Motorball is the mobile version of Rocket League we've always wanted [Android Game of the Week]

Yeah, I'm serious with that title. Hello, and welcome back to the Android Game of the Week for August 17-23. This week, we're checking out something that just hit the Play Store fairly recently. It's called Motorball, published by Noodlecake Studios, and as you saw from the title, it's basically Rocket League, but on a phone.

Of course, there are some differences, notably in the camera perspective. However, it's an extremely fun free-to-play game that's perfect for just about anyone. Even if you don't like Rocket League, per se — I'm right there with you — Motorball is still really fun, and I think you'll find plenty to enjoy.

Okay, so what if you've never heard of Rocket League? The gist is that you control an RC car on a soccer field, and you try to push a giant ball into the opposing team's goal. It's an insanely popular game because of its ease of entry, i.e., anyone can pick it up and play it, and also because it has a very high skill ceiling. As we like to say here, easy to play, difficult to master.

Motorball is a much more toned-down version of that. It's a 1v1 match where the person who scores three goals first wins. You can fill your boost meter by running over fill-ups for that extra bit of speed, or you can find power-ups that might just give you an edge, or harm you, depending on how you use them.

The cutesy, cartoonish graphics are nice and mean that this game can run on almost any phone. It's not the over the shoulder, third-person camera style of Rocket League. Instead, it's a top-down view that scrolls with your car. I'd say that's my biggest complaint about Motorball at its core.

You can't see the entire field on your phone, so you often won't know where the other person is coming from or what they're doing. I feel like zooming out a bit would be more than fine and would make the experience a little better.

But hey, Motorball is still in beta, so there's bound to be some constructive feedback we can give the developers. This game just feels wholesome, and I really couldn't tell you why. Although, I suppose I should temper that statement because, as you might expect, Motorball is free-to-play. And we know that almost always means microtransactions.

To get new skins, wind-up keys, trails, and decals, you'll need to buy them with tokens, which you earn from matches. As you might have guessed, you can, of course, purchase thousands of more tokens with gems, the premium in-game currency. Gems can be purchased with real-world money, ranging from $0.99 up to a whopping $99.99 for a heaping pile of digital nothing.

I don't like this kind of monetization strategy, but as I played, I ultimately didn't feel the need to buy anything. I saved up my tokens earned from playing to buy the things I wanted. So be aware of the microtransactions going into Motorball, but don't let them spoil your fun.

So if you like Rocket League and want a similar experience on your phone, then be sure to give Motorball a try. And when you're ready to check out more of the best Android games you can buy/play, we've got you covered. Finally, if you'd like to see past Games of the Week, we've got plenty for you to read.