The biggest sports game in the world is EA’s FIFA series. After that? A whole bunch of American sports. Great for Americans, or the sport’s fans, but they’re not the only sports in the world.
So let’s take a gander today at Rugby Challenge, from New Zealand outfit Sidhe Interactive. A common complaint levelled against Rugby games, including those released by Sidhe in the past (they’ve done a bunch of Rugby League games), has been their (relatively) low production values, resulting in things spare presentation and wonky player animation.
This clip looks far more promising. Rugby Challenge is hoping to capitalise on increased interest in the sport given the fact this is a World Cup year, and the game has the official licenses for big teams and competitions like the All Blacks, Wallabies, Super Rugby and European competitions along with 31 stadiums.
It’ll be out on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC towards the end of the year, with a PS Vita release to follow.
Braaains
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 4:06 PMSo will that haka thing offer Kinect support? They could call it Haka Central!
static_22
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 4:19 PMFINALLY! I’ve been waiting for a new rugby game since the old EA Sports game.
djmcbell
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 4:26 PMI worked in GAME in the UK, back in 2004 when a Rugby League game was released. The shop was in a city which had a very popular rugby league team.
The amount of people we had coming in for this title was immense. Unfortunately, even though the publisher had promised to fulfill all the pre-orders, they only managed about half.
Though one of our staff did pre-order it himself, buy it, and sell it to another shop pre-owned for a large profit.
Hemajinzero
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 5:16 PMBring back Jonah Lomu Rugby!
buckE182
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 6:03 PM+1
IMO it was the only good Rugby game ever released. The EA sports ones on PS2 were dismal.
Wayno@War
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 5:17 PMLoved Jonah Lomu Rugby on the Megadrive many years ago.
Like the look of this. It’s about bloody time.
buckE182
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 6:09 PMWow this actually looks pretty good, much better than the Rugby League offerings. I think it needs a name change though. ‘Rugby Challenge’ just screams ‘Mediocre rugby game on a small budget’. Looks like they have the licensing, so why not call it ‘Super 15 Rugby’ or simply ‘Super Rugby’ or just release it at the time of the world cup and call it ‘Rugby World Cup’…obviously they will need the full licensing for that last one, but they need it if they want to successfully market it to the main rugby markets in Aus/NZ, Europe and South Africa.
Will
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 12:38 AMThere’s another Rugby Game due out this year called exactly that.
The two titles are competing for licenses for the teams, so despite NZ hosting the RWC, the ‘Official’ game of the RWC can’t actually have the Wallabies or the All Blacks in it :S
Jake
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 7:06 PMhmm….most games from Sidhe and released by Tru Blu games are just terrible..i dont see this one being any different. Lets hope im proven wrong
Blackhawk
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 9:42 PMNow we just need someone to make a decent rugby league game. Tru blu devs just don’t cut it when it come to making RL games. And the best sports game is NHL 11 by far, personally.
Simon G
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 11:13 PMIndeed it is. And NHL12 looks to be even better. *drool*
InformedGamer
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 10:46 AMTruBlu isn’t the development team though, they’re the publishers…
light487
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 11:29 PMCan we talk about a sports game that isn’t so stereotypically Australian? I can’t stand Rugby.. I know I am in the minority.. but there is more to sports than just playing with balls.