Rocket Arena Is Overwatch Meets Smash Bros., With Rockets

The multiplayer shooter Rocket Arena has been picked up by EA, and it was shown as part of the EA Play presentation on June 18. Developed by Final Strike Games, Rocket Arena was featured as an EA Original, the publisher's program highlighting independent projects it's partnered with for publishing.

The trailer showed off the game's cartoon art style along with a variety of characters and stylized environments, like an Aztec pyramid and train tracks. Each character has their own signature abilities and rocket types similar to hero shooters like Overwatch, and competitive matches are 3v3. But rather than deal conventional damage, Rocket Arena uses a Smash Bros.-style ring-out mechanic. Your goal is to wallop your opponent hard enough that they go flying off the battlefield.

At launch, the game will have 10 playable characters and 100 levels of progression, with hundreds of cosmetics and 10 maps. You can play in 4 PvP modes (Knockout, Rocketball, Treasure Hunt, and Megarocket) and one cooperative mode (RocketBot Attack). It's also built as a live game, with more content incoming, along with daily and weekly challenges. It will use in-game currency called Rocket Fuel to purchase season passes, called the Blast Pass.

It's coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One but will support cross-platform play across all of them. It's releasing on July 14 with both a $30 standard edition and a $40 Mythic Edition that includes cosmetics, an exclusive Mythic outfit for the character Jayto, and enough in-game currency for the first season pass. The events and content for the first season of Rocket Arena will kick off on July 28, two weeks after the launch of the game.

GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All--a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer's hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.