There are more than a few Final Fight clones. Some good (Streets Of Rage) and some absolutely god awful (Riot Zone). Rival Turf sits in-between of that. Jaleco's entry into the beat em' up genre on Super Nintendo is a promising fighter. It has solid looks, two player co-op play, tons of levels and lots of variation.
It is cool what ideas Jaleco have implemented into the genre. One idea is the angry mode which has your strength higher than usual for a short period of time when you're close to death. Another cool idea is the charge attack which is good in taking down chunks of enemies. Rival Turf also has a varied level design, with a stadium level, jungle level and even sea ports. Small little things like the screams which will remind gamers of previous brawlers like Golden Axe. It's an overall addictive game.
Yet the game is infuriating hard and this is down largely to the poor design of the game itself. Enemies are far too hard to beat and cause far too much damage using cheap and unavoidable attacks on the player. Even when using items like grenades or wrenches, the goons take the damage from these items as if it's nothing.
This isn't helped by the fact that the collision detection is off in places and there isn't even a difficulty setting for the game itself. You can hope to improve your chances in multiplayer modes but this has little benefit and unlike in other brawlers it actually reduces your chances of success. But anyway, this makes Rival Turf a far lengthier game than it is and the levels are long. Some may find it repetitive but others might like the idea. Although with only 4 lives in a maximum of 5 continues, the difficulty of the game certainly will become a little too tight for some.
Because of this, it is hard to recommend Rival Turf. If the game was easier or atleast was more forgiving than it would've been a far more solid game however this sadly isn't the case. It is a fun beat em' up, but don't be surprised at your anger as you throw the controller in disgust of how cheap the game's AI is.
