Urban Rivals

Urban Rivals can be played here

Urban Rivals is an MMO game mixing the aspects of a Collectible Card Game with a Mons game. If you don't have an adblocker, most tropers will have seen the ads dozens of times on this site. The game is played with four on four matches between cards selected at random from your deck at the start of the battle.

You boost your cards power with Pillz tokens, and there is a great deal of bluffing and trying to get an edge on your opponent in Pillz. The individual cards gain experience and evolve, becoming stronger and more useful. You gain in-game currency with each victory, and can even earn Credits with missions, and can get everything this way, albeit very slowly. Buying random booster packs to increase your collection faster is as big in this as in any physical TCG.

Each group of cards represents one gang in the World Gone Mad that is Clint City. Only a tiny minority of these represent traditional Gang-Bangers, however. Playable groups range from the mob and the police to surfer dudes and martial artists to invading aliens and anthropomorphic inhabitants of the Clint City Zoo. This game is an absolute hive of Captain Ersatz, with many characters being obvious pastiches of famous actors or characters.

Tropes used in Urban Rivals include:

• Alien Invasion: Played straight, subverted, and plain played with with the Sakrohm. Some of the aliens are invaders, some are diplomats which just happen to be carnivorous.
• Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Natrang of the Fang Pi Clang.
• A-Team Firing: La Junta's Gatline recognizes in herself a certain deficiency when it comes to... aiming, and thus prefers weapons that tear things to pieces to compensate.
• Ascended Extra: Copper's aunt Martha, who had only appeared in the comic adaptation, is now a member of Sentinel.
• The Atoner: Alec of Rescue is motivated to become the best firefighter because he bullied Kenny to the point where he became a human torch of destruction.
• Bad Guy Bar: The Get 'O' Bar.
• Badass Normal: In a city filled with monsters, aliens, freaks, mutants, magicians, and cyborgs, gangs such as the Montanas, La Junta, All-Stars, Bangers, and Uppers are still able to fight on even footing despite being completely composed of normal humans.
• Bare Your Midriff: A massive number of cards do this, as female characters (that aren't Gonk) invoke more Fan Service the more they level up (another good reason to evolve them).
• Battle Butler: Jeeves of the Uppers and Glorg the troll of Nightmare.
• Battle Couple: Chloe and Havok of Sentinel, Lola and Taylor of Berzerk.
• The Berserker: The Berzerk clan.
• Bishonen: Dan of the All Stars.
• Blessed with Suck: The Leader cards each have a unique ability that none of the other cards have that cannot be canceled. ...Unless another is on the same team.
  • In game, a few cards qualify for this; namely Milton of Skeelz (whose strength increases along with his intelligence, making him into an overmuscled giant.)
• Blood Knight: The Fang Pi Clang is full of these. Even more with the Berzerk clan.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Stanford and Nellie of the Uppers.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: It costs money to buy "credits", which can be used to buy booster packs. However, individual cards are traded for "clintz", an in-game currency that can be won in battles or earned through selling cards. All in all, the game can be played without spending a single cent, but dishing out cash gets you cards faster. After all, this is a Collectible Card Game
  • And you can now buy clintz with your credits.
• British Coppers: Owen from Sentinel clan is a cyborg copper.
• Buccaneer Babe: Almost the entire female half of the Piranas clan.
• Bruce Lee Clone: Literally, Xia Leming is a failed attempt to clone Bruce Lee.
  • The Fang Pi Clang's plan for world domination involves replacing the president with one of these.
• Cain and Abel: Morlha and Chloe of Gheist and Sentinel respectively.
• Circus of Fear: The theme behind the Freaks clan. They aren't all monstrous, but they are an asskicking circus troupe with a number of... interesting members.
• City of Adventure: Clint City itself
• Cleanup Crew: GHEIST's Methane is a one-man cleaner. Running into him means one of two things: You're dead, or you're about to be. Strynge, the actual GHEIST HQ janitor, isn't exactly a slouch himself.
