It won't take you long to realise what the ruck is wrong with this game
The fact that I was able to get approximately 20 tries in the first half of my first attempt the game says a lot.
Where to start? How about the visuals.
Firstly the game looks rough! No I am not talking about the sport itself. With many matches involving blood, bruises, punch-ups and once even a testicle loss, it's safe to say we know the game is brutal. But the game's visuals are sub-par to say the least. Even for a handheld game, when it's not the fact that every player has a generic model with barely any variation, then the menus and interface themselves featuring nothing but bland text. The animation however is a whole different kettle of fish.
I don't know how long I laughed for the first time I entered a game and spotted the referee whizzing by at 100's of miles per hour. Seriously, who needs the league champions when the referee can outrun a Bugatti Veyron?
The issues don't stop there. Oh no, I'm far from done here.
Above I touched upon how facile the game can be, and so I am going to elaborate. Admittedly, I was playing on Easy mode, just so I could get introduced to the game mechanics without too much frustration. But when you select easy mode in any game, you expect a bit of a challenge but not enough to put you off. Instead, RLC developers seemed to take it a bit too far by giving you a pitch you can practically dominate with next-to-no effort whatsoever.
A few passes and a offloads might be needed when the ball is in play, but as soon as there's a small clearing in the opponents line... you are through, in fact you might as well already give yourself a pat on the back because you are guaranteed a try. The AI are, quite simply, useless. Their max speed is no greater than yours regardless of what player you are assuming control of, and should ANY get close to you, the game features a system that 90% of the time automatically fends them off before they have a chance to tackle you. The only person who can catch up to you is that damned referee. But he hasn't picked a side yet so you don't have to worry about him.
The actual core game elements, when not broken, feel sloppy and rushed. Even the kicking at the goal is simplistic and doesn't provide much of a challenge.
Alright, I'll be fair. Once you knock the difficulty up a notch or two then you actually give yourself a bit of a challenge. Plus, at face value at least, the game offers just about everything you'd want including the entire licensed roster of players from teams in both the NRL and Super League. And so that automatically puts this game on the radar for rugby league fans.
Nonetheless, it doesn't justify the game's choppy animation, idiotic AI and generally inconsistent and broken gameplay. The one blagging right this game does have, however, is that it is the only rugby game on the PSP. But even with that in mind it is debatable whether playing rugby on the go means so much to you that you will resort to this.
The developers had potential, but failed to convert this try into a success.