My love for Rocket League has been well documented. Ever since I started playing last year it has been my go-to quick-play multiplayer title, all thanks to its evergreen gameplay and spectacular presentation. It doesn’t matter that I’m not the best at aerial play (although I’m getting better) or that I sometimes hilariously overshoot the ball. The important thing is that the mash-up of driving and football never stops being fun, even when I’m losing.
Then again, this love affair shouldn’t be too surprising. It was only a few years ago that my go-to multiplayer was the Grifball mode in Halo, with my former Dealspwn comrades Matt and Jon by my side. The combination of American Football with laser swords and giant hammers was never dull, and more importantly it was just as skill based as Rocket League. Sure, we weren’t always the greatest team, but it allowed for some epic moments of glory (and we were undefeated in 2014… allegedly.)
While Jon has since gone on to his dream job of educating stupid jellyfish*, Matt and I have kept the team spirit alive in Rocket League. The recent addition of the Hoops game mode, which switches the gameplay from Football to Basketball, was something I wasn’t convinced would work. Thankfully I was proven very wrong as it is now my mode of choice. Not only has it forced me to improve my aerial game, but I feel that it allows for some of the most epic (or ridiculous) goals and displays of co-ordinated (or fluky) teamwork. The highlights video at the top of the post, put together by Matt, very clearly demonstrates all of this.
While I’ll concede that Rocket League doesn’t have the audience of MOBAs and the likes of Hearthstone, I do think there’s more than enough life in Psyonix’s multiplayer title. All they need to do now is add a ranked version of Hoops and I’ll be a very happy dunker.
* May or may not be factually accurate.