Rugby League 3 Hands On

Recently NZGamer.com was fortunate enough to get some hands on time with Sidhe’s upcoming title, Rugby League 3. From the start, it’s obvious that it’s a true sequel to Rugby League 2. Rugby League 2: World Cup Edition might have technically been a follow-up, but a mere roster update with a few extra bells and whistles doesn’t make for a fully-fledged sequel. This isn’t the case with RL3 - it’s certainly not simply a Wii port of Rugby League 2.

Rugby League 3 uses a well thought-out game presentation style throughout, and seems to be heavily influenced by EA’s major sport franchises. From the start of a match through to the introduction of the teams, we get an overview of players in their positions and key players of the match. The result is something you’d be accustomised to seeing on Friday Night Footy rather than a sports video game. Throughout the entire 80 minutes of the game the new presentation style seems to integrate well with player cut scenes and the on-field action, and has a halftime highlights package.

The team at Sidhe has taken a leaf out of Madden Football’s Nintendo Wii control scheme; those who’ve played the Madden series on the Wii from 2007 onwards will feel right at home. The gamer has 3 control schemes to choose from; using just the Wii Remote on its side (intended for the pick-up-and-play styled type of control), the more advanced Nunchuk Style (both Wii Remote and Nunchuk) and the more traditional Gamecube Controller.

Using the Nunchuk style, you direct players around the field with the Nunchuk analog stick, complete a short right pass by flicking the Wiimote left to right to pass and vice versa. To complete a skip right pass, players must flick both the Wiimote and Nunchuk left to right and vice versa. To perform a sidestep simply hold down the Z button and jerk the Nunchuk in the direction you want to step to, while shoulder charging (on attack) is done by simply push the Wiimote and Nunchuk towards the screen. Sadly – for Sonny Bill fans and people who want to be a defensive enforcer - the shoulder charge on defence still isn’t part of the game.

Hands down, one of most important features of Rugby League 3 is the ability to play with up to eight players at one time. There’s a couple of catches, though – you’ll need both four Wiimotes (& Nunchuks), and a further four Gamecube controllers (no Classic Controller support, alas) to get everyone going. There’s also no online play, so hopefully you have a big couch. We didn’t try eight players at once, but rolled out on some two-player co-op with Rugby League 3’s Producer (and West Tigers fan) Mark Davis. Organising attacking plays and general defensive moves seems light years ahead of Rugby League 2, and passes didn’t seem to go to ground for odd reasons like in previous titles.

In a bold move, the ‘pass to playmaker’ option has been done away with, and has been replaced with strategic options mapped to the Wii’s ‘-’ (minus) button. In defence you can set your line (Defend Kick, Full Line, Cover Defence, Aggressive) and attacking strategies (Kick, Full Line, Deep Attack, Field Goal). We found this added to the game dramatically; it gives the player a lot more options and will allow people to play to their team’s strengths. Kicking has been completed remapped, with bombs performed by holding the A button on the Wiimote and flicking upwards; grubbers by holding the B button and gesturing down quickly (creating the end over end of a grubber); and a simple B button press that will lead to a Stacey Jones-ish chip kick.

The kicking game in past versions was a hard one to master; you always felt like it was something you had to get absolutely perfect, or you’d just kick it dead/out for a 20m restart - or worse still, tackled at the last moment and having to turn it over on your territory.

With the Wiimote only and Nunchuk style options there’s still a bit of a learning curve. We had around 45 minutes hands-on and found there’s definitely a steep learning curve. This was highlighted when we transferred to the GameCube controller: passing, kicking and building momentum was a lot less difficult and almost immediately we scored tries and set up plays at will.

The Franchise mode has been refined and the club menus seem far cleaner and easy to use. While checking through the rosters, we noticed late trades like Brett Finch to the Melbourne Storm, and the roster updates appear to up to date through to September 2009. You can view any of your team’s stats through the season, and view other teams and leagues from around the world. Players will be able to take their favourite team through 12 seasons and have up to five seasons on the go at any one time. You’ll have your star players vying for the title of the NRL’s Dally M Player of the Year or the Super League’s alternative Man of Steel. Rugby League 3 features all the major competitions, including NRL, Super League, Toyota Cup, UK Championship, UK Championship 1, State of Origin, City v. Country and International Teams (featuring all 10 World Cup sides with updated rosters). In previous titles you had issues with no-name players making the representative sides, but this time round we simulated our season up to Game #1 of State of Origin and the Queensland team looked more or less the same as what you’d come to expect over the last 2-3 seasons.

The create-a-player mode returns with Rugby League 3 and builds upon its predecessor. There are additional hair styles, skin tones and facial features, among other features. You can assign your player’s nationality, State of Origin team of choice, as well as stats. It should be noted that you can give your player unlimited stats points; sure, it reinforces the arcade nature of the game, but it would have been good to see player attributes limited, where you must gets points for your player within their career.

Andrew Voss is back for his third outing with Sidhe. Thankfully, his comments sound a lot more natural this time round. Any breaks in the play lead to Vossy ad-libbing to what is unfolding on screen; you won’t find yourself getting comments about a try scored some 2-3 seconds after the fact. However, it still feels a little empty, lacking comments from Ray Warren and his banter with fellow commentator Phil Gould. Oh what joy would be had to hear an ensuing argument between Gould and Rabs around a dodgy call from the ref or the state of the NRL administration. All the same, Voss certainly holds his own, but we imagine the addition of the full Channel Nine crew would do wonders for the authentically of Rugby League 3. We can only dream...

Overall the series has definitely stepped up a few gears, with Rugby League 3 refining most aspects of the previous game. With no union rugby title due till World Cup year, which is still close to two years away, Sidhe’s Rugby League 3 on the Nintendo Wii will certainly be the ticket for any Rugby/League-mad fans. Granted, the game doesn’t have the polish of a Madden or FIFA, but Sidhe has stepped up to the plate to get rid of bugs and glitches that were present in the past Rugby League titles. There’s currently no release date for Rugby League 3, but they’re hopeful to see the game release before Christmas. If you played Rugby League 2 and worked through the bugs to enjoy it (which most League fans would have), you’ll certainly be keen to get your hands on Rugby League 3.