Eternal Champions

Infobox VG
title = Eternal Champions


developer = Sega Interactive
publisher = Sega
released = 1993
designer = Michael Latham
genre = 2D Versus Fighting
modes = Single player, Vs. Mode
ratings = VRC: MA-13, ESRB: T
platforms = Mega Drive/Genesis, Virtual Console
media=24-megabit cartridge
input = 3- or 6-button controller, Sega Activator

"Eternal Champions" is a 2D fighting game developed by Sega, and released in 1993.

Released during a wave of success of the fighting game, bolstered by the recent successes of "Street Fighter II" (1991), "" (1991) and "Mortal Kombat" (1992), Sega developed "Eternal Champions" for their Genesis / Mega Drive. The game included unique features such as stage fatalities ("overkills"), heavier emphasis on story, reflective projectiles, force fields, training rooms filled with elaborate traps, and a novel method of executing moves.

Two years later a sequel "" (sometimes known as "Eternal Champions CD" or "Eternal Champions 2") was released for Sega's ill-fated Genesis 'add-on' the Sega Mega-CD, and a final title "Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter" was advertised for the Sega Saturn but the game was cancelled shortly after beginning production, in order to push Virtua Fighter in the US.Fact|date=July 2008

This game was later added for download to the Wii Virtual Console on December 3, 2007.

Plot

Nine of the greatest fighters throughout history have met untimely and unjust deaths. They now compete against each other for a chance to face the "Eternal Champion" and reclaim their souls. The victor will return to Earth with the chance to change their fate and restore balance to the universe.

Characters

To choose the game's original characters, Sega held a fortnightly 'focus group' made up of all ages, where a list of archetype characters (Pirate, Ninja etc) were voted on, after the number was whittled down to 50 characters, loose sketches were drawn, which were then reviewed by 'kid testers' and finally reduced to 10.

*Shadow Yamoto, ninja assassin from Japan in 1993. Her fighting style was Ninjutsu, a system of unarmed combat similar to jujutsu. This technique is mixed with the art of invisibility. As a member of the Black Orchid Corp, she rose through the ranks, and became a top-notch killer. After successfully carrying out many missions, she questioned her superiors about the consequences of failure. The answer given to her is that she herself would be assassinated. Feeling vulnerable and endangered, she then decided to escape, and reveal the Corp to the public authorities. However, the superiors arranged her death, and had her pushed off the 101st floor of the Corp building, before she could blow the whistle.

*R.A.X. Coswell, a professional kickboxer from the year 2345.(R.A.X. stands for Robotic Artificial Exoskeleton). He was born in a time where the popularity of martial arts started to fade. Martial artists started to combine with machines, and began an era known as "cyber fighting". With a strong desire to stay relevant, he underwent painful surgery to be injected with cybernetic implants, therefore becoming a half human/half machine; a cyborg. He soon began winning many fights, and achieving fame. On one fateful day he was betrayed by his manager, and was "shut down" in a tournament before he could land the final blow. His death was due to a virus implanted in his cybernetics which caused his systems to shut down.

*Jonathan Blade, a former police officer from the year 2030 who was dismissed, due to a very short temper. He is a master in Kenpo karate. He then became a bounty hunter back in his home country Syria, and was in deep pursuit of a mad scientist, who threatened to destroy the human race with a lethal virus. Although he came close to killing the scientist on several occasions, he was only ordered to capture, and bring the scientist to justice. Finally trapping the scientist in an alley, he attempted to retrieve the virus. They were suddenly hit with a stream of lasers, causing the scientist to drop the vial, containing the virus. Blade's last memory involved shards of broken glass. It is clear that he was set up and killed by his own government.

*Jetta Maxx, a young Russian woman from the year 1899, who abandoned her originally aristocratic lifestyle to become a circus acrobat and travel the world. She was also a master of Savate/Pencak Silat. Targeted by a Chinese Boxer revolutionary, she died after her sabotaged tightrope and safety net snapped, causing her to fall to her death. The manual mentions her as being a cousin of Czar Nicholas II.

*Slash, a caveman from the Prehistoric Great Rift Valley in the year 50,000 BC. He did not train in any specific martial art, and instead fought in any way which could cause as much pain as possible. Being a hunter of superior intelligence, he would often search for ideas and methods to provide ways of better living for his tribe. However as time went on, he drew much resentment and animousity from his tribe's elders, for his way of thinking. It was at a meeting that he was cornered, and stoned to death for speaking out against the elders in public.

*Trident, a gladiator named after the trident that replaced his hand, he was a hero to his race from Atlantis in the year 110 BC. As a master of Capoeira, he represented his race of people in a battle against the Romans. Should he have won, then his people would receive share of land alongside the Romans. However, due to a Roman gladiator's treachery, he was crushed underneath a falling stone pillar. As a result his people were forever banished to the waters.

