Rival Schools

 As anyone who was around in the 90's could tell you, one on one fighting games were absolutely everywhere.

I know I've talked about the mid to end of the decade being a golden era for RPGs, but it seems like the entire decade was a golden era for tournament fighters. These things were absolutely everywhere, largely due to the popularity of the two pillars of the genre, Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Argue that other series' were better all you want, talk all you want about how Karate Champ or Pit Fighter came first, but the absolutely insane levels of success of those two games are what catapulted the fighting genre into the stratosphere. It became the most popular genre in arcades by far and was probably neck and neck with mascot platformers for the top spot on consoles, though it didn't quite take off as much on PC. Some developers tried to innovate, but far, far more tried to simply rip off the two titans. I could probably spend an entire half hour just listing Mortal Kombat clones. Arcade giants Data East ripped off Street Fighter so badly that Capcom actually sued them, though unsuccessfully. It got to the point where fighting games were so big that developers started ripping themselves off. I love Darkstalkers, but let's be honest, how much different is it really from Street Fighter? I guess if you are a pro gamer the differences are huge, but for the majority of us it was a new coat of paint. Even as arcades started to wane in popularity by the end of the decade, fighters were still huge, as consoles had reached the point where they could fairly closely emulate that experience at home. 3D technology was also growing, allowing fighting games to quite literally reach new planes. The gaming industry was also becoming more global. The 3rd and 4th console generations saw a huge number of games never leave Japan, but by the 5th and early 6th gens developers were far more willing to take a shot at localizing any or all of their titles for the Americas and PAL regions. Considering all of these factors, that a game like Rival Schools exists makes all too much sense.

Rival Schools is what I would refer to as a "2.5D" fighter, where you are mostly locked down to a 2D plane but can sidestep or roll if you are knocked down. Released in arcades in 1997 before being ported to the PlayStation in 1998, it featured a four-button attack layout as opposed to Capcom's typical six button approach. Rival Schools contained quite a few elements from other fighting titles, including super bars, double team attacks an aerial combat. It also has something of a story which is...interesting to say the least. We are talking the kind of story and presentation that would have ensured a game stayed in Japan had the game come out a few years earlier. Rival Schools takes place in Aoharu City, home to a variety of unique an quirky high schools. The boys-only Gedo High is known for its variety of gangs, while Pacific High plays host to the city's American foreign exchange students. Taiyo high is full of academics while Gorin High excels athletically. Recently, students at all of these schools have fallen victim to seemingly random attacks and each institution suspects the others are the cause of these attacks. The actual culprit? The snobs at Aoharu's elite Justice High, who are doing all of this because... well, I won't spoil that. The story isn't any sort of great revelation and besides, it's a fighting game at the end of the day. I have to give them credit for at least including some attempt at storytelling and I like that it absolutely nails the "completely out there and ridiculous" vibe of its anime contemporaries. It also plays into the gameplay a little bit.

There are quite a few modes available here, with the primary single player content being the story mode. Each main school is represented by three characters and you start the story mode by choosing any two. Choosing two from the same school will cause the story mode to present a variety of cutscenes, following each specific group as they attempt to figure out who attacked their classmates. I do think it's kind of awkward that the groups are divided by threes and you can only pick two characters, but that's a minor gripe. If you aren't interested in any of the story stuff, choosing two characters from different schools will cause the mode to play out like a more typical arcade fighter where you just fight a few groups of opponents before meeting the boss. It's kind of nice that you can choose either option, the story won't be everyone's cup of tea but it's not really a waste of time either. The character design is about as anime-tastic as you can get, you name an anime stereotype and it's here, the generic everyman protagonist, the big jacked up foreigner, the edgy gang member with spiky hair, the scantily clad overly cheery girl, it's all here. The most interesting characters are actually the Gorin High jocks, with Natsu, Shoma and Roberto bringing their respective volleyball, baseball and soccer skills to combat in a fairly unique way. The most recognizable character here is Sakura, of Street Fighter fame, who makes a very fitting guest appearance. Akira has also since appeared in SF and other characters like Edge have appeared in backgrounds and other minor roles in SF titles. Again, I'm not super big on fighting game stories, but it's cannon that SF, RS and Final Fight all take place in the same universe, which is kind of cool.

