Perhaps it’s the fact that aerial play feels so much easier as that’s absolutely required here. One-on-one and two on two standard versions of the game are here, as is an adaptation of the Hoops mode, which instead of a goal leaves a hoop on each end of the field, requiring you to get the ball off the ground and down through that hoop.Īs someone who never quite took to Hoops in Rocket League, I was surprised by how much I enjoy it here. While Rocket League Sideswipe didn’t bring all the modes the original game has ballooned to have over the years, it starts out with three options for players. While that might be harder to make work in 2D, with the smaller arenas that come with it, it leaves something feeling missing. There’s real incentive to get physical with your opponents. A huge part of Rocket League is interacting with other cars, using them in interesting ways. You can use their vehicles by hitting the ball off them, but that’s the extent of it. You drive right over your opponents, unable to hit them out of the way or knock them off course. The one area that left me cold was the lack of interaction between vehicles. The timing is the most challenging part, but even that feels easier than in Sideswipe’s big brother. Simply point where you want and boost to get up high. You move with your thumb on the left side of the screen while the other side offers a mere two buttons to jump or boost. The game’s touchscreen controls are simple yet highly effective. Even after all these years, I’m only competent at it in the main game, but I felt like a natural in only a few hours in Sideswipe. The good news is that aerial play is far easier to learn here. You’ll need to be challenging foes in the sky regularly if you don’t want them getting far too many easy shots. You’ll never be a pro at Rocket League if you can’t master aerial play, but you can compete if you get good enough on the ground and can get up just enough to make a block now and then, at least until you reach the game’s highest levels. Spending time in the sky isn’t new to Sideswipe, but it’s more important here. If your backline isn’t ready, a bad bounce still can send a ball into the goal within seconds, and players still need to get the feel of rotating down to protect their own goal while leading an effective attack. You’ll boost off the start, perhaps doing a couple of flips along the way to reach the ball first and get a good start on positioning. The second the countdown ends, though, you know you’re playing Rocket League still. Instead, you’ll now play either one on one or two on two, which keeps things a tad bit less chaotic than having six players flying around in what is fundamentally a pretty small area. Gone are the three-on-three matches which were the backbone of the original Rocket League. This is the perfect amount of time to still have the option for strategy and the chance to come back if you get down a couple of goals but still feel comfortable as a pick up and play title on mobile. Matches have been shortened slightly as well, down to a mere two minutes from the five minutes of the original game. While there’s still a goal on either side of the arena, they’re elevated a bit off the ground now, which works better for aerial play and solves the problem of hitting a ball straight ahead into a goal being simply too easy in 2D. Instead of a full 3D arena for you to rocket around in, you’ll now be on a 2D plane. In moving to mobile platforms, a few things had to change, however. Sideswipe might be joining that small group of games. It’s one of the few multiplayer games I still regularly return to. As absurd as that sounds, it’s managed to spawn a game that has held the attention of gamers for over six years now and shows no sign of stopping. Like in the original Rocket League, Sideswipe is still fundamentally soccer with rocket-powered cars. While not a perfect experience, so far, it’s nailing the easy to pick up, hard to master feel the series has become known for. Rocket League Sideswipe instead finds the best of both worlds, creating an original game that is very much its own thing, but which still has plenty of Rocket League DNA to feel just right for players who love Psyonix’s claim to fame. It can truly be the worst of both worlds. If you change things too much, though, you risk not having enough of the original game’s DNA left to pull in fans. Many players would love nothing more than to just see a mobile release for their favorite games, but those games aren’t built to fit the platform and can often end up leaving all but the die-hards cold. Rocket League Sideswipe Review: A Whole New LeagueĪdapting a popular game to play well on mobile is no easy task.
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