Eternal Champions

Eternal Champions is a 2D fighting game developed by Sega.

Contents

1 Game Information 2 Basic Characters 3 Special Characters 4 Animal Characters 5 Game-Specific Conventions

Game Information

Eternal Champions was released in the summer of 1993 for the Genesis. It featured characters from various time periods. Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side (also known as Eternal Champions CD) was released for the Sega CD in 1994, introducing a host of new characters, some of which need to be unlocked. While essentially a true sequel, it was common for fighting games to receive updates during this era without actually calling them a sequel. A 3rd Eternal Champions game was designed and partially completed for the Sega Saturn in 1996-97. However this sequel was shelved due to the Saturn's numerous fighting games at the time and Sega's desire to promote AM2's (Sega's in house team) Virtua Fighter 2. This game never saw the light of day and not much is known about it other than some early promo stills.

Basic Characters

• Jetta Maxx, a Blue Dragon Circus acrobat from Russia who practices Savate and Pencak Silat and died in 1899 from a fall.
• Jonathan Blade, a young bounty hunter from Syria who practices Kenpo and died in 2030 from a biochemical virus.
• Larcen Tyler, an ex-cat burglar from Chicago who practices praying mantis Kung Fu and died in 1920 from a planted bomb explosion.
• Mitchell Middleton "Midknight" Knight, a scientist turned vampire from London who practices Jeet Kune Do and was killed with a magnesium stake in the early 22nd century.
• RAX (Robotic Artificial Xoskeleton) Coswell, a cyborg kickboxer who practices Muay Thai and died sometime in the 24th century from a computer virus.
• Shadow Yamoto, a ninja from Japan who practices Ninjutsu and Taijutsu and died in 1993 after plummeting from a skyscraper.
• Slash, a Neandertal who practices Pain style and died during the Paleolithic epoch when he was stoned by his own tribe.
• Trident, a gladiator from Atlantis who practices Capoeira and died in 110 BC after being crushed by a pillar.
• Xavier Pendragon, an alchemist from Salem, Massachusetts who practices Hapkido Cane Fighting and was burned at the stake in 1692.

Special Characters

• Chin Wo, an acupuncturist from China who practices Monkey Kung Fu and died in 1815.
• Dark Eternal Champion, the protector of evil who practices nature style and is immortal.
• Dawson McShane, a gambler from Scotland who practices Shotowando and died in 1849.
• Eternal Champion (Version One), a protector of good who practices Dragon, Tiger, Hawk and Shark styles and is immortal.
• Eternal Champion (Version Two), a protector of good who practices Unicorn, Elephant, Millipede and Electric eel styles and is immortal.
• Ramses III, a Pharaoh from Egypt who practices Hung Gar and died in 1151 BC.
• Raven Gindar, a voodoo specialist from a local village in Trinidad who practices Tae Kwon Do and Hsing-i Kung Fu and died in 1802.
• Senator, a politician (puppet of the lobbyist) from Washington, DC who practices Dishonesty style and succumbed to a heart attack in 1995.
• Sophia "Riptide" deMedici, a pirate from Italy who practices Kajukenbo and died in 1566.
• Thanatos, the Greek god of death prior to 1692 who practices Time, Fate and Fisticuffs style.
• Thomas "Blast" Chavez, a Green Beret soldier from the United States of America who practices Green Beret Technique and died in 1955.

Animal Characters

• Crispy, a chicken from a farm who practices Egg Fu and died in 1967.
• Hooter, an owl from Salem who practices Owl-Kwon Do and died in 1692.
• Slither, a snake from a bar called the Snakebite Saloon who practices brawling and died in 1820
• Yappy, a dog from New York City who practices Shih Tzu Fu and was run over by an automobile in 1950.
• Zuni, a monkey at the Blue Dragon Circus who practices Monkey Fu and died in 1902.

Game-Specific Conventions

The games followed a typical 8-way directional pad/stick with 6-button layout common to most fighting games at the time. There were 3 punches and 3 kicks that vary based upon speed and power. The weakest punches and kicks are fast but do minimal damage, medium attacks are a good mix of recovery speed and damage, and strong attacks are the most powerful but recover the slowest. The joystick or d-pad are used to move each character in the direction pressed, jump, crouch, and will block attacks by pressing away from high attacks or down and away from low attacks. Grapples can be executed when close to an opponent by pressing toward or away and either medium or the strong punch button. These attacks cannot be blocked or escaped. By performing certain motions (such as a quarter circle from down to forward) followed by a button press, certain special attacks can be performed. Each character has their own unique special attack that are performed differently from those of other characters. If a character is hit several times in a row they become "dazed" and their opponent can land a free attack. The conventions for the gameplay essentially mimic the most popular game of the era, Street Fighter II.