*Xavier Pendragon, a former blacksmith from Salem in the year 1692, at the height of the Salem Witch Trials. He is a master of Hapkido and Cane Fighting. After failing as a blacksmith, he tried his hand at alchemy. He eventually discovered a clean, unlimited source of energy, and decided to show the source to the townspeople. Unfortunately, he was misunderstood by his townsmen, and was burned at the stake after being labeled a warlock.

*Mitchell Midleton Knight (also known as Midknight), a London-born biochemical scientist and master of Jeet Kune Do who worked for the CIA. He was assigned to make a biological weapon which was intended to be poured into the water supply of Vietnam during the war. However in a freak accident, he himself was exposed to the virus and was turned into a vampire-like creature in 1967. Despite the fact that he hungered for blood; he refused to harm and kill others. He spent many regretful years trying to invent a cure; but to no avail, and was killed in the year 2100 by a vampire hunter, who drove a magnesium stake into his heart.

*Larcen Tyler, was an ex-cat burglar from 1920s Chicago, who worked for a Chicago mob. As a master of Praying Mantis Kung Fu, he carried out many jobs for his boss, Mr Taglalini, though he refused to kill. One day, he received a mission, to plant false evidence in the hospital room of a rival crime boss. However, upon arriving Larcen found not a rival crime lord, but the Chief of Police. Realizing the package was a bomb, he attempted to throw it out the window but was not fast enough. The blast killed Larcen, the Police Chief, and most of the people in the hospital.

*Eternal Champion, a protector of the balance of good, practices Dragon, Tiger, Hawk and Shark styles. He is the final boss of the game, and a unplayable character by normal means.

Fighting game conventions

. 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 away, towards, jump and crouch. Attacks can be blocked by pressing away (for high attacks) or down and away (for low attacks). Grapples are executed by standing close to an opponent and pressing toward or away and either medium or the strong punch button. These attacks cannot be blocked or escaped. Each character has their own unique special attacks that are performed differently from those of other characters. If a character is hit several times in a row they become "dizzy" 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".

Differences from Street Fighter

In "Eternal Champions", all special move commands are performed by either A) pressing multiple buttons together, or B) holding back or down to charge, then pressing towards or up together with a button. There are no rolling motions in this game, and a given special move may only be performed with a specific button.

Also, charge times are cumulative: You can move backward for 4 seconds, blocking a flurry of attacks, then move towards the enemy for two seconds before pushing forwards + button to perform a move that would require a 2 second charge time. Characters each have a taunt move that decreases their opponent's special attack meter as well.

As seen in 'Art of Fighting' released the previous year, 'Eternal Champions' had a "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 feature gave Eternal Champions an added element of strategy that made it unique among similar titles of its genre at the time, though it wasn't without its critics: while its intention was to keep the action fast-paced by preventing fighters from trading endless projectiles from opposite ends of the screen and barring a players from cheap wins due to repeated hits on opponents trapped at the edge of the screen, players found they could exploit the game's controls to achieve wins by retreating into a defensive shell to constantly recharge their meter or by circumventing special moves altogether and blitzing their opponent with a flurry of simple button presses. Characters that had more dynamic normal attacks tended to dominate.

A problem with the special attack meter on the Sega Mega Drive original game is that when in tournament mode, the computer opponent operates independently of its special attack power availability. In other words, the computer can repeatedly do special moves even after its meter has reached zero.

Finishing moves

Overkills

The game introduces stage-specific finishing moves called Overkills. These are performed by defeating your opponent such that they fall upon a certain area of ground. If they land in the right spot (usually a pixel or two wide)Fact|date=November 2007, the life bars disappear and some element of the background kills them. The Overkills include:

* Being pulled underwater and mauled to death in Trident's level
* Knocked into the flaming stake in Xavier's level
* Electrocuted and vaporized by the neon sign in Shadow's level
* Eaten whole, then having an item of clothing or weapon spat out by a "Tyrannosaurus rex" in Slash's level
* Killed in a drive-by shooting in Larson's level
* Getting frozen, disintegrated, and swept up by robots in R.A.X's level
* Having the floor collapse on Jetta's level
* Having a napalm bomb dropped on the loser's body in Midknight's level
* Getting knocked into a large exhaust fan in Blade's level

Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side

"Eternal Champions: Challenge From the Dark Side" 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 did not 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 Challenge From The Dark Side. 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 Midknight, 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.

