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For Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge, 120 customer reviews collected from 1 e-commerce sites, and the average score is 3.9.

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28.4.2013

It may seem strange to some to have a 2011 next gen rugby game endorsed by Jonah Lomu, but for those in the know, this is because the 1997 ps1 jonah lomu rugby has remained the best rugby video game, which has been a real shame. Some may argue EA's 06 + 08 attempts were better, but for me, those games were flawed to the point of being unplayable to a true rugby fan.So to bring out another Jonah Lomu game 14 years on is both riding on the success of the original and taking on a big challenge to match it for playability. Have they succeeded. Absolutely, this is now by far the best rugby union game ever released.It is by no means perfect and is flawed, but it has enough good about it to make it a solid,fun but most importantly, highly playable game.Having completed a season as the Newport Gwent Dragons, that has been my first delight of the game, the club elements. I was expecting an international game but the main global club teams are represented aswell as international. You get all the main cup competitions and leagues, giving huge depth to longevity of the game.Gameplay is a triumph in places and flawed in others:The offload problem I've heard theres a patch for, but I don't have xbox live. Whilst offloads are a bit too easy (especially as the all blacks), they arent as effective when playing as your club and can sometimes be disastrous, being thrown to noone or passed forward, so I haven't found this too annoying.The animations are good in places and disastrous in others. The tackle animations are great, the collecting the ball from a kick heading to touch can be really annoying, as your player collects it about 5 yards out and nothing can be done to stop him running into touch. Also, occassionally I've been about to score a try and for some reason my player has taken ages to put it down and been tackled into touch or held up when tackled. A better try dive like the original is sorely missed, but this is a minor annoyance that comes up now and again.The tackling on the whole is good, but can sometimes be a bit randomly bad.The camera angles aren't the best. I tried it far behind but it felt too distant. On the whole it's good enough, but occasionally you are passing blind in the hope you have a supporting player. It's another minor annoyance.Some elements have gone for video game fun over realism, such as scrums.The defensive lineup of your players doesn't compact enough on the tryline, they lineup like in open play.Kicking is excellent. A slow down (max payne syle) for open play works well and penalties and conversions are an aim then time the revolving counter to get the kick right, also taking into account wind direction. Maybe a touch too easy, think the sweetspot area could be bit smaller (possibly is on harder setting, havent checked).Passing on the whole is good, although can be a bit erratic occasionally and players can lineup out of position a lot if your going for quick play.A real shame is the management side of the teams. No transfer funds to buy or sell players. You can draft in some better players, but on the whole this is a real let down. Also player fatigue. There's no need to make subs to your best starting lineup other than for your own amusement as energy is 100% every game. Real shame, would have been nice to need to sub players to rest them. Players fatigue during the game, but haven't really noticed a major difference in their play.There's loads of different passes, moves, manouveres, kicks and the right controller offering the ability to do sidesteps and handoffs is a nice touchGraphics are nice for the stadiums, crowds and pitches, but bit cartoony for the players. It doesn't bother me too much as majority of the time it's a case of watching play from a distance and player names are more important than what they look like, but it is a flaw. The game is southern hemisphere produced so more effort has gone into the southern teams and the commentary is by aussies, which isn't the best when you're playing as a welsh or english team. Do miss the comedic commentary of the original aswell.The main thing that is a triumph with Rugby challenge, is all the flaws and annoyances in gameplay affect the computer aswell. You will see them knock on, pass forward, pass to no one, high tackle, give away penalties, get yellow carded, over offload to no one, mess up rucks and mauls etc. That is what ultimately makes it such a good game, it has excellent polished gameplay elements and flaws that ultimately make it more realistic and feel like real rugby. On the whole the gameplay is good and where it's annoying and flawed, it's not a case of playing a perfect computer AI team who never suffer the same problems. This was the problem with the EA attempts ( I remember 06 never once having a penalty).Yes it's not perfect and yes there will be times when you say, ummm, that was a bit rubbish and video gamey. Yes, it's not the perfect realistic representation of rugby but I've managed to get a full season of club and interntaional fixtures and I'll happily play another season. It takes a bit of mastering and I recommend doing all the tutorials 1st, but once you get the hang of it you'll be hooked and the game is good enough to immerse you into a decent video game rugby world. I hope they bring out another one because to be this good at a first next gen rugby attempt and get so many things right, we could be looking at the start of a gaming phenomenon. EA take note, you're not the best at all sports games, this is how you do it.
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19.10.2011

