Rival Turf!

It's no secret that in the late 1980's and early 1990's, beat them up games were among one of the best selling genre's in video games! I mean, on any given video game console that you could've owned, or any arcade place you went to, there was simply no shortage of beat them up games that you could play! While games like "Final Fight" is probably one of the first names that comes to mind when it comes to beat them up games, this video game does a pretty good for Video Game Publisher Jaleco, on following their own take on the genre. Either playing solo or with a friend, you play as one of two possible characters, as you fight your way across six stages. Three in the Los Angeles, California area, and three in South America. What makes "Rival Turf" stand out from others in this genre, is that getting hit can actually WORK to your advantage! If you get hit enough in a short amount of time, if you've turned on "Anger Mode", your character will get angry, and be able to dish out a LOT of damage, while ignoring damage themselves! Of course, there's only a limited amount of time that it can last, so choose those moments wisely! The music, the graphics, and the controls (which can be customized), are all pretty good for 16 bit standards; and while the plot isn't that remarkable by today's standards, it certainly got the job done in 1992. Of course, this score MAY be a little biased, given as to how I played it on the Nintendo Switch Super NES Virtual Console with it's helpful rewind feature. However, this is probably the more FUN (and less frustrating) way to play the game anyway. It's interesting to try playing it at least once, and even more so with a friend! Enough said, true believers!