RIVALS

A little one on one time

- Scott McCrae

A lot of the time in games, it’s easy to get caught up in the massive set-pieces and boss fights. Yes, it’s undeniably super cool when Raiden batters a giant Metal Gear Ray at the start of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, but when it comes down to it, there’s nothing that gets me going in a game like a good one-on-one brawl with someone on alevel playing field. Raiden’s fights with Jetstream Sam aren't the focus of Metal Gear Rising’s plot—in fact, Sam doesn’t have much screen time at all—but no one else has had such an impact... well, except for Senator Armstrong.

Stylish Action Games are the biggest home to this trope: Bayonetta, Platinum's The Wonderful 101, Ninja Gaiden 2... I could go on. But there’s a reason that rivals are so prominent in the action game genre, and that’s due to the series that revolutionized the genre: Devil May Cry.

Dante and Vergil having a scrap is one of the constants in life. Both sons of the legendary dark knight Sparda have been battling since the series started in 2001 (albeit, as the possessed Nelo Angelo) all the way through the edgy reboot DmC: Devil May Cry, and most recently 2019’s Devil May Cry 5. But the game that cemented this rivalry as the all-time great that it is was