Being a massive Rugby fan and after reading the favourable reviews I was looking forward to this game immensly. Initially I was impressed, there is far more polish to the opening screens and menus than the woeful RWC011 Game. The choice of teams is very impressive although the fact that the 6 Nations teams are not licenced is a major letdown, as you now have the Pro Evo style random names and kits. However after playing it for several days I feel slightly dissapointed at a missed opportunity and the game although a step in the right direction again fails to encapsulate the great game fully. The main gripes are as follows.- No Licenced 6 Nations Teams- Ratings are overly biased to Southern Hemisphere teams.- Tackling is fairly timid and doesnt capture the enormity of the collisions,There should be a hit stick like in Maddens and there should be far more differnce from an AI sense when you get tackled head on by a 20st prop as opposed to Shane Williams.- No really option to vary tactics, whereas you cant expect Maddens level there is no scope for playing a tight game around the fringes with a heavy pack as opposoed to a wide expansive game. Even RWC011 gave you the option of a simple back move switch etc.- Offloads are bizare and impossible to stop unless you customise on the options screen.- The passing is very poor and imo is the worse facet of the game, your backs align from almost behind the passer when you want a simple spread to create an overlap. (Very frustrating)- The running angles arent realastic enough, a player can virtually turn 360 deg on a sixpence which means a fast back can weave in and out like a housefly.- Commentary is ok but not as good as RWC011.- Rugby fans love the techancilities and nuances of the game and they should play a bigger part. (The way Maddens AI captures the collision at the line of scrummage depending on a players ratings and body position etc would be perfect for rucking etc, although Lomus has far more effort than previous games again you feel that they are trying to make the game Arcadey and fast paced rather than encouraging different gameplans for weather conditions and opposition etc)I know that all may sound overly critical but its only because this game could have been really really special. There are a lot of plus points and this has the makings of a great series, and with minimal alterations could be excellent. On the whole a decent enough game but not as good as it could of been. I would still recomend it.
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15.10.2011

I think the majority of reviews for this game will be similar; It's the best rugby game available but there are flaws.Pros:Easy to learn, difficult to masterGameplay is fluidGraphics are greatAlthough the passing can be a little unpredictable, I do like that you can pick your receiver by holding Lb or Rb and pressing X, Y or A. This is also handy for making clever inside passes.Tactical kicking is goodGoal kicking is goodScrums are good, even though wins against the head happen a little more often than they do in real lifeLine outs are just about rightThe best representation of rucks I've seen in a rugby gameCreation options are goodLicenses for a plethora of club teamsCons:Passing is unpredictable for those who are used to EA Sports rugby,simply because you want to pass it out wide all the time rather than picking your pass. Once you're used to it, you'll find that the passing mechanics are pretty good.Too many offloads (I personally fixed this for AI teams by downloading an unofficial patch with all offloading sliders decreased, you can also do this yourself)Career mode isn't greatA few gameplay glitches such as play stopping when there's an injury, even if you're running with the ballWith the new patch you cannot alter the unlicensed national teams' squads ie you can't add the real players from the clubs into their unlicensed national teamA few of the stats are a little wayward (NZ are way ahead of the rest as expected from a NZ company making the game)It's often too easy to break a tackleNo set plays, because of this attacking play usually lacks structure, you cannot choose to pass to a forwardStill, this is the most I've been addicted to a new game for a while, it's enjoyable despite the cons. It's a good base for new rugby games and trust me when I say it's better than RWC 2011.To improve for a possible second installment:Reduce offloadsIntroduce set plays'Beefier' defencesMinimise the glitches, including the injury glitchAdd to career mode, ie club transfers. Something similar to World League on EA Sports rugby would sufficeRefine and perfect the passingAllow us in the UK to edit the squads of unlicensed teamsDifferent buttons to pass to a forward from a ruckDon't have all New Zealanders choosing the team and player stats (heh heh)Overall it's a 4/5.
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15.10.2011

