I'll go with Blue being one of the best; the game is pretty basic, due to its age, but he does a good enough job popping up and egging you on, and his role as the final boss is one of the best from a narrative point of view. All of the other champions are already established, but Blue remains unique as someone with the same start and goal as the player who rises to the occasion and becomes the League champion. Everyone else ("rival"-wise) in the series peters out near the end while the player pushes ahead, but Blue alone is ready to give you that last fight for the thing you both dearly want. God, is his AI is terrible, though. . _.
I dig the Star Fox / Star Wolf rivalry in the SF series. They are easily on par with you and your team and the fights with them are generally pretty awesome, especially the rematch with their enhanced versions in SF64 on Venom the first time you get there and aren't expecting it. They are that fight I'm always looking forward to in SF games, and when that theme kicks in, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I love it. <3~
Axel Gear from the Rocket Knight series also comes to mind, though he strays a lot closer to simple enemy territory than what I'd consider the normal rival zone. Still, he's basically the enemy force's counterpart to you, and much like Wolf he's running most of your skills and abilities and makes for the best boss fights in the game's he is in.
Though never really played out by the player, I've always loved the rivalry between Dr. Wily and Dr. Light in the Mega Man series, as both are brilliant scientists, but Wily just can't take being second to Light and it drives him nuts -- it is also one of the rare times the evil rival wins out in the end, as Zero is (though I suppose some may contest this) the most advanced/powerful machine created during their generation. There's also some credit to be tossed the Mega Man / Bass way, though, for whatever reason, I never particularly cared for/about Bass.
Last edited by Rez09; 09-21-2016 at 01:38 PM.
Younger and older siblings. Who gets player one e top of the screen!