Game Reviews

Rugby Nations 09

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| Rugby Nations 09
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Rugby Nations 09
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| Rugby Nations 09

When you think of a game of Rugby Union, chances are blood, guts and a whole heap of mud spring to mind. Though Union might have its roots in the establishment, rugby in any form is a man's game. It's a whole world away from the multi-million pound transfers and waxed chests that are commonplace on the football pitch.

Rugby Nations 09, then, is a bit of a curious beast, promising to recreate every aspect of the sport but turning up to the pitch without the ball. Or the kit. Or the mud.

Now, if that leads you to believe that Nations gives you the opportunity to take charge of a pack of naked rugby players, calm yourself. While ten international teams from both hemispheres complete with kits make the line-up and the big tournaments (Six Nations, Tri Nations and World Cup) can also be ticked off, there is most definitely something missing from Rugby Nations 09. Namely the spirit of the sport itself.

It's almost as if the folk at Distinctive Developments have taken a quick overview of a rugby match and decided to apply only the basics it to its game. In short, Rugby Nations 09 plays like a beta test or rugby trainer, dropping half of the elements that define the sport and simply serving up an exercise in passing.

Yes, passing is pretty much all you can do. Besides the actual kick off or line-outs, every match consists of you passing the ball along the line until you find a gap. The controls themselves are fairly simple with the accelerometer determining whether you run left or right. Buttons on each side of the screen control your speed, tackles and passes.

Positions, names and tactics are all superfluous to play. Your one available action when in possession is to pass it left and right (the whole squad usually running in a great long line), lobbing the ball to a team mate whenever the opposition gets close until the space opens up that you can exploit.

It's adequate stuff, sadly undermined by the fact that this is the only facet of play. There are no real scrums, no set plays at all, and even the line-outs are controlled for you. Your only input is knowing just when to throw the ball back in rather than where.

In fact, the only way you can lose possession is if one of your players is tackled to the ground, with the game seemingly deciding to award a turnover if you're outnumbered. When defending, your only options are to switch players and try to direct your own to make a solid challenge. Computer-instigated tackles are fairly ineffectual, so it relies on you to take out the man with the ball before he reaches the line - and that's no easy task.

So much so that teams can dominate entire halves, the only route to getting the ball back being the half-time switchover. There are no missed passes, so the game is simply a case of trying to box out the opposition, making sure you score a try whenever you're in possession.

All in all, it's a sad simplification of a sport. While Rugby Nations 09 captures the graceful nature of sweeping the ball across the field and charging for the line when an opening appears, it doesn't come with enough muscle to truly pay tribute to the sport. It's the kind of package that serves as a great half-time filler without actually giving fans the rugby replica it initially promises.

Rugby Nations 09

Like rugby stripped back to its very core, Rugby Nations 09 comes with the line-up you might expect but doesn't have the gameplay to back up the pack
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Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.