Review – ALL BLACKS RUGBY CHALLENGE (3/5)
By: Nathan Calis
Just as the Rugby World Cup has been highly anticipated, so too have the two rugby gaming titles that were set to be released in time to profit from the event. It has been far too long between drinks as far as good rugby games go, and sadly, the wait is not over. HB Studios has released Rugby World Cup 2011, with New Zealand company, Sidhe, making All Blacks Rugby Challenge. I choose to review Rugby Challenge, as I wanted a game that offered more than just a world cup competition.
In this regard, Rugby Challenge is successful. The variety of competitions you can play is vast, including ITM Cup, Tri Nations, and Euro Nations competitions, as well as the coveted World Cup. On the other hand, Sidhe didn’t manage to get the licensing for the South African teams, with players’ and teams’ names changed to generic names. Whilst it is not annoying to pick Pretoria as your team, controlling unrecognizable players makes it difficult to remember what position they are playing in.
Sidhe has cleverly represented the teams within the game as they play in real life. The All Blacks tend to play flashy running rugby, whereas the Springboks—ahem, I mean South Africa—tend to kick the ball a lot and dominate the set-piece.
“Game play” is the biggest let down in Rugby Challenge. The players frequently stand out of position, which makes it hard to plan out moves. Disappointingly, there is also no set play function, so if you want to run a wrap or cut, you can’t. Forward passes and knock-ons are frequently missed by the referee. Furthermore, scrums are far more competitive than in reality and are therefore not really a reward. Watch out for the momentum swings. These are fine if you have the momentum, but if the opposition has the ascendency they will go offload crazy, making it near impossible to stop a try being scored.
Just like many of EA Sports’ games, Rugby Challenge allows you throw a ball around with fellow players as you wait for the game to load. Lets face it, waiting for loading games is a pain, and that makes this a valuable feature.
However, as a rugby enthusiast waiting for a good rugby game to hit the shelves, it’s safe to say I’m still waiting.