Capcom unleashes explosive tag-team fighting action in Rival Schools - the most innovative 3-D fighter that teams up 14 brand new warriors united by fate. Vibrant graphics, an intense storyline, outrageous new combos and Capcom's signature gameplay make Rival Schools the 3-D tag-team battle that's completely out of control! In the ultimate fight for justice, there is no rival!

Discussion
Rival Schools is essentially the buffet table of options for a fighting game. Across the 2 Discs, you have Arcade version, PlayStation version, Tournament, League Mode, Training, 4 Player mode (2 on 2), and a lot of other goodies. League Mode is probably one of the more unique options I've seen in a non-sports game title.

Essentially instead of a regular bracket system, up to 6 2-character squads are assigned league positions, and each team battles against all the others, sports style. You can even set any or all of the teams to CPU so you can create your own dream-team match ups and see how they fare against each other.

The game itself is fairly straight forward, though the tag option isn't played like the more famous Capcom vs. and Street Fighter vs. series. Though you can only trade off characters in between rounds, you can perform rather amusing tag team combos in battle. While there are the usual super fireballs and double uppercuts, others are amusing - like Hinata, who simply comes in and gives a literal heart felt pep talk and boosts your characters rating for a bit...complete with cartoon hearts and sweat drops.

Graphically the game is a somewhat odd beast. It's not as clean texture-wise as Star Gladiator, but the animations and art styles are awesome. Every three characters are broken up into school clubs: Sports, Sparring, Research, etc. This causes some amazing super combos, especially from the sports team. You'll be assaulted by huge baseball bats, pelted by flaming volleyballs, and kicked in the teeth by an Ultra Soccer ball.

Everything else is standard Capcom fare - fireballs, super moves, hurricane kicks, freaky boss characters and the like.

Rival Schools held a small but deep fan base during its heyday, including those that moved onto the Dreamcast version. It may not be the prettiest or flashiest game in Capcom's line-up, but one thing is for sure...

Now matter what happens, someone is going to get schooled. 

• Only released in the Fighters Edge variant cover.
   
• Worth 20 points in the Fighters Edge program.
   
• **The game claims it is only up to 2 people, but there are modes that allow up to 4 players (2 on 2) or 6 people individually in League Mode.
   
• The back of the packaging uses the Japanese version's screenshots.
   
• Rival Schools was a robust package, as it came with two different versions of the game - the arcade version on one disc, and an enhanced PSX version on the other, plus other options.
   
• Street Fighter's resident school girl, Sakura, makes a guest appearance as one of the fighters.
   
• While in-game advertising has taken flack in the modern era, Rival Schools was chock full of advertisements from various Japanese Gaming Magazines. GameWalker, Gamest, Gamers, and a few other logos can be seen through out the game.
   
• The disc artwork posed an interesting problem. Due to the way the ink was applied, the discs kept scanning in as black and white - not the proper yellow color. I had to go in and re-color the scans by hand to the proper tint!
   
• The sequel for Rival Schools appeared on the Dreamcast as Project Justice.
   
• The game's sub-title only appears on the Title Screen. It's missing from the Case and Disc artwork, and is only mentioned in the copy.