KNIGHT NUI

End of last year, we were informed that a new Rugby title was due by the end of 2009. However, that is beginning to look less and less likely by the day, with the Rugby season ending on Sunday, and no matter how close this year’s Lions Tour is, if they’re bringing out a tie-in game, it’s going to be rubbish. And yet, we can’t give up on the thought of a new game based around KN’s favourite sport. If done right, it’d be the new best sports game ever. If done wrong, it could get stuck in the bog of FIFA ’95-’08: Way too average. So then, let us begin...

First things first: Squads need updating the last Rugby game, realised in 2007, still had ‘Star Players’ and rankings marked as they were in 2004. So Gavin Henson (Who’s been injured most of this season, and when he’s been playing he’s pretty much always been off-form) was marked as one of the worlds’ best players, and no matter who’d been winning the last few Six Nations since ’04, England where still marked with 9 stars, whilst Ireland only managed one, and Wales walked away with a measly 2. For sure Brian O’Driscall, Luke Fitzgerald and Tommy Bowe can join the boosted players for their countries, with the likes of Lee Byrne and Tom Shanklin now long overdue to join the Welsh stars.

Speaking of which, the likes of Leigh Halfpenny won’t be in there at all, which is never a good thing, to say he’s currently one of the worlds’ best wingers, even if this is his first full season. Even if it’s not adding him to the star ranks, (A system we’ll even debate later on) he and other new-ish players should really appear on the list. Recent club signings should also appear. Whilst only about 5 clubs where represented in the last title, it won’t be too much trouble to sign genuine clubs, so that you don’t end up with your Shaun Wellingtons’ and Ronny Parkinson’s. Mii’s should be supported on the Wii version, too. They where such good fun in FIFA and Madden, it’ll be great to see the implanted into the ugly game.

Graphics and sound will be obvious things to improve, and we hope that –in order to prevent the age-old sport game issue occurring- its Scrum V’s Jiffy supplying us with the commentary. He’s always entertaining.

Then there’s the small matter of controls. While the PS3 and 360 versions can handle in similar ways to their older counterparts, (With just kicking in-field needing tightening up a little.) the Wii version leads to some ‘interesting’ options. While you could go Pro Evo and have arrow-controls, that’s not quite Rugby- meaning it’s too easy to find holes in the defence and making runs can’t exactly be done in the same way if it’s a computer getting you over the Try Line. It’d make drop goals near-impossible to score, too- And pointless if it’s just as simple to go for the try, which is potently worth 4 points more.

You could also have classic controller/button set-ups, or go for something more adventurous. See, how about kicks are taken by sticking a MotionPlus unit in your sock or shoe and kicking for real? While there’ll always be the option to base it on quick button presses, it’d make a spot kick so much more entertaining and easier, providing you’ve got a good stride.

Sticking on the MotionPlus theme, catches could be taken genuinely, meaning that knock-on’s will occur, which was always a bit unfair when it was simply down to prodding a button, and how much of the game does the simple forward pass rule make up? You’ll have to option to enter the ruck through the side, knowing its illegal, and tackles could be made genuinely. It’d be absolutely exhausting and the sort of thing we always dreaded playing on Wii, but then Rugby is can be a painful and tiring game. Actually, 99% of the time, it is very much both.

MotionPlus controls would allow us to include pretty much every rule, and some mistakes couldn’t be made without practise in earlier editions, which really isn’t the way to go. But having a full player line-up and rule book would be fantastic, and improve the game endlessly.

Speaking of endless, perhaps would online play really be too much to ask for? We can’t wait to reconfigure the Welsh side to be just how we like it, and run in 20-odd tries from Shane Williams against New Zealand. Having all the big international tournaments would be great, too, allowing you to not only take place in the World Cup or Six Nations, as previous instalments had, but to also be able to enter the Tri-Nations, Lions tours, Super 14s, Heineken Cup, on top of being able to enter the Magners’ League and watch as Team KN make the Ospreys win every season. Mwhahahaha!!! Take that, Munster.

Now, there’s the vital issue of how you’d transfer vital elements of the game to a virtual form, and whilst they attempted that with the Impact Player thing, we think that system could do with reconfigurment. Sure, Mark Cueto can outrun Adam Jones, but does that really make him within the worlds’ best? Perhaps Johnny Wilkinson can kick his way out of any situation, but he’s hardly going to get England eighty-odd tries, now, is he? James Hook’s dummies (Another skill we’d struggle to see them implanting), kicks and runs are great, but he tends to make mistakes in defence; is that the quality of one of the worlds’ best? Pinpointing players is one thing, but then it’s defining the impact they have on the game that’s the real issue. In fact, perhaps it’d be an idea to drop that ‘Impact Player’ idea all together, and make all notable players in each position different, but not game-changing, as otherwise any good team would instantly be world champs, and as anyone who’s followed the Ospreys this year will know that’s not always the case. The position would be everything. (So that’d be, say, Mike Phillips, Dwayne Peel and Mike Blair all picked up for their Scrum Half skills, but won’t be too much good outside their natural territory, and it’ll save the developers the need to have to code every single player individually. Just make sure the picked players all have differences, eh?)

Including League, Touch and Sevens into the game as extra modes would be the icing on the cake, as that would give those into slower games, half-hearted tackles and more frantic defence something to play about with. While we can see 7s making the cut, touch wouldn’t be too different in virtual form, and League would comprise of a whole new rule book- Something most developers wouldn’t do at all.

Overall though, a new Rugby game would pretty much defiantly be a good thing; providing they don’t stray too far from the old lay-outs or our design brief, it should be pretty hard to screw up. Join us in ‘not too long’ for how to create the perfect ‘Fantasy’ Rugby game...