Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge

Best rugby game. Some of the mechanics need tweaking. You can make some impossible passes, or sometimes you'll pass to no one. Sometimes you can break 5 tackles on one play. Overall, this game is easy to learn. The controls are easy to learn, and pretty basic. A good game to play with friends and have fun. Not a super complicated sim game like some. Just a straight forward easy to learn fun rugby game.

This game is fun, but it needs some work on areas to make it great. Here in the US there isn't much in the way of rugby, especially in Texas where football is religion.The graphics are awesome!The mechanics are ok.But...The mechanics still need work. Passing isn't that well done. I've had people open and the ball goes right through them, and that's me playing with the All Blacks. However, the team you're playing against is able to pull off some wicked offloads.It's not that international. The only international teams that are acurate (uniforms, players, etc) are the US, Australia, and NZ. It makes up for this in club play which is pretty accurate. If they include the all the international teams and the clubs, this would be an awesome gameFinally, there is no franchise mode. I would love to take the US and try to make them a decent team after 10 years or so. This would make this title the dominate rugby game for a long time.This is much better than WRC 2011, so if you're on the fence, get this one.

I am a fan of rugby games. I have never played any game other than the ones that EA sports has published. I like how rucks works. It's less of a lottery and the outcome can be tipped on your favor by committing more players or forwards.I played as new Zealand on career mode and a season boils down to playing a quad nations tournament and the equivalent of a world cup (every for years). There is no player progression, which takes away from career mode.Also lacking is the ability call set plays. Kicking after winning the ball in a ruck can be challenging since you can't make the fly half get deep to give enough time to launch the kick, so goal line defense can be frustrating.The game is still enjoyable, and I hope this company continues to further improve the game in its future releases.

This purchase was for my college son that plays Rugby. The team comes over to play Rugby Challenge when they have spare time and have a great time. Last I heard they were in the middle of an online tournament playing others from around the world. Money well spent.

Ordered this item Dec 14 and it is still not here! I am very disappointed in the time it takes to receive this...if I ever do!

As a die hard rugby fun I've owned and played every rugby game EA Sports ever made - and so was devastated when I knew they wouldn't continue the franchise. So when I heard of Rugby Challenge I was thrilled, to say the least, but sadly this game is an insult to us. The worst thing is that when asked why the game is very flawed, the answer from the developers is "sorry, we didn't have the time nor the money to take care of that", even though they waited four years to develop the game and they still charged you $50 for it! Up next there's avreview from my experience playing the game, I hope it's useful.LicensesFirst of all there's the license issues. Although they have an impressive amount of licensed clubs -Premiership, Top 14, Magners (hate to call it "Rabo"), ITM Cup and most of the Super 15 teams are in, except for the South African franchises- the only two licensed international teams are New Zealand and Australia, which automatically makes it no fun at all to play international games other than Bledisloes.GameplayThen there's the gameplay. First of all, the passing and offloading systems are: a joke, terrible, frustrating, clumsy, nonsense, stupid... For example a prop that is tackled can throw a 20 meter back hand offload, in either direction, so no matter how much you tackle if the computer wants to make life impossible to you it will. On the other hand, the general passing is very clumsy: if you create an overlap and have numbers on the attack, many times the player will throw the ball to the ground or anywhere but to the supporting player. This makes the game very frustrating and cuts most of the attacking moves.Handling errors and injuriesThen there's the handling errors issue. Knock ons and forwards passes are awarded randomly and became very, very annoying because one second you are really pulling off a great move and then a harmless five meter pass between a centre and a winger ends up in a knock on or a forward pass. Then there's also the issue of injuries (when you are playing a competition). I played the ITM Cup with Manawatu and would have an average of 2-3 injuries per game, as well as countless knock ons and forward passes. This all took me to turning off injuries, knock onms and forward passes, as it made it impossible to play the game.TacklingThen there's the tackling issue. Tackle animations are good and offer variety, but the physics are awful. For example, the opposition makes a break and you only have your fullback to make that try saving tackle, you approach the ball carrier and press the tackle button but you go THROUGH the other player, or you start running circles around him, or if he dummies you just run past him and let in an easy score, or just stop five metres shy of him and keep still. Also, when tackling from behind, rarely will the tackler reach the ball carrier, no matter how close you are. Tjis all makes the defending experience a real headache.Set piecesMoving on to set pieces, the scrum is fine but if you are playing in hard and the opposition get the upper hand on just one push then no matter how well you fare from then on it's a lost issue. It's also very bad that the number 8 can't get up from the scrum. The lineout is ok unless you are playing with a not so good team, than becomes a nightmare as it's very hard to hit those balls well. And sometimes even if your timing is perfect the opposition will steal the ball - just because the computer wanted so.RucksOne of the good feats these game was supposed to have was the new and re-vamped rucking system, which was going to be less arbitrary than those in the EA games. You have two options, light bind or heavy bind, to secure the ball. Problem is no matter how many people the opposition involves in a ruck, sometimes you'll have to get up to five players in a ruck to secure possession, and then you have no people to play out wide. Also sometimes you can have tons of players in it but you just won't secure possession whatsoever. In the end it's pretty arbitrary anyway and doesn't work very well.DefendingDefense from set pieces can be very frustrating as your players start defending on the most bizarre spots - so when the opposition start attacking your line they have a free 30 metres to run before you can get a player to tackle. They also tend to go in any direction so the opposition finds it wasy to find holes and gaps in your defence.PhysicsThe pshysics in general combine good and bad situactions. For example the players running lines and animatikns while stepping or fending off are good but sometimes, like when catching a high ball, your player will look as if he catched it -arms up, then picking the ball- but the ball would have fell elsewhere, thus you automatically lose that player to vie for the ball and give the opposotion and advantage.OverallWell that would be it, overall, it's a frustrating and dissapointing game as it's filled with flaws. It's got potential though and I really hope they make a sequel that fixes this problems and make up for a great rugby playing experience.I hope this review was helpful. My advice? Buy it so that the developers have enough money to make a worthy sequel.

