All Blacks Rugby Challenge reviews

Pretty good but not excellent.

Pros:

• Player and NZ stadium detail
• Lots to customize (comes handy when changing unlicensed players names and jerseys)
• Excellent menus and presentation
• Easy to pick up controlls

Cons

• Sometimes awkward ball bounce (maybe once per game)
• Havent been able to tackle inside goal area to save try
• Justin Marshall commentary haha

Way better than i ever expected especially compared to the horrible NRL game. yes there's few little bugs, but they arent big enough to ruin the gameplay.

I bought this game hoping it would be some what good. However after several plays, I find its much like Rugby League that Sidhe developed. Its just offload heaven hardly unrealistic and tackling is a nightmare as well. The AI of the players are very unrealistic. A big thumbs down.

This game has a lot of potential if there is post launch patch support, but unfortunately plays horribly. The error rate is far too high, there seems to be no off side rules nor any way to designate your first receivers. I had high hopes as an avid rugby player/fan, but this just does not deliver. There seems to be no difference in strength, speed or technique between backs for forwards. There are many bugs with ball placement and passing, which ultimately ruins the flow of the game. Poor show Sidhe, especially after reading interviewers where you were “happy” with your work. This game is horrid, and I imagine there are droves of pissed off pre-order fans as a result.

This game was the game was looking forward to this whole year and was very disappointed when I played it. It seemed as though the makers have very limited knowledge of rugby and were many faults in the game.

I ordered rugby challenge and within 2 days I was sitting in the lounge enjoying a great game from great service and would like to say that Mighty ape is a excellent service thank you Mighty ape.

I was told it will take 10–15 days until I get my game in the US but guess what it only took 8 days total include sunday so it was very fast and I'm super happy. I will use mightyape again if I can't get a game here in the state again like all black rugby challenge… Go Ape Go

Kiwi in aus, Love to get things from home that I miss. You can not buy them here. Very fast excellent delivery, Over satisfied with mighty ape. I recommend mighty ape to all kiwis in aus.

I received an unexpected email stating that my order had arrived, I finished a nightshift and drove from Manukau to North Shore for pick up but I wasn't aware that I wasn't suppose to get my order till 2pm. Staff at Mighty Ape was so friendly and understood that I travelled far for pick up and gave me the benefit or the doubt..SCORE!!!­..awsome service MIGHTY APE..AAA+++

Cheers.

I was looking forward to this game and boy was I dissapointed once I played it.This game is bugged ball position ,passing,even when you break tackles they swam u and it just keeps pushing u to the side line One word GAY

Not the best of rugby games…

Disappointing so far

WOW, what a terrible game…i've tried numerous times to play this…to try my best to like it, but it's just such a horrible game to play.

Yes, the graphics are better, and it has more features than the Rugby World Cup game, but gameplay wise it completely falls short.

When there is a ruck/maul and you have the ball, you literally have to keep on passing to playmaker (L1+R1) or running from dummy half. If you try a regular L1 or R1 pass the scrum half passes to the ground the majority of the time. This alone makes the game literally unplayable.

Furthermore it makes absolutely no attempt to make predefined plays (Rugby World Cup 2011 game does).

Playing against a friend is just as bad as there are now 2 of you getting frustrated at the poor, poor gameplay.

I tried countless times to like this game, but the horrible gameplay made it impossible. If you dont believe me then by all means buy the game and find out.

I feel that Rugby Challenge is a good platform for Sidhe. Sidhe will be able to develop Rugby Challenge into sequels which should see vast improvements in some areas which need attention. Overall Rugby Challenge is a good game, a few issues with things like offloading and frame-rate but overall a good game. I would recommend this game for a rugby-fanatic.

This game will appeal to those Die Hard Rugby fans but that's about it, graphics were average, full of glitches (phantom charge downs, 20m foward passes) commentry is awful. Would recommend RWC 2011 before this game but then again thats not too flash hot either. Will stick to Madden & FIFA for the future…

I brought this game and thought it woould be better than the Rugby World Cup, I found they are as bad as each other! @ many errors such as, if u miss ur kick and pause it before it changes screens and choose anthoer kicker, u get another shot at goal! If u go into overtime (play 2 halves) and end up even, they say it will go into sudden death which doesnt happen, the timer keeps on running even if u score 100 tries!
All the team does is passes until and error pops up and u can tell when its gonna be a poor pass as 2 of ur team mates will be standing next to each other! Last time ill buy a rugby game as the developers cant make a decent rugby game! Annoyed

There are countless glitches.the only option you get when you kick is how far and what direction you want, and for place kicks you only choose the direction and when taking place kick wind does not do a thing. Everyplay is almost the same speed lock keeping up with a wing-

Better than all the rest (RWC). A huge amount of effort has been put into this game and it shows. It is one of the most detailed and graphically stunning games I have ever had the privilege of playing. A little glitchy in the game play, especially when playing online, but still a great amount of fun to play. Well done Sidhe!

I have it on PC – so cannot say for sure the problems persist onto the console versions. Yet they surely do.

It is purely a $100 update for the squads in the previous game. Still atrocious gameplay. It turns it into an arcade style button basher.

