Rugby Challenge wants to make a good first impression. Cribbing from the world's best-selling sports game, FIFA 11, Rugby Challenge kicks off with some high-res player models involved in some atmospheric slow-mo rugby action. Launch into a match and you'll find FIFA-style loading screens where you can run around a footy pitch with three other players, passing and kicking the ball around. Once your game is ready to start, broadcast-style pre-game footage sees the teams assembled for the anthems and, in the All Blacks' case, the haka. Presentation was clearly an important aspect of Rugby Challenge for developer Sidhe and the team has done well in this department.

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Sidhe has also done well with content. Rugby Challenge is bristling with depth severely lacking in Rugby World Cup 2011 . The All Blacks, the Wallabies and the USA Eagles all officially feature. England's Aviva Premiership, the French Top 14 and the RaboDirect Pro12 (which includes teams from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Italy) are all included as well, along with New Zealand's ITM Cup and Ranfurly Shield. Super 15 is also here, although only the New Zealand and Australian teams are licensed (the South African clubs are fakes). At the international level there's the Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations (the South African national rugby squad is unlicensed) as well as unofficial versions of various other big tournaments (including a World Cup knockoff). You can even create your own custom competitions.Career mode is the meat and potatoes of Rugby Challenge and gives you control of a club, country, or both, for up to 13 seasons. It's not all that sophisticated (finance is a non-issue) but it'll give the game a lifespan that lasts well beyond the Rugby World Cup.On the field Rugby Challenge doesn't quite feel a generation apart from the kinds of rugby games we were playing four or so years ago but there's quite a bit to master. Kicking will be familiar to those who have played any of Sidhe's Rugby League titles. Four different kicks are mapped to the face buttons; hold the button for a few seconds of slow-motion to aim your kick or just stab it for a quick, unaimed punt. The passing system, which can be a little fickle at times, uses the shoulder buttons.Scrums involve both sides pushing up on both thumbsticks repeatedly when prompted. Timing is everything and, on higher difficulties or against a mate, they work quite well. You can fend, dummy, sidestep and kick loose balls along the ground. Rucks still seem to be a matter of spamming the bind buttons to try and win possession, but you do need to be wary of leaving massive holes in you defensive line. There's a decent series of tutorials (lacking in Rugby World Cup 2011) that will teach you what can be done on field in Rugby Challenge. There's also a rules video to explain the sport of rugby itself to newbies.The lack of licenses for the bulk of the game's international sides and the South African Super Rugby franchises will be a downer for many but a surprisingly useful set of customisation options has been put in place to negate as many of these licensing issues as possible. Depending on the amount of time you're willing to dedicate it's a relatively pain-free process to populate many of the game's international sides by sourcing the real players from club sides.The English national team, for instance, can be pieced back together by swapping in the real players from their regular club squads in the Aviva Premiership. With the French Top 14 and the RaboDirect Pro12 also included in the game, the same applies for the likes of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France. Taking into account the fact the game includes the Australian and New Zealand clubs from the Super 15, even international sides like Fiji and Samoa can be partly rebuilt. As these four championships represent the top four of their kind in the world they account for a significant number of the world's international rugby players.It gets trickier for the South Africans and teams containing players whose club level comps aren't represented in the game but it's here you'll need to rely on the ability to create your own custom players. This will require far more work but it's possible for those so inclined. You can hone appearance, stats and attributes for multiple custom players and insert them into the teams you need to. You can create yourself too, if you like, like most current sports games.All of this is a considerable step up from the recently-released Rugby World Cup 2011 , a game which also suffers from frustratingly limited licensing (like the conspicuous absence of the current two top ranked rugby nations in the world, one of which is the host nation for the very tournament around which that game is based). In Rugby World Cup 2011 player editing is limited to manually changing names and stats – there's no custom player creation. Rugby Challenge's system of being able to find many of the necessary players elsewhere in the game, or just build them from scratch, is the far better of the two.