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RIVAL TURF (SNES)
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a.k.a. Rushing Beat | Rival Turf!
Publisher: Jaleco. Developer: Jaleco. Released: 1993 (Europe). Genre: Roaming beat 'em up. Posted 18th October 2024. By Tom Clare © 2024 |
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Though the Super Nintendo’s European launch would offer countless highlights, many owners will have associated the system’s first Christmas period with its disappointing Final Fight port. Heavily censored and missing one of the three protagonists of the arcade original, Capcom dropped the ball spectacularly through the omission of simultaneous two-player gameplay. For a roaming beat ‘em up during the early nineties, this was not so much a desirable facet as a non-negotiable imperative, and with Streets of Rage 2 on the horizon for Mega Drive fans, the timing could hardly have been worse.
Fortunately, one of the Super Nintendo’s greatest strengths was the cavernous depth of its library, and it wasn’t long before Rival Turf arrived on the scene. Its well-worn settings and simplistic combat meant it would compare unfavourably to SEGA’s rivalling Streets of Rage games. However, Jaleco’s roaming beat ‘em up would fill an important void in the system’s otherwise sterling early line-up, allowing friends to battle through an arcade-style experience together.
There's a legion of goons between Jack Flak and his kidnapped girlfriend: time to make their day!
The story of a girlfriend kidnapped by a dodgy street gang and the subsequent, violent street odyssey to win her back will feel awfully familiar. Docks, city streets, and sports stadiums: every last one of which you’ll have witnessed a close equivalent in the various Double Dragon and Streets of Rage titles of the three or four years prior. Where Final Fight came to life with its memorable subway sequence, Rival Turf opts for a more humble public transport sequence involving a bus. Broadly speaking, everything is present and correct, just a little austere next to the best-in-class. There’s even an elevator sequence (practically a rite-of-passage for the genre by 1993), though weirdly, nothing occurs whilst you’re riding it.
Rival Turf may have flatlined in the originality stakes, but it still offers a good slice of fun. Choosing between high-kicking all-rounder Jack Flak, and tank-like policeman and M. Bison cosplay aficionado Oozie Nelson, the game offers up six healthily-sized levels that are packed with fisticuffs. There’s a decent array of foes and, credit where it’s due, the game doesn’t rely especially heavily on palette swaps. You’ll encounter typical street thugs, wrestlers, dynamite lobbers and martial arts masters, each proving hazardous in slightly different ways. Punches and throws carry weight, and piledriving a big assailant into the ground proves endlessly entertaining. Jack and Oozie cover ground rapidly, particularly in conjunction with the shoulder button sprint move, lending the gameplay a decent sense of urgency. As a result, RT fares well relatively in terms of the (less desirable) one-player experience, as you are less likely to find yourself surrounded or swamped by enemies.
Rival Turf may have flatlined in the originality stakes, but it still offers a good slice of fun. Choosing between high-kicking all-rounder Jack Flak, and tank-like policeman and M. Bison cosplay aficionado Oozie Nelson, the game offers up six healthily-sized levels that are packed with fisticuffs. There’s a decent array of foes and, credit where it’s due, the game doesn’t rely especially heavily on palette swaps. You’ll encounter typical street thugs, wrestlers, dynamite lobbers and martial arts masters, each proving hazardous in slightly different ways. Punches and throws carry weight, and piledriving a big assailant into the ground proves endlessly entertaining. Jack and Oozie cover ground rapidly, particularly in conjunction with the shoulder button sprint move, lending the gameplay a decent sense of urgency. As a result, RT fares well relatively in terms of the (less desirable) one-player experience, as you are less likely to find yourself surrounded or swamped by enemies.