Kicks are impossible, players find it so hard to pick up the ball, sidesteps and fends are pointless and rarely work. Kicks land 1m out from the sideline and when you manage to pick it up you run directly out. I even got a yellow card for not throwing straight in a lineout – that's not even a rule :0

Goalkicking is the only slight improvement, as the opposition actually now misses kicks. However, they travel 30m at the most so don't attempt any penalties outside this area. However the opposition will gladly kick 50m penalties without any wind assistance.

Coming from Sidhe – it has the same frailties as their Rugby League franchise – yet I find them a bit more playable. They were probably working on the announced PC version of RLL2. Oh wait – that stopped for some reason.

Summary: Please don't bother with this game, at least on the PC. Rugby 08 is fairly bad – but so much better than this franchise. Failing that, Jonah Lomu Rugby from 1995 is about the best Rugby Game you could get.

It is a great game. Good graphics and can keep you entertained for ages. :-)

Game's awesome, quicker shipping to Sydney would be a huge plus though (6 days with Express Post)

The game play in EA Rugby 05 was better than game play in this game, you cannot run any backline moves, it takes to long to get the ball out of the rucks and scrums.

This game is very fun and an awesome game!! Super 15, Air NZ Cup very cool! Great to see AMI Stadium in the game

Great service, Fast Delivery & Great game.

Great game… Easy gameplay and fun for everyone… Highly recommended. Thanks MightyApe!!! :p

This is the greatest rugby game ever produced in PS3 series.

Just love it!!!!!!

Love how you can buy second hand games online, game turned up in great condition, keep up the good work!!!

Game runs with smooth frame rate and graphics are good the best of the 2 games released at the moment (rugby world cup ) being the other…

Finally another rugby game has come out, I bought this game and it is great, it has the itm cup (finally), super 15, top 14 and guiness premiership. A must have if you are a rugby-head.

Rugby challenge is a decent first up game for rugby on the new generation consoles but there are some things that the general game play lacks,for example not being able to take quick throw ins and not being able to tackle the opposition in goal to prevent a try but otherwise a decent game but there is room for improvement if there is to be more rugby games in the future

Just awesome thanks a lot to Mighty Ape

Very Happy, great price and fast delivery to australia.

I've been eagerly awaiting this game for some time now, and coupled with the disappointment of RWC2011 my expectations were a little low.

But, Rugby Challenge is a fantastic fun game, there are a few little bugs here and there but the team at SIDHE have already released a patch to fix some, and I believe more patches are on their way.

It's definitely worth the purchase!

Arrived in the US in just 6 days man… Never expected that but was happy and playing daily…

A great rugby game

Still streaks ahead of the world cup game though

Still a little glitches & bugs, bot for the most part, it's excellent, and definitely the best Rugby game available.

This is the most bug ridden game I've ever bought for the PS3 (check out the 10 pages of reported bugs on Sidhe's website). It has loads of potential but has clearly been rushed out ahead of the RWC and now we are all acting as beta testers. Best to wait for a price drop or eventual patching of the game. As it stands now it is insulting to ask $100 for this game.

Great game, and thank you once again for great service mightyape !

Game is great – but has quite a few glitches that need to be hot fixed other than that graphics awesome and off loads good.

Very good game. Good Graphics, Good Teams. Lots of competions which means you never get bored, Very fun.

This is a great game with graphics beyond belief. Easy to learn to control and the Haka is a winner

Realistic,fun and well worth owning,a few gliches with commentry ,real good effort

Awsome game. Its really fun and theres lots and game modes but it still is very buggy and is impossible to get red cards for a trophy so bring on the updates to fix this game

About time we got a new rugby game

Forget what all the haters say. This is by far one of the best rugby games ever. Sidhe lived up to their promise by putting all their effort into making this game. Considering that they lack the resources and technology of other high-profile developers, this is perhaps the best that they could have made it. Gameplay is very smooth albeit ‘glitchy’ on rare occasions. Graphics are, understandably, better than average (much better than Rugby World Cup). Online multiplayer requires a very good internet connection if you wish to avoid lag. Glitches and bugs aside, Rugby Challenge is a game that ALL rugby fans should buy, it is far more superior to its RWC counterpart. The long wait was all worth it.

Presentation – 7/10 Graphics/Design – 8/10 Gameplay – 8/10

Overall – 8/10

Overall you should buy this game. However it is not yet in the class of NBA2K, Madden, NFL2K.

Pro's-
Best Graphic's ever seen on rugby Learning curve steep – Hated this game for the first hour – once you get the hang of it, best thing since JL

• ITM Cup!
• Gameplay grows on you e.g you don't want to tackle with player your controlling, use him as a sweeper.

Cons: Lack of depth in career mode – No trading , progression of players. New players coming into teams. Defending: AI not that smart, can lead to frustration, lack of set formation for defense, e.g on goal line compressed defense. Forward play : No direct way to play with forwards Lack of special moves: e.g strip or steal in tackle, smother tackle, hold up player tackle.

I love rugby games, have bought every single one since JL. This game is almost there but it is important to remember how much learning has happened with FIFA, Madden which are essentially 20 years old.

You can definitely tell they have put a lot of thought into the game, but have missed a few little improvements.

Overall buy this game and give it a chance I would recommend playing on easy to start with even if you could play as japan and beat the all blacks in JL.

This is the best current rugby game going, I hope that Sidhe build on this, as there are no set plays, can only attack with the Full back from the scrum, can't run with the number 8 off the back off the scrum and no quick throw in's. It's a great game two player game and a must buy for rugby fans.