Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars (PS3) Review

Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, which will now be referred to as SARPBC is a PSN exclusive developed by Psyonix Studios.

The title was originally released in North America last October, it has only just managed the rocket jump across the pond however, as it was finally released over in Europe this week, but is it worth the wait and £7.99 price tag?

SARPBC is a pretty tough game to describe in words, for example here is Psyonix’s exaggerated description;

“Battle-Cars features several unique rocket-powered cars with incredible physics-based manoeuvrability, including the ability to rocket into the air or accelerate at supersonic speeds on the ground by racing over boost strips, obtaining boost capsules or by performing a rapid succession of acrobatic flips. While in the air, cars can roll, flip, jump, dodge or spin in a freestyle fashion. In the team-based football game, players manoeuvre their vehicles to perform breathtaking saves, awe-inspiring shots and of course achieve supersonic speeds that literally turn your opponents into scrap metal. These abilities, combined with the players’ own creativity and skill create a unique and thrilling experience every time.”

Yeah, you see what I mean?

No worries, I uploaded the usual 720p HD footage that accompanies my reviews; it features a small sample of the mini-games, and some footage of the standard gameplay as well.

The core mode of the game, ‘tournament’ is essentially a football (or soccer) match on wheels.

In single player, you can compete in 13 different tournaments which gradually rise in difficulty, towards the end it can get quite frustrating with 3v1 matches etc.

This mode also makes up the multiplayer section of the game, you get to control things such as number of players (1v1 to 4v4) and you can also choose to play on any of the four arenas in the game.

The game has a decent matchmaking system, where you can opt to create your own teams, create private rooms and join your friends. There are both ranked and unranked modes, along with a mode specifically for people in teams.

There is also an in-game leader board, with the standard stats such as wins and losses, and also more interesting stats such as own goals (not scored one myself, honest).

If variety is the spice of life, then the ‘mini-game’ mode is the jalapeño of SARPBC.

There are 20 different mini-games to play, and they really do add something different to your experience. You have some modes where you will try and avoid being smashed by the other cars in the arena that are out to get you, another mode where you play with a square crate instead of a ball, and my personal favourite where time slows down once you get near the ball.

It is quite disappointing that the mini-games are purely singleplayer, as a few of the variations would make excellent additions to the multiplayer, you just can’t beat the unforeseen things that human players would do.

For both modes on single player, you are rated out of 5 stars for your performance in that arena. In tournament mode, there are 65 ‘points’ in total, and in minigame mode there are a total of 100 ‘points’.

There are several trophies which require you to get x amount of points, it will take a serious combination of patience and nerves to get all the points. In the mini-game mode you can also unlock five different ‘cars’, they are purely aesthetic however so they are more like skins.

SARPBC is a simple yet fun game, and you will get a good few hours out of the £7.99 price tag.

It is by no means perfect however, and it needs to be played in short bouts as it does get repetitive.

I would certainly recommend downloading the demo at the least, as there is nothing like scoring or saving a shot with a little car doing a back flip in mid air.

7/10

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