Eternal Champions: Challenge From The Dark Side
The animations for the characters are top-notch. Many of the moves intricately flow together, and the animation for some of the longer combination moves are superb. The animation for some of the punches could use a little work in between, but it still looks good. Every character has their own different animations, and theyre quite varied. From the intricacies of Hapkido Cane Fighting, to good, old-fashioned brawling, they all manage to be interesting.
The environments are something I should point out, since theyre nothing like youve seen from other stock fighting games. Every original character has their own environment, and within each environment, there are hazards of sort. Every level has around 2 to 3 hot-spots. When you knock an opposing character whos short on life into one of these hot-spots, your character is teleported to safety and the environment finishes off the enemy (example; You land the killing blow on an enemy, and he flies backward into a burning stake. Youre teleported out, he gets tied to the stake, and burned to a crisp). Also worth mentioning is that theres separate animations for each of these environment fatalities, all distinct and great looking for the time.
While great looking, they can also be a bit gory. This game does not shy away from the gore, and it shows. It even makes fun of it to continue with the gore even when you think it couldnt be any more brutal. It only really comes out when the environment kills a character off, but it can be seen in the heat of battle as well (example; the hidden character Thanatos can shoot spikes out of his chest, impaling you on him for several seconds).
For 2-player purposes, Eternal Champions really shines. There are multitudes of options available, from the standard duel, to the VS. and Team tournaments. The types of games in the tournaments are really unique, like Russian Roulette (after a win, the other players character portraits switch around randomly, while you eagerly press a button, killing one of them off), and Possession (After a win, you capture the character you were just fighting), to name a couple. Theres nothing more satisfying then killing off your friends best character, all the while having him curse you out.
Additions and improvements to the Genesis version are many, including much better music, almost triple the characters, and better graphics, animations, and environments. The environments are much more active now, and many little touches like a hazy Egyptian background and a pirate ship caught in a storm are busy and interesting to fight in. One thing to note is that you can tell the developers seem to have spent much more time on the 6 new stages, putting the originals on the backburner. The originals still look great and a couple were tweaked a bit (Xaviers stage is now set at dusk, and they completely changed Midknights to better suit his background. They made one of the hidden stages a close recreation of Midknights original, though), but theyre not as active as the new ones. Also, there are extensive in-game biographies for all characters, and 2 cinematic deaths per person. Theres also a great introduction movie that tells the story of each fighter, as well.
Overall, this is a great addition to any Sega CD library. Some people may find the control a little stiff, but once you learn the controls and find your perfect character, youll be able to fight with the best of them. This is one of the best one-on-one fighters on the Sega CD, and you owe it to yourself not to pass it up.
Average Rating: | 8.93 [303 votes] |
Genre: | Action |
Designer: | Hideki AIkeda |
Developer: | Deep Water |
Publisher: | SEGA |
Year: | 1995 |
Software Copyright: | SEGA |
Theme: | Oriental |
Multiplayer: | Simultaneous hotseat |
Related Links: | Eternal Champions gamebook series |
More Info: | Mobygames | The Web |
System Requirements: | SEGA CD |
If you like this game, try: | Fighters Kyodotai, Act of Fighter, X-Men: Children of the Atom |
Thanks to... | Franco McNeil & Phyberoptik |
Technical Notes: |
Screenshots © The Good Old Days