Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side

Eternal Champions: Challenge From The Dark Side
Cover art
Developer(s)	Sega Interactive Development Division
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Michael Latham
Platform(s)	Sega Mega-CD
Release date(s)	NA February 1995 EU 1995
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Single player, Vs. Mode
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature
Media/distribution	CD-ROM

Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side (also known as Eternal Champions 2 or Eternal Champions CD) is a fighting video game for the Mega-CD/Sega CD. It was published in February 1995 in North America and during the same year in Europe, within the waning days of the platform lifespan and was revered as one of the system's most technically impressive releases. The game was a semi-sequel to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game Eternal Champions and was part two of a proposed trilogy of games by Sega that would have cumuluated in a third and final game on the Sega Saturn. Both games were developed by an internal team at Sega named Sega Interactive Development Division, and both were designed by Michael Lantham, a developer with Sega of America from their early days.

In North America, the game earned an "M" (for Mature) rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board for its graphic violence and gore. In Europe, it earned both a 18+ ELSPA rating and a 15 BBFC rating. It was the first game branded under the Deep Water label, which was employed by Sega of America for games featuring adult content. Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side is considered to be a lost gem that was barely played because of the Sega Mega-CD's limited audience and short lifespan. The mid-90s were a time when fighting games were rampant in arcades, but it is one of the original console-only fighting games.

Story

As was the case with the first game, Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side followed the story of the Eternal Champion, who had felt the balance of the universe and time had been disturbed by the deaths of key individuals who had been destined to change the world for the greater good. To restore the balance, he held a great contest in which the winner would be granted the gift of new life, allowing them to fulfil their rightful destiny.

However, in this second chapter, it is revealed that the Eternal Champion has an evil counterpart: the Dark Champion. The Dark Champion appears and declares that he also will enter the contest, and that he has hidden four more warriors, preventing the contest from truly being fulfilled. Now the contestants must not only achieve the aims of the Eternal Champion but also face the Dark Champion as well, if they want their lives back.

Changes from Eternal Champions

Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side improves upon many factors of the first game's presentation. Some of the changes include:

• Larger character lineup: As well as including the nine original fighters (plus a non-playable boss) from the first game, there are also 13 new playable characters introduced, plus two bosses and several hidden fighters, making for a grand total of 25 characters.
• New soundtrack: A brand new soundtrack was written for this game, which takes advantage of Q-Sound technology.
• Better sound effects: Taking advantage of the CD format, the developers improved upon all of the sounds from the first game, making the voices sound cleaner and providing smoother, more realistic fighting sounds.
• Tighter gameplay: The special moves from the first game were rebalanced and take up less energy than before, thus making them easier to use. Also, new moves called "Cinekills" were added, which rewarded a player that could perform one with a short FMV of their opponent's often gruesome demise at the hands of the Dark Champion.
• An urban legend exists about this game. It was thought to have used creative programming tricks in order to make it look as if the game was displaying 256 colors on the screen at once. This was based on a popular misconception about the hardware capabilities of the Mega-CD/Sega CD.

Characters

This sequel included the original roster of characters from the first Eternal Champions, along with a whole new cast of fighters, including some of the ones that were initially discarded from the original Mega Drive game.

New characters

The following additional characters were added in this sequel:

• Eternal Champion (Version Two), a protector of the balance of good. Version Two practices Unicorn, Elephant, Millipede and Electric eel style. The Eternal Cahampion is immortal and is the one who gathered the warriors stating that, though they had all died tragically, in his eyes they all had heroic qualities.
• Dark Eternal Champion, the protector of the balance of evil, who practices nature style, is immortal, and utilizes natural disasters as weapons.
• Chin Wo, an acupuncturist from China who practiced Monkey Kung Fu and died in 1815 when he was arrested and executed after he had been framed for a crime by his brother.
• Dawson McShane, a gambling, self-proclaimed "Lone Wolf" from 19th century Scotland, who moved to the Wild West. He practiced Shotowando, a patchwork fighting style of his own invention, and was framed and hanged in 1849 by a wealthy landowner for a crime he had not committed.
• Ramses III, a Pharaoh from Egypt who practiced Hung Gar and died in 151 BC when he was pushed off a cliff into the Nile.
• Raven Gindar, a white magic and voodoo specialist from a tribal village in Trinidad who practiced Tae Kwon Do and Hsing-i Kung Fu and died in 1802 when her healing spell was turned against her by a black magic voodoo priest, draining her life force.
• Senator, a politician from Washington, DC who practiced "Dishonesty" and succumbed to a heart attack in 1995. (This character is likely a joke, directed towards the controversy surrounding violent content in video games.) The Senator is a head and palette swap of Larcen Tyler.
• Sophia "Riptide" de Medici, a female pirate from Italy who practiced Kajukenbo and was killed by a rival in 1566 when she attempted to steal his treasure.
• Thanatos, the ancient Greek god of death prior to 1692 who practices Time, Fate and Fisticuffs style. Thanatos is a head and palette swap of Xavier.
• Thomas "Blast" Chavez, a Green Beret soldier from the United States of America who practiced the Green Beret Fighting Technique and died in 1965 when his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam.

Out of them all, only Dawson, Ramses III, Raven and Riptide are available from the beginning in this version.

Animal characters

Also only available in Challenge from the Dark Side, these characters lacked Vendettas and Cinekills. Their stages actually belong to other characters onto whom they piggybacked.

