The game hasn’t advanced much over its predecessor. Other than the inclusion of other modes, update of data and a refinement of what was already, the game is relatively similar. Surprisingly, Rugby Challenge 2006 does a number of things right and even very well. However, the game is hampered by a number of issues that simply needed a better execution.
The Angry Irish pub brawl formation
On the pitch, the game gets a few things right. While the movement feels somewhat arcadey, the developers have devised a few small but significant mechanics that make the game play much more as Rugby should. We have made the point before that we had difficulty in the EA Rugby games in forming and maintaining rucks and scrums. A ruck formed when a player is tackled and must release the ball. His team-mates rush up and form a “pile” to protect the ball. In Rugby Challenge 2006, this task is made much easier by a few little things. Basically, there is a graphic above the breakdown (where the ball stops) and it shows how many players are in the ruck and the momentum that you have. Not only does it do handy job of indicating what’s going on, you can choose to add or take away players as you see fit in terms of the following defensive line and simply, the team with the ball has the advantage – which is how it is in reality.
This by no means makes the game a walk in the park, it simply feels much fairer and much more gratifying. Other handy infiltrations come in the form of what can best be described as a “mini-game”. In mauls and scrums, where you are creating momentum across the ground, the is circle above each team’s formation and it has a sector highlighted in white that points in the direction you’re going. A dot will fly around the circle and you need to press the right button while it goes through the highlighted sector to “push” in the right direction. The dot goes round faster and faster for each successful push and doing this better than the opponent will put them off and hopefully win the ball in your favour. Again, this makes the game much fairer. You have the advantage when you have the ball but there is still a chance for a turnover.
Other parts of the game are pretty much standard of what you’d expect. With the ball in hand, you can run, sprint and sidestep. These actions come off pretty well for the most part. You’ve obviously got the option to pass using the shoulder buttons/triggers and a couple of the face buttons for kicking options. However, more can’t be said about the attack until the defensive game is mentioned. Unfortunately, as the player, your defensive game is messy but the AI is slightly more accomplished. The control feels a bit too loose and your options aren’t particularly good. In a multiplayer game, this doesn’t matter too much because it makes for a good, attacking game. The problem is that it seems that the AI is much better than you. It's something you can get around, but at great concession.
Yellow shirt is taking the concept of "scrumage" a little too far
The problem comes from the brand of Rugby that this game encourages. Given that the defense is so much more alert in terms of the AI players, you really can’t explore too many kicking options because you’ll be rushed too quickly. The same goes for flick passes and side steps. You’re left with a one-dimensional running game that primarily involves passing until you find a gap or run around the side of the defense. The problem is that it ends up getting boring very, very quickly. This is one of the things that really disappoints us, because there was a lot of interesting potential here. Even though you can edit names, some more licenses would be nice.
However, there are a few other things that could’ve used improvement. The lineouts plain and simply are no good. There just isn’t enough clarity on what to do and it’s slow and clunky. It pales when compared the much-improved EA lineout. It’s fine to make goal kicking into a mini-game but the timing between button pressing and the required action needs to be tighter. For whatever reason, no Rugby game has yet to get “loose ball” mechanics right – players will run around like headless chooks before the ball is picked up. In fact, it would be nicer if the control were a bit tighter in general.
The ho-hum nature of the game in the pitch has had some major salvage work done in terms of the amount of game modes. The developers have obviously gone to great lengths to think out a bunch of good modes. It starts with a training mode that not only introduces the game but provides a number of fun mini-games that can be used to hone skills. Then there are numerous modes based around friendlies, cups and tournaments that can be played with both international and domestic teams (Note: They’re mainly European ones). There is also a very deep career mode, that is not unlike the Master League mode in the Pro Evolution Soccer series. This includes player trading, customizing and all the other management things as well as playing Rugby. However, the other substantial modes come under the “challenge” menu.
While the career mode has the options, the Rugby doesn’t back it up enough. This is where the new modes come into play. This is because the challenge modes start changing the game. Apart from the Classic Matches, the modes like Try Survival, Hot Potato, Old Time and Superstar change the way you need to play. Try Survival means you need to score a certain amount of tries to continue a streak of games. Hot potato doesn’t allow you to hold the ball for more than three seconds. Old Time Rugby means you can only score by kicking goals and field goals and Superstar has you choose a player and this one can be the only one to score points. The most redeeming feature of these modes is that they force you to change the way you play. Unfortunately, the game’s inability to facilitate this may frustrate players enough to avoid these.
If this picture makes no sense to you, you're probably not the only one
However, the worst part of the game is the on-pitch presentation. Pretty much both the graphics and sound, suck. Big time. The player models are terribly blocky, invariant in movement and have very ugly mugs. This is N64 era stuff. The fields don’t look any different from one another and there is little evidence of a crowd. Animations are limited, physics are magically unrealistic at times and they simply look ugly. This far out from the next generation, such graphics are unacceptable. The presentation isn’t much better, as sometimes you will score a try, only to see that the player in the replay isn’t the same that scored the points. The game’s sound effects consist primarily of three grunts and a few smacks. The commentary is unfairly limited to distinguishing between the teams by the colour of their shirts. Still, it sounds like it’s been read, they often are wrong in the situation and simply, they don’t have enough lines. At least the menus and accompanying music is O.K.
It’s a huge shame that Rugby Challenge 2006 doesn’t quite live up to what is required in this day and age. It gets a lot right and has some captivating mode but the Rugby simply doesn’t hold up to the variety and ability in other similar titles. That, and the awful aesthetics really are going to cause people to reject this game before they can give it a chance. However, it does essentially provide you with more to do than any EA Rugby title, which is something both sides ought to look into before the next edition.
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