Rocket League: The Sleeper Hit Your PS4 Deserves

A few weeks ago, I came upon a link to sign up for the Closed Beta of a game called Rocket League. I didn’t know much about the game at the time and didn’t even Google it, but figured it involved rockets and had a tournament structure, so why not? I’ve been playing Betas of games since as far back as the World of Warcraft Beta, so I figured the worst thing that could happen was that the game would suck and I’d temporarily waste a few gigs of space on my PS4.

I was very incorrect.

As luck would have it, I got into the Beta. After redeeming the PSN code and starting the download, I started to research the game. Rocket League is actually a successor to Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. A game that I’d never heard of, but looked plenty fun. By the time I got here, the game was downloaded and ready to go, so I booted it up.

The game is a 3v3 game of soccer. With rocket-powered cars, of course. After two or three rounds to get the controls down, I started to get my bearings, and was having a blast. The gameplay is very simple: Gas, brake, jump, rocket boost, and power slide. As all good games are though, its easy to control but hard to master! You can check out this Beta montage with NeoGAF thanks to @InfiniteMedium to get an idea of the gameplay:

The developers have even posted an Official Rocket League AMA on Reddit PS4, where I picked up a few key points:

You’ll be able to fully customize your controls. “Rocket League will support full controls customization. Much more than you normally see in a console game.” -Psyonix_Dave

There will be 5-7 Arenas available on release, with all new Arena DLC being free afterwards. “You will never pay for a new Arena/ Stadium in Rocket League. Ever.” -Psyonix_DunhamSmash

There will be car customization. “Our solution is to limit base color to cool/warm colors so you can be orange/red/yellowish on one team and blue/green/purplish on the other.” –Psyonix_Dave “Yes, you can change you wheels/rims.” –Psyonix_Dave “We have skins which are similar to decals. Spoilers are part of the base car model but we have many other attachments.” –Psyonix_Dave

The next beta will begin by May 21, 2015 “Sometime in the next two weeks” -Psyonix_Dave

Local splitscreen and offline gameplay are supported “You’ll be able to do this for Season mode which is our offline single player mode. You’ll be able to play it in splitscreen with your friends against AI teams that have their own logos and players.” -Psyonix_Thomas

Its possible to play 4v4 in private rooms. “We’ll be adding 4v4 matchmaking for Beta 2 since we are expecting to invite more players this time around.” -Psyonix_Thomas



So yeah, I’m excited about Rocket League. It’s fun, supports local splitscreen (which is extremely rare in this generation of consoles), and is already a blast with only a single arena and car available. As of right now there has been no mention of price, but if it comes in at $20 or less I’d tell you to download it right now.

What are you waiting for? Go apply to get into the next wave of the Beta! I need teammates for the next Beta!