Rival Turf! is an odd beat’em up that was butchered in localization. The game had a number of changes that really harmed its overall presentation. The story was gutted from the game.
This is the first game in the Rushing Beat series. Outside of Japan, these games don’t appear to be connected in any way. It is a baffling decision from Jaleco, which didn’t do much to help the games out.
The other two games in the initial trilogy are Brawl Brothers and Peace Keepers. A modern installment was released recently, which tries to connect all four games in the series. I didn’t notice any reference to Rival Turf! in that game when I played it.
I remember finding this game a little disappointing when I first played it. It is a slow game that has a number of issues. It feels and plays like a generic beat’em up that was destined to be a regrettable weekend rental upon release.
TLDR: A run of the mill Beat’em up that does little to stand out from a crowded field.
Narrative
The game has a very vanilla story. The main character’s girlfriend gets kidnapped, and you have to go save her. There is a game you have to fight, and away you go.
Instead of just telling the player what is going on, the manual gives a little dialogue. It tells you what you’re going to have to do, which is nice. Back in 1992, I would’ve loved this! Looking at it now, I just shake my head. It’s like Jaleco was trying way too hard to be cool (Link).
This story is in way too many video games. There isn’t anything wrong with it, I’m just getting a little tired of seeing it. For a video game, it works because you have a clear goal, and you know who everyone is.
What is more bizarre is that Jaleco decided to cut the introduction video from the game and shorten the ending when bringing this game to North America. I have no idea why this was done, aside from Jaleco assuming the manual was going to stay with the game for all time. That clearly didn’t happen.
Gameplay
The gameplay is rather generic. Rival Turf! doesn’t have anything that really stands out as being great. There are a lot of average to good things in the game. Even if it was a faithful localization of the Japanese version, I still don’t think this would’ve torn me away from one of the good beat’em ups on the SNES.
There are two playable characters in this game. They play a little differently, which is nice to see. At the time this game was released, most beat’em ups offered more than that. Not every beat’em up on the SNES did.
Like other beat’em ups, you move through each stage and beat up everyone who gets in your way. You can punch/kick, jump, and use a special attack. There is also an Angry Mode, which is triggered when you’re low on health. It is a very nice touch.
The stages are okay. There isn’t something that stood out to me as I was playing them. They felt rather standard, which isn’t really a bad thing. Beat’em ups aren’t really known for having amazing level design.
Rival Turf! is one of the games that has a good idea, but never really capitalized on it. The gameplay is good enough, but there isn’t enough of it here to really elevate it. It feels like the developers remade Double Dragon, instead of looking at what the beat’em ups had done in the years since.
Visuals
I don’t really have an issue with the graphics in Rival Turf. It is a good looking SNES game for the time it was released. The character sprites look good, and the stages are nice.
Everything in this game looks okay. The character sprites are well detailed, and the animations are good. I like the look of the main characters, and I think they were different enough from some of the other games in this genre.
The stages look good, but their design is fairly basic. It isn’t too different from the other beat’em ups I’ve played. I’m not holding that against this game, because most beat’em ups tend to look the same when you only look at their levels.
I don’t think this is a case where the graphics outshine the gameplay. Both are equally average. I like the character sprites and how each stage looks. It does have some issues with level design, but that is something you can say about most of the beat’em ups from the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Reviews at the Time
Reviews for this game were never great. Rival Turf! received scores between 4.8/10 and 9.25/10. Most reviews were between 5 and 6/10.
GameZone gave the game a 60/100. I got the impression that they wanted to really trash this game. The reviewer called it “boring, boring, boring,” and I think they probably wanted to leave it at that. They continued by saying that the game was “just another one of those crap games that companies churn out with their eyes closed.”
Video Games and Computer Entertainment was a little nicer by giving the game a 7/10. The reviewer called the game “too short” and said of the genre as a whole, “An unfortunate hallmark of these games… is that imagination is absolutely forbidden.”
Game Informer had three people review the game, and they liked it way more than anyone else. The scores were an 8, an 8, and a 9.25/10. Ross, The Rebel Gamer, who gave the game a 9.25/10, said of the game, “if you can only buy one game for your SNES, make sure it’s Rival Turf.” This makes me not want to talk to Ross about anything. The other two compared the game favorably to the SNES version of Final Fight, which is fair given that Final Fight was single-player only on the SNES.
In the 2000s, the review scores went down, but not as far as other retro games. I really hate looking at reviews from that decade, because they’re usually crap. I do agree with the sentiment of the reviews that I read. This is a largely forgettable beat’em up. Not just for the SNES, but in general.
6.5/10. I’m probably giving this game a higher score than I should. It is closer to the first Final Fight than it is to something like Streets of Rage. It has a lot of what you should expect from a beat’em up, but nothing is good enough to elevate the game beyond average, especially when I compare it to the other beat’em ups on the SNES.
Pros
- Decent Controls
- Decent Graphics
- Fun gameplay
Cons
- Repetitive
- Only two playable characters
- Generic story
Conclusion
When I went back to play this game, I felt bored. It isn’t just that there were a lot of changes to what this game was supposed to be. Rival Turf! is a slow beat’em up, and there isn’t anything that makes it stand out from the other games on the SNES.
While better than some of the beat’em ups, it isn’t good enough to move into the top games of this genre. Jaleco made a vanilla beat’em up and took out anything that would cause it to stand out. There are so many great games on the system, and all of them are better than this.
If I had to put this game in some context, Rival Turf! is better than The Tick, but not as good as Combatribes. I could go either way with Combatribes, but I enjoyed that game a little more. Maybe removing the Rushing Beat name was a good thing in this case.
If you liked this game, please check out some of my other beat’em up reviews. Such as Peace Keepers or Brawl Brothers.