Game review: Turbo League – steer clear of this frustrating experience

Turbo League

Zero Four

1.5/5 stars

First of all, you should know that Turbo League has nothing to do with hit game Rocket League.

This mobile game might look, feel, sound, move and generally riff on the name of 2015’s cars-meet-soccer surprise hit – but it’s got nothing on it.

However, that won’t matter to many people, who will find this to be an addictive cult game, in which the ridiculous premise of monster trucks smashing a ball around a soccer pitch feels quite normal.

Still, the problem with Turbo League is its controls. Like any good sports game, the console game Rocket League thrived on its smooth movements, and quick reactions led to lightning-fast matches and sudden, unexpected victories.

There’s nothing like that in Turbo, mostly because you’re dealing with a touchscreen, often the bane of good mobile gaming. Driving is down to a choice of a steering wheel or tilt action, neither of which ever seem to properly register. Boosts and other essentials are tiny and almost impossible to differentiate between.

And then there’s the game’s money-making strategy.

You’re given a healthy number of boosts to start with, but when they run out, the game forces ads on you to acquire more. That’s fair enough, but the pricing truly annoyed me. Only one car comes with the game and if you want to upgrade, it’ll cost you more than HK$100. For three months. On a rolling subscription. Even the original Rocket League doesn’t cost that much, and once you buy it, it’s yours for life.

Ordinarily, limited space means I often ignore crappy releases – but considering how popular Rocket League was and how bad this game is, I figured you’d need the low-down. So here it is: skip Turbo, stick with Rocket.