Embarrassingly bad netcode and collision detection issues only serve as icing to a cake that hasn't baked for long enough. There just isn't enough depth here to actually encourage dedicated playtime outside of the easy battle pass XP that it rewards with few ways of meaningfully competing and outmaneuvering other players outside of getting lucky if they happen to screw up. Unlike LEGO Fortnite and Fortnite Festival which at least have the groundwork for something more interesting to potentially come in their futures, Rocket Racing is lacking something that could meaningfully keep the mode going long-term unless something changes fundamentally at its core. Whether that's adding items or something, I don't really know, but I just can't see myself wanting to actively play this for fun outside of an easy daily or two for the foreseeable future if something doesn't change soon.

Mixed feelings. Game plays great and is actually really fun, but as you climb the online ranks you start getting put into more "advanced" tracks all of which are the exact same tracks you've been playing but with tons of stupid orange hazard blocks scattered everywhere. Yeah, it's certainly more challenging but it's a lot less fun. The game's at it's best on simple straightforward tracks with lots of interesting shortcuts and hidden boosters that reward using the full movement tools you're given.

Also feels like this mode is almost already dead. Epic is stil pushing Lego and Festival very hard in promotion but it already feels like RR is being left with a skeleton crew just porting over old Rocket League assets. A real shame.

[2/20/24]

Rocket League trading died for this. Not cool.

When the Big Bang live event happened, the three modes that were revealed all had their own segment showcasing them. Among them was Rocket Racing developed by Psyonix, the same team behind Rocket League. It's not those old Fast & Furious arcade games, but it'll do.

The controls are the most important part, and this falls into the list of arcade racers heavy on drifting. The drifting is good, but only if you're actually pressing the drift button to hit a tighter one. The Mario Kari Wii-ass automatic drift doesn't feel that good, and most tracks are built with the manual drift in mind. You can hit some really good drifts, but they're only on really wide turns. Being able to press the button multiple times for course correction is nice, but the boosts you get from it really only start getting good at the point where the gauge widens. Anything else and you're wasting time. Since this is also based on Rocket League, aerial control is important, too. You get an air roll that you can use to latch onto surfaces or get more air. It uses the same button as drifting, but in the air. Gotta mash that button. I guess drafting exists, too. You crash from the smallest collision at just the wrong angle, too.

Track design benefits from wide turns as I said, but with a handful of themes and variants having glowing red danger zone spheres and boxes, it all feels the same. The early maps sucked.

Psyonix gonna Psyonix, and so the music is of the same breed that Rocket League has. I just put on a DnB playlist, because I got sick of the music real quick.

Out of all three new modes, this was the one I had a hunch was going to be the weakest. With everything we saw from the event, it was easy to assume that the gameplay potential had already been hit. Disappointed to know that I wasn't wrong.