Archview #35: Rival Schools

 Moero Moero MOEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

 Played on: PS1 game played on a PS2
 Rival Schools is a 2-disc, 3D 2 on 2 fighting game in which you pick a team of highschool students(Or teachers. Or one of each.) and are tasked with finding out the mistery of the disappearanced. Obviously, this being a fighting game, the only way you are going to find out anything is by punching the living hell out of everyone in the most badass way possible. Interestingly, there is no tagging mechanic, but you can change to your partner character, if you want, after every round and there's a team up attack(Each character has his/her own unique team up move) too.
 Unlike most Capcom fighting games, there's only four buttons at play here: Weak Punch, Strong Punch, Weak Kick and Strong Kick. Obviously, there's your assortment of Special and Super moves for each character. By double tapping forward you can dash, and double tapping back you get a small backdash. Throws are done by pressing both punch buttons, and you can even grab crouching opponents! You can dodge moves by pressing both kick buttons, time it right and it gets you right on your enemy's back. This is a very fast paced game, it has it's own physics which give certain weight to the characters and it feels awesome, heck, air and ground recovies, while being a shared animation among all characters, looks incredible, and it borrows a lot from the Marvel VS Capcom series, you launch your opponent into the air by pressing diagonal forward and down+SP or SK(Depends on the character, just like MvC!). Lastly, by using two energy bars and pressing a punch and kick button, you can use the Team Up attack, if you land it, you call upon your partner and execute the move.

 As mentioned before, it is a 2-disc game. The first disc, dubbed the Arcade Disc, touts itself as being an Arcade perfect convertion of the game. This disc has three Play modes, Arcade mode, Versus(2P only) and Training. In Arcade Mode, if you pick two characters from the same school, you actually get voiced dialogue before and after every fight that help tell the story of said school, voices are in japanese, but the dialogue is kinda interesting. Each character also gets two ending, both voiced unlike the Arcade Version.
 The Evolution Disc is a more multiplayer friendly disc. The Booklet mentions that it has been "adjusted for optimum balance" but I didn't notice any different property on the moves. Training mode is gone, but Versus Mode and Arcade mode remains, however, all dialogue in the Arcade Mode is now gone, and while the endings are still here, they are not voiced, but there are two new animated endings that play every time you beat the game and they are pretty decent. This Disc includes many modes like Group Battle(2 Player only), League Battle(Team vs Teams on a round robin format), Tournament battle, Cooperate Battle(2 Player only, each character takes control of each character of the team) and finally, Lesson Mode, which is a 1 Player tutorial of sorts. Finally, this disc has many extras, each female(But Akira and Sakura) gets a new costume(Costume, not pallette), there are four minigames and 24 "Students"(Generic characters that borrow moves from the main cast) to unlock.

 Graphically, characters are extremely blocky, although a bit charming, but they have a lot of personality, hands are huge(Like the official art) and the faces are pretty expresive in spite of being so simple. Regardless, the official art by Edayan is amazing and is easily 50% of what makes the cast of Rival Schools so appealing, they are all school stereotypes, you have the Delinquent, the Jock, The Cheerleader and so on. Voice Acting is amazing, albeit in japanese, further making each character stand out from the others. The music is pretty upbeat and lends itself to the action niceley, and the SFX are very Capcomish. If you've played other Capcom games from the era, you know what I mean.
  Rival Schools is the Bancho of all fighting games, it may not be the best fighting game, nor prettiest, but it has so much soul pourn into it, from the characters to the setting. Sadly, it was probably a bit too japanese, and therefore fell off people's radars... which is a shame, Rival Schools needs to Return!
9 out of 10.