GAME CLEAR No. 205 -- Rocket League

Rocket League (2015, Multiplatform)

Developer: Psyonix
Publisher: Epic Games
Clear Version: PS4
Clear Platform: PS5
Clear Date: 1/21/25

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Why should I care?
Rocket League is the only sports video game that exists.

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The new ballgame

This is a pretty funny GAME CLEAR for me. I’ve been playing this game since not long after it launched. I originally played on PC but eventually moved to console as my PC began to age and struggle to run the game as well. At least it’s still good for writing blog posts!

Anyway, at no point during that time was I ever seriously interested in playing the game’s season mode, effectively its only non-training single-player option. Rocket League as an online, competitive multiplayer game is immensely appealing to me. Rocket League as an offline game against dreadfully bad bots is not appealing to me whatsoever!

Platinum trophies, however, do have control over me because I’m a stupid little boy who is susceptible to operant conditioning. The one for this game requires you to complete the season mode. So I finally did. It took very little effort to vanquish my eleven opponents en route to an undefeated championship season, even on the highest difficulty, but it was awfully boring. At least it made a number go up on a meta-gaming platform that may well not exist in ten years. Plus, the game’s credits rolled, so I decided to call this game “beaten” as silly of a notion as that is to me in this case.

I still love Rocket League as it approaches ten years of age. I say it’s “the only sports game” above because it’s the only (popular) one I’m aware of that is 100% based on a real-time physics engine. There are no RNG mechanics like in so many other sports sims to determine whether a shot goes in or a pass is complete, etc. You just gotta fly around and hit the dang ball into the goal. It’s brilliantly tuned and still feels amazing to play. Here’s hoping it’s around for another ten years or more. 🚀