Video games ripoffs aren’t new — PUBG: Battlegrounds developer Krafton sued Garena Free Fire for plagiarizing its work earlier this year. Mol Soccer Online is the latest title to clone another game, but just because it looks like Rocket League doesn’t mean it plays as well.
Today is the release day for Pui Pui Molcar Let’s Molcar Party, and the game includes a mode called Mol Soccer Online. The accompanying trailer shows the half-guinea-pig-half-cars chasing around a soccer ball in the exact same fashion as Rocket League, boosting and bumping into it to score goals — there’s even a similar toggle for switching camera angles. As you’d expect from a mode featuring such cute mascots, there are plenty of customization options for the little Molcars.
As adorable as they are, the mode doesn’t look very high quality. Stop motion animation might work well for television and movies, but the stuttering frames don’t translate to a fast-paced soccer match. See for yourself:
For context, Pui Pui Molcar is a popular stop-motion animated series in Japan. “Molcar” itself is a combination of the words “mole” and “car,” but the wordplay works better in the Japanese language. Likewise, the full Let’s Molcar Party game is currently only available in the Japanese eShop at the moment. The Rocket League-like Mol Soccer Online mode is offered for free as part of the game’s Lite Version.
