Hands-on: Rival Schools 2

Fighting games are like anime thrown into some unusual setting. They usually have little or no plot and revolve around immediate action instead. But while Rival Schools Fighting Diary 2 (Shiritsu Justice Gakuen Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 in Japan) has plenty of action, it has what too many fighters' lack - a believable scenario.

Rival Schools 2 is exactly what you would expect from the name. The story centers on five educational institutes involved in a long, bitter rivalry that spans decades. And, like most schools, they prove themselves with athletic competition – namely knuckling up and throwing their fists.

The original Rival Schools did a great job of retaining that school-like athleticism in their fighter's techniques. There was a slugger who carried a baseball bat, a volleyball player who served flaming volleyballs at her opponents, and a goalie who corner-kicked opponents into oblivion.

The Rival Schools Fighting Diary 2 side story only refines that tradition, focusing less on typical attacks and expanding on insane character super attacks. For example, the team attack for Nagare, an Olympic class swimmer, is to jump on-screen and perform a session of synchronized swimming-like moves with all three opponents, only to cause damage at the last twirl.

Rival Schools Fighting Diary 2 finds the addition of only two new characters; Nagare - the aforementioned swimmer, and Ran – a camera snapping photographer. However, it does boast an expanded character edit section, tons of mini-games, and PocketStation support. And while the combat is surely enough to sell the game and the mini-games are the proverbial icing on the cake with a home-run derby, a goal-kick competition, a track and field race, and even a Bust-a-Groove-like dance competition.

The combat is just as nutty as ever. You still pick two characters – one as your primary fighter and another in reserve for team attacks. Combo moves have been further refined and expanded as special attacks have gone even more off the deep end. Some characters' special moves are simply delicious. Ran's team attack lets you watch you destroy your opponent in a series of snapshots, while Daigo lets you punch his immovable chest ten or twelve times before he pummels you.

The graphics are still extremely nice, and the loading time is surprisingly low. One of the nicer graphical features is the addition of hundreds of character sketches randomly chosen as the loading screen's background. The characters are all likeable and unique, and the polygons are clean and accurate. The audio is bumpin' with J-Pop, and I found myself tapping my foot several times while playing.

Rival Schools has always focused more on having fun than having realistic gameplay and Rival Schools Fighting Diary 2 is no exception. Although there are few new characters, and gameplay hasn't made any world-impacting changes since its original - it's still a whole lot of fun.