The year 1993 was a time when fighting games with massive amounts of gore or special moves were no strangers to the gaming market. Among many of the popular fighters on the market at the time were Midway's Mortal Kombat and Capcom's Street Fighter. Sega Interactive Studios, a group within Sega of America, decided to join in on this fray. The game they created was known as Eternal Champions and was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in August of that year for the US and later in the year for the Japan and the PAL regions. |  |
Undoubtedly, the game sold well. It sold nearly 2 million units. The game even had a Japanese release, something not many North American made Genesis/Mega Drive games had the opportunity for at the time.
The game was unique. It featured nine characters. Each with their own plot involving how they died and what time they came from, in addition to the primary plot. In fact, the game focused more on plot than most other fighters of the time. The game has been noted for being exceedingly difficult.
Most impatient people have a habit of rage quitting and regarding the game as shit. These people are the ones who think fighting games should be mastered right off the bat and don't realize that the game isn't like that. The game forces the player to learn special moves and learn how the character works with skill and technique. This is the only real way to win against the CPU by simply mashing buttons.
The fighting involves conserving your special moves for the right moment. This is because the special moves use a system known "inner strength". Each time a special move is executed, the Bushido symbol (Yin Yang symbol) will lose a piece of it. When it becomes a glowing circle you can't use anymore special moves until it refills.
Taunt moves will deplete this gauge as well. However, the CPU is able to cheat and ignore inner strength all together and they abuse taunts on you so watch it.
The Game's storyline centers around a being made of pure energy called the Eternal Champion. Maybe I should let you hear the story from his point of view though:
"Welcome to my chamber. I am the Eternal Champion, keeper of this vast fighting complex. It exists in a place and time corrupted by centuries of misuse and destruction.
My purpose in this grand scheme is to maintain the balance between good and evil, light and darkness, hope and despair.
Now this balance has been lost and the very fabric that holds the world together will be torn apart.
Your future, my present, has been destroyed by a cruel and unjust twist of fate.
Nine individuals from various periods in time were killed before their lives could affect this dark existence.
I have observed each of their short lives and have been powerless to stop the chaos.
I have spent the centuries harnessing my own power for this very moment. I am the pure and untouched energy of all the great martial arts masters that have lived before me. Their skill, wisdom, knowledge, and inner-strength are at my command.
Even with the force of their collective powers, I can only reward one of the nine individuals with the gift of life. Any of them can have an equally profound effect on the future. For this reason, the contest must take place.At the end of this contest, only one will remain. The victor will be returned to life a few seconds before his death, allowing him to avoid the past with the knowledge to change the future.
Only one may live so that the balance may be achieved.
Let the contest begin..."
That was the word from the game's main man, the Eternal Champion. It was taken directly from the game word for word.
