Rocket League might be getting a new basketball game modeMar 14(AZINS) Breakout success Rocket League looks like it might be adding a new influence into its mix of soccer and radio-controlled car stunt riding, according to a heavy hint dropped ahead of an annual NCAA basketball tournament.

The incendiary combination of highly maneuverable, rocket-powered remote control vehicles and indoor soccer has been propelling 2015's Rocket League since a big impact launch on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC in July 2015. Its studio had taken a previous game, the niche "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars," and doubled down on it, applying to the project its years of expertise gained from contributions to high-profile titles like Gears of War, Bulletstorm, Mass Effect 3 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Aided by a time-limited free promotion on PS4 and a budget-friendly price point on PC, a community of enthusiastic players coalesced around the game with such speed and ferocity that even eSports organizations like Major League Gaming (MLG) and the Electronic Sports League (ESL) were soon stepping up in support. Add-on content packs swiftly followed, with Supersonic Fury, Revenge of the Battle-Cars and Chaos Run released two months apart, until February saw the release of Rocket League plus extras on the Xbox One.

Development house Psyonix had already let players tinker with alternative sporting influences back in December, when a special ice hockey mode swapped the game's oversized ball for a puck and brought in ice rink flooring. Now it looks like the studio is preparing a more lavish treatment, with one eye on the NCAA's top flight basketball tournament and teasing a new mode called Rocket League Hoops. "March Madness is just around the corner," announced the game's Twitter account on March 10, posting an image that presents several modifications to the usual Rocket League set-up. Wooden boards wear traditional court markings, surrounds now feature banks of arena spectators, and the Rocket League ball adopts the familiar ribbed segments of a basketball.

But the biggest alteration appears to be the introduction of basket hoops in place of the usual soccer-style goals, alerting some 12 million players to a change in point-scoring tactics and perhaps an even greater emphasis on acrobatic, aerial exploits. Clarity should come in the following days, with the 2016 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament scheduled to get underway on March 15, culminating three weeks later in a final match on April 4.