Rugby games have failed to hit the mark and since Jonah Lomu Rugby in the late 90s was widely considered the the best rugby game on the market. EA tried to revive the sport in the realm of video games but did not show the the sane passion and effort as other EA titles like Madden, NBA, NHL, Fight Night and most of all Fifa. After another feeble attempt in Rugby 08 EA gave it up and rugby gamers all over the world were left wondering just when will the sport be represented. I am not here to give a history on the genera, but I was not expecting to wait for 4 years. It was a bit like a London bus. We waited forever for one to come, and two come and once.After a disappointing World Cup attempt,that just wet the appetite for a good game to arrive. And alas, we have a decent attempt for once. Let me start with the good. The graphics are superb. This game really exploits the new consoles capabilities. One of the best examples is the stadium atmosphere. Gameplay is addictive. The gameplay is fast-paced and a lot does happen. I find my defence rushing across to stop a try and just managing before the line. The official leagues. It is great that you can find your favorite club and play with them their modern kit.Kicking, it is a new idea which works brilliantly. It goes into slow motion so you can accurately place it. There is also a huge customization option. I have made a few fantasy leagues.However, there are flaws which need ironing out. First a foremost the amount of offloads. When I played against New Zealand, they must have offloaded out of 8 or 9 tackles before a ruck eventually formed. Some of the offloads are very unrealistic as well. there are some bugs. I once knocked the ball on over the try line and the ref awarded me a try. Others include passing to a guy behind me a it being a forward pass. The amount of unofficial material does ruin the game slightly. The fact that two are Rugby games are out means that there is this annoying license war. Just give both the licence! And this may just be me, but you can only play one tournament at a time. If you try to do 2 or 3 it will just overwrite the previous game.It is worth buying though. i am sure updates will address these problems in the future. If you want a fun, fast-paced and exciting game, you have come to the right place!
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14.10.2011

The much-hyped Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge finally arrives, and while it might not satisfy everyone, there's plenty here to keep the rugby gamer happy.First, the bad. Passes can be erratic at times, and you'll often be wondering why your prop is first receiver or your lock is lined up alongside the backs. The game isn't the prettiest - player models are solid but unspectacular, and perhaps rather unsurprisingly, Southern Hemisphere players seem to have been modeled better than their Northern Hemisphere counterparts. Commentary is bearable - not as bad as some people have made out, but at this stage of the next-gen life cycle, you would expect better. I haven't tried the career mode,but apparently it's quite limited in terms of player transfers and variety - for instance, you play the same round of fixtures every year. Licensing issues also prevent full player movement in the French and Celtic Leagues.Now onto the good news. Player animations are fluid, particularly in the tackle area, and there is a wide variety of well-modeled stadia to choose from. The core game mechanics are solid - scrums involve pushing both analogue sticks at the optimum moment, while rucks are more strategic. Lineouts are well implemented, and kicking from hand in easier than in previous rugby games, as time slows down, enabling you to actually put some thought into your kicks. Drop goals are possible. It's also unlikely that rugby fans won't find their favourite player in the game, however accurate they might be, as there are licenses for the Aviva Premiership, French Top 14, RaboDirect Pro 12, ITM Cup, All Blacks and Wallabies, as well as the New Zealand and Australian contingent of the Super 15. There is also a good variety of tournaments to take part in.So there you have it. Rugby is notoriously a difficult game to represent in video-game form; if it were easy, EA would no doubt still be making games. I'm guessing that Rugby Challenge has been produced on a fraction of the budget that EA allocates to its sports franchises. That said, it is what it is - a video game. It isn't real rugby, and it doesn't include all the intricacies of real rugby. But if you're prepared to put up with the erratic passing, and a few other niggles, there's a lot of fun to be had.
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23.10.2011

