Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side

Eternal Champions: Challenge From The Dark Side
Box Cover
Developer(s)	Sega Interactive Development Division
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Michael Latham
Platform(s)	Sega Mega-CD
Genre(s)	Fighting game
Mode(s)	Single player, Vs. Mode

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 be disturbed by the deaths of key individuals who were meant to change the world for the greater good, and so to restore the balance, he held a great contest in which the winner would be granted the gift of life back to them, allowing them to fulfill their rightful destiny.

But 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 face the Eternal Champion, but 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 that it used creative programming tricks in order to make it look as if the game is displaying 256 colors on 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 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. He is immortal and is the one who gathered the warriors stating they all died tragically, but in his eyes 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.
• 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 by a wealthy landowner for a crime he didn't commit in 1849.
• Ramses III, a Pharaoh from Egypt who practiced Hung Gar and died in 151 BC after being pushed over 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 and drained 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 pirate from Italy who practiced Kajukenbo and was killed by a rival in 1566 after attempting 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 1955.

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 who 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 who 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.

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 as well. 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 a seen as a much needed addition, however it occasionally led to a bit of button mashing excess in some instances. Mild "juggle" combos could also be executed by landing an additional hit to an already aerial opponent.

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 also 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 such 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 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, crushed by a rock 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?!) to loser's body in Senator's level.

Sudden Death

A novelty to 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 a dizzied opponent. The Vendetta is performed with a motion and button presses identically to a Mortal Kombat Fatality. Each character (sans the unlockable animal characters) has their own 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, 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 "infinite energy source," which is the product of his research, turns 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 and it 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 quickdraw. 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.

Criticism

The game generated plenty of early excitement based on its impressive computer-generated cut scenes, and a wide range of diverse playable characters and secret Easter eggs that seemed to test the power of the system. However, by 1995 many consumers had already lost faith in the Sega CD and were frustrated with Sega of America for releasing a CD-ROM system that was not a true hardware upgrade. The fact that Sega had already announced its plans for the Sega Saturn and Sega 32X further dampened the response to the game as it was seen as too little, too late.

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