A game filled with equal parts fun and frustration. It gets even more interesting with Rocket League extra modes. It started simple, you hit a big metal ball with a rocket car and try to get it into a soccer goal. After years of play, you realize it is easy to play, hard master with aerial stunts, trick shots, dribbling, destroying an opponents car, rotation and on.
I can play really well at times, but my consistency is bad. This has me hovering around Diamond rank, but only on extra game modes (those are all I play).
Rumble
When I play, I usually start with rumble. It’s the only mode I’ve managed to crack Champion Rank with. I’ve always loved how it is an equalizer where skill matters, but the right mix of power ups can make the highest rank players look like fools. You have access to power ups at 10 second intervals that you can save or use right away.
Rocket League Extra Mode: Power ups:
- The Boot – you can kick your opponent with a cartoon style boot on a spring. Nothing like going straight for the goal and kicking the goalie out of the way.
- Disruptor (aka booster) – you can force your opponents to boost constantly for a short time. Helpful for forcing a missed shot.
- Freezer – keeps the ball frozen in place for a short time, even in mid air. Great for saving balls that pass you or freezing the ball right in front of the enemy goal for a great shot.
- Grappling hook – pulls you to the ball to guarantee you hit it pretty hard.
- Haymaker – a cartoon style fist on a spring that will hit the ball at whatever angle you are in relation to it.
- Magnetizer – a magnetic field pulls the ball toward your car for a time. Using this in the air moves the ball around you car like a yoyo.
- Plunger – a cartoon style plunger attaches to the ball and pulls it towards your car like it’s on a rubber band.
- Power hitter (aka punch or fist) – put an energy field around your car that allows you to hit the ball much harder and blow up any enemy cars you touch.
- Spikes – shoots spikes out of your car and will “spike” the ball (attaches to the spikes). It task a hard direct hit or sometimes 2 of the other power ups to knock it loose.
- Swapper (aka tele or teleporter) – you swap spots with the opponent car that you target. Great way to pull the goalie.
- Tornado – create a vortex at the base of your car that will suck up and launch the ball or suck up opponent’s cars.
Rocket League Extra Mode: Dropshot
In this mode, there are no goals. The entire floor has panels that will drop if the ball hits them while “charged” with the other sides color. You change the color of the charge by hitting the ball. The harder you hit, the more it charges and the more tiles it will break away when it hits.
Only the ball will drop through the missing panels, so you can drive over them. Time it right and you can land on the ball on the opponents side causing it to bounce and break enough panels to just drop through.
Rocket League Hoops
Goals here are replaced by basketball hoops. There’s a force field around the base of the hoops that the ball will roll up or bounce off of, depending on angle it hits/spin. The ball also has the same physics as a basketball. Cars can drive through that with no problem, though. It takes a whole other set of skills to be successfully in this mode. It’s probably my worst of the 4 modes I play.
Rocket League Extra Mode: Snow Day
The ball here is replaced with a hockey puck and the floor is like ice when the puck slides over it. If you flip correctly onto the puck, you can “pinch” it to launch a high speed slapshot.
Next time I’ll talk about a Rocket League play session that is likely to include frustrating losses and a few funny victories.