3 new types of finishing moves were added in Challenge From The Dark Side, a second Overkill in each stage called a "Sudden Death", that could actually be activated when the victim still had a little life left, a "Vendetta", 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 Vendetta 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 is triggered when the dominant player has earned (through successful combo attacks) temporarily unlimited inner strength/energy, the victim's health is 20% or lower, and the victim is stunned. This type of finish activates automatically. At this point the Dark Champion appears and says "To your death..." The losing player is then victim to a cinematic execution which is both gory and preys upon the character's greatest fears (for example, Ramses III is liquefied because of his aquaphobia). Because it is 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. Only the base characters can receive Cinekills, though any character can trigger one. Sudden Deaths and Vendettas were often exceptionally gory, and the original Overkills were also made gorier to match. Another change to the Overkills (and Sudden Deaths) was that the winning fighter would be carried off the stage in a flash of light the moment the fateful blow was made. This was likely in response to the first game's stubborn tendency to cancel an overkill if the victor accidentally also entered the trigger zone of the stage.

While "Eternal Champions" was considered to be an average fighting game by most aficionados, "Eternal Champions: Challenge From The Dark Side" is considered to be a lost gem that was barely played because of the Sega Mega-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.

Spin-offs

There were two video games that were spin-offs of the main series and are possibly alternate universes that are based on whether the protagonists in the various games came back from death after fighting in the Eternal Champions tournament.

The first game was called "Chicago Syndicate" and was released for the Sega Game Gear in 1995. The plot was was based on the possibility that Larcen Tyler didn't die in 1920. He stars the game going after the mafia and hiding to try to get payback for the attempt on his life.

The second game was called "X-Perts" and was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1996. Similarly to the former, its plot was based on the possibility that Shadow Yamoto didn't die in 1993. According to background files on Shadow in "X-Perts", she formed an anti-corruption group meant to take down The Black Orchid Group as a way to avenge their attempt on Shadow's life. Shadow retains her appearance from "Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side".

Alternative media

A Slurpee flavor entitled "Sega Eternal Champions Cherry" was once available in 7-11 stores throughout the United States. It came in cups with pictures of the characters on them, and the bottom of the cup contained a temporary tattoo.

Two gamebooks based on the game, "The Cyber Warriors" and "Citadel of Chaos" were released by Puffin Books. In them, the reader controls the newest Champion and travels through time helping the game characters battle a megalomaniacal artificial intelligence called the Overlord, who is bent on replacing them with duplicates so that they can't change the course of history for the better. It was also given a Sticker Album in 1993 by Panini.

"Eternal Champions" was adapted by the UK Sega Magazine "Sonic the Comic", first in a stand-alone magazine "Eternal Champions Special" which introduced the main characters and served as an adaptation to the game. The characters then appeared in two stories in the main Sonic The Comic series, first in 'Eternal Champions' (issues 19-24) and then 'Larcen's Revenge' (issues 37-40) which dealt with Larcen Tyler returning to 1920s Chicago and working with Shadow Yamoto to take down the crime boss who killed him.

"Eternal Champions" was popular enough in the US at one point that a Cartoon Series was planned, the series was never made however.

Trivia

* The rap act Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have sampled music from this game for the instrumentals of several of their songs. The songs "Eternal" and "Crossroad" (not to be confused with their song, "Tha Crossroads") are the most notable cases of using "Eternal Champions" for their beats; However, Bone does not mention Sega in the album credits for using their copyrighted music. The cartoon show "Courage the Cowardly Dog" also employed some of the same audio loops (probably included with the same software) as bases for creepy background music.
* Artist Julie Bell designed the classic artwork for the Genesis version's box.
* "Eternal Champions" (cartridge) was the second "packaged game" to be included with the Sega Activator, an elaborate infrared ring controller that players stood in and punched and kicked in order to make the characters perform different combat movements. It was one of only a few games that actually recognized the activator and took advantage of most of the features of the unit.
* EGM sponsored "Eternal Champions" tournaments in different cities throughout the United States as part of a roaming video game show. The game, however, was not yet completed so the participants were only given the choice of 4 characters to play as: Shadow, R.A.X, Larcen and Slash. There were two rounds to the tournaments, the winners of the 1st round (or Preliminary) tournaments received an Eternal Champions baseball cap, the winners that had received the baseball cap then came back the next day for the 2nd round (or finals). The winner of the finals would receive a copy of the game (when it was finished), a leather lettermans jacket with an embroidered Eternal Champions logo on it, and a resin plaque with the Bushido symbol (used in the game's logo) on it.

See also

* List of fighting games

References

* [http://www.sega-16.com/Forgotten%20Franchises-%20Eternal%20Champions.php Sega-16.com's Eternal Champions Retrospective]
* "Eternal Champions" and "Eternal Champions: Challenge From The Dark Side" PAL and NSTC manuals.
* "Eternal Champions Special" published by Fleetway Editions, 1993.

External links

*
* http://www.gamespot.com/genesis/action/eternalchampions/index.html