Ready To Rumble: Rocket League’s New Mode Out Today

The new ‘Rumble’ mode for Rocket League [official site] is coming out today, say developers Psyonix, bringing giant boots and springy punching gloves to the beautiful game of car football. The power-ups will add yet more wackiness to the field following the basketball and ice hockey modes that came before it. But there’s also some money-minded stuff included in this update. The “crates and keys” system we heard about in the summer is also being implemented, meaning that crates will sometimes drop after playing competitive matches and to open them, you’ll have to buy a key.

Let’s look at the new mode itself first. There will be eleven randomised power-ups with which to cause a bit of chaos. Here’s a list of them and a description of what they do.

The Boot (Kicks an opponent's car)
Disruptor (Forces the opponent to drive uncontrollably)
Freezer (Freezes the ball in-place)
Grappling Hook (Pulls you toward the ball)
Haymaker (Punches the ball)
Magnetizer (Attracts the ball to your car)
Plunger (Snaps the ball to your position)
Power Hitter (Hit everything harder)
Spike (Attach the ball to your car when you bump into it)
Swapper (Change positions on the field with your opponent)
Tornado (Sweep up the ball and cars into a giant funnel cloud)

We’ve seen a lot of the boots and tornadoes in previous trailers. But I quite like the sound of the Swapper too, which could cause all sorts of problems. Imagine teleporting your car into the place of a goalie and doing an idle donut as the ball - which your displaced opponent could have saved - soars into the net.

Now, about those crates. It’s described as an “optional” feature by the developers. Exactly what that means we’ll have to wait and see, but they have previously said that you will be able to turn off the system completely in the options with a simple tickbox, so it is likely to be that easy to avoid. If you do receive a crate after a competitive match, and want to open it, a single key will cost you $1.49, but you will also be able to buy them in batches – five keys for $5, ten keys for $10, and twenty keys for $20. The money from this “will help fund upcoming esports events and prize pools,” says Psyonix. Things like the Rocket League Championship Series.

The items within will be stuff like exotic wheels, decals and other cosmetic goodies for your wee rocket car, which can also be traded with other players. Although the devs have also distanced themselves from having any kind of Steam Marketplace integration with the crates, probably hoping to avoid the kind of controversy that struck CS:GO with the springing up of gambling websites.

“We are definitely aware of the problems related to third-party gambling in other games,” vice president Jeremy Dunham told Reddit, “and we are not interested in taking that approach.”