Arch Rivals

Arch Rivals is a basketball game developed and published by Midway in 1989. The game introduces violence as an important part of the game, encouraging players to punch opposing players and stealing the ball from them. The game is regarded as the forerunner to Midway's popular arcade basketball game, NBA Jam.

Released: 1989
Platforms: Arcade Game Gear MS-DOS NES Sega Genesis
Genres: Arcade Basketball Sports
Developers: Midway Games
Publishers: —
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Comedy
Country: United States
Age ratings: ESRB E
Composers: Dan Forden

About

Arch Rivals is a 1989 basketball video game developed and published by Bally Midway for arcades. Billed as "A Basket Brawl", the game features two-on-two full court basketball games in which players are encouraged to punch opposing players and steal the ball from them. Arch Rivals was the second basketball video game released by Midway, sixteen years after TV Basketball (1974). Home versions of the game were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Genesis/Mega Drive, and Game Gear.

Arch Rivals allows players to select from a variety of fictional teams (although arcade operators can change the team names to reflect real ones) and players. One playable character, "Tyrone" was also featured in the animated The Power Team segments of the television series Video Power. In turn, the game has been considered a forerunner to Midway's popular arcade basketball game, NBA Jam. Emulated versions of Arch Rivals are included in the compilations Midway Arcade Treasures 2, Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition, and Midway Arcade Origins.

›Story

Players are able to select between a vareity of fictional teams and players. Games follow the standard basketball rules, with the exception of the accepted level of violence. The objective is to outscore the opponent. There are only two players on each team on the court, rather than the standard 5 men/team that is standard in basketballl.

Keywords

basketball
high score
melee
rivalry

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Games generally follow standard basketball rules; a full game consists of four quarters, with four minutes each. Each team has two players, and the objective of the game is to outscore the opponent until the final buzzer sounds. A player can call for his teammate to pass him the ball or to shoot it in this battle royale.

If the game results in a tie after four quarters, multiple sudden death overtime periods are added, in which case whoever scores the next basket will win the game. Every overtime period is one minute. If, however, no score occurs after overtime the procedure repeats.

Reception

Sinclair User and Computer and Video Games published positive reviews of Arch Rivals, while commenting that the game was best suited to fans of the sport.