Rival Schools

"One of the earlier games that offer a great tag team for 3D fighters"

Storyline-7/10
Well basically the storyline is not that great. But I guess deep down in everyone's mind opps I mean every student's mind they really hope to one day be able to fight adults and school teachers and students from other schools. Hey I guess that must be the basis for this game's storyline.

Soundtrack/Effects-8/10
I actually like the music in this game.As for the sound effects you really gotto like the ones that they shout out and do whenever you do a tag team attack.

Graphics-6/10
Seriously the characters are blocky. Well but the blocky count is not really that bad. But if you have spoiled your eyes from playing Final Fantasy X, Tekken 4 and Soul Calibur II you may not be able to being yourself to play this one's graphics. As for the stages they are not really special or great for a 3D fighter. Okay the stages are actually bad. But please do not say you will not play this game because of its poor graphics since its quite a fun game to play.

Gameplay-8/10
Firstly if a game has tons of mini games I will like it.
Yes there are many mini games here.My favourite is the mini soccer game. There is another game that lets you creat your own character or something like that but too bad I own an import and dont' understand Japanese.

Anyway the great thing about this game is that I simply love the tag team attacks. I'm not sure if this is the correct name but seriously the tag team attacks are very well designed. Hey doing them successfully are the key to getting that elusive hidden battle. But anyway this game's controls are very easy. Any one can just come in and do special moves,super moves and tag team attacks. Okay anyway
the tag team attacks not only looks good but gives you a sense of satisfaction whenever you do one successfully.
They are also different in that there are some that actually involve healing. Some of them are just down right
ridiculous and funny to see. I would suggest you play this game just for the tag team attacks. Of course there are also the down right useless ones. But hey every game has to have a useless attack. Anyway well as mentioned earlier this games's controls are easy so anyone can get into it even if they have not had much time playing any 3D fighter. The key to this game is actually simple its more on timing. Time that tag team attack correctly and you will see a great combo or something spectacular. Time it wrongly and you will see yourself get creamed. However you can only change characters after a round. There is no switching of guys like the tagging system in other games such as Tekken Tag. As such players might not like it.

Conclusion-If you like the idea of being a highschool student fighting students from other schools and fighting your school teachers and adults , you reall should get this game. Although the graphics are bad the controls and gameplay are actually quite good.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/03, Updated 06/13/03