What would you say if I told you that one of the best video games this summer is….

Wait for it…..

A soccer game.

You’d be in disbelief, right, especially coming from me, as I’m not the biggest sports-ball fan.

Well, what if I told you it was a soccer game with acrobatic race cars?

Are you in yet?

I was skeptical at first, but Rocket League is a video game that’s in a league of its own. As a friend of mine stated, Rocket League is “a game that no one asked for, but everyone wanted!”

Even though I referred to it as a soccer game, Rocket League can be identified as a soccer game in only two ways. You have a ball, and there are goals. At that point, the similarities cease. The game is extremely simple–there’s a large ball that you punt around with your race cars (by the way, your race cars can jump, flip, and boost on demand, and even temporarily fly!).  All of this action takes place in an arena that curves like a half pipe, on which you can drive up and down, or even jump off of, and there are two large goals on each end of the arena.

Rocket League has a ton of customization options.

The game reeks of its own unique style. You can customize your type of car, decals, flags, and even silly hats. All of these can be unlocked by just playing the game normally. What’s great is that all of these customizations are merely cosmetic, with no effect on the gameplay. Therefore, you can customize to your heart’s content without worrying about it affecting your gameplay experience. My car is currently sporting a sombrero! (because, reasons)

In order to score, you have to judge the angle and speed of how you hit the ball.  Setting up teammates for center shots is a required skill if you ever want to score. The frenetic teamwork that is involved is just intense– the first time I played Rocket League, I found myself jumping out of my chair in excitement as my teammate and I watched the sweet scoring replay. I even fell out of my chair once!

The car physics, boosting, and the ability to flip your car in desired directions feels just right. You can even fly around in a limited fashion if you angle your car correctly and have some boost in reserve. The entire feeling of the game just clicks. One of my favorite features is how when a ball goes into the goal, the goal line explodes and shoots you across the arena. Regardless of whether it’s a celebratory explosion or an explosion heralding a point for your opponent’s team, it’s still fun!

The pacing is intense!

Interestingly, the game also provides cross platform multi-player; PC and PS4 versions of the game can play together! However, currently, there is no way to party up cross platform, but the developer plans on fixing that in the future. The game also offers split screen multi-player, so a friend can join you in local multi-player fun.

The game is a lot of fun and only costs $20 on PC and PS4.  I promise you’ll easily get your money’s worth out of this title! So, go out there and kick some balls… with your car… while doing flips. Doesn’t that sound grand?