Rocket Leagues Basketball Game Mode Is Still Wonderful.
Guest Contribution
Boom Shacka Locka.
Imagine, playing a game where you play rocket car soccer (basically), but then instead of soccer the developers create a game mode that is essentially rocket car basketball. That is Rocket Leagues Hoops mode in a nutshell. It is high-speed, high-flying action all the time.
This however comes with a new difficulty curve, as those not so great at aerial hits may realize hitting a ball into a floating circular net will be hard to accomplish without a little rocket car athleticism. With that in mind those who aren’t so good at those types of shots can take pride in still scoring a few goals of their own, all the while learning how to be successful at other parts of the game.
It really feels like basketball.
This game mode gives off the true vibe of basketball. Not unlike the vanilla experience of actual soccer, this game modes constant movement back and forth as well as high scoring fast passed action really set the tone and it is a real difference maker. The stadium has even been redesigned to look and feel like a true basketball arena, as the boundaries have been shrunk as well as the height limit added onto, plus the arena around the court looks like a true basketball stadium with a true to style looking megatron from at the top of the room. Even the ball looks like a basketball just rocket car size.
In the beginning of the game the tip off occurs where the players are spawned in and the ball is sent straight into the air and the players have to fly up and hit it. This can lead to an almost instant score as a perfectly placed starting hit can send the ball right into the rim. Aiming is still key in hoops mode, and it is still required to score most of the time. As there is an actual rim being used and backboard, if you shoot a ball too hard and it ends up smacking the rim and rebounding back towards you or you rifle a shot at the backboard and it again ends up rolling back to where you were or over the goal itself you tend to kick yourself.
Continuing on things that make the atmosphere so great are just the wonderful sounds. Hitting the ball of the rim sounds like doing the exact same thing in real life. Tires make squeaking noises as the stop fast and land as the playing surface is wood. Just the wonder of sound is stupendous. To top it al of the announcer loves yelling “Slammmm Dunkkkkk!” or variations of that after every score.
It is free.
The best part about this is the whole game mode is free if you own rocket league. In true Psyonix[the developer] fashion it seems, the only thing you have to pay for if you want is an NBA flag pack that allows you to sport your favorite NBA team as a cosmetic flag that counts how many “dunks” you get in the new game mode. Interestingly, you also get a neutral NBA logo flag for free as well; although my only assumption is it is a way for those who do not pay to track their dunks.
Some improvements need to be made
Not everything is sunshine and rainbows however. Unfortunately, due to the fact that it is a non ranked game mode at the moment people tend to quit games when they go down by two pints or more. This causes the issue where AI cars who aren’t programmed to play basketball are sent to play for your team, genuinely not knowing what to do in the most basic situations. This coupled with when people join and quit AI cars explode leaving any semblance of what they were doing useless as they now can’t continue what they were doing makes the whole mode one sided after just one quit. This should hopefully be improved before long, but let’s hope a ranked Hoops mode comes to us and this problem is mitigated.
All in all this is a great new mode that is definitely worth taking a gander at. It’s fun, exhilarating, and frustrating, but like its base game the good moments from success definitely outweigh the bad moments of defeat.
Yes by the way, I am KayotikSaint. It is a dumb username I made in High School and due to PSN not allowing you to change your username it shall remain the same.
Feel free however to add me on PSN if you’d like, and follow me on twitter @AustinFound1 (I have no shame in self promotion)
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