Previous Next

Picture the scene. The crowd is buzzing as your men line up for the start. The referee blows his whistle and the game begins. Will you achieve glorious victory in this vital match and win the Triple Crown (or even the Grand Slam)? Likely story.

Original, addictive, playable and interesting is what this game would like to be, but "a bit crap really" is all that it can honestly say for itself. It's a sideways-flipping thing - you control one player at a time and can pass, kick or punt the ball trying to score as many tries' (ie 'goals' in rugby terms) as poss (in a sort of sideways Matchday lookalike). You then convert them by kicking the ball over this post thing, a straightforward waggle! the-joystick-press-Fire-and-hope for-the-best affair.

It's all a bit muddled really. The graphics are quite small, badly animated and everything tends to get merged into one - so it's all gets a trifle difficult to tell exactly what's going on. And it's a bit hard too. The other' side manages to get away with seemingly impossible moves (eg kicking the ball for miles), which you don't have a hope of pulling off yourself. Things are better if you're playing with a partner - but only slightly because luck has far more to do with who wins than any 'skill' might have, so it hasn't really got any lasting appeal. And you're always getting these naff plugs for WH Smiths and Boots and things popping up all over the place as well. Spooky or what? (Or perhaps it's just a bit crap.)