TechRadar Verdict
Rocket Racing is a rock-solid arcade racer that’s lacking in the personality department. Its main hook isn’t exciting enough to base a whole game around, and the selection of tracks offered up at launch is pretty forgettable. Still, the core racing is great, and hopefully, with future updates, Rocket Racing may come into its own.
Hyper-polished racing
Great original soundtrack
Expert tracks are a lot of fun
Novice and Advanced tracks don’t show off the game’s main hook
Generic art style and track design
Item Shop vehicles are way too expensive
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Platform reviewed: PS5Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, AndroidRelease date: December 8, 2023
Rocket Racingis another major game to launch withinFortniteat the end of 2023, in what was a landmark period for the ongoing blockbuster title.Rocket Racingis being worked on by Psyonix, the folks behindRocket League, and actually shares a lot with the popular car football game. The result is as slick and polished as you’d expect, but like the other two newFortnitegames to arrive alongside it,Rocket Racinglacks its own sense of identity. It’s a competent racer that simply fails to stand out against its competitors - but there is hope on the road ahead.
Psyonix has made a smart choice withRocket Racing, taking the belovedRocket Leaguebrands and folding it into a reasonably straightforward arcade racing experience. If you buy a skin inRocket Racing, you can use it inRocket League, for example, and many of the racing mechanics are just retooled versions of the moves you can pull off inRocket League. Because of this familiarity, given you’ve playedRocket League,of course,Rocket Racing’s drift-heavy gameplay clicks almost immediately. The key to winning a race is delightfully simple: just be faster than the other players. There are no items and very few gimmicks to be found inRocket Racing, with races primarily focusing on skill and map knowledge.
There are 26 launch tracks to race through inRocket Racing, split into Novice, Advanced, and Expert difficulties. One of the main issues with progression is that if you want to go down the ranked route, you’ll only really play Novice tracks for the first couple of hours. These are stripped-back affairs, lacking any of the zero-g twists and turns that comprise the game’s main hook. You see, the cars inRocket Racingcan air-dodge and stick to surfaces, gravity be damned. In Expert levels, this neat mechanic is used plentifully, resulting in some very fun racing indeed. The tracks at lower difficulties? Well, they’re less engaging. Simpler tracks focus on drifting, which does get old very quickly. It all feels a bit like item-lessMarioKart. It’s exciting for a select few, but not really how most people would choose to play the game.
A challenge a day
Thankfully, you can choose tracks to jump into from the get-go, if you want to experience the Expert tracks sooner. As a complete offering,Rocket Racing’s tracks suffer from the lack of identity present in the overall game. I have played each track at least four times apiece, but I would struggle to tell you my favorites or even distinguish between most of them. The soundtrack, meanwhile, is excellent, hitting a sweet spot between the drum and bass of the 2000s and some of the more electro-heavy leanings of theRocket Leaguesoundtrack.
Given thatRocket Racinglives withinFortnite, its vehicles can be applied to use in the Battle Royale Mode. New vehicle skins can be purchased in the Item Shop, and I must say, the prices are absolutely egregious. A whopping 4000 V-Bucks (a 5000 V-Bucks pack costs $19.99) will get you a new car and some decals. This is well out of parity with the Lego and mainFortniteofferings in the store, though perhaps this has something to do with the prices inRocket League. Regardless, it turns an approachable racing game into something a bit more pricey, which I think misses the mark.
By dodging while in the air, you’ll flip yourRocket Racingcar left, right, up, or down. This can be used to propel yourself onto walls and ceilings, where you can drive in zero gravity. Building on this, some ofRocket Racing’s best moments involve switching between these planes of racing.
Rocket Racingdoes have Daily Challenges, Quests, and even Battle Pass rewards, giving players something to work towards while racing. Unfortunately, the game does not have its own Battle Pass and instead shares its rewards as part of the mainFortniteBattle Pass. In fact, the first Rocket Racing Battle Pass unlock doesn’t arrive until level 82 out of 100, making it pretty inaccessible to most players.
Not so special
Currently,Rocket Racingis running its Season Zero, so it has yet to launch what one assumes, or hopes is a more robust set of progression features. It’s the future where things look brightest forRocket Racing, with user-created tracks, leaderboards, and further customization options all teased for later down the line. Hopefully, once the first major update hits,Rocket Racingwill start to feel a bit more like a full game, and less like aRocket Leaguecollaboration withinFortnite.
Rocket RacingsharesFortnite’s accessibility settings, which means they’re slightly too buried in menus. Still, there’s a sound visualizer, completely remappable controls, as well as some HUD scaling options.
While future updates will go a long way to making Rocket Racing feel like a worthwhile proposition, the game has a real problem with its sense of identity. The art style is generic, the tracks are forgettable, and the core racing hook is not exciting enough to make a splash. This will be trickier to remedy moving forward, but for now, at least, Rocket Racing is polished enough to recommend to those looking for a new arcade racer. Something is missing, however, and I suspect that feeling will persist until the community gets its hands on the upcoming creation tools. Until then, so far, so unremarkable.
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Jake is a freelance writer who currently works regularly with TRG. Hailing from the overcast shores of Brighton in the United Kingdom, Jake can be found covering everything from features to guides content around the latest game releases. As seen onNME.com,Eurogamer.net, andVG247.com, Jake specializes in breaking games down into approachable pieces for guides, and providing SEO advice to websites looking to expand their audiences.
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