

The closed alpha runs from Wednesday 11th March at 4pm GMT, to Monday 23rd March at 8pm GMT. It'll be available on PC via Uplay, and you can sign up for a chance to play over on the Roller Champions website.