Developer : Sega
Release date : January 16, 1994
Synopsis :
Eternal Champions is a 1993 fighting game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. It was one of the few fighting games of its time developed from the ground up as a home console title, rather than being released in arcades first and later ported to home systems.
Sega released Eternal Champions in hopes of capitalizing on the fighting game mania that the game industry was in the midst of following the massive success of Street Fighter II (1991) and Mortal Kombat (1992). The game tried to set itself apart with unique features such as a heavier emphasis on its story, characters pulled from different time periods, reflectable projectiles, force fields, fighters that carried weapons, a training mode where players had to defend themselves against robotic traps, a novel method of executing moves, and elaborate stage-specific finishing moves called “Overkills”.
Two years later, an enhanced version, Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side, was released for the Sega CD. The game also spawned two spin-off games, Chicago Syndicate and X-Perts. Eternal Champions was added to the Wii’s Virtual Console download service on December 3, 2007 and included with the Sega Genesis Mini microconsole released in 2019.
An omniscient being known as the Eternal Champion predicts that mankind will soon fade from existence due to the untimely and unjust deaths of key individuals throughout history who were destined for greatness. Seeking to restore balance to the world, the Eternal Champion gathers these souls from time moments before their deaths. The Eternal Champion only has enough power to restore life to one of these individuals, so he organizes and holds a fighting tournament between them, where the victor will be able to regain their life and change their fate while bringing balance to the universe, whilst the losers will be forced to die just as history recorded.
Unlike most fighting games, or video games in general, there are no characters in this game who are “bad” or “evil”. Each character has been chosen because he or she is either inherently good or has the potential to do great good and change the course of history for the better. Despite the ability to kill opponents in this game, it is not relevant to the story. Much like games such as Mortal Kombat (which pioneered finishing moves in fighting games), the game’s “Overkills” have no impact on the story and are simply a gameplay element for the enjoyment of the player. It is actually revealed in a few character endings that some of the fighters become allies or friends during the course of the tournament.
Source : Wikipedia
