Firstly, being from the great southern land that is Australia, I feel it my duty to review Australian Rules Football with as much patriotic pride as I can muster. This was the first multiplayer sports game I ever played and it did not disappoint. I must have played it when I was only 11 or 12 years old with my best friend at the time and we we're hooked immediately!
Now, at the time we both had been playing Australian Rules Football in the non digital world for a few years so the rules were second nature to us and we could understand how such an abstractly controlled and ever continuous game such as Aussie Rules would be hard to transfer to a videogame.
For those who have seen a real game of Aussie Rules, it is understandable that some people may see the rules as hard to follow but somehow the game designers captured the essence and freedom of the game.
Initially, the menu offers either multiplayer "Two Player" (Human vs Human) or Single Player "One Player" (Human vs CPU) which can be as enjoyable as multiplayer with a very cunning CPU opponent who a lot of the time is hard to predict and very able to captilize on your every mistake. But, the real joy is playing against a human opponent who is there to laugh along with you the whole time as the game is non stop entertainment.
You are able to choose
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a team from any capital city in Australia (which is odd ) and you're able to customize the team with many different jersey colours. Now, I must warn you, the graphics are what you would expect from these times but soon you forget about the aesthetics as you are engrossed by the game play. Initially, the football is bounced down in the centre of the field with the two ruckmen vying for the early tap, which can either be a full fisted punch or a delicate tap to a teamate. From there, the camera zooms out to the boundary view where relatively most of the field is in view. Each player now has equal ability to either handpass, kick or run (automatic bounce) with the ball towards their goal. The opponents have the ability to chase (slightly faster) or to wipeout (hip & shoulder) any other opponent to gain possession. The field of play is large and the boundary can be crossed either by a loose ball trickling over the line or a kick on the full (freekick), which is hilarious because a cut scene appears with an umpires boofhead and a speech bubble in which he declares in a humorous monotone voice "OUT OF BOUNDS....ON THE FULL" as opposed to just "OUT OF BOUNDS". It makes me laugh every time. Now, shooting for goal is thoroughly entertaining and complex with a ranged accuracy guide appearing at the bottom of the screen which oscillates at different speeds and lengths depending on your proximity to goal. A goal (6 points) achieved by kicking through the middle of the middle posts and a behind (1 point) achieved otherwise.
If you love Aussie Rules or you just love old school graphics and a good aussie go, then you'll love Australian Rules Football.