• Cool Old Guy: Archie of the Junkz clan, Archibald of La Junta.
• Commissar Cap: Vansaar could almost pass out as a Commissar.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Zlatar leader of the Uppers.
• Cosplay Otaku Girl: Kati of the Fang Pi Clang. Her cards all feature her dressed as a different fighting game character.
• Cult: Sakrohm could be considered this, with all the head shaving and robes.
  • With Church of Happyology for extra kick.
• Deceptive Disciple: Gheist's Lin Xia, formerly of the Fang Pi Clang.
• The Don: Named Don, oddly enough.
• Drives Like Crazy: Niqiloda, the snowmobile driver of the Frozn clan, calls himself the "snow bike super ace... whereas the rest of his clan calls him "the Ace of Destruction." Apparently his driving is bad enough to qualify as Car Fu.
• Dropped a Bridget On Him: Ashley from the All Stars
• Dumb Muscle: Virtually every clan has at least one of these guys. Aktara of the Piranas, Brutox from GHEIST, Randy of the All-Stars, etc.
• Emergency Services: The Rescue and Sentinel clans.
• Fair Cop: Quite a few in Sentinel. Chloe and Aurelia stand out, and Miranda is a more Fetish Fuel version.
• Fan Disservice: Ashley (See Dropped a Bridget On Him) and Dwan of Skeelz (Though, YMMV). Double Subverted with Bunny of Junkz.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The game includes everything from superheroes to kaiju to mecha to vampires.
• Fish Out of Temporal Water: Amazingly Subverted with Craho: he clearly adapts quite well to the modern times.
• Fish People: A few characters in Piranas and Ulu Watu mutate in this direction.
• Foot Focus: Twyh of the Freaks.
• For Massive Damage: La Junta and Fang Pi Clang's MO.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Kenny of Nightmare
• Funny Animal: The entire Jungo clan.
• G-Rated Drug: Pillz
• Game Breaker: A good way to tell if a card fits this is if they're permanently banned in ELO.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Badassery displayed in the official comics or implied by a character's bio paragraph do not always translate into useful card stats...
• Gang-Bangers: The whole game is about gang wars, but the appropriately named Bangers clan fits the trope the best.
• Gentle Giant: Ghoub of the Rescue. Except if you try and take his sandwich...
• Godiva Hair: Lulabee from the Ulu Watu clan.
• I Know Madden Kombat: This is the angle behind the All Stars gang, each member of whom is a fighter who uses skills from their specific sport to beat ass like a pro. While the standard hockey (Alexei), football (Randy), soccer (Striker), baseball (Lamarr), rugby (Loma Noju) and basketball (Mikki) types are present, more esoteric examples include Bhudd, the zen martial arts master and ace bowler; Dan, ping pong expert and channeller of dark forces; and Robb, a legendary champion at darts who uses his flinging skills as a guerilla.
• Hate Plague: The Xantiax gas that created the Berzerk clan instills "a fury that can only be appeased by intense fighting" in its victims. Fortunately, this works out perfectly fine in Clint City.
• Haunted Castle: Nightmare Manor
• Handicapped Badass: Archibald of La Junta and Nakata of the Fang Pi Clang. Half the Piranas could qualify as this, as some have a peg leg as well as a...
  • Also Miss Ming of the Freaks, a human torso who has telekinetic powers.
  • Kerry leader of Rescue who is wheelchaired, when she took a knife in the leg.
• Hook Hand: No pirate gang would be complete without a character who had this. The obvious example is Cyan, and the character Selma is a pirate Igor, existing to repair pirates with these kinds of prosthetic.
• Human Popsicle: Craho (Roots).
• An Ice Person: The Frozn are a whole clan of ice people.
• Kaiju: The monster Kolos is a Godzilla Expy that rampages through the city in one of the comics. He's a bit of a Game Breaker in actual play as well, though not nearly so much as he appeared in the comic.
