Jonah Lomu rugby is still considered by many to be the best rugby game out there, and by all accounts it is still in strong contention considering the sub par efforts EA produced, but that doesn’t mean it was ever perfect, it just means there was too little competition. World Championship Rugby has come along from the producers of Lomu and promised to fulfil rugby gamers dreams, and it does this to a large extent by again providing one of the most accessible, fun and hard hitting rugby experiences outside of strapping on a pair of studded boots. The game is like JLR in every way imaginable and this is both it’s greatest strength and weakness. The graphics in WCR are decent but not particularly impressive. The player animations are good and the faces have a reasonable amount of detail (even if a bit "toonish"), but unfortunately the players look almost N64 (well better than that, but you know what I mean) with the low res textures they have used on them, but this is only really noticed in close ups so not really important. The stadia are reasonably impressive looking, but nothing much on SJRL, however this is made up for in the crowd animations which far surpasses SJRL in the way the stand up and cheer and cut into close ups of sections of the crowd when a try is scored. The game play in WCR is great fun and very easy to get into, even if a tad shallow. The passing system is the major factor in the ease in the game play, as it lets you string together one great pass after another completely seamlessly as soon as you tap the button and you will rarely send passes off into oblivion like with so many other rugby games. Defence is somewhat similar to SJRL in that you will have trouble randomly switching players to mark the man with the ball, therefore controlling one player and running across field or acting as a second fullback while the computer does most of the work is sometimes a good option. The basic tackling system is effective (however sometimes the proximity detection system seems to be a bit off, as I've made a break past a player a couple of times only to warp back 1 metre finding myself under the tackler) and the 'big hit' works to add to the arcade feel. As for kicking, most in game kicking works great and is very easy to pull off, but one niggling aspect is the goal kicks; in JLR this was the one of the only things crying out for reform... all the rugby games since JLR had the goal kicking done from the perspective of the kicker and in all cases (even Rugby 2004) this was more effective and offered more control over the kick. Both the step and the palm are brilliantly integrated, easy to pull off and animated very well (especially the 'spin' step some players do), the good thing is their effectiveness depends on the player, so While Sailor has a good palm but ordinary step, Robinson has a great step and weak palm (and players like Tuqiri and Caucau have both). The lineouts are done in a very straightforward style that relies on a bit of guess work to prevent the opposition from stealing it, it is actually very similar to EA rugby 2001, this is in stark contrast to the complex and heavily timing reliant system seen in Rugby 2004. Scrums are again very straight forward and essentially come down to button bashing, but that is something seen in all union games scrums. Rucks are one of the better features of the ball contention areas as they are quickly decided by who has the bigger pack and if the contest is too tight the ruck simply collapses and the team with the better part of the power in the ruck wins the possession (so no stopping for constant penalties), however on the down side the options you get from the base of the ruck are fairly limited, even less than Rugby 2001, this said it is still fair and away the best ruck system seen in a Rugby game to date. Overall the gameplay is a mixed bag, but the pros still far outweigh the cons. The Sound in WCR is fairly standard with tackles and whatnot sounding all as you'd expect them to, the crowd on the other hand is pretty vocal with them singing "swing low" when England are playing and reacting to turn over balls and other changes in play. The one disappointing thing about the sound is the commentary. This is very bland and dull with very standard phrases. However, that said, it is also reasonably in sync and doesn't repeat itself too often, so it scores points there. The game sports a tonne of modes from "classic matches" to "World Championships", as well as unlockables to have you playing well up until a sequel, however there is not season mode or regional competitions and this could add significantly to the games life span. The only other thing that could damage the replay value in the eyes of some would be the lack of depth in play, but this is more due to the arcade style the game utilises and shouldn't take anything away from the overall enjoyment one can get out of this game. If anyone wants to know if this is better than Jonah Lomu, the answer is yes. This has almost everything Jonah Lomu had (barring offloads and jumping) as well as a list of other things, the reason I would score it higher is that, although it's Lomu new and improved, it's too much like Lomu. There were several things in Lomu that could have been improved on and weren't in WCR. All in all though a great game for any rugby fan.
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