Fortnite’s Rocket Racing is a brand-new arcade racer that tests your driving skills with gravity defying mechanics. Developed by Psyonix, creators of Rocket League, Rocket Racing captures the same competitive feel, just on a racetrack. Here’s how Rocket Racing plays as a competitive racing game and what to expect from content and cosmetics in the future.
Movement Mechanics
Rocket Racing isn’t your typical car racing game where you just have to optimize your turns and drifts. Along with classic race mechanics, you have to pay attention to your surroundings so you can break some rules and find new alternative paths to cross the finish line first. Picture more Mario Kart-esque and less Forza Motorsport.
Using the Air Dodge move, you can simply flick your thumbstick to leave your current road surface and stick to the ceiling or walls. You’ll need to do this to avoid oncoming obstacles or to grab a speed boost that’s on the ceiling.
You can also use your thrusters to fly and float through the air not just during ramp jumps. This can help you find some cheeky near out-of-bounds raceway to zoom on but just note that jumping and flying slows down your acceleration.
Racing on a surface is the best way to gain speed since that’s what fills your boost meter. Drifting on turns will earn you more charge for turbo boosts which, once filled, allows you to thrust forward for a good moment and gets you an extra burst of speed at the end of the boost. You can hold onto three turbo charges at once.
Drifting around turns fills your turbo meter faster but you can also manually hit the drift button. When you hit a turn in Rocket Racing, you’ll automatically drift slightly to fit the curve. If you hit the drift button, you’ll get a much harsher turn and drift around corners to get more of a speed boost after coming out into the straightaway.
At the start of races, if you manage to hit the accelerate button right on the fourth green light, you’ll get a slight to massive starting boost. The percentage of your boost is dependent on your timing, so be sure to keep your finger on the button so you can get at least 80% or above for that starting acceleration.
Car Customization
Alongside its tight controls, Rocket Racing also features a staggering amount of customization. This is the first time you’re really able to fully customize a vehicle in Fortnite. You can change your car’s body and secondary colors, add decals, and even change the look of the wheels. And, the best part? The customizations you have for the cars in Rocket Racing will transfer to Battle Royale. Neat!
Maps and Ranked Mode
At the moment, there are 26 racetracks with more coming every month. Currently, there are three biomes from the Fortnite ecosystem: Canyon, Forest, Jungle.
Aside from a casual mode, where you can play any maps you want with up to 12 racers in your party and lobby, there’s a ranked mode that lets you test your skills as an agile driver. In ranked, you’ll face off against three other people, meaning each race only has four total players.
As you climb in ranks, the maps will get harder and harder and cycle from the easier smaller maps to the harder bigger tracks. Depending on the size of the maps, you’ll have to complete three to five laps to finish a race.
While it’s recommended that you play with a controller, you can still use your keyboard and mouse if you insist. I just personally found the controls to be much smoother on controllers! Rocket Racing is available now on Fortnite on all platforms, current and last-gen (PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch).
Stella is a Video Producer, Host, and Editor at IGN. Her gameplay focus is on competitive FPS games and she’s previously reviewed Apex Legends, Hyper Scape, Halo Infinite Multiplayer, and Battlefield 2042. She regularly hosts and shoutcasts competitive Apex Legends and Halo Infinite tournaments when she isn’t streaming on her Twitch channel after work outs. You can follow her on Twitter @ParallaxStella.