• Knight Templar: The Sentinels goal is to bring law and order in Clint City, even if it means burning it down, and paint it in blood.
• La Résistance: La Junta. Almost a namedrop.
• Improbable Weapon User: Numerous, most notably Piotr of the Freaks, who uses weapons made from Balloons.
• Lethal Chef: While you get the odd literal example (someone versed in both the culinary and murderlating arts), Spycee of the Piranas, while distressingly talented with a knife, lacks the ability to make... food that doesn't kill or poison people. Deadeye lost an eye and an arm when he had two servings of Spycee's surprise omelets.
  • And a leg! it's shown on the full artwork
• Love Makes You Evil: Klawz, heartbroken by Havok, joined Gheist in order to be strong enough to kill her love rival Chloe.
• Mad Artist: Alexei of the All Stars believes hockey is an art. And the broken skulls of fan, opponent, and teammate alike sitting on the ice is his idea of a masterpiece.
• Mafia Princess: A few cards in the Montanas count, Sharon and Vickie coming the closest.
• Make Wrong What Once Went Right: The Vortex clan's MO.
• Mama Croc/TeamMom - Odile is this to the Jungo.
• Meaningful Name: Some cards have this, most notably Sentinel Leader Copper, who is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
  • Just about every character's name is either this or a Punny Name.
• The Medic: Some cards have the ability to gain life whether from winning a battle or per damage inflicted. Leader Bridget has the ability to gain life once per turn.
  • The Jungo clans bonus is they gain 2 life for winning a battle.
  • Rescue is a clan of Combat Medics--though strangely, their bonus is not centered around regaining life.
• Mighty Lumberjack: The first boss card you get in your collection is a lumberjack. He starts looking like the stereotype and hulks out when levelling up. Also adds bonus damage to the whole team.
• Mildly Military: La Junta clan is all over this, being basically made of maverick military characters.
• The Mole: Eloxia is highly implied to be this for Vortex.
  • Carlos for the Sentinels who infiltrates the Montana clan.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Zoltan of the Freaks and Sol Hona of the Sakhroms.
• Naughty Nurse Outfit: A few in Rescue, Alice of the Pussycats, and a Nightmare Fuel version in Gheist's Dolly.
• Nebulous Evil Organization: The Gheist clan. They dabble in genetic manipulation, among other things, but don't seem to have a clear purpose. Nightmare is a more magical version of this.
• Never Mess with Granny: Martha. Given that Copper is her nephew, that should come to no surprise.
• New Age Retro Hippie: The Roots clan is all over this trope.
• Nerd: Nobrocybix
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: The squidlike Trinmkkt has four very human breasts, with nipple piercings!
• Obvious Rule Patch: A number of cards are banned from certain types of tournament, and players can vote for which cards this happens to.
  • Notable, however, in that the designers refuse to change the rules at all or alter existing cards in any way.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Among the many odd beings inhabiting Clint City are a few mermaids, mostly in the Piranas and Ulu Watu clans.
• Parasol of Pain: Sayura of the Fang Pi Clang.
• Perky Goth: Dreen of the Junkz, who later becomes perky in more way then one.
• A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: The entire Piranha clan
• Pirate Girl: The Piranas clan is full of half-dressed pirate babes.
• Pirates: The Piranas gang is made up of these, and they hit every pirate cliche in the book.
• Put on a Bus: A good sign to know when this happens to a character is when their card becomes a collector's edition (Cr).
  • Actually, when a card becomes collector, there's a little scenaristic justification to the character leaving Clint City.
• Robot Buddy: Many clans has at least one of these, such as Zdrone of Sentinel, Sledg of Rescue, and Ed 12 of La Junta.
• Rolling Pin of Doom: Filomena. It helps that it's as big around as a mid-sized tree.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: BB Cool G of the Bangers as a result of reciting cursed lyrics.
• Ridiculously-Human Robots: Nobrodroid and Haze of the Junks.
• Right-Hand-Cat: Dr. Gheist and Mini Mund both have right hand birds.