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It’s not the one-player you came for though, and as well as ignoring the eternally superfluous Vs. Battle option, you’ll most likely be fighting through the levels with a friend. Perhaps anticipating a bone of contention, the developer included the option to turn off friendly fire, and there’s also an Angry mode, which grants a brief period of heightened strength should your character sustain a flurry of blows. Next to Streets of Rage, the beat ‘em up action is undeniably basic, with far fewer grapple moves and specials that feel uninspired and underpowered. Aligning your character with a foe along vertical lines regularly proves hit and miss, especially with the woefully inaccurate projectile weapons, and it’s frustrating that even a slight misjudgement will likely see you punished as a result.
It’s also a shame Jaleco didn’t craft any environmental hazards. Locations feel shallow, with no obvious development to the gameplay level by level, save for some fresh scenery and foes with bigger health bars. There’s a selection of neat weapons to wield, though their application is often too simplistic to be satisfying (pipes and clubs) and in any case, they appear infrequently.
It’s also a shame Jaleco didn’t craft any environmental hazards. Locations feel shallow, with no obvious development to the gameplay level by level, save for some fresh scenery and foes with bigger health bars. There’s a selection of neat weapons to wield, though their application is often too simplistic to be satisfying (pipes and clubs) and in any case, they appear infrequently.
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The game fares pretty well on the presentation front, with plenty of effort apparent in the backdrops. The stadium is a colourful stand-out, whilst the city streets showcase an impressive level of detail and activity, with a brighter vibe than that normally applied by its contemporaries. Their quality fluctuates a little, with parts of the parking lot seeming abruptly very sparse, but the locations mostly look nice. Greater use of parallax scrolling would have made things more impressive on the whole, and though the sprites look okay, they are let down by jarringly simplistic animations.
Rival Turf’s gritty sound effects are let down by its naff music. Next to the cool, pulsating compositions of the Streets of Rage games, RT’s tunes are like an eighties buddy cop movie gone wrong. Whilst its efforts to create an up-tempo, urgent feel are undeniably concerted, the tracks are strident to the point of grating. After a brief period, the persistently weedy tunes become actively tiring to listen to.
Rival Turf’s gritty sound effects are let down by its naff music. Next to the cool, pulsating compositions of the Streets of Rage games, RT’s tunes are like an eighties buddy cop movie gone wrong. Whilst its efforts to create an up-tempo, urgent feel are undeniably concerted, the tracks are strident to the point of grating. After a brief period, the persistently weedy tunes become actively tiring to listen to.
A few more weapons might have made the levels a little more interesting
You’ll breeze through the early levels, but completing the game may still prove a tricky assignment. Thus, discovering the ending that makes absolutely no mention of Jack’s missing girlfriend, whatsoever, might take a little longer than you’d think. As well as three difficulty settings, the player is afforded plenty of lives and continues, but these dwindle remarkably quickly in the second half of the game, where goons need land only 2-3 hits to take a life. The bosses are a real plus, though. With rollerskates, headphones and a ghetto blaster, Sledge couldn’t be any more ‘nineties’ if he tried, and he’s fun to battle against. There’s a host of amusing and enigmatic bosses that demand some level of tactical nous to beat and they’re generally a success, even if Slasher is a shameless plagiarism of SoR2’s Jet.
The first title in the Rushing Beat series exhibited intermittent signs of quality, promise, and room for improvement. Compared to the genre’s best outings of the time, Rival Turf’s solid gameplay and competent visual design won’t pull up trees. However, as an early SNES roaming beat ‘em up aiming to salve the lack of a two-player Final Fight, it represents the quick-fix many players craved.
The first title in the Rushing Beat series exhibited intermittent signs of quality, promise, and room for improvement. Compared to the genre’s best outings of the time, Rival Turf’s solid gameplay and competent visual design won’t pull up trees. However, as an early SNES roaming beat ‘em up aiming to salve the lack of a two-player Final Fight, it represents the quick-fix many players craved.
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VERDICT
"Rival Turf’s solid gameplay and competent visual design struggle to distinguish it from the crowd. However, as an early SNES roaming beat 'em up aiming to salve the lack of a two-player Final Fight, it represented the quick-fix many players craved." OVERALL: 6/10 |
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