[Review] Rugby World Cup 2011 (PS3)

Move over John Madden! With the Super Bowl still months away, who cares about the first few weeks of football? Let's be real. It's Rugby time and the rest of you wankers shouldn't forget it. Okay, fine. Maybe you (and I) didn't know that it's time for the Rugby World Cup, and maybe we didn't even know that there's one. But there is, and it's that time of year, or... every fourth year or something. Well without going into a history of Rugby let's dive into this game.

Admittedly, I'm a football fanatic. This time of year, I'm engrossed with everything that has to do with it 24/7. I've always been aware of Rugby's existence and seen a couple matches but never really got into the game. Though I did enjoy watching how ballsy those players hit especially because they're sans padding. As I approached this game, I was expecting something fairly akin to the Madden experience. Maybe as if I were playing its European cousin. But man was I wrong.

Realistically, none of us have ever seen an entire Rugby match or we would be completely lost at the seemingly barbaric display we'd be watching if we did. And if you are one of these people, this game really isn't designed for you. In comparison to your typical Madden or EA sports game, these games go beyond the gameplay and takes users through the basics of passing, throwing, kicking, and tackling, amongst other aspects of the sport. This was a great help for users to better understand the game as well as improve their strategy as well. But this is a huge part that this game is lacking. If you are unaware of Rugby's rules, then you will be left on your own to figure out, which can be very discouraging for a game this complex.

If you still decide to jump in the fray the gameplay isn't very difficult. You use L1 and R1 to lateral the ball in each direction. X and O are reserved for kicking and those are really the buttons that you'll be most concerned with. The true challenge lies in grasping the game. Rugby World Cup 2011 offers five different game modes including World Cup, Single match, Warm-Up Tour, Place-Kick Shootout and the online mode. However there isn't much depth to these game modes, the first three are either one game, three games, or the whole tournament. The Place-Kick shootout is approximately less fun than doing penalty kicks over and over again in FIFA. If you are actually an avid fan of Rugby, it might be compensation that 10 of the 20 teams are fully licensed, though the rest are filled with generic players and names.

For being considered a full fledged Rugby World Cup game, the overall package is disappointing to say the least. The lack of any sort of tutorials is a huge deterrent to non-Rugby fans trying to get in to the game and lack of full licensing is a rip to any serious Rugby fan. Though the gameplay is simple enough where gamers can jump in and make their way around the game, you can't expect a player to full grasp a sport in this manner, especially a sport such as Rugby that is foreign to most Americans at least. So if you're looking for a way to get in to Rugby, or if you're already a fan that wants a video game version, you're better off looking elsewhere.

Available on: PS3, Xbox 360; Publisher: 505 Games; Developer: HB Studios Multimedia; Players: 1-2; Released: September 6, 2011; ESRB: Everyone; Official Site

Note: A promotional code was provided to Denkiphile for review purposes by the publisher.