Rival Schools: United by Fate

The main fighting game is best described as a polygonal Marvel vs. Capcom game, with some notable differences. Control wise, the game imitates Star Gladiator ' s four button setup (two punches and two kicks, like the SNK game format). A player chooses a team of two characters, and fights against another two character team.

The actual fights, however, are one-on-one fights, with the partner only participating by being called in when a player has enough 'vigor' for a Team Up attack, done by pressing a punch and kick button of the same pressure. The Team Ups can be either offensive or defensive in nature. After the end of a round, a player (win or lose) can fight the next round with the partner from the previous round, or keep their main character in play. The 'vigor' meter (essentially a super meter) can go up to 9 levels, with Team Ups costing two levels and super moves from a single person costing one level of vigor.

Much like the Marvel vs. Capcom games, launchers can be done that allow air combos to be performed, with all characters having universal low and high launchers. The game also has a few defensive techniques. Tardy Counters act much like Alpha Counters from Street Fighter Alpha , allowing a player to immediately counter-attack from a blocking position.

However, the restrictions on Tardy Counters are very lax; any hard normal, special or super attack can be used to Tardy counter (Alpha counters are only limited to certain special moves [ clarification needed ] for each character), and Tardy Counters do not cost any extra vigor to perform (Alpha Counters required at least a level of Super Combo gauge). Attack Cancels allow a player to cancel an incoming hit simply by timing their own hit with the attack, which cancels out both attacks (though it does not nullify the remaining hits of a multi-hit move). Also, one additional level of vigor is awarded.