History VideoGame / EternalChampions

The 16-bit game was decent for the time but hasn't aged very well, whereas the Sega CD version improves on it a lot: ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side''. It doubles the roster and explains their presence by introducing the Dark Champion, an EvilCounterpart to the Eternal one: he hid the other nine in order to keep the tournament going and prevent the preservation of the universe. ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' has more responsive controls and a better difficulty curve, in addition to [[BloodierAndGorier gorier stage kills]] and CGI "Cinekills". There's a lot of innovative mechanics in it, including attacks that mess with the timer and such. Plus, anti-video game activist Joe Lieberman is a playable SecretCharacter called "Senator."

The characters have an interesting lore since they all [[UnfinishedBusiness died for tragic reasons]]. Nine people across history, ranging from a caveman to a future cop, cause a disturbance in the [[OrderVersusChaos balance of the universe]]. The Eternal Champion, a supernatural being who oversees this balance, temporarily rescues all nine from their imminent deaths. Any of the nine [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong can restore balance through the ripple effects of what their full lives would accomplish]], but he only has the power to revive one of them. He pits them against each other in a battle to the death: the winner will be restored to life with the foreknowledge and power to prevent their fate. The others will meet their maker in BloodyHilarious ways, such as being eaten by a T-Rex or turned to Swiss cheese by Prohibition gangsters.

The [[FinishingMove Fatalities]] in ''EC'' were named Overkills. You triggering them by delivering the knockout blow on [[RingOut certain spots]] in the level.

The characters have an interesting lore since they all [[UnfinishedBusiness died for tragic reasons]]. Nine people across history, ranging from a caveman to a future cop, cause a disturbance in the [[OrderVersusChaos balance of the universe]]. The Eternal Champion, a supernatural being who oversees this balance, temporarily rescues all nine from their imminent deaths. Any of the nine [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong can restore balance through the ripple effects of what their full lives would accomplish]], but he only has the power to revive one of them. He pits them against each other in a battle to the death: the winner will be restored to life with the foreknowledge and power to prevent their fate. The others will meet their maker in BloodyHilarious ways, such as getting eaten by a T-Rex or turned to swiss cheese by Prohibition gangsters.

The [[FinishingMove Fatalities]] in ''EC'' were named Overkills. You triggering them by delivering the knockout blow on certain spots in the level.

The [[FinishingMove Fatalities]] in ''EC'' were named Overkills. You activiate them by delivering the final blow on certain spots in the level.

The characters have an interesting lore since they all [[UnfinishedBusiness died for tragic reasons]]. Nine people across history, ranging from a caveman to a future cop, cause a disturbance in the [[OrderVersusChaos balance of the universe]]. The Eternal Champion, a supernatural entity who oversees this balance, temporarily rescues all nine from their imminent deaths. Any of the nine [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong can restore balance through the ripple effects of what their full lives would accomplish]], but -- which he only has the power to revive one of them. He pits them against each other in a battle to the death: the winner will be restored to life with the foreknowledge and power to prevent their fate. The others will meet their maker in BloodyHilarious ways, such as getting eaten by a T-Rex or turned to swiss cheese by Prohibition gangsters.

That said, ''EC'' didn't invent anything or push the genre in a new direction. It could never escape the shadow of its predecessors, or even UsefulNotes/NeoGeo fighters like ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown''. It definitely pushed the envelope when it came to violence, though, prompting Creator/JamesRolfe to jest, "''Mortal Kombat''[='s=] for pussies! This is a ''real'' fucking game!" ([[UsefulNotes/OtherSegaSystems Sega CD]] version, it makes the original ''Mortal Kombat'' look like a kid's game.)