• Crispy, a chicken from a farm, who practices Egg Fu and died by helicopter blitz in 1967. His stage is the same as Blast, which is an adapted version of Midknight's from the first game.
• Hooter, an owl from Salem, who practices Owl-Kwon Do and died in 1692 alongside the character Xavier. His stage is the same as Xavier's.
• Slither, a snake from a bar called the Snakebite Saloon, that practices brawling and died in 1820 while defending his bar. He shares a stage with new character Dawson.
• Yappy, a dog from New York City, that practices Shih Tzu Fu and was run over by an automobile during a revengeful sabotage attempt in 1950. He shares a home stage with the hidden character Senator.
• Zuni, a monkey at the Blue Dragon Circus, who practices Monkey Fu and died by elephant stampede in 1902 while trying to put out a fire in the circus tent. His stage is Jetta's Stage.

Unlike its predecessor, the sequel features villainous or evil characters. Whereas in the first game, each character was inherently good, there are several characters in this game that were always villainous or "bad". However, like the original roster of fighters, even these villainous characters have the potential to affect history in a positive way, either directly or inadvertently, as a result of their actions.

Gameplay

Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side kept the controversial special attack meter but made most special attacks use less of the meter than in the previous game. The characters also gained a multitude of special attacks that did not deplete the special attack meter. These two innovations kept the flow of rounds much more consistent. Eternal Champions CD actually had an ebb and flow similar to the heralded and popular Street Fighter II series, but with less emphasis on special attacks. Combo attacks were also introduced in the second game and jumping attacks could be now linked to ground attacks and most normal attacks could be linked into other normal attacks. This is comparable to the "chain" combos found in Street Fighter Alpha or the later Mortal Kombat series and was seen as a much needed addition, however it occasionally led to a bit of button mashing excess. Mild "juggle" combos could also be executed by landing an additional hit on an already aerial opponent.

Overall, the gameplay was considered an improvement over the previous version. Eternal Champions was considered to be a very difficult game, with each character having a specific pattern or narrow window of vulnerability during a fight. This made fights longer and more of a chance game, whereas Challenge from the Dark Side introduced a faster paced, more action-oriented combat system.

Finishing moves

Three new types of finishing moves were added in the sequel: a second "Overkill" in each stage, called "Sudden Death", that could actually be activated when the victim still had a little life left, "Vendetta", and "Cinekill". These can be performed on a dazed opponent that has 20% or less of their life (in the final round only). Sudden Deaths and Vendettas were often exceptionally gory, and the original Overkills were also made gorier to match. Another change to the Overkills (and Sudden Deaths) was that the winning fighter would be carried off the stage in a flash of light the moment the fateful blow was made; this was likely in response to the first game's stubborn tendency to cancel an Overkill if the victor accidentally entered the trigger zone of the stage.

Overkills

The game retains the stage-specific finishing moves called Overkills from the first Eternal Champions game, as well as added ones for the new stages. These are performed by defeating your opponent in a way that ensures that they fall upon a certain area of ground. If they land in the right spot, the life bars disappear and some element of the background kills them. The overkills include: being dropped down a long pit with deadly tools until only the skull remains in Midknight's level, fed to a lion in Jetta's level, impaled by a hook in Riptide's level, tossed into a tribal cauldron in Raven's level, ripped apart by a spirits in Ramses III's level, impaled by a timber on a run away mine cart in Dawson's level, devoured by dragons which come to life in Chin Wo's level, having a bomb dropped on the loser's body in Blast's level, and having a nuke fired (from the Capitol building?!) into the loser's body in Senator's level.

Sudden Death

A novelty in this game, each stage also gains a Sudden Death, a variant of the Overkill that could be activated even when the victim had up to 15% life remaining. Examples included being doused in a chemical from a leaking pipe in Blade's stage or getting shot dead by the Chicago Theatre's ticket booth lady in Larcen's stage.

Vendettas

This also new feature grants each character a Vendetta, a Fatality-like finishing move that can be performed on an already dizzied opponent. The Vendetta is performed by motion and button presses identical to those used in a Mortal Kombat Fatality. Each character (except the unlockable animal characters) has their own Vendetta and each is performed differently. Examples of these are: Dawson blasting off his opponent's head with a shotgun, R.A.X. delivering a supercharged punch that causes his opponent to burn to ashes, Larcen pulling out a butterfly knife and stabbing his victim in the stomach repeatedly, and Xavier shrinking down his opponent and then stomping them.

Cinekills

Finally, Cinekills activate under certain circumstances, triggered when the dominant player has earned (through successful combo attacks) temporarily unlimited inner strength/energy, the victim's health is 20% or lower, and the victim is stunned. In the Cinekill, the Dark Champion appears on the field, announces "To your death", then kills the victim in a cutscene that supposedly mimics the victim's greatest fear (for example, Ramses III is liquefied because of his aquaphobia). They were not constructed for hidden characters. In Cinekills, Dark Champion throws shurikens at Shadow Yamoto (female ninja), plants a bomb inside Larcen, separates R.A.X.'s cybernetic implants from the rest of his body, turns Slash to stone, turns Trident into a fish and crushes him under foot, vaporizes Midknight (the vampire) with sunlight, vaporizes Xavier by shooting his staff and the "infinite energy source", which is the product of his research, makes Blade tiny and crushes him between his fingers, spins Jetta rapidly and cuts her to death with her own bracelets ("bladerangs"), sneaks up behind Riptide and snaps her neck with vines, turns Ramses III's body into water which splashes everywhere before changing back to blood, brings life to Raven's snake tattoo, which then bites her, and shoots Dawson in a one-sided fast draw. Certain characters actually have the ability to combo into this style of finish, such as Trident who actually had an elaborate re-dizzy combo that culminated in a Cinekill. Only the base characters can receive Cinekills, though any character can trigger one. This type of finish activates automatically.

See also

• List of fighting games

References

• Sega-16.com's Eternal Champions Retrospective
• Eternal Champions and Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side PAL and NSTC manuals.

External links

• Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side at MobyGames