The Pockett family just got bigger in Riders Republic with the recent arrival of the Pockett Plane and Pockett Hovercraft in Season 15. As if the Pockett Car wasn’t already a standout for its immense weirdness, these two up the ante big time by providing some of the most eccentric, off-the-wall experiences in the Republic to date.
Pockett Hovercraft — the motor-powered bounce house
The Pockett Hovercraft feels incredibly different from practically every other piece of gear in the game. While many of the Republic Toys seem like something out of a cartoon, this one is perhaps the most grounded of the bunch. This makes sense considering that hovercrafts do indeed exist, although they’re typically massive machines.
With this being more like a child’s rendition of a hovercraft, it’s incredibly nimble and can get up to a good pace. Its air-filled hull allows you to lightly bounce off the terrain after a jump; a technique you can even exploit to break the game’s physics just enough to pull off extreme manoeuvres as you skim around.
But, this is a double-edged sword as the bounciness can also work against you when trying to stick a landing. I found this particularly difficult to control when skimming over any bodies of water—especially ones with jagged rocks, which many of the game’s rivers are filled with.
That said, it does feel great to control no matter the surface of the terrain, though riding it over water does seem to give it a bit of extra agility and, quite fittingly, a little more of a slippery feeling. This is perhaps the closest thing we’ll get to a ‘boat’ in Riders, which is just fine given that most of the map is devoid of water.
Just like the Pockett Car, you can pull off a slew of tricks in the Pockett Hovercraft, albeit not as quickly. The speed of turns and twists is somewhere between the car and the snowmobiles, which are some of the heaviest-feeling pieces of gear in the game. I don’t really like performing tricks on snowmobiles for that reason, so I’m glad the Hovercraft feels much better.
This makes for great fun when traversing the map; basically nothing gets in its way, and while it may not be the fastest, it has the advantage of going literally anywhere at a good speed. The only other gear that can do this is, quite fittingly, is the Hoverboard.
Pockett Plane — the craziest bird of all
One of the standout features of Riders Republic is its flight system. The various jetpacks are very useful for soaring high above the terrain and darting around the map at break-neck speed. That said, I mostly stay away from any activities featuring them as they’re a bit of a pain to control. Almost all the courses get the better of me as, while the controls are pretty nimble, the insane speed at which you’re moving when strapped in makes things disorienting very quickly.
Thus, I had my hesitations about the Pockett Plane since I first laid eyes on it. And, sure enough, my feelings appear to be justified.
I will say that it is fun—and very, very, wild. Going back to the line about how many of the Republic Toys feel like something out of a cartoon, this is exactly what I mean. Something like this has the smallest chance of ever existing IRL. But, this is a video game, so game logic most certainly applies! Unfortunately, game logic can’t even really seem to fully keep up with this pocket rocket.
The Pockett Plane is almost certainly one of, if not the fastest vehicle in Riders Republic. Boosting gets you well above 200 mph (322 km/h,) although this only lasts for a few seconds. But, even its base speed at full throttle remains steadily above 150 mph (241 km/h.)
All of that power regulated into something that barely fits a grown adult and that probably only weighs less than 100lbs makes for a very zippy, snappy, and crazy aerial horse. Its fighter jet-inspired design is for good reason, as they too often tend to be highly manoeuvrable and very agile machines. But, in this form, it feels like a near untameable beast.
Trying it out in a few user-created events, I quickly found it to be quite a pain to handle, and just as unwieldy as the aforementioned jetpacks. Now, admittedly, this could easily be put down to a ‘skill issue’—I’ll be the first to call myself out on that. Nevertheless, some other players may also find it to be a little off-putting.
What really sets the Pockett Plane apart from all the other flyable machines in the game, however, is that it can also very easily take to the ground. By clicking down on the left thumb stick, you can switch the plane to Drive Mode, seeing it skate across the surface with ease. It works best on paved terrain, though it can handle minor off-roading to a reasonable degree.
This is whack, in the zaniest, most out-of-left-field way. The Pockett Car was already something strangely fierce, but this absolutely takes the cake. That said, it is very fun, if not a tad unnerving, to zip around the map in a rocket-powered mini plane. Crazier yet, the stupid thing is very trick-ready, and you can chain together some exceptionally beautiful combos.
I took it out to the skate parks in Sequoia and had an absolute blast. Once you add in some grinds (yes, it can grind) and sprinkle in some manuals, then you can really keep the combo going.
Again, this is reminiscent to that of the Pockett Car, although this feels even more slippery. That said, the sharp edges all around the fuselage can easily get caught on parts of the terrain, making any landing after a series of tricks just that more difficult to successfully execute.
Speaking of landings, you can swap into Drive Mode at any point—even if you’re quite a ways up already. If you do that, you’re bound to wind up crashing once you impact the ground, but I’ve been able to drop down from higher points than expected. As said, it is pretty strange how it essentially drops like a rock once you enter into Drive Mode, but I guess this result ‘almost’ makes sense considering its design isn’t realistically very flight capable anyway!
Double trouble in the Republic
These two new additions to the already varied collection that is the expansive Riders Republic gear roster are certainly ‘out there,’ but they make for some fun, unique gameplay moments.
Of course, the biggest caveat is that they continue Ubisoft Annecy’s trend of introducing new gear with no new bespoke events to go along with them. Aside from the various try-out sessions you can periodically experience with the live events, your only option for really putting these toys through their paces is to make use of the aforementioned user-created Lab Events.
The updates made to this system continue to be rather nice, and the devs have implemented more filtering options. There’s now a dedicated ‘Pockett’ category, and you can identify which events feature which gear (or if they’re multi-sport) via both menu icons and the hashtags that make up their brief descriptions.
I tried a few such as “Thumb Claw” by user “LaneyDaneJane” (event code: WSKE9F,) a crazy race through the sand dunes in the Hovercraft. “Bad Heart” by user “Owhenok0710” (event code: VJNCDC) is a very technical multi-sport race using both the Hovercraft and Plane, along with a brief section featuring the Jumbo Bike—another cool toy from past seasons.
Just as with the Pockett Car, these user events do a good job at making up for Ubisoft’s shortcomings, but not completely.
A dedicated career path would really sweeten the deal and add some depth to progression. With that not being present, these toys feel just like that—fun distractions that you may eventually get a little bored of.
As paid DLC, this lack of progression depth makes their value take a bit of a hit. But, considering a lot of the Riders package is already so well-made, both of these Pockett creations are like pleasant toppings on a delectable sundae.