Eternal Champions introduced one major innovation to fighting games with its "special attack meter." This meter would decrease each time you performed a special move such as a projectile. Different special attacks decreased the meter by different amounts. This meter added a different type of strategy to the gameplay that other games lacked, butit wasn't necessarily well received or always able to achieve it's goal. On paper it kept battles from degrading into projectile battles from opposite ends of the screen or a corner trap with one move being repeated endlessly. These were things many players had griped about in other fighting games. In reality after the novelty wore off, it forced players to either contstantly attack with nothing but normal button press attacks or into a defensive shell while recharging their meter. Characters that had more dynamic normal attacks tended to dominate. Of note, characters each have a taunt move that decreases their opponent's special attack meter as well.

The game also introduced stage-specific killing finishers (reminiscient of Fatalities from the Mortal Kombat series), such as knocking the foe into the witchpyre in Xavier's stage, or calling a drive-by shooting in Larcen's stage. These finishes were known as Overkills. These were performed by defeating your opponent so that they fell upon a certain area of ground. If they landed in the right spot (usually a pixel or two wide), the life bars would disappear and some element of the background would kill them. Some were gorier than others, but none were quite as graphic as those found in the original Mortal Kombat. Because of how small the area of the ground is to activiate an Overkill is on some stages, some Overkills can be more rare than others.

One of the major drawbacks of the game was an almost total lack of multi-hit combo attacks. Unless an attack or special move landed multiple hits, players were unable to link any moves or attacks together. Attack sequences were still possible to keep an opponent pinned down, but at no point could a player land multiple attacks as part of an unescapable combo attack. The only multi-hits were from moves like Shadow's Scissor Kick which registered as multiple hits, but were technically only one move. What this essentially means is while it keeps a certain level of character balance by keeping damage levels normal, it affects how certain playstyles match up. In many cases a combeback becomes VERY difficult because of the inability to do damage beyond one hit at a time. Other than via grapples or several consecutive missed blocks, a player with a lead can be very difficult to catch. This led to a games often revolving around defense and setting up grapple attacks above and beyond others.

Eternal Champions CD kept the controversial special attack meter but made most special attacks use less of the meter than in the previous game. The characters also gained a multitude of special attacks that didn't deplete the special attack meter as well. These two innovations kept the flow of rounds much more consistent. Eternal Champions CD actually had an ebb and flow similar to the heralded and popular Street Fighter II series, but with less emphasis on special attacks.

Combo attacks were also introduced in Eternal Champions CD. Now jumping attacks could be linked to ground attacks and most normal attacks could be linked into other normal attacks. This is comparable to the "chain" combos found in Street Fighter Alpha or the later Mortal Kombat series. This was a seen as a much needed addition...but occasionally led to a bit of button mashing excess in some instances. For instance characters like Midnight, Blast, and Dawson had massive linking sequences that consisted of little more than rapidly mashing the medium and strong attacks and finishing with a special move. Mild "juggle" combos could also be executed by landing an additional hit to an already aerial opponent.

2 new types of finishing moves were added in Eternal Champions CD, a personalized Overkill and a Cinekill. These can be performed on a dazed opponent that has 20% or less of their life (in the final round only). The personalized Overkill is performed with a motion and button presses identically to a Mortal Kombat fatality. Each character (sans the unlockable animal characters) has their own and each is performed differently. The Cinekill can only occur when the dominant player has full special moves meter with their opponent's empty. This type of finish activates automatically if a player dazes someone with the criteria in place. At this point the Eternal Champion appears and says "To your death..." The losing player is then victim to a cinematic execution. Because it's very difficult to daze someone with a full meter and theirs empty, these are rare. Certain characters actually have the ability to combo into this style of finish, such as Trident who actually had an elaborate re-dizzy combo that culminated in a Cinekill.

While Eternal Champions was considered to be an average fighting game by most aficiondos, Eternal Champions CD is considered to be a lost gem that was barely played because of the Sega CD's limited audience and short lifespan. The mid-90s were a time when fighting games were rampant in arcades, but Eternal Champions is one of the original console-only fighting games.