At the end of the day though, we are here for the fighting. RS isn't the deepest or most complex game in the genre, but it does have a few things going for it. Sidestepping was still fairly novel at the time and it's a very effective tactic here. It's kind of a blessing and a curse because it doesn't really seem like there are that many ways to punish it, but it's also hard to close distance while doing it. Fighting in the air is definitely fun, it seems like it wouldn't work in a game like this yet it feels responsive and intuitive. Even though you fight in a team of two, rounds are one on one with the ability to switch in between. Your characters can perform double team attacks together, but that's about it. They are very powerful though and do feel like big deals when you hit them. You have a super bar with nine levels, so you can basically use your supers and team attacks as frequently as you like. Special moves are performed with typical Street Fighter commands, though you only have four buttons instead of six. I found them to be a little bit unresponsive, but not game-breakingly so. There are a lot of different characters that all feel and play uniquely, though most do fit in to some level of fighting game archetype. By this point developers had these things down to a science and RS really felt like that, like it's combat wasn't particularly original but it was also so well put together that it really didn't matter.

While it was a solid overall package, RS had plenty of flaws. As I mentioned previously, it really didn't do very much to differentiate itself from its contemporaries in terms of gameplay. Being so different in presentation helped make it feel more unique than it was, but again this isn't a huge deal in a fighting game. The sidestepping was nice and helped me set up some interesting attacks, but it really felt tacked on. They could have just made a straight out 2D fighter with air combat and double team moves and I'm not sure it would have made that much of a difference. I had to actively go out of my way to get any sort of use out of the 3D elements, though I will say it was typically successful when used. I think having Sakura here kind of encapsulates how much of an afterthought the 3D was. They didn't change her kit at all from Street Fighter, she still has her Shoto-adjacent moveset exactly as it was in Alpha 2 (which at that point I think was her only appearance). The same mini hadouken, running dragon punch and half-tatsu, just with polygons instead of pixels. You would think they would have had to make some adjustments to her to compensate for 3D, but that wasn't the case. And it's not like she's weak either, she certainly felt like one of the stronger characters to me, though I guess it's because I was more familiar with her than other characters. The double team moves are a nice feature, but I think they could have made it a little more fleshed out. This is probably a function of it being a relatively early game with this feature, but it would have been nice to be able to switch fighters mid match.

I should also mention that the PS1 version came with an additional disc, called the Evolution Disc. Unfortunately, I can't review it because I don't have a copy. I have been told it includes a bunch of mini games, which were understandably not in the arcade version. The Japanese version of this disc even had a RPG/dating sim style mode that was a near full length game on its own. It's kind of a shame, even though those kinds of games aren't super popular in the west it would have been nice to see. It kind of reminds me of Ehergeiz. Even though I couldn't actually play it, I think the idea of the Evolution Disc is awesome. It's an example of going above and beyond, there was absolutely no reason Capcom needed to include something like this other than to provide additional content. Even if all of the content isn't anything to write home about, it gives the player more bang for their buck, which is great when you are spending so much on a game. Maybe I will track it down some day.

Overall, Rival Schools is a solid fighting game that's worth a playthrough for fans of the genre. It wasn't anything to write home about, but it was definitely good. The gameplay isn't the most inspired, but it's well done and there are a good variety of fighters to choose from. The additional story and extra discs aren't game changers, but they were welcome additions, especially in a genre that's not known for additional features. Sometimes it's really hard to review games that are just good, and Rival Schools was no exception. Great games tend to have some exceptional, unique or revolutionary mechanics that you can easily write extensively about. Writing about bad games is like covering a train wreck at worst or watching slapstick comedy at best, it's easy to pick on all the terrible stuff and either recoil in horror from it or point and laugh at it. But it's hard to find anything like that here, even if that's not necessarily a bad thing. Rival Schools is a good game, nothing more, nothing less. It's not going to replace the top end fighting games in my rotation, but it was a good bit of fun while it lasted. 

7.25/10