History VideoGame / EternalChampions

* BareYourMidriff: Every female EXCEPT for Shadow.

** Fail to beat the Eternal Champion ''and'' the Dark Champion in the sequel, and you're treated to a cinematic of your character's death (unless you're playing a hidden character, in which case you'll just get returned to the title screen).

* {{Gorn}}: While the first game doesn't really count, ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' takes this trope and sprints with it. It's actually quite disturbing at times.

* StrippedToTheBone: The sequel has extremely shocking fatalities which can get pretty "messy" sometimes. However, the following fatality is already frightening enough without blood and plays a more intense version of this trope. In Midknight's stage, the sudden death involves the losing player being sent to a microwave machine. The machine quickly strips the victim layer by layer by melting off their skin first, after a few seconds, the machine eventually melts off the muscles, reducing them to a skeleton. The trope is played even further when microwave burns the bones away themselves, leaving the losing victim into a framework of their nerves and internal organs which eventually explode and shatter the window. This shocking fatality does have a comedic attribute, upon the bones being burnt off, the nerves and internal organs make a cartoonish rattling noise.

''Eternal Champions'' was {{Creator/Sega}}'s first-party home entry to the fighting game craze in 1993, and their answer to ''Franchise/MortalKombat'''s category of stylish, violent gameplay and extensive lore. A UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis exclusive, it was a rarity in that it was made specifically for a home system by a first-party publisher and developer, as opposed to being an arcade port.

* {{Stripperiffic}}: Shadow's original outfit, which has her in a busty corset, open jacket, nylons and tall black boots. The sequel and ''VideoGame/XPerts'' both give her a more modest (but still sexy) green {{qipao}} with black vinyl gloves and boots. Jetta even more so as her outfit is nothing but a bikini with strips of cloth cross-crossing her limbs and fights [[DoesNotLikeShoes barefoot]].

The game was notable for some innovations beyond being a first-party home exclusive: it delved deep into backstory, including a menu section specifically for character biographies and a primer into their preferred martial arts. There was also an extensive training mode that was not yet commonplace in fighting games at the time; players could set up drones or programmed AI to spar against in a "danger room" setting, complete with a laundry list of togglable hazards like buzzsaws and stun bolts. The final bout against the Eternal Champion had mid-match, in-game cinematics when it would change to a different elemental fighting style (and eventually when defeated), a forebearer to dramatic, multi-stage fighting game bosses. Finally, the game upped ''Mortal Kombat'''s stage fatalities by including them in every level, activated not by a player input, but when a final blow landed their victim in a specific spot on the stage to trigger it.

The game was notable for some innovations beyond being a first-party home exclusive: it delved deep into backstory, including a menu section specifically for character biographies and a primer into their preferred martial arts. There was also an extensive training mode that was not yet commonplace in fighting games at the time; players could set up drones or programmed AI to spar against in a "danger room" setting, complete with a laundry list of togglable hazards like electrified floors. The final bout against the Eternal Champion had mid-match, in-game cinematics when it would change to a different elemental fighting style (and eventually when defeated), a forebearer to dramatic, multi-stage fighting game bosses. Finally, the game upped ''Mortal Kombat'''s stage fatalities by including them in every level, activated not by a player input, but when a final blow landed their victim in a specific spot on the stage to trigger it.

''Eternal Champions'' was commercially successful, and saw a psuedo-sequel in ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' for the Sega CD. It doubled the roster with new traditional characters and other joke characters, addressed some of the criticisms of the original's gameplay, and added a wide number of new [[BloodierAndGorier gorier stage kills]] and finishers, including CG "Cinekills" performed by the Dark Champion himself. The game was one of the best-selling games on Sega's ill-fated CD system, but the series would come to an end due to the infamous in-fighting between Sega's American and Japanese branches, with the decision being made to support just one flagship fighting series in the company, which ended up being ''VideoGame/VirtuaFighter''.

