Games of the 8-, 16- & 32-bit era

Arch Rivals

Title	Arch Rivals
First release	1989
Developer	Midway Games
Publisher	Acclaim Entertainment
Platforms	Arcade, Mega Drive / Genesis, NES / Famicom
Genre	sports video game
Also known as	Arch Rivals: A Basketbrawl!
Players	1–2 players
Co-op	No
Releases	Arcade: 1989-01-01 NES / Famicom: 1990-01-01 Mega Drive / Genesis: 1992-01-01 (PAL)
Wikidata ID	Q2742194

Knocking an opponent's block off or stealing their shorts allows players to bypass traditional basketball rules in this arcade-style sports title. While combat mechanics like right crosses facilitate gameplay, players must still utilize standard basketball skills to score points during two-player matches on the NES.

Description: REG-Vault, CC BY-SA 4.0

View on Wikidata Read on Wikipedia

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), gaps filled from REG-Vault and TheGamesDB and Arcade Database (ADB). Only retro platforms tracked by this site are listed; the year is the earliest release date recorded on Wikidata.

Sources

Wikidata (Q2742194) · last updated 2026-09-27 · CC0

REG-Vault (nes/arch-rivals) · last updated 2026-10-12 · descriptions CC BY-SA 4.0

TheGamesDB (12059) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (27957) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (1619) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

Arcade Database (ADB) (archrivl) · last updated 2026-10-02 · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · internal use only

Arcade Database ADB

MAME romset	`archrivl`
Title at ADB	Arch Rivals (rev 4.0 6/29/89)
Manufacturer	Bally Midway
Year	1989
Genre	Sports / Basketball
Players	2
MAME driver status	GOOD

Artwork: ADB (Arcade Database); artwork © original manufacturer (Bally Midway); snaps by ProgettoSnaps via ADB. Non-free, internal use only (hotlinked, not downloaded).

Scraping using Arcade Database by motoschifo · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · romset via Wikidata P2451 (wikidata-qid) · fetched 2026-10-02 16:36 UTC · no fields filled (other sources take precedence)

Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © Acclaim Entertainment · internal use only

1 / 13 Box art Box art (front) 1

Image credits

Box art, Screenshots, Logos, Artwork (7): Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © Acclaim Entertainment · internal use only. REG-Vault page

Box art, Screenshots, Logos, Artwork (6): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded) · © Acclaim Entertainment · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Sprites

No sprite sheets yet. Find sprites on The Spriters Resource ↗ /

Videos

Mega Drive Longplay [583] Arch Rivals (US)

World-of-Longplays · Mega Drive / Genesis version · longplay · 26:21auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:41 UTC

Arch Rivals (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

NintendoComplete · NES / Famicom version · longplay · 21:49auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:42 UTC

"Auto-matched" videos were found automatically (title + platform match via the YouTube Data API) and may occasionally be wrong. Videos are hosted by YouTube (embedded via youtube-nocookie.com; nothing loads from YouTube until you press play) and belong to their channels.