• Scary Black Man: Though there are a few who are quite mellow, and some that are of an entirely different ethnicity altogether, most of the Bangers fall under this trope.
• She's All Grown Up - Nellie from the Uppers, as her evolutions follow her growth. She starts as a rather ugly child, but at the end of her evolution she is a stunning young adult.
• Shout-Out: This game lives and breathes these. A majority of the characters are shout outs.
  • A few examples:
    • Sol Hona (Sakrohm): Han Solo.
    • Asparov (All Stars): Garry Kasparov.
    • Loma Noju (All Stars): Jonah Lomu.
    • Jautya (Sakrohm): Predator.
    • Keanew (Junkz): Neo
    • Python (La Junta): Solid Snake
    • Kenny (Nightmare): Harry Potter
    • Ralph (Fang Pi Clang): Dre
    • Meroo (Bangers): Mr. T
• Sibling Team: Uxoh and Burger of La Junta, who work together as a mine layer and a bomb disposal expert respectively.
  • Also hackers Keanew and Otakool of the Junkz, performers Hula and Twyh of the Freaks, twin bodyguards Kobalth and Onyx of Vortex, and stretcher carriers Larry and Marco of Rescue.
• Spoiled Brat - Nellie from the Uppers.
• Spy Catsuit: Isatis goes a bit like this in level 4, but she still looks like a soldier.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Ratanah and Narendra of Roots, due to a blood feud between their families that lasted for generations.
• Straw Feminist: The Pussycats clan swings between this and Stripperific, though to be fair most of the clans are pretty all over the place in their philosophy.
• Super-Hero School: The Skeelz clan is based on this, with a majority of its members being odd superbeings.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: The Fang Pi clan is this, as well as being a parody of things like Dragon Ball and Street Fighter.
• Surfer Dude: The Ulu Watu clan is filled with these. The other half are Valley Girl.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Rhed (Piranas). She later gives up on the disguise.
• Take That: Sydney of the Uppers is a more subtle case towards Paris Hilton.
• The Mafia: The Montana gang is a classic version of it, in all its pinstripe wearing, stereotypically Italian glory.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Darth of GHEIST is specifically noted to be too spectacular a killer, tending to use thousands of bullets where three would have gotten the job done.
  • In game its common for players to use all of their remaining pillz when finishing off the last card of their opponent. Especially when the opponent only has one pill left.
• Those Two Guys: Dayton and Coby of Sentinel, as of the comic adaptation.
• Took a Level in Badass: 1% the game is getting enough XP to make your card do this
• Tournament Play: Being an MMO, it has tournaments constantly. Every other hour is a tournament.
• Tunnel King: Leo of the Junta used to hunt giant moles, then became a zombie hunter; both professions thankfully involve his phenomenal digging ability and using his shovel directly as a weapon
• Unstoppable Rage: The hat of the recently introduced Berzerk clan.
• Vapor Wear: The girls in Gheist seem fond of this.
• Villainous Crossdresser: Jackie of the Uppers.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Being a surfer based clan, half the men of Ulu Watu.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The clans not composed of hedonists, criminals, or psychopaths, are this trope. Naturally, many of these good intentions don't always mesh.
• Woman Scorned: Kimberly of the All Stars, who quits cheerleading for bodybuilding so she could find ex-boyfriend Chad (who left her to join Ulu Watu) and smash his head the next time she sees him.
• World of Badass: By virtue of being locked in a war between 22 factions comprised of people ranging from Badass Normal to Cursed with Awesome to Kaiju. Unfortunately, this also has the effect of making the city a...
• Wretched Hive: Clint City. There's a police force, but they're even in terms of power and influence with the mob, the surf bums, and the denizens of the city zoo.
  • Actually, some character descriptions explicitly state that the Sentinel clan and the city's police force are not the same thing.
• Wrong Side of the Tracks: Clint City doesn't appear to have a right side of the tracks.
• Zombie Apocalypse: This is one of Nightmares plan in the web comics.