The characters have an interesting lore since they all [[UnfinishedBusiness died for tragic reasons]]. Nine people across history, ranging from a caveman to a future cop, causing a disturbance in the [[OrderVersusChaos balance of the universe]]. The Eternal Champion, a supernatural entity who oversees this balance, temporarily rescues all nine from their imminent deaths. Any of the nine [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong can restore balance through the ripple effects of what their full lives would accomplish]], but -- which he only has the power to revive one of them. He pits them against each other in a battle to the death: the winner will be restored to life with the foreknowledge and power to prevent their fate. The others will meet their maker in BloodyHilarious ways, such as getting eaten by a T-Rex or turned to swiss cheese by Prohibition gangsters.

The 16-bit game was decent for the time but hasn't aged very well, whereas the Sega CD version improves on it a lot: ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' It doubles the roster and explains their presence by introducing the Dark Champion, an EvilCounterpart to the Eternal one: he hid the other nine in order to keep the tournament going and prevent the preservation of the universe. ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' has more responsive controls and a better difficulty curve, in addition to [[BloodierAndGorier gorier stage kills]] and CGI "Cinekills". There's a lot of innovative mechanics in it, including attacks that mess with the timer and such. Plus, anti-video game activist Joe Lieberman is a playable SecretCharacter called "Senator."

The 16-bit game was decent for the time but hasn't aged very well, whereas the Sega CD version improves on it a lot: ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' It doubles the roster and explains their presence by introducing the Dark Champion, an EvilCounterpart to the Eternal one: he hid the other nine in order to keep the tournament going and prevent the preservation of the universe. ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' has more responsive controls and a better difficulty curve, in addition to [[BloodierAndGorier gorier stage kills]] and CGI "Cinekills". There's a lot of innovative mechanics in it, including attacks that mess with the timer and such. Plus, anti-video gane activist Joe Lieberman is a playable SecretCharacter called "Senator."

The 16-bit game was decent for the time but hasn't aged very well, whereas the Sega CD version improves on it a lot: ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' It doubles the roster and explains their presence by introducing the Dark Champion, an EvilCounterpart to the Eternal one: he hid the other nine in order to keep the tournament going and prevent the preservation of the universe. ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' has more responsive controls and a better difficulty curve, in addition gorier stage kills and CGI "Cinekills". There's a lot of innovative mechanics in it, including attacks that mess with the timer and such. Plus, anti-video gane activist Joe Lieberman is a playable SecretCharacter called "Senator."

The characters have an interesting lore since they all [[UnfinishedBusiness died for tragic reasons]]. Nine people across history, ranging from a caveman to a future cop, causing a disturbance in the [[OrderVersusChaos balance of the universe]]. The Eternal Champion, a supernatural entity who oversees this balance, temporarily rescues all nine from their imminent deaths. Any of the nine [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong can restore balance through the ripple effects of what their full lives would accomplish, but -- which he only has the power to revive one of them. He pits them against each other in a battle to the death: the winner will be restored to life with the foreknowledge and power to prevent their fate. The others will meet their maker in BloodyHilarious ways, such as getting eaten by a T-Rex or turned to swiss cheese by Prohibition gangsters.

The 16-bit game was decent for the time but hasn't aged very well, whereas the Sega CD version improves on it a lot: ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' It doubles the roster and explains their presence by introducing the Dark Champion, an EvilCounterpart to the Eternal one: he hid the other eight in order to keep the tournament going and prevent the preservation of the universe. ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' has more responsive controls and a better difficulty curve, in addition gorier stage kills and CGI "Cinekills". There's a lot of innovative mechanics in it, including attacks that mess with the timer and such. Plus, anti-video gane activist Joe Lieberman is a playable SecretCharacter called "Senator."

That said, ''EC'' didn't invent anything or push the genre in a new direction. It could never escape the shadow of its predecessors, or even UsefulNotes/NeoGeo fighters like ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown''. It definitely pushed the envelope when it came to violence, though, prompting Creator/JamesRolfe to jest, "''Mortal Kombat''[='s=] for pussies! This is a ''real''fucking game!" ([[UsefulNotes/OtherSegaSystems Sega CD]] version, it makes the original ''Mortal Kombat'' look like a kid's game.)

