I think I know what happened in the pitch meeting for Rocket Arena. Someone looked around the EA board room, having prepared nothing the night before, with scribbled notes written on their palm only to look down and see a list of games. So they nervously raised their head and said, "O-okay. S-so, it's gonna be a hero shooter like Overwatch... Wi-with uh... Fortnite's visual style! Yeah, yeah, and um, Super Smash Bros knockouts using nothing but uhhhhh rocket launchers!" To which someone stood up, walked over, and whispered in their ear before sitting back down as the presenter finished with, "Oh, and of c-course we'll charge thirty dollars for the game while having a battle pass to unlock anything worthwhile." To which the entire room applauded. Now look, I know that sounds cynical, but Rocket Arena really does just come off as a corporate product more than a game made with any kind of passion. The characters are bland, the visual style is fine, but has a lot of bugs, and the controls are a bit too floaty and gameplay too unwieldy. With that said, the game is still really fun to play. The rocket launcher concept is pushed to the limits of creativity in how its applied and the game modes are incredibly fun. If this were a free to play game I'd actually be recommending people check it out, unfortunately that thirty dollar price tag and awful unlocks without the battle pass really drag things down. I did get it for free on PS Plus, but still felt like none of my efforts were being recorded in any meaningful way since the unlocks without the battle pass are just awful (hell, even the skins with the battle pass aren't anything to write home about) and there's not even a ranked mode. All in all, despite the price already dropping down to five dollars, Rocket Arena's really not a game that I personally want to support and have no desire to play again. If it goes free to play go ahead and give it a shot, but until then it stands as a testament to what I'm sure is EA's ability to meddle with even the most promising of games and make them mediocre.