The game was notable for some innovations beyond being a first-party home exclusive: the game delved deep into backstory, including a section in the menu specifically for character biographies and a primer into their preferred martial arts. There was also an extensive training mode that was not yet commonplace in fighting games at the time; players could set up drones or programmed AI to spar against in a "danger room" setting, complete with a laundry list of togglable hazards like electrified floors. The final bout against the Eternal Champion had mid-match, in-game cinematics when it would change to a different elemental fighting style (and eventually when defeated), a forebearer to dramatic, multi-stage fighting game bosses. Finally, the game upped ''Mortal Kombat'''s stage fatalities by including them in every level, activated not by a player input, but when a final blow landed their victim in a specific spot on the stage to trigger it.

''Eternal Champions'' was commercially successful, and saw a psuedo-sequel in ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' for the Sega CD. It doubled the roster with new traditional characters and other joke characters, addressed some of the criticisms of the original's gameplay, and added a wide number of new [[BloodierAndGorier gorier stage kills]] and finishers, including CG "Cinekills" performed by the Dark Champion himself. The game was one of the best-selling games on Sega's ill-fated CD system, but the series would come to an end due to the infamous in-fighting between Sega's American and Japanese branches, with the decision landing on supporting just one flagship fighting series in the company, which ended up being ''VideoGame/VirtuaFighter''.

{{Creator/Sega}}'s answer to the likes of ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': a 2D FightingGame for the [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Genesis / Mega Drive]] which came out near the end of the console's life cycle.

The [[FinishingMove Fatalities]] in ''EC'' were named Overkills. You trigger 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 them 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.

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!" (Check out the UsefulNotes/SegaCD version, it makes the original ''Mortal Kombat'' look like a kid's game.)

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" performed by the Dark Champion himself. 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."
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** Arguably every Overkill, Sudden Death, and Vendetta move in the sequel.

* 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 -- ''VideoGame/XPerts'' and ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' -- ever used it.

** Arguably every Overkill, Sudden Death, and Vendetta move in the sequel. The game could have easily gotten away with a T-rating at worst had the finishing moves been removed.

{{Creator/Sega}}'s answer to the likes of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'': a 2D FightingGame for the [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Genesis / Mega Drive]] which came out near the end of the console's life cycle.

** The games [[https://retrogamingaus.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Eternal-Champions-1.jpg infamous magazine ad]] takes cheap shots at both ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombat''.

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

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: It's not enough the original game gave a lot of the characters backstories ending on this, ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' also adds Sudden Deaths and Cinekills to the mix, the former where the loser dies in a variety of gruesome [[UndignifiedDeath (and if they're unlucky, humiliating)]] ways from the stage itself, the latter an out-and-out execution courtesy of the Dark Champion, teleporting the loser away and utilizing their greatest fears to kill them. Ouch.

%%* EarnYourHappyEnding

* ThereCanOnlyBeOne

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!" (Check out the [[UsefulNotes/OtherSegaSystems Sega CD]] version, it makes the original ''Mortal Kombat'' look like a kid's game.)

!! ''Eternal Champions'' and its sequel contain examples of the following tropes:

* RingsOfDeath: A hoop is carried by hidden fighter Chin Wo.

Sega had a third and final game -- ''Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter'' -- in pre-production for the Sega Saturn after ''Challenge from the Dark Side'' became...well, [[DamnedByFaintPraise as much of a hit on the Sega CD as anything really could]]. ''Final Chapter'' would have featured a faction-oriented storyline, with characters supporting either the Eternal Champion or the Dark Champion in an effort to allow good or evil to balance the universe in its favor. Character levels were intended to represent the character's time periods, and victory would lock the opposing faction out of influencing a specific time period forever. Sega cancelled the game, however, when the company feared it would draw too much attention away from ''VideoGame/VirtuaFighter''.

{{Creator/Sega}}'s answer to the likes of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'', a 2D FightingGame for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis which came out near the end of the console's life cycle.