That said, ''EC'' didn't invent anything or push the genre in a new direction. It could never escape the shadow of its predecessors, or even UsefulNotes/NeoGeo fighters like ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown''. It definitely pushed the envelope when it came to violence, though, which prompted Creator/JamesRolfe to jest, "''Mortal Kombat''[='s=] for pussies! This is a ''real''fucking game!" ([[UsefulNotes/OtherSegaSystems Sega CD]] version, it makes the original ''Mortal Kombat'' look like a kid's game.)

The characters have an interesting lore since they all [[UnfinishedBusiness died for tragic reasons]]. Nine people across history, ranging from a caveman to a future cop, causing a disturbance in the [[OrderVersusChaos balance of the universe]]. The Eternal Champion, a supernatural entity who oversees this balance, temporarily rescues all nine from their imminent deaths. Any of the nine [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong can restore balance through the ripple effects of what their full lives would accomplish, but -- which he only has the power to revive one of them. He pits them against each other in a battle to the death: the winner will be restored to life with the foreknowledge and power to prevent their fate. The others will meet their maker in BloodyHilarious ways, such as getting eaten by a T-Rex or turned to swiss cheess by Prohibition gangsters.

That said, ''EC'' didn't invent anything or push the genre in a new direction. It could never escape the shadow of its predecessors, or even UsefulNotes/NeoGeo fighters like ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown''. It definitely pushed the envelope when it came to violence, though, which prompted Creator/JamesRolfe to jest, "''MortalKombat1 Mortal Kombat''[='s=] for pussies! This is a ''real''fucking game!" ([[UsefulNotes/OtherSegaSystens Sega CD]] version, it makes the original ''Mortal Kombat'' look like a kid's game.)

---

That said, ''EC'' didn't invent anything or push the genre in a new direction. It could never escape the shadow of its predecessors, or even UsefulNotes/NeoGeo fighters like ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown''. (It definitely pushed the envelope when it came to violence, though; check out the m [[UsefulNotes/OtherSegaSystens Sega CD]] version, it makes the original ''Mortal Kombat'' look like a kid's game.)

->''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 Mortal Kombat's]] for pussies! [[RatedMForManly This is a real fucking game!]]''
-->-- '''Creator/JamesRolfe'''

The characters have an interesting lore since they all [[UnfinishedBusiness died for tragic reasons]]. Nine people across histiry, ranging from a caveman to a future cop, causing a disturbance in the [[OrderVersusChaos balance of the universe]]. The Eternal Champion, a supernatural entity who oversees this balance, temporarily rescues all nine from their imminent deaths. Any of the nine [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong can restore balance through the ripple effects of what their full lives would accomplish, but -- which he only has the power to revive one of them. He pits them against each other in a battle to the death: the winner will be restored to life with the foreknowledge and power to prevent their fate. The others will meet their maker in various gruesome ways.

[[FollowTheLeader In the wake of the success of fighting games]] such as ''StreetFighter II'', ''VideoGame/FatalFury'', and ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'', Sega released '''''Eternal Champions''''', a 2D FightingGame, for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis late during the system's life cycle.

[[ForWantOfANail Nine different people]] in time periods ranging from the time of cavemen to the far future suffer unjust deaths; these deaths each cause disorder in the [[OrderVersusChaos balance of the universe]]. The Eternal Champion, a supernatural entity that oversees this balance, uses his power to temporarily remove all nine from the timeline. The Champion knows [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong any one of the nine can restore balance through the ripple effects of what their full lives will accomplish]] -- which works out well, since [[ItOnlyWorksOnce The Champion only has the power to revive one of them]]. The Champion decides to give the warriors a sporting chance to win their life back: he pits them against each other in a martial arts tournament where the winner will be returned to the timeline, moments prior to their death, with the knowledge of their fate and the power to prevent it. The other eight warriors will also return to their timeline...to suffer their original fates.

