AAA Games Aussie Rules Coach

There are plenty of football manager games on the market, some good, some dreadful. But the superlative sales figures of the better ones have prompted developers to expand the sport management genre to disciplines other than the national game.

Cricket and Formula 1 are two that have done okay. The thing is, there are plenty of cricket, footy and Formula 1 fans to buy the games, but how many fans of Aussie rules football do you know?

The intro and interfaces of Aussie Rules Coach are fairly slick, although the pre-game control screen is a bit confusing. That's because there is simply so little to do.

You can exit the game, meddle with your match day squad or go to a game. If you are overwhelmed by the massive lists of tweaks and options that heavyweight sports sims such as Championship Manager have, this game will be a breath of fresh air.

Australian Rules Football is played with an oval ball on an oval pitch with 18 players on each side. In Aussie Rules Coach, the teams play in a fixed formation, and with the hints in the handbook you'll soon have your players standing up for themselves.

Whichever of the fictional teams you choose, a team is picked and ready to go immediately. Played over a single season, there are no options for training your players to improve their skills and there is no transfer system, meaning the players you have are what you're stuck with.

That means all your achievements are down to tactical ability and not simply getting your mitts on the mightiest players and having them win every game for you.

The strength of Aussie Rules Coach, according to AAA Games, is that it lets you watch the game, changing tactics on the fly. The names of all your players are listed down the side of the game screen and changing the playing priorities of the team is a simple matter of selecting the player's name at the side of the screen and choosing which aspect of his game you want to adjust.

These aspects are listed as tabs along the bottom of the screen. Clicking on the tabs reveals a sliding control, and moving the slide changes the player's reaction. You can choose to change things one player at a time or grouped together.

But this simplicity is less a strength than a weakness. Although it's nice to see your team progress purely due to your coaching, the lack of transfers or opportunity to improve player skills makes the game very one-dimensional.

The fact it concerns a sport no one cares about means there is little motivation to persevere.

CONTACT: AAA Games: 0208 591 1125
www.aaagame.com

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