Rugby League Challenge PSP Game Review - games have been few and far between over the past couple of years. Fans of the sport basked in the glory of 2005's Rugby League 2 on the original Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles, but the franchise's lack of an update has left fans clamouring for more since its release. It's disappointing, then, that the latest effort to bring the sport to consoles is such a poor one, mixing dodgy AI, shallow gameplay, a lack of multiplayer support, and dud production values.
At face value, the game ticks all the right boxes. It features the complete licensed 2009 player rosters for the 16 National Rugby League teams, and 14 teams in the UK Engage Rugby League competitions. It offers both quick matches and full season mode. It also gives players the chance to take on the role of player and coach as you steer your side toward victory on and off the field. Unfortunately, the latter claim falls well short, and coaching is limited to doling out in-game training dollars before each round to upgrade the stats of your players. There's no player fitness or match form to manage here, and because there's no carry-over penalty system, you'll never worry about having to front for the tribunal for repeat tackle offenses.
Player attributes are split into eight categories: strength, speed, accuracy, stamina, kick, tackle, pass, and handling. At the easiest of the three difficulty settings, your players will start the season with many of their skills already well established. This means only minor improvements to their performance need to be made over the course of the year as you devote money to training them. Pumping up the speed and stamina of your players is the best way to allocate your training cash and allows players a burst of energy as you cut through the opposition's defensive line. Raising their stamina level will allow them to prolong their sprint. Though it may not necessarily be your first thought, cranking up the pace of your front-rowers will yield unexpected results. Though the sprint function doesn't always kick in with the button press as it should (despite depleting your stamina bar), once it does, heavy forwards will sometimes outpace lighter and faster wingers and halfbacks.
Football is as much about the facts and figures as it is about kicking the ball around on the grass. The game tracks your team's wins, losses, points for/against, and goal difference, as well as displays the information before each match. Unfortunately, there's no way to view or compare the performance of individual players. It's disappointing given your involvement in training individuals to preen their best results. Likewise, once you've completed the season, there's no way to replay a game, relive the thrill of the grand final match, or continue developing your team's skills. Starting a new season will reset your player stats, and you'll be forced to build them up from scratch. There's also no multiplayer offering to be found here, which is a disappointing omission given the clear potential for head-to-head matches with friends over the PSP's wireless networking.
When you play on the easy difficulty, there's very little strategy required. After receiving the ball, you can usually run straight-ahead without the need to fend off CPU players. Sprinting through small holes in defence will often see tacklers run into their own teammates, fall over, or run parallel alongside you without intercepting. Dummy half-defenders seldom tackle, and it's not uncommon to see score lines in the three-digit range. Your team is smart enough to tackle even if you don't, but the self-destructive CPU will usually mess things up, running the ball on the fifth tackle rather than kicking or passing back to a marked player on its team. This occurs even when it has a clean pair of heels and simply needs to cross the line to ground the ball.
Conversions are as simple as lining up your shot with an onscreen arrow and stopping the power meter at the appropriate point. There's no wind or ball swing to worry about, and even from the sideline, you'll kick dead straight through the sticks. Medium and hard difficulty modes are significantly more challenging and see the CPU tackling earlier, which requires you to pass the ball around. Medium difficulty offers the least offensive combination of AI defensive aggression and offensive ball play, but it's still common to see your opponents turn the ball over all too easily or throw away try-scoring opportunities. At the hard difficulty, you'll face strong, early tackles and spend most of your time struggling to get into the opposition's half to avoid handling errors from your own players. Fumbles from low-handling skill levels often result in conceded points.
The game camera follows the ball rather than the player and means you'll often be running blind as you attempt to scoop up your cheeky chip to ground it over the line. Penalty kicks for touch from the centre of the field mean you won't be able to see where you're kicking most of the time, and while there are a handful of camera presets to cycle through, you'll need to go with the real time strategy-style top-down view to see your whole team at once.
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Content Reviews are from GameSpot.com
At face value, the game ticks all the right boxes. It features the complete licensed 2009 player rosters for the 16 National Rugby League teams, and 14 teams in the UK Engage Rugby League competitions. It offers both quick matches and full season mode. It also gives players the chance to take on the role of player and coach as you steer your side toward victory on and off the field. Unfortunately, the latter claim falls well short, and coaching is limited to doling out in-game training dollars before each round to upgrade the stats of your players. There's no player fitness or match form to manage here, and because there's no carry-over penalty system, you'll never worry about having to front for the tribunal for repeat tackle offenses.
Player attributes are split into eight categories: strength, speed, accuracy, stamina, kick, tackle, pass, and handling. At the easiest of the three difficulty settings, your players will start the season with many of their skills already well established. This means only minor improvements to their performance need to be made over the course of the year as you devote money to training them. Pumping up the speed and stamina of your players is the best way to allocate your training cash and allows players a burst of energy as you cut through the opposition's defensive line. Raising their stamina level will allow them to prolong their sprint. Though it may not necessarily be your first thought, cranking up the pace of your front-rowers will yield unexpected results. Though the sprint function doesn't always kick in with the button press as it should (despite depleting your stamina bar), once it does, heavy forwards will sometimes outpace lighter and faster wingers and halfbacks.
Football is as much about the facts and figures as it is about kicking the ball around on the grass. The game tracks your team's wins, losses, points for/against, and goal difference, as well as displays the information before each match. Unfortunately, there's no way to view or compare the performance of individual players. It's disappointing given your involvement in training individuals to preen their best results. Likewise, once you've completed the season, there's no way to replay a game, relive the thrill of the grand final match, or continue developing your team's skills. Starting a new season will reset your player stats, and you'll be forced to build them up from scratch. There's also no multiplayer offering to be found here, which is a disappointing omission given the clear potential for head-to-head matches with friends over the PSP's wireless networking.
When you play on the easy difficulty, there's very little strategy required. After receiving the ball, you can usually run straight-ahead without the need to fend off CPU players. Sprinting through small holes in defence will often see tacklers run into their own teammates, fall over, or run parallel alongside you without intercepting. Dummy half-defenders seldom tackle, and it's not uncommon to see score lines in the three-digit range. Your team is smart enough to tackle even if you don't, but the self-destructive CPU will usually mess things up, running the ball on the fifth tackle rather than kicking or passing back to a marked player on its team. This occurs even when it has a clean pair of heels and simply needs to cross the line to ground the ball.
Conversions are as simple as lining up your shot with an onscreen arrow and stopping the power meter at the appropriate point. There's no wind or ball swing to worry about, and even from the sideline, you'll kick dead straight through the sticks. Medium and hard difficulty modes are significantly more challenging and see the CPU tackling earlier, which requires you to pass the ball around. Medium difficulty offers the least offensive combination of AI defensive aggression and offensive ball play, but it's still common to see your opponents turn the ball over all too easily or throw away try-scoring opportunities. At the hard difficulty, you'll face strong, early tackles and spend most of your time struggling to get into the opposition's half to avoid handling errors from your own players. Fumbles from low-handling skill levels often result in conceded points.
The game camera follows the ball rather than the player and means you'll often be running blind as you attempt to scoop up your cheeky chip to ground it over the line. Penalty kicks for touch from the centre of the field mean you won't be able to see where you're kicking most of the time, and while there are a handful of camera presets to cycle through, you'll need to go with the real time strategy-style top-down view to see your whole team at once.
--> Download this PSP Game HERE | -->PSP Games Download HERE
Content Reviews are from GameSpot.com
