Another rather obscure fighting game series, which I thought about due to one of the characters, Akira, appearing in Street Fighter 5.
And who doesn’t like bajiquan fighter? She’s not to be confused with a male bajiquan fighter Akira from Virtua Fighter series, though.
As far as the game goes, it resembles Street Fighter Ex a lot. Awkward 3D models, QCB/QCF moves, projectiles and all that.
There’s a tag-team element to the game. Once you pick your main character, you can pick one of two teammates from their school. Mate participates in tag attacks that act as powerful throws (get close, wait until opponent blocks). You can also switch between characters before round starts.
One bit that really impressed me was that they tried to emulate reflection in Akira’s motorcycle helmet. They got the reflection totally wrong, of course, but just the fact that they went to all that effort is impressive.
The second game in the series first released on PSX only in Japan, with a crazy name “Shiritsu Justice Gakuen – Nekketsu Seishun Nikki 2”.
That’s why when you look for “Rival Schools 2”, you only find the Dreamcast version. The Dreamcast version, though, is an entirely different game!
While “Rival Schools 2” for PSX was basically the same game with a new story and a few new characters, Rival Schools 2 for Dreamcast has new game engine, new models and even the movesets for characters are different.
Akira, for example, doesn’t have a second stance anymore.
Comparing to the arcade version, there’s no significant differences compared to PSX:
