Rival Turf! is a beat'em up. The player controls a character (Jack Flack or Oozie Nelson) in a one or two player mode, to defeat a plethora of enemies using fists, feet, and various weapons collected throughout the course of the game. The game also includes an "angry" mode where the character becomes temporarily invincible and does more damage after taking too much damage. The game also has a 2 player versus mode. The game was first installment in the "Rushing Beat" trilogy from Japan, which was followed by "Brawl Brothers" and "The Peace Keepers", although the games were localized as unrelated titles in North America.