Sega eventually released a sequel -- ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' -- for the Sega CD. ''Dark Side'' doubled the first game's playable roster and explained their presence by introducing the Dark Champion: he hid those fighters from the Eternal Champion in an attempt to keep the tournament going on a neverending StableTimeLoop and prevent the restoration of balance in the universe. ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' plays better than its predecessor thanks to more responsive controls and a (slightly) easier difficulty curve -- and it also features gorier stage kills in addition to special CGI "Cinekills".

* TakeThat: The Senator is an obvious dig at [[MoralGuardians anti-gaming politicians]], but doesn't he look just a ''leeetle'' bit too much like Joe Lieberman?

* AnachronismStew: A ''lot'' of fighters use styles of martial arts that weren't invented until well after their time, or which they could not have been exposed to. Ramses knowing kung fu is a decent example, but Trident's the big winner; he uses Capoiera, which was created at least seventeen hundred years after his death. The game itself handwaves this by saying that The Eternal Champion trained several of the fighters himself before the tournament (or something to that effect).

* AnimalMotifs: The Eternal Champion uses dragon, tiger, hawk, and shark styles, and temporarily gains the limbs of those creatures when he uses their attacks.

** Well, right before the death cinematics are played, the Dark Champion gloats that the battle will never end. He might just be showing these sequences because he's a dick, plain and simple.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Most notably in that it doesn't need any inner strength to use its special attacks.
** This applies only to the original Genesis game. It got fixed in the sequel. Despite that however, the AI's difficulty is still off the charts.

* CoolShades: Blade.

* EarnYourHappyEnding

* ItsAWonderfulFailure: Fail to beat the Eternal Champion in the original game and you're returned to the moment of your death, but not before being treated to a depressing monologue from the Eternal himself over how disappointed he is in you and how the future is in doubt because of your failure.

* JokeCharacter: The animal characters from ''Challenge from the Dark Side'', and arguably The Senator.
** [[spoiler: Subverted with Hooter, who actually becomes Xavier's familiar if you beat the game with the former or the latter.]]

** Presumably, [[spoiler:his tell-all averts the apocalypse by bringing down some of the people and corporations that would have developed the technology which causes it. That seems to be a good enough deed, if entirely by accident.]]

* SequelHook: Raven's ending in ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' has her not only avoiding her death, [[spoiler:but also teaming up with the Eternal Champion to find a way to break the time loop.]]

** Shadow's ending in ''CD'' has her recruited by a team called the ''VideoGame/XPerts''. That one did get made, [[{{Sequelitis}} but it might have been for the best if it hadn't.]]

* BloodierAndGorier: ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' ramps up the carnage exponentially over the Genesis original. There's not as high a volume of red stuff flying around as there is in the classic ''MortalKombat'', but the violence is significantly nastier by way of being less stylized and far more anatomically correct. When a character explodes here, for example, you don't get [[LudicrousGibs twelve femurs and three ribcages]]; you get [[{{Gorn}} shredded flesh, shattered bones, and piles of bloody viscera]].

* ContentWarnings: ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' received the ESRB's "M" rating (as well it should have). It also received a special Sega-specific classification known as "Deep Water", which was supposed to denote games with undeniably adult content. Only two other games -- ''X-Perts'' and ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' -- ever used it.

* SpinOff: Shadow and Larcen both had spin-off games that assume one of them won the tournament. Shadow's game (''X-Perts'', for the Genesis) was poorly received; Larcen's (''Chicago Syndicate'', for the Game Gear) was treated kindly by the critics but went largely unnoticed since it came out on the Game Gear.

* {{Stripperiffic}}: Shadow's original outfit, which has her in a busty corset, open jacket, nylons and tall black boots. The sequel and ''X-Perts'' both give her a more modest (but still sexy) green {{qipao}} with black vinyl gloves and boots.

** Ramses III’s backstory states that his death would have resulted in Egypt being taken over by outside invaders, who would transform Egypt into an oppressive global superpower. Ramses’ survival averts this... only for Egypt to be conquered later on by Alexander the Great and the Romans, who would have been repelled by the regime of the previous invaders.