mrmarvillo
Since: Aug, 2021
05/16/2022 00:00:00
I know you wrote this all the way back in 2015, but you\'re still right on the money even to this day. They say that simplicity is divinity, and Rocket League does a very good job of proving that. It\'s the reason Super Mario Brothers is as big as it is: it\'s an overall simple concept, but you\'ve got to put a lot of time and effort into it if want to master it. Just like SMB, Rocket League is simple, yet complex. And it\'s a game that people all over the world will be playing for a very long time.
Leave a Comment:
Brilliant in its simplicity
This game sold 5 million copies in less than a month. It's not hard to see why.
Rocket League has the most simple and easily understandable concept in the world: you're playing soccer, but driving an RC vehicle.
That means that if you've played any game at all involving driving a car, you already know how to control the game. If you can understand the basic rule of "knock the ball in the other team's goal", you understand the game's rules. Combine the two together and you have a game that anyone can jump into and play. Lightning-fast loading times also help.
The game also manages to be both family-friendly and seen as "cool" at the same time. It doesn't have cheerful cartoon characters and colorful environs. Admittedly, I like those kinds of things a lot and wish more high-quality games had them. However, despite having a somewhat gritty feel to it, Rocket League is totally family-friendly, with its simple world of RC cars hitting soccer balls into goals. Soccer balls that explode into the color of the scoring team.
The game really overdoes the Orange/Blue Contrast thing, but fortunately you do have the ability to tweak the color of your car to other colors on the spectrum. Orange team cars can be red or yellow. Blue team cars can be cyan or purple. What team they're on is still clear as day, and there's no confusion.
The only real complications come from the jumping, the boost, and the ability to switch between two camera modes: one that follows the ball, and one that follows the player, with an arrow pointing to the ball. My almost-7-year-old nephew preferred the "car" cam, and was able to follow the action quite well, even scoring on occasion against bots.
Another touch of simple brilliance is the game's handling of multiplayer. It can be offline split-screen or online, immediately making it accessible to everyone. I had a 4-player game going in my house once, and we were having a blast playing against (and losing against) bots on high difficulty.
Rocket League is brilliantly simple and an example of the idea that if you want something to appeal to a large crowd, it has to be something they can readily understand and see the appeal in. The appeal is obvious and widespread. How to play is obvious. And the multiplayer is handled excellently. Hence, 5 million sales in less than a month.