AFL Challenge

Last updated

AFL Challenge
AflChallengeCover.jpg
Developer(s) Wicked Witch Software [1]
Publisher(s) Tru Blu Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Series AFL
Platform(s) PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Network
ReleasePlayStation Portable
  • AU: 10 September 2009
PlayStation Network
  • AU: 25 March 2010
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Single-player

AFL Challenge is a sports game for the PlayStation Portable, based on the AFL. The game was developed by Australian games developer Wicked Witch Software, and was published by Tru Blu Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment. [1] The games fixture is based on the 2009 AFL season and features all official AFL teams and a predetermined best 22 players for each team, whose positions cannot be changed.

Contents

Gameplay

AFL Challenge allows players to play through the entire season, through to the Grand Final. It features a team management system where players can be trained up in skills such as kicking, tackling and running. Sony states that this will allow strategic choices to be made as the player goes through the season by training up key players.

The game also features a quick match mode, available from the main menu as well as the season mode. Multiple camera angles are available to choose from both in the options menu and while playing the game. Camera angles range from close behind the player to wide zooms showing most of the stadium. Each player is fully animated, demonstrating if they are successful or not, kicking, sprinting, tackling, hand balling or marking. [2]

Fremantle vs. Sydney Swans screenshot AflChallengeScreen2.jpg
Fremantle vs. Sydney Swans screenshot

Marketing

As part of the marketing campaign for AFL Challenge, Network Ten's program, Thursday Night Live, promoted the game and its sister title Rugby League Challenge, claiming it was the inspiration for an inter-league kicking competition. [3] TV advertisements promoting both Sony's new PSP model and AFL Challenge were run on Channel 10 during the first week of the finals season. [4] Asides from TV, AFL Challenge has also been advertised on the official AFL website, with a competition to win a PSP game pack including the game. [5] Elsewhere online, Sony's Australian PSP site is featuring a front page advertisement for this title. [6]

Western Bulldogs vs. St Kilda screenshot AflChallengeScreen.jpg
Western Bulldogs vs. St Kilda screenshot

Reception

AFL Challenge was universally critically panned. GameSpot's Dan Chiappini called the game "an unrewarding bore", citing that "the experience is nothing more than shallow and unrewarding gameplay, technical issues, and horrible difficulty scaling." [7] He also noted its lack of multiplayer, a season mode, commentary, player numbers, and its two grounds, one being a small suburban ground, unfit for AFL football, and the other appearing to be modeled on the MCG. He gave the game a "bad" rating and a 3 out of 10. PALGN said "AFL Challenge is a dud of the game that not even an AFL fan would enjoy" and gave it a 1 out of 10. [8] [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PlayStation Portable</span> Handheld game console by Sony

The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, and is the first handheld installment in the PlayStation line of consoles. As a seventh generation console, the PSP competed with the Nintendo DS.

<i>FIFA 06</i> 2005 video game

FIFA 06, known as FIFA Soccer 06 in North America, is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released in the United States on 4 October 2005 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo DS. It was later released for PlayStation Portable, Game Boy Advance and mobile phones.

<i>WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006</i> 2005 professional wrestling video game

WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 is a professional wrestling video game and developed by Yuke's that was released on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable by THQ in 2005. It is part of the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw video game series based on the professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and is the successor to the 2004 game of the same name. SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 was also the first game in the series to be released on PlayStation Portable and the last game in the SmackDown!/SmackDown! vs. Raw series that was PlayStation exclusive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XrossMediaBar</span> Interface used on the PlayStation 3 and other Sony products

The XrossMediaBar is a graphical user interface developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The interface features icons that are spread horizontally across the screen. Navigation moves the icons, instead of a cursor. These icons are used as categories to organize the options available to the user. When an icon is selected on the horizontal bar, several more appear vertically, above and below it. They, in turn, are selectable by the up and down directions on a directional pad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Cooney</span> Australian rules footballer, born 1985

Adam Cooney is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs and Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He won the Brownlow Medal in 2008, with 24 votes becoming the tenth Western Bulldogs player to win the award.

Transmission Games was an Australian game development company, specialising in sports and action games. Originally, Transmission Games was established as IR Gurus Pty Ltd in 1996 by Craig Laughton, Andrew Niere, and Ian Cunliffe with the motto "Game Play is Everything". The company name was changed in February 2008 to Transmission Games and was later purchased by a third party investor. The company was subsequently wound up some 18 months later by the new owner.

