World Championship Rugby review

With Wasps winning a European and domestic double and world champions England preparing to face the mighty All Blacks and Aussies in a series of tests, Rugby Union has never been more popular. It is no surprise therefore that a glut of rugby games has been released to tap into this new found popularity. EA released Rugby 2004 last autumn to cash in on the interest surrounding the Rugby World Cup. Following on from that Digital Jester produced Pro Rugby Manager, an impressive management simulation that will satisfy those rugby fans that like to be in charge behind the scenes.

Although I am not a huge fan of the fifteen man code, the release of EA’s Rugby 2004 was a bitter disappointment. Quite frankly it was a poorly executed and rushed game whose poor graphics and weak AI were not saved by one or two nice gameplay features. After a couple of hours play one was left wondering if the fast and furious sport of rugby could ever be translated into a decent video game as opposed to a management simulation. Would a rugby game ever recreate the feel of the sport in the same way that the Pro Evolution Soccer series has done for association football or, that the Madden series has done for the American code?

Return of the Jonah Lomu Rugby developers

Only one game has ever come close and that was Jonah Lomu Rugby on the PS2’s predecessor. The game was an enjoyable and playable representation of Rugby Union that chose to forego realism for playability. The team behind that release was Swordfish Studios and it is the same developers that are behind Acclaim’s World Championship Rugby. Within seconds of starting a game of World Championship Rugby it is obvious that it will be an improvement over Rugby 2004 simply because it is extremely fun to play.

Graphically it is nothing special. The developers have gone for a cartoon styling rather than realism, which some rugby fans might not be too happy about. Some attempt has been made at recreating likenesses though, so a few of the models do look somewhat like their real life counterparts. However, the models look a lot beefier then they should, which immediately has you thinking ‘arcade game’ rather than ‘simulation’. The background graphics are fine with a nice, varied selection of impressive looking stadiums. Twickenham is particularly impressive but, graphics are not this games strong point and I did notice quite a lot of slowdown when playing the game in 60Hz mode. Despite this, the graphics in World Championship Rugby are an infinite improvement over the graphical horror story that is Rugby 2004.

Commentary lacks variety (once again)

The animations are also adequate but, nothing special. Whilst you do get to see tackles flying in, rucks, mauls, hand-offs and nifty little side steps, the animations suffer from a lack of variety. The sound suffers from a similar lack of variety, particularly the commentary which is provided by Sky Sports commentators Stuart Barnes and Miles Harrison. This is an affliction that many sports games suffer from, even the best ones like Pro Evolution Soccer. Whereas the commentators in World Championship Rugby do not come out with complete rubbish, like they do in PES, the lack of variety in their commentary means it quickly gets boring. The crowd sounds and chants are pretty good so that you get serenaded with ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ by the fans when you play as England. The other background sounds are more than adequate as is the menu background music which is nice and inoffensive. So much so that I haven’t even bothered to switch it off.

However, graphics and sound are not World Championship Rugby’s strong points, the gameplay itself is. World Championship Rugby is easy to pick up and play and tremendous fun. It is by no means easy to master though and it will take a number of games against weaker opponents before you can take on the might of the game’s superpowers. Beating England with Georgia is about as impossible as it would be in reality. Essentially, there are two main ways of playing the game. You can either have fouls on or off which means that even people who are ignorant of the rules can play the game without giving away a multitude of penalties. Playing the game with penalties off is great fun and makes for free flowing fast paced action but, most people will find the ‘full’ game more satisfying and challenging. Line-outs, scrums, rucks, mauls and stationary kicks are all fairly easy to master and often involve quite a bit of button bashing so get your fingers ready. Other kicks are a bit harder to pull off, particularly drop goals which require plenty of space and time if you want to avoid being charged down. When you do score a drop goal it can be very satisfying. Other aspects of the game of rugby are pretty accurate and players move intelligently. This makes it easier to gain territory and build an attack but, the defence also has good AI making it a lot harder to score a try in this game than in Rugby 2004.

Superb multiplayer

The multiplayer mode is superb fun and this game will certainly bring out your competitiveness when you take on a friend or friends. In single player mode there are enough options to keep you busy including tours of various continents and major tournaments. Once you have got through those there is a series of historic scenarios allowing you to recreate Rugby Union’s greatest moments.

World Championship Rugby only managed to get licenses for the England and Wales squads which is a shame but doesn’t detract too much from the game. There is an editor that will allow you to change the names of players in other squads for perfectionists out there. Fans of club Rugby will be disappointed that, unlike Rugby 2004, there are no club sides in the game so you will have to stick to playing as your country. The names of tournaments have also been changed to get around licensing issues so that the ‘Tri-nations’ becomes the ‘Three Nations’ and so on.

If the graphics and presentation approached the standard of Pro Evolution Soccer 3, this would be an absolutely outstanding game. As it is, it is a very good game in its own right and easily the best rugby game out there. Once again it looks like the wrong game got the license.