It's fairly difficult to find resources for rugby in the US it seems and being a rookie I was looking for ways to familiarize myself with the flow of the game, general rules and jargon in more engaging methods than books or videos when I wasn't at practice. I found this game after playing a couple other rugby video games on various platforms, but none were as well designed or had controls that were as intuitive as Rugby Challenge. The tutorial mode is very concise as well as informative to how the game is played, I enjoyed being able to create custom players and teams, also the online matches create even more replay value beyond career mode. There are generally some problems with audio quality and overall seems like it could be more polished, but as far as rugby video games go this is the most fun, well designed and the controls/gameplay didn't make me feel like a throwback to FIFA '93

It's Jonah Lomu!

This rugby game is great!My son can't stop playing, so that has caused a few problems since it is the first, last and in between thing he wants to do all day!My son plays rugby (9 years old), so this, having strategy, customizability, and very nice details such as commentary has even helped with his English as well as the understanding of the game on a wider level than what he plays in real life now.

Hay un par o tres de sagas de rugby, a mi Rugby Challenge es la que mas me convence.Sin ser un juego de primer nivel tiene una jugabilidad bastante realista y graficamente es muy decente. Si que es cierto que los equipos no estan tan conseguidos como podrian, la banda sonora que acompaña los menus no es buena y el modo trayectoria no acaba de ser tan bueno como en otros juegos, aun asi tiene una buena variedad de equipos y ofrece muchas horas de diversion (siempre que te guste el rugby claro).Por cierto quitando los comentarios que son en ingles el resto del juego esta en castellano.

Finally i found this "old" game, the pack was ok with the original cover and istructions.Delivery in right time.Thanks

There has been people waiting for a rugby game like me on the consoles for xbox 360 and ps3 for ages now and then this happens in the space of a few months 2 games come out at the same time I have only played the world cup 2011 game but that sucked and judging by the reviews, the game was grate. So when i heard of Jonah Lomu rugby challenge i was slightly concerned when buying it, but i'm glad i did!As with all games, there are a few problems. Here is what i find could do with improving witch will come in to the game soon;Passing - This is my main gripe with the game. I often find it difficult to judge the pass and drop balls happen most of the time. If you hold R1/L1 down its a further pass, but sometimes it just goes to nowhere or the player knocks it on.Tackling (sort of) - This is probably just me but there has been a few times when the opposition have just ran straight past and my defence has been week, this has happened to me a few times online.Now for the pro's:Tutoriols - There is an extensive tutoriol which shows you how to do pretty much everything ranging from simple running to the full scrums and lineouts. This makes the game much more approachable and easy for begginers.Scrums and lineouts - Easy to do, involves timing challenges which are simple to master and fun to doRunning with the ball - It's easy (not too easy of course) to get a satisfying side step or dummy pass and score the try.Licensing - Yes, some of the international teams aren't real, but to be honest it doesn't really matter as there is licsend australia and new zealand. Also, there is australian teams, orange top 14 and the aviva premiership (newcastle falcons!)Game modes - There is tornuments, quick matches and an extensive (15 season i thing) career modeOnline - I've only really dabbled a bit but what i have is great. It's really satisfying to win a game against another player! Although i got a bit excited halfway threw and pulled my playstation out... There is a little lag on a few games but its fineOverall i'd reccomend to all rugby an sport fans. There is room for improvement, but all together i'd rate it a very good 9/10!