Jonah Lomu Rugby
Developer - Rage
Publisher - Codemasters
Players - 1-4 (via Multi Tap)
Extras - Memory card, Multi Tap
The bit on the box
"It's the official Jonah Lomu rugby
game: play hard and fast with the world's most powerful winger in the video
game that he helped design! Commentary from TV's Bill McLaren and Bill
Beaumont. Individual player attributes including weight, size, strength
and skill. Rendered 3D motion-captured player animations. 32 Rugby union
teams including New Zealand, England, Australia and France. get dirty in
friendly, Tournament, World Cup, Territories Cup or Classic Matches. All
weather conditions from South African sunshine to English winter. Up to
4 player simultaneous action."
Graphics
Although for the most part the graphics in Jonah Lomu
Rugby are adequate and completely functional, they almost appear to
be a step back from EA Sport's older rugby game on the PC. Firstly the
camera angles are less like the TV style than I would have preferred, although
the view used for goal kicking is spot on. The players are drawn in sprites
rather than polygons, which causes a slightly dated look and makes it very
hard to tell which player is which on the field, and it is almost impossible
to tell what the referee is signaling. Scrums and lineouts look good enough,
but rucks and mauls can get very confusing as it can be difficult identifying
who has the ball, the player having to rely solely on coloured markers
at the feet of the players to guess who is in possession. The weather effects
are superb although sometimes they can add to the confusion.
Sounds
Quite simply the commentary in this game is terrible.
The voice overs sound incredibly slow and lifeless, adding no excitement
to the match whatsoever. Codemasters could have taken a leaf out of EA's
book here and looked at how the commentary worked in the EA Sport's rugby
game, and that was before the CD revolution really took hold! Crowd noises
are no different from the norm and react nicely to big plays or missed
goals. The grunts and groans on the field suffice as far as rucks and mauls
are concerned and there is a satisfying hitting sound when a particularly
hard tackle is made.
Gameplay
Jonah Lomu Rugby really suffers from the lack of
a really good league option, but otherwise you can play any tournament
from Five Nations to Tri Nations, though unfortunately it has only international
teams so there is no Super 12 option. World Cup can also be played, and
it is in this mode that the game's biggest flaw rears it's ugly head. Jonah
Rugby is far too difficult for the novice to pick up in one player
mode. Two player games can work far better if both players have the same
level of playing ability, but the CPU players are always far too quick
in the rucks to be able to compete effectively against them. This leads
to silly scorelines with teams like the Ivory Coast actually giving the
All Blacks and Springboks a run for their money. One nice feature however
is the World Cup classics mode in which your team is thrown into a particular
situation and it is your job to win (eg. the All Blacks holding out South
Africa in the last few minutes of the third World Cup final).
I feel a verdict coming on
I really wanted to give this game a higher rating than
I have, because after all it is still fun for rugby fans and it is the
only rugby game available for PlayStation, and may stay that way. It was
a pity that the game was not as good as it could have been as Codemasters
had a good opportunity to take ideas from other rugby games in the past,
and expand on all the good features those offered. Jonah Lomu Rugby
will offer a fun (if a little short) two player challenge but the one player
mode needs a fair amount of revision to make it fairer on novice players.
Maybe in the future someone will make a rugby game with more options and
club teams, but until then if you like rugby and have a friend to play
against, this game is your best option.
Review by D.R.T.Barrett
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