Rematch

Rocket League without the wheels — what will they think of next?

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For its first foray into sports-sim territory, fighting-genre specialist Sloclap has borrowed liberally from Psyonix’s vehicular mutation of football to mould its own highly idiosyncratic hybrid: six-minute matches, no fouls or offsides, physics tweaked for maximum on-pitch chaos. Yet, paradoxically, Rematch’s exaggerated heroics, breakneck pace and flagrant disregard for the rules of the sport may capture the essence of the beautiful game far more accurately than the endlessly iterated template established by FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer.

To create an accessible, replayable football sim, Sloclap has homed in on a simple fact. Even prior to Rocket League, some of the most fondly remembered examples of the genre, such as Kick Off and Sensible Soccer, were those that foregrounded the gap between plan and execution. Visualise this: you're in a pocket of space just inside the 18-yard box. Your winger has drawn both defenders toward them before launching a cross. An image starts forming in your head: the second-touch shot rocking the back of the net; your player knee-sliding in celebration. Only that tableau disintegrates in the split second it takes for the ball to bounce off your shin, sending the opposing sweeper (who, a heartbeat ago, looked half a pitch away) hurtling towards your goal, while you scramble to avert the counter.