Genesis ~ ARL 96 Review

Overview

1994 saw EA Sport's first attempt at a Rugby game. It was an OK game. And then 1995 saw EA Sport's first attempt at a Rugby League game. Much to my delight, I found all my favourite rugby league clubs in it, even with their logos. After that, the ball rolled down the hill, down the hill like a rugby ball would; all over the place.

Gameplay

I expected ARL 96 to be an improvement over Rugby 1995. Instead it's exactly the same thing, so that automatically means it isn't any better. However, there is only one difference. And that's all the rugby rules changed into rugby league rules. Would the exact same game with rugby league rules in place of rugby rules work? NO! The game is just far too slow. All the players look like they're running on tired legs, where is the speed? Walking speed is all they're capable of. When a player gets taken down by a tackle, you get all these tacklers coming in on one spot, going down with the tackled player, then all players fan out from that spot and reposition themselves, it's a ridiculous sight. Then the dumby half gets almost no space at all to do anything, because he gets taken down by nearby tacklers far too quickly. Even after you tap the pass button the instant dumby half retrieves the ball, he'll still get taken down. Why? Because the game is far too slow! When a player is tackled, they're always on the ground and they have a bit of a wriggle and take for ages to get back up. I mean, c'mon man, HAUL YOUR FRIGEN ARSE UP!!! And a lot of the time the dumby half is off the screen doing who knows what, HURRY UP JACKARSE!!! Then when you finally get the ball moving again, its tackle, another long wait, then tackle... this cycle continues 5 times before the inevitable kick down the field or a boring turnover. Speed is this game's main problem.

The passing, it just doesn't work. The players from either team seem to bunch up around the ball carrier, how are you suppose to pass the ball and spread it wide when everyone's acting like 5 year old soccer players?

5 out of 10

Graphics

The graphics are exactly the same as Rugby 95. EA Sports can't even get the kit colours right, showing poor attention to detail. New South Wale's shirts are light blue, not bright blue. The animation of someone kicking a ball contains just 1 clip of them with a leg going up. Not only that, but the ball leaves the ground before their foot does.

2.5 out of 5

Sound and Music

Exact same sound effects as Rugby 95. Everything sounds weak. The ball, the player grunts, the crowd. The crowd just do a lousy cheer when a try is scored or when the ball goes over the posts. As for the music, it sounds cool, but sissy.

2.5 out of 5

Playability and Versatility

The game is so dam unresponsive. You run in one direction tapping the sprint button, then it takes too long to change direction, I expect it to be instant, or at least quicker. You have to hold the kick button down for 2 seconds to get a good distance, and there just isn't time to hold it down for that long.

The ingame stats just shows these bar graphs on how good your 13 players are, but none of the players are real making it far beyond pointless and useless. It is suppose to serve as a place to interchange players, but instead you can't interchange at all.

1.5 out of 5

Options

Teams from the ARL96 season are all here, with a handful of international, State of Origin and British sides as well. Most of the teams are about as good as they would be in real-life. But with no real players in the game at all, it's like "who cares?". But what's worse is how all the players are generic English names, even in Samoa. Game modes include Exhibitions, full ARL or British seasons, State of Origin, playoffs, or a demo. There is even a password save option, which is nice. Games can be up to 40mins per half. I seriously doubt anyone would want to put up with that even once.

3.5 out of 5

For: it's Rugby League, good range of game modes, all ARL teams from 1996, can password save.

Against: too slow, graphics and sound same as Rugby 95, unresponsive controls, can't interchange, players aren't real, pointless stats.

EA Sports seem to think they can take Rugby 95, change a few lines of code to come up with a good Rugby League game. It doesn't work! The game is too slow, if EA sports bothered to watch some proper Aussie league games, they'd realise how it's one of the world's most fastest paced sports.