"A Revolutionary/Classic 2D Fighter, very difficult, but fun; also overlooked and hated by many, also loved and vastly played by the few."

Introduction

Eternal Champions is a classic 2D fighting game that was released by Sega in August of 1993. The first version was Eternal Champions, released on Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, along with its follow-up a few years later on the Sega CD-Eternal Champions CD: Challenge from the Dark Side.

Eternal Champions (Introduction continuation...)
-The game Eternal Champions is a unique 2D fighter on the Sega Genesis. It featured several unique, odd, and different gameplay components, making it much more typical than the average fighting game and having its own distinct fighting engine. The game allows you to do several options, such as: numerous modes of practice, single/multiplayer fights, tournament battles, or view character biographies and information about them. Eternal Champions uses a tough fighting engine, having the CPU be insanely hard at times in gameplay. You can practice your moves, special moves, and combos to see if you have skills good enough to defeat the whole tournament. Unlike Mortal Kombat, this game had more blood and gore during the fatal finishing moves as one of the game's key factors, leading to the rating of MA-13. At the game's release, many gamers were unsatisfied with the game and named it as a "Street Fighter rip-off" which was far too difficult for anyone to complete.


This is my review of the game.



-Story (10/10)
The story of Eternal Champions is like this: The Eternal Champions-an immortal projector of the balance of alignment-has gathered a group of nine fighters. All of them have their own data, fighting styles, time of birth, and have just met their untimely deaths one-by-one. Now, they all compete against the Eternal Champion to reclaim their lost souls, avenge their own death and restore the balance of Earth and the universe.

-Good storyline that fits well with the game itself.

-Gameplay (10/10)
Eternal Champions plays distinctive from all other fighters. There are three punch buttons and three kick buttons. Punch buttons (A-Weak Punch/B-Medium Punch/C-Strong Punch) Kick Buttons (A-Weak Kick/B-Medium Kick/C-Strong Kick). You hold the D-Pad in the opposite direction you'd like to move in order to fully block any oncoming attacks. There is a feature called "Inner Strength", meaning once the yin-yang symbol next to your health bar has been depleted, you are unable to use any special moves until it completely replenishes back to normal. Before every match, it starts on full. This is a feature that has surprising moments in Eternal Champions combat gameplay. Combos can also be executed, but are very cheap when pulled off by the CPU. Once you learn them, you'll be at the hands and close to maybe mastering the game at one skill level at a time. There are nine characters, consisting of a female ninja assassin of 1993 A.D. named Shadow Yamoto (personally, my favorite and the only one I usually dominate with), Larcen Tyler, a 1920's Chicago gangster, and several other cool characters. There are also Overkills in this game, which are similar to Mortal Kombat's stage fatalities, but more fun to watch (due to mixed animations) and bloodier and gorier. One thing that sucks, is if you lose a match in story mode, you're bumped down two matches. Now that's a real pain right there! An Overkill can be executed on any characters stage (excluding the Eternal Champions-last boss) by using a move of your characters of 13% or more damage when their health bar is low. You must also be having your opponent standing at a certain place for the Overkill to work. The Overkills are very impressive, like on Shadow's stage, the opponent is fried up after being thrown into flashing neon lights. Also, don't forget to look out for extras in the Overkills!

-Great gameplay, enough said!

-Graphics (10/10)
Compared to the Super Nintendo ports of the Mortal Kombat games, the graphics are awesome. Cool animations, nice character visuals.

-Impressive graphics.

-Sound (10/10)
The music in this game varies from the different stages. It can go from either spooky music to technological and so on throughout the game. This game has the best music if you ask me, classic. The sounds are good too, especially from the characters taunts, like, "Coward!" "Weakling!" All-around funny.

-Music pretty much fits in with the game in all aspects. Sound effects are great too.

-Replayability (10/10)
Eternal Champions adds load of options and gameplay to choose from. The two-player mode is fun, also being able to set the number of matches in that mode, the game just gets better each time you play. The difficulty is hard and takes time to master, so that gives it high replay value.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/07