Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side

"An awesome, yet sadly doomed fighter..."

Do you remember the Sega CD? For those who don't, it was Sega's CD add-on for the Genesis, back when CD-ROM games were first appearing on the market. Sadly, nearly half of the games on it were crap, plain and simple. The bad games on it far overwhelmed the good, and as a result, the system suffered. The few good games were soon forgotten, sadly, and this was one of those games.

Graphics: The animation is a little off, but the actual designs are very well done. The backgrounds were colorful and full of movement, while the characters each had a VERY distinct look (no seven thousand Ryu look-alikes here). Also, the deaths were VERY detailed, especially since they were intended to be one of the big draws of the game. (Sadly, they couldn't overcome the bad system it was released on.) 9/10

Music: The game gets rid of the junk from the first game and gives us some good new tunes. However, there are also some new BAD tunes, and due to the insanely high difficulty (explained later), you'll be hearing the same thing A LOT. 8/10

Sound: The sound hasn't improved since the first game, really. The vocal taunts the characters dish out are much more clear, but the attacks are still just clips and taps, nothing more. And since there are so many attacks, you'll be hearing the same sound about eighty times in one fight. 7/10

Gameplay: The game is easy to control, unless you only use a three-button controller, in which case you're screwed. Combos are much longer here than they were in the Street Fighters of the time, and a lot more violent, as well. Also, each character has about ten or more specials. These attacks require ''Inner Strength'', which is measured with a Yin-Yang in the corner, which means that someone can't just pound away with one attack. Also, each character's specials are different. You won't find a bunch of characters with the exact same fireball move. Then there are the status-affecting attacks, which can inflict a variety of conditions onto your opponent, an option that is not found in any of Capcom's games. And best of all, the game has a TON of secret characters, which accompanies the twenty or so multiplayer options in creating a LOT of replay value. However, this is all offset by the near-impossible difficulty; this game is just plain hard! It'll take you a good while to beat the game with even ONE character, much less everyone of them. 9/10

Story: Each character was plucked from harm's way moments before their death by the Eternal Champion, a warrior created from the spirits and experience of every great warrior to have ever existed. The world is destroyed in the very distant future, and the only thing that can save it is fiddling with the timeline. You see, each character was destined to somehow affect history in some great way, but something went wrong, and time's been shot to heck. Thus, the Eternal Champion creates a contest, and the winner will be brought back to life moments before their death with the knowledge on how to prevent their demise. Each character has an interesting background, which really adds to the immersion. Once again, we don't see these kinds of plots in fighting games anymore. However, the four new characters' backgrounds are rather sparse, and Ramses III's background confuses me to no end. 9/10

Replay Value: High. This is just a fun game to play, with many secrets to find as well.

Sadly, this game was doomed. If not for that, it might have really changed how fighting games are made, and we wouldn't have a bunch of terrible Capcom vs. games out there.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/03