I received this game yesterday, when estimated, from a site that never lets me down.When I first played the game, I couldn't believe how much better it was compared to 'Rugby World Cup 2011', which in my opinion, is a poor game, but it is good fun.I enjoy most aspects of this game, apart from 10 frustrating areas, and they are (my review is based on playing exhibition matches, as I'm getting used to playing it first, before doing cups and career mode):1. Erratic passing, you get too many misplaced passes, during a game.2. I don't like the way you switch players, when you don't have the ball, it makes defending, very hard, I'd prefer it if you just pressed one button and it automatically put you on the nearest player to the ball.3.The licencing is annoying, but I realise it unfortunately can't be helped.4. Too many offloads, it's very hard to go on runs.5. Having no Heineken Cup, is also quite frustrating.6. A few graphical errors, like when they knock on the ball doesn't even seem to touch them.7. The unlicensed and lack of stadiums, is quite frustrating.8. Your kicks don't always go where you say, especially when kicking for goal.9. When you commit a high tackle, you don't get a yellow card, but the opposition do when they commit one, and I think that's unrealistic.10. When scoring a try, the try scorer when doing so, trips up and stick the ball down, even when nobody is near him, which looks unrealistic, I think.Apart from 10 frustrating areas, none of them being serious areas of frustration, to put me off playing it, or recommending it. I really like the game, and I would recommend it to any rugby union fan, as it is by far the best rugby game I've ever played.
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26.10.2011

Pros- Lots of licensed leagues and playersGood tutorial section explaining each facet of the gameAbility to change players of nations that aren't licensed like England), and also player attributesAble to generate games if you don't fancy playing every single one.Career mode is decentExcellent and realistic rucking..if your players don't have enough support it will be a turnover.Ability to offload, just before, and during a tackle. This is also abit annoying..more later.Can sidestep,hand off and dummy pass.ConsOffloading is great, but the likelihood of the opposition trying this in their own 22 is not very high, or so you would have thought. Not in this game. The ability of your big props to do this with ease,is again, slightly too much you'd think they were passing each other burgers).Not a great variety in terms of penalties, main ones are for high tackles and offsides. What about scrum collapse?Or penalies when you've put alot of pressure on an opposing scrum?Ruck infringements?No set back moves, or ability to pop a quick pass to a running forward from a ruck.Overall an excellent game, easy to get to grips with, decent graphics and some of the old commentary gems from the original " that would have put him in ward 4". Gameplay is good but lack of penalties is the only thing that bothers me really. That said i've had it over a week and havent played anything else yet. If you love rugby, get this game.Simple.
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25.10.2011

First of all I am a massive rugby fan and have been waiting an absolute age for a rugby game to come out on the new generation of consoles, and due to the crushing disappointment of the official rugby world cup game, I came to JL Rugby Challenge with a feeling of some trepidation.The game itself is something of a rough diamond, whilst not being as polished as a fifa game; the ability to chuck a ball around unopposed whilst loading does get tiresome and the game is lacking in official license, however a comprehensive in game editor, a wealth of competitions and teams and fun gameplay, which is by far the closest yet to capturing the feel of a good game of rugby,more than make up for these shortcomings.In attack the gameplay is superb, however to operate effectively in defence takes practice and can be frustrating initial, however once mastered you can put in some huge hits (smashing Quade Cooper of the park is worth the £40 alone). The mini games based around set pieces are fun, and break up the game nicely.The only complaint I have is that the frequency of successful offloads can sometimes border on the ridiculous, but it works both wys, sometimes you score tries you should not have, other times you concede tries after witnessing 13 offloads in a row.all in all jonah lomu rugby challenge is loads of fun, and definitely the best rugby game out there by a country mile.
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27.1.2012

