Turbo Golf Racing Review — Rocket League’s Equally Chaotic Cousin

It’s no revelation that Rocket League is one of the most successful E-Sports games in the industry, primarily because it oozes creativity into an otherwise simple genre to make it fun and exhilarating. Although a lot of games have attempted to recreate its magic, they often fall short because they’re either lackluster or too similar to the point where you can brush them off as cheap clones.

Turbo Golf Racing, in my opinion, is the best attempt at imitating Rocket League’s style. You can definitely see the inspiration it took from the E-Sports sensation, but it also takes liberties to introduce new mechanics and modes that make it unique. Don’t let the name fool you—unlike golf, this title is anything but boring or stale.

Gameplay

Turbo Golf Racing’s gameplay features adrenaline-packed modes that are short, fun, and have tons of replayability. There’s definitely room here for the game to be competitive, and if we’re looking at long-term support, we might have a new contender in this subgenre.

Like Rocket League with football, Turbo Golf Racing adds golf mechanics to its formula, meaning the ultimate goal is to shoot the ball into the hole the quickest and in the fewest attempts. You’ll have familiar controls like driving, sprinting, drifting, jumping, dashing, gliding, and more, so the subgenre’s fast-paced nature is ever-present here, too.

Turbo Golf Racing’s gameplay features adrenaline-packed modes that are short, fun, and have tons of replayability.

Right after completing the tutorial, you can jump into three modes—Racing, Golf, and Time Trials—each with its own objectives and equally thrilling. Racing and Golf matches are divided into three randomized levels, each with a unique layout and length. You compete solo against up to 12 players, each with their own ball, and the points raked in the levels depend on how well you perform.

The Different Modes Are One-Of-A-Kind And Never Get Repetitive

In Racing mode, you start on one end of the map and have to put the ball into the hole on the other end as quickly as possible. Midway through, you can use ramps to recharge boosters and shoot the ball through hoops to automatically direct it towards the target. You can also grab different powerups like Rocket Fuel, Shields, and even Rockets, which you can aim at other players to throw them off-course.

Golf mode offers most of the same mechanics but your objective is different. Instead of a streamlined race to the finish, it plays like standard golf where you must shoot, watch, and shoot again when your ball hits the ground, reaching the targets in the fewest possible shots. It’s not as mindless or chaotic as racing, but it’s certainly as fun and requires more strategy and precious.

After a match, you gain XP contributing to the Season Pass, unlocking various new upgrades. On top of that, you can spend XP and Trophies, a currency earned after placing first in any level, in the Shop to collect new unlockables. Don’t worry—all your upgrades are purely cosmetic, so there are no pay-to-win elements here.

Time Trails follows a similar pattern to most racing games, where you play solo and have to complete the objective before time runs out. The trials are mostly based on the aforementioned Racing mode, and you can earn up to three stars depending on how quickly you holed the ball.

Subtle Changes From Its Inspiration To Make The Experience Extraordinary

Perhaps the game’s most unique mechanic is the Core system, which adds another layer of complexity and allows every player’s ride to be unique. You have two Sockets—Power and Passive—and you can insert one Core into each of them.

These Cores give special abilities, like increasing the ball’s size or making it sticky, and they can be either Passive, which is always active, or Active, which you can trigger and use repeatedly after a small cooldown. As you play, you unlock more Cores, widening your tools and forcing tougher choices on which ones to pick. It’s a great mechanic that incorporates strategy on top of raw skill.

One of the reasons why Rocket League is so popular is because the competitive scene is highly active, and Turbo Golf Racing, right from the get-go, encourages you to be competitive. From the dynamic Core system to the Leaderboards that keep track of the quickest winning times, it creates tension and rewards players that put it in the time, effort, and grind.

The music playlist also plays a huge role in the experience, featuring tons of upbeat and energetic electronic tracks that keep you in the rhythm.

The music playlist also plays a huge role in the experience, featuring tons of upbeat and energetic electronic tracks that keep you in the rhythm. Coupled with a gameplay loop that best suits this music genre, it results in an exciting, synthesized atmosphere that never misses a beat and complements the vision Hugecalf Studios was aiming for.

I was completely blown away by how much thought the team put into this title. Every minor change and addition to Turbo Golf Racing enhanced the overall gameplay yet kept it simple and addictive enough to never seem like a gimmick. You need 30 minutes to learn everything from scratch and hours of practice to master them to perfection, and believe me, practicing is almost as fun as the actual races.

Visuals And Performance

Turbo Golf Racing learns from its older brother and includes a minimalistic yet funky art style that prioritizes vibrant colors, readability, and personality. The levels are distinct and packed with colors across the spectrum, making all the environments stand out. The vehicles are wrapped in intriguing details that make getting every cosmetic upgrade feel worthwhile.

Another thing I loved about this game’s art direction is how it differentiates between natural and techno environments. The runways are showered with bright neon colors that give the levels their futuristic vibe, while the backdrops and surrounding scenery are much more classic yet vibrant and natural. Like the gameplay, the visuals are anything but boring.

Turbo Golf Racing learns from its older brother and includes a minimalistic yet funky art style that prioritizes vibrant colors, readability, and personality.

Because the game favors style over realism, the in-game performance is also fairly decent. Running the game on maximum settings on a GTX 1660Ti Mobile and an i7-10750h, I didn’t encounter any major visual bugs, glitches, FPS drops, or other technical hindrances. The online connectivity was also stable throughout my playthrough, so the matches went smoothly as butter.

Verdict

Turbo Golf Racing is an addictive title that keeps all the things that makes the subgenre so popular while adding several new welcome features. It’s a fan adventure for the whole family where you can play as casual or as competitive as you want and still have a blast.

Looking at them side-by-side, Rocket League definitely feels like the simpler title and much easier to get into, but personally, I loved how Turbo Golf Racing wanted to be much more diverse and technical. If it continues to grow its player base and gains more content and support over the years, it can easily become a major name in the E-Sports industry and enter the big leagues.

This has been my review of Turbo Golf Racing. While you’re here, consider reading some of our other recent reviews.

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