''Australian Rugby League'' is a 1995

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

video game developed by I-Space Interactive and published by EA's

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

label for the

Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

only in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n markets. It is based on Rugby World Cup '95 by Creative Assembly, but using the

rules instead of

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

. In addition to the league that names the game, the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission Limited (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League Limited known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australi ...

, the game also includes the State of Origin,

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

(eleven English teams plus one French) and international mode. While the ARL has all correct team names, player names are fictitious.

Gameplay

Due to the limitations of the console, ''ARL'' presents a simplified version of the game, yet allowing a wide variety of moves. Running is done with the C button, and while holding allows a player to accelerate, while it is mashed, it allows to break a tackle. Passing is done by pressing the B button with a direction; if no direction is entered, the player fakes a pass. the A button, if pressed inside the try area (or in jump distance), grounds the ball, if far and pressed in combination of the direction of the attack attempts a drop goal or kicks for touch, if pressed in combination with a direction ''against'' the attack, performs a

grubber kick The grubber kick is a type of kick in various codes of football with an oval ball which results in the ball moving erratically along the ground. The point of the grubber is to make the ball roll and tumble across the ground, making it hard for ...

. The A and B buttons pressed at the same time perform a bomb kick (referred as "Up and Under" in the manual), and an A plus C combination is mostly a defensive kick, which clears the ball as far away as possible into touch. Without the ball, controls are simpler: the A button tackles, the B changes player and C increases player speed. The game has a few criticisms; it is very undisciplined as far as tactics go, it is very hard to pull good kicks during play (which forces players to, and the lack of a

difficulty level Game balance is a branch of game design with the intention of improving gameplay and user experience by balancing difficulty and fairness. Game balance consists of adjusting rewards, challenges, and/or elements of a game to create the intended pla ...

slider makes the game too easy for expert players. There are also some bugs regarding ball possession (occasionally, the ball can change from one team to another in the middle of a play for no reason at all) and the engine often flickers players when there are too many of them in an area. The lack of physical difference between forwards and backs is also often mentioned. ''ARL'' allows several options to be tweaked, such as half length (from two minutes to 40), temperature (hot temperatures wear out the players quicker, while colder affects ball handling) and pitch condition (a dry pitch hurts tackled players more and bounces the ball more, while drenched affects running).

Teams and leagues

All game modes output a

Password A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services t ...

which allows the player to play a league in several sittings. Each player is individualized, and is rated in each key aspect of the game. The Australian Rugby league is a 20 team competition composed by a 20 team league, then followed by an eight team playoff, which is far from being straight forward. There are two sets of quarter finals, where the winners of the "major" quarterfinals go through the semi-finals, while the winners of the "minor" quarterfinals have to play against the losers of the "majors", and only then the remaining two semi-finalists are known. It is also possible to start from the playoffs. State of Origin is a three match series between

New South Wales Rugby League The New South Wales Rugby League Ltd (NSWRL) is an Australian rugby league football competition operator in rugby league in New South Wales, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Co ...

and

Queensland Rugby League The Queensland Rugby Football League QRL Constitution, 2009: 3 (QRL QRL Constitution, 2009: 2) is the governing body for rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL Commission) and selects the mem ...

, where the winner is the first team to win two matches. Even if a team beats the other in the first two matches, the third is always played. European leagues are unlicensed, which means they only carry the city name and a patterned flag, which in most cases fits the actual equipments of the teams. After the all vs all league, the best four teams enter a playoff to determine the champions. The International tournament is a one-legged eight team knockout competition. While the focus of ''RWC'95'' was on national teams, ''ARL'' downplays it to the point of only including eight teams.

References

*''Australian Rugby League'' manual

External links

ARL at The Genesis ProjectARL at Genesis Collective
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Rugby League (Video Game) 1995 video games EA Sports games Europe-exclusive video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Rugby league video games Sega Genesis games Sega Genesis-only games Video games developed in Australia Video games set in Australia

Gameplay

Teams and leagues

See also

References

External links