App of the Week: Rocket League

In 2008 a new kind of sports game was born. Football with cars. And now, 7 years later, it has returned. Introducing... Rocket League. This week’s app is a game that mixes the world of competitive football, with acrobatics, and believe it or not, Monster Trucks. Rocket League was born in 2008 as the game Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars – which is an awesome, if hard to remember name. The game understandably won itself a dedicated community of fans. Now, its game is back with an easier to remember name and improvements mechanical improvements to add further polish to the already hilariously over the top action. Hugely important to this equation are the game’s fantastic physics. As your car careen around the arena smashing into the ball, the game perfectly simulates what the ball would actually do, enabling you to easily track and predict the results of each of your actions. Your massive car can be driven at impressively high speed, but that isn’t all it can do, a boost propels it still faster forward, while a jump option will pop it upwards, allowing to make it spin and twist in the air, before coming crashing down on to your opponents cars. If all of this speed and areal fun still isn’t bombastic enough for you, do not worry – because scoring a goal will see the ball explode. The game Rocket League also has a multiplayer options – making it the perfect game to play with friends. While you can play alone against rather lackluster bots, I quickly gravitated towards the online with teams of up to 4 cars per side and the local split screen when I had friends nearby. To help you enjoy online play, there is a fantastic match making system that will automatically pair you with players of the same skill level and even offers to option to square off against opponents playing on PS4. Not only does it offer frantic fun, but it also looks fantastic. Its developer has offered you the chance to fully customize every aspect of your car. Colors, decoration, paint work, body, vehicle type, and name can all be edited and tweaked to create your dream ride. So make your machine, and start showing it off online. While there are plenty of arenas - or should that be pitches - already available in the game to choose from in the game, more are promised from the game’s creators, who have promised that they will not overcharge for them. Put simply, this game is guaranteed to make you laugh.