Rocket League

Rocket League

Hayden: Soccer. With. Cars. Rocket League elevates a simple (and admittedly dumb) concept into maybe the best sports game ever made, a tightly tuned experience where rocket-powered vehicles drive (and jump and flip and fly) around an arena trying to get the oversized ball into the oversized net.

Rocket League’s easy enough to pick up and dabble in, but it also replicates the feeling of true team sports better than any Madden/FIFA/NHL/NBA game—rewarding practice, urging you to work with your teammates, and encouraging sportsmanship win or lose.

Wow! Nice shot! Nice shot! Nice shot!

Brad: Hayden summed up the tight, dumb fun of the game already, but I want to touch on a tidbit that makes me love Rocket League even more: Local split-screen support for up to four players. I adore old-school gather-‘round-the-big-screen gaming, but the vast majority of games these days—even Halo 5 on Xbox One!—are ditching local play for online-only solutions. Rocket League bucks the trend and rocks at parties because of it. There’s a reason Valve bundled copies of this game with Steam Machine preorders.