<i>Gran Turismo</i> (2009 video game) 2009 racing video game

Gran Turismo is a 2009 racing video game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable. The game was announced at Sony's E3 press conference on May 11, 2004, alongside the original PSP. Following five years of delays and speculation, during which it was variously known as Gran Turismo Portable, Gran Turismo 4 Mobile, Gran Turismo 5 Mobile and Gran Turismo 4.5, it made a reappearance at E3 on June 2, 2009, in playable form. It was released on October 1, 2009, as one of the launch titles for the new PSP Go. As of September 2017, Gran Turismo has sold 4.67 million units, making it one of the best-selling PSP games. On June 1, 2010, the game was re-released as part of Sony's Greatest Hits budget line of video games.

The PlayStation Portable system software is the official firmware for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). It uses the XrossMediaBar (XMB) as its user interface, similar to the PlayStation 3 console.

<i>Reel Fishing</i> 1996 video game

Reel Fishing is a series of fishing video games by Natsume Inc. The first game, Reel Fishing, was released for the PlayStation in 1996. Originally a localization of Victor Interactive Software's Fish Eyes series from Japan, Natsume Inc. has since diverged from that series to create their own games.

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a division of Sony.

The AFL video game series is a series of Australian rules football video games licensed and based on the VFL/AFL.

<i>Madden NFL 10</i> 2009 video game

Madden NFL 10 is an American football video game based on the National Football League that was published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. The 21st installment of the Madden NFL series, it is the first game to feature two players on the cover: Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals, who played against each other the previous season in Super Bowl XLIII. It was released in August 2009 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360 and BlackBerry, and for the iOS on September 9 through the App Store.

<i>Rugby League Challenge</i> 2009 video game

Rugby League Challenge is a sport simulation game for the PlayStation Portable based on the National Rugby League and the Super League. The game was developed by Australian game developer Wicked Witch Software and was published by Tru Blu Entertainment. The game is based on the 2009 NRL season and Super League XIV. It features all 16 NRL teams and 14 Super League teams.

Rugby League is a rugby league video game series developed by Sidhe Interactive, Wicked Witch Software, and Big Ant Studios. The first games was Rugby League, released on 9 December 2003. The latest game released was Rugby League Live 4, released on 20 July 2017 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

<i>Rugby Challenge</i> (video game) 2011 video game

Rugby Challenge is a Rugby video game, developed by Sidhe and published by Tru Blu Entertainment.

<i>AFL</i> (2011 video game) 2011 video game

AFL is an AFL sports game for the Wii and iOS. It was developed by Wicked Witch Software. It was released on 19 May 2011. Commentating is provided by Dennis Cometti and Brian Taylor.

<i>AFL Live 2</i> 2013 video game

AFL Live 2 is a sports game in the AFL series of Australian rules football video games. It was developed by Wicked Witch Software and was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 12 September 2013. The game was ported to iOS and was released on 28 May 2015 and Android on 26 September 2015. Commentary is provided by Dennis Cometti and Tom Harley.

<i>Rugby Challenge 3</i> 2016 video game

Rugby Challenge 3 is a rugby union simulation video game, developed by Wicked Witch Software and published by Tru Blu Entertainment. This is the third game in the Rugby Challenge series. It is the sequel to Rugby Challenge and Rugby Challenge 2, both of which were developed by Sidhe. Rugby Challenge 3 was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 on April 14, 2016 in New Zealand, and in Australia on April 22, 2016. It was released for Microsoft Windows on June 24, 2016.

<i>Epics</i> (company) Japanese video game developer

epics Inc. is a Japanese video game software developer located in Tokyo, Japan. Originally established as Gen Creative House Co., Ltd. in February 1987, changed company name to G-Artists Inc. in March 1991, then to epics Inc. in June 2006.

<i>AFL Evolution</i> Australian Football League video game

AFL Evolution is a video game based on the AFL developed by Wicked Witch Software and published by Tru Blu Entertainment in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. A demo containing player and team creation tools was released on April 5, 2017. The game was released on May 5, 2017 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and Microsoft Windows via Steam on July 21.

References

  1. 1 2 "AFL and NRL Games Coming To PSP!". IGN. 6 May 2009. Archived from the original on 9 May 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2009.
  2. ↑ "Playstation Australia". Archived from the original on 17 September 2009. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
  3. ↑ "Network Ten" . Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  4. ↑ "AFL Challenge commercial". YouTube . Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  5. ↑ "AFL website competition". Archived from the original on 1 October 2009. Retrieved 8 September 2009.
  6. ↑ "Sony PSP Australia". Archived from the original on 14 September 2009. Retrieved 10 September 2009.
  7. ↑ "AFL Challenge Review".
  8. ↑ "AFL Challenge". Metacritic .
  9. ↑ "AFL Challenge Review". Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 2015-06-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.