PGC London 19: Wreckout is like an arcade Rocket League with a slingy twist for Switch
If there's one thing I like in a game, it's the feeling that I'm quite good at it. That's something I don't get from Rocket League, mainly because I'm utterly appalling at it. Honestly, I spend most of my time upside down or driving into my own team mates. Which is why Wreckout interested me from the start.
It's a futuristic, car-based sports game, but rather than taking place in 3D, it's a top-down scrap instead. And instead of trying to score goals, here you're trying to smash blocks. Essentially this is Rocket League meeting Speedball 2 in an old arcade for a game of Breakout to see who's the best.
You control your little rocket car with the Switch's left stick, grab onto the ball by pressing and holding B, and boose with a shoulder button. There's a lot less to focus on than in Rocket League, and that means you can get to the action that much quicker.
That action is a multiplayer thrash to see who can smash the other side's blocks first. You need to use the momentum of your car to swing the ball around, letting go of the button at the right time to send the ball smashing into the rows of bricks you're trying to destroy.
Your opponent is trying to stop you, using their boost to smash the ball out of your grip, or grabbing it in the air before it does any damage. They can even throw themselves in front of a shot for a desperate block. The whole games feels like it's being played on a knife edge, especially when the clock is ticking down and the scores are tight.
And they're going to be tight, because that's the nature of the game. There's a good chunk of luck here, since the ball is bouncing around - matches can change depending on tiny margins, and that makes things all the more exciting.
There are a few problems here, but they'll hopefully be ironed out before the game makes it to the eShop. Anyone looking for a shorter, sharper, easier to understand version of Rocket League for Switch should definitely be getting excited though.
