Championship Rugby Manager

Midas £19.99 PC CD-ROM Out Now

It had to happen didn't it? We have football management games galore so it was about time that a management game based on another popular British sport made its way onto the PC. Not since the heady days of the Spectrum 48k have we seen a rugby management game so I was hoping for something special, I was to be disappointed.

Click on the pictures for a full screenshot (if you really must).

For those of you expecting a rugby version of Championship Manager forget it. The only place this game resembles Sports Interactive's masterpiece is in its name. The interface stinks. No direct access to the all important stats is available here as you have to back pedal through your previous screens using your right mouse button which is an absolute nightmare. The interface is only the tip of the iceberg as far as this games problems are concerned. The game crashed with alarming frequency and the option settings always return to default at the start of the game.

The game is feature scarce. Only one league is available and every match produces a cricket score with your tactics obviously going in the players left ear and out of their right ear, before they step onto the pitch. Speaking of the pitch, the match engine is awful. Deaf gamers beware textual feedback exists during a match but it makes little sense and you will be bored in no time. Even the die-hard rugby fans will prefer Championship Manager to this. In short this does not stand up as a game by any stretch of the imagination and would only receive a ten as an overall rating if we marked the game out of a hundred.

Overall Game Rating: 2.75/10 Avoid at all costs

Quality of text: 4/10 The match is apalling and the text messages almost non-sensical. In the main part of the game the textual presentation is only average at best.

Graphics: 2/10 What is there looks about three years behind.

Interface: 1/10 It only gets a one because it has an interface. What is there handles three times as bad as a supermarket trolley.

Gameplay: 4/10 Not much to comment on here. It is not as good as the rugby manager game that appeared on the Spectrum 48k about 14 years ago.