I cannot stress just how good this game is. Compared to Rugby WorldCup and the highly disappointing Rugby League Live, this is head and shoulders above the rest.Graphically speaking, it looks glorious in high definition. Seeing the fully 3D rendered All Blacks performing the Haka is remarkable. The licensed stadiums are magnificient, especially Dunedin's masterpiece. Kits resemble the real thing in every way.The gameplay takes from every Sidhe rugby game before it and smooths it out into a realistic and entertaining representation of the real game.My one qualm with the game is the missing licenses. With international teams that use fake kits, some of the replacements were ridiculous.I have no idea what was going on with South Africas kit. Fortunately there are 2 generic ones that take its place nicely. It wouldve been nice having the Premiership players full scanned and having actual English stadiums in the game as well. Sidhe did it with Rugby League 2 so its far from impossible. All in all, a VERY worthwhile purchase.
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14.3.2015

A fine rugby game with good technical gameplay, five different tournaments and 24 national teams.Besides tournaments you get a handful or so of local cups to play through. So content aplenty.Most of the teams are not licensed but that didn't bother me at all, the gameplay was my priority.And the gameplay is solid; it takes a bit to learn, but is fun, technical and challenging.If you are completely new to rugby the game has excellent tutorials for you.Is it a 100% perfect simulation of the sport ? not really, all sports games are first and foremost 'games'.For example, the player's movements have been speeded-up in the game to make the gameplay faster.Having said this the game feels more sim-like than games like 'World Rugby Cup 2011'and 'Rugby 15'.Could it have been more detailed ? absolutely, that goes for all games, but know that this is a solid Rugby title.Its somewhat sim, somewhat arcade, with enough content to keep you busy for dozens of hours.
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4.1.2012

My 8 year old son is rugby mad and we bought this for him for Christmas even though we were worried it would be too complicated. He absolutely loved it and got to grips with the controls within a couple of hours and puts 30 points on me every game! It does a very good job of realistically re-creating the game of rugby, but still allowing a fun game. Most aspects of the game are spot on, particularly the scrums. The only minor problem we found is that the advantage law is not always applied, and you often get awarded a penalty or scrum when you have the try line at your mercy. As some have said the offloads are much easier than in a real match, but it does make the game more playable on the console.It is a little disappointing that most of the International teams are not official and made up, but the official teams are really accurate. All in all a great purchase.
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11.12.2011

just a very quick review on my feelings regarding this game ..OK when i first started playing rugby challenge i was slightlydisappointed i just felt it was abit lacking in certain aspectsof rugby i.e feeble tackling kicks and so on .but now after playing this game alot in the last 3 weeksi can easily say this is the most addictive game I've everplayed .i love the fact that when you are playing its easyto make mistakes with your passing and kickingbecause in real rugby this happens all the timeand it just adds to the excitement .i'm glad i waited until i gave my feeling on this gamestick with it and i promise you will love it (in my opinion this is my all time favorite game ..just give it some time to grow on you like i did and just enjoy
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5.11.2012

A nice little rugby game for the fans that arent too bothered that the teams are out of date! One big bug bear is the lack of licensing for all international teams. Plenty of bugs in the game, but none that are show stoppers, but rather a shame that they werent included. On the whole, good fun, variable difficulty and suggests to have some sort of adaptive difficulty style going on where it forces you to change tactics every now and then or your game plans become inneffective - which is a good touch. Would like an updated game with licensing sorted, bugs removed abd more stats at half time / end of game.7/10

9.9.2013

The gameplay mechanics were excellent, with a few bugs to iron out, such as the scrummaging. The graphics were pretty enough to not be a negative aspect. Player customisation was detailed but not overly complicated, as was team customisation.The only major flaws of the game are the lack of licensing for international teams, and the inability to transfer players from the pro 12 and top 14. As the franchise develops and gains more money and recognition I can imagine this eventually ceasing to be a problem.Great game, hopefully the start of a great franchise.

2.11.2012

I dig rugby, so I like this game. But the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. For example, the button to break tackles and make a drop kick are the same. So, you're breaking tackles and all of a sudden you attempt a drop kick. This happens all the time. Scoring a try is ridiculous. Even if you break three tackles past the try line, your momentum or the action of touching down can carry you into touch.Still, there's not a lotto choose from for rugby.

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