Eternal Champions is a versus fighting game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1993. It was one of the few fighting games of its time developed for the home console rather than being released for arcades first.
This fantasy hybrid of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat was obviously made to cash in on the fighting game craze of the early 1990s. Even though it was decent, gamers were too enthralled by fighting games that were popular in arcades.
The Story
9 great warriors battle it out for the right to fight the Eternal Champion and win the ultimate prize - "The life that fate stole". Battle through friends and foes alike in the deadly tournament! Construct your own Battle Room. Fight its fatal obstacles plus another foe. Each fighter has their own Martial Arts fighting style! Can you discover the secret Overkills? Playback bone-breaking highlights or entire matches with some Instant Play!
The Graphics and Sound
The graphics are good for a 16-bit system. The attacks go smoothly. Special attacks are also nice to see. They look like comic book graphics. The level backgrounds are colorful and animated. All of the levels have some unique features to them as well. The training room is the only one with a slowdown due to too much motion.
The sound effects are done right like other fighting games. There are many, but only a few are good and some are just annoying at times. With taunting, you can hear some characters' voices as well. The music is a bit better though. Every level has its own theme. The songs get rather annoying when the training room is used often.
The Gameplay
This versus fighting game is quite balanced. You got the same attack patterns as most fighting games out there with strong punches and kicks as well as weak ones and the ability to taunt your opponent. Several moves could also be performed in many ways to surprise your opponent or to sent them to death traps. The death traps are the oddest moment in this game. Some of them are either there for you to use in plain sight or others just randomly occur.
In the gameplay aspect, the controls work well and are easy to perform. Other than the special moves and the death traps there is really nothing else to the gameplay other than to enter combat in Story Mode, Tournament, Practice, or just read the story of the characters. The computer enemy is varied in difficulty but the final boss; however, is a nightmare but satisfying once you beat it.
Replay value is decent. With 10 characters all with their own back story and endings, this makes for a long and interesting playthrough. But it adds some gimmick with the death traps added to the mix. It really makes for such an odd package especially if you are trying to get some of the death traps to work. Add in addition to the other modes like Tournament and Practice, this game would keep you and your friends entertained for awhile
My Verdict
Eternal Champions is a good fighting game and a good diversion from the Street Fighter games. It is a nice addition to any retro fighting game fan's collection.
Play it on the unmissable Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console or play it with some easy emulator.
Let's keep on gaming in the free world!
