Have you ever been sitting around bored, maybe talking with your friends, and that same old inevitable topic arises, “If a caveman and a Cyborg kick boxer went toe to toe, who would win?” The argument might go on for a while, but no matter what the outcome, there would still be that shard of doubt lingering in your mind. Or perhaps you go a step further and pit a street fighting 1920s-era gangster against a modern day female ninja. Yet again, the doubt remains. Such arguments can now be put to rest, because Eternal Champions does just that by facing off unlikely foes facing off to establish just who would win.
It would seem that the entity known only as the Eternal Champion pondered the same thing that you, and perhaps your friends, have pondered. The Eternal Champion has summoned the greatest warriors from some of the greatest eras of mankind’s history and future to battle each other in a tournament to determine who the greatest fighter among them all is. The winner of the tournament will then be granted the last bit of the Eternal Champion’s dwindling power in that they will be returned to their own time, moments before their death and given a second chance at life. In doing so, not only will it save that fighters life, but also humanity.
It seems as though the Eternal Champion really knew what he was doing when he brought together this motley bunch of fighters, as it makes for one incredible game with loads of variety in the different characters. It’s the variety that really makes this game so great, shown in the moves the characters perform which greatly distinguish the individual fighters from each other. It gets even better though: I’m sure you’ve played a couple of fighting games before, and you’re used to seeing the characters equipped with weapons, but, more often than not, you’re left wondering why in the world they have the weapon if they’re not going to use it. The fighters in Eternal Champions don’t just carry their weapons for intimidation purposes, though; be prepared to use every weapon you see them carrying, and so many more that you don’t see. Something else that you don’t see in Eternal Champions are those goofy fireballs, or “energy blasts”, or whatever you want to call them, that so many other fighting games have. The contestants in Eternal Champions actually throw/shoot things which aren’t just the generic “fireballs” and have a source that can be explained, whether that be the endless supply of sai thrown by Larcen, the confusion spell cast by Xavier, or the ever popular boomerang thrown by Jetta. That's not to say that there are no fireballs, but even those are a step above your generic fireball thrown in other fighting games. What’s more, a few of the characters even have the ability to return the favor and deflect thrown attacks back at the attacker. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the variety found in the characters of Eternal Champions.
Not only do the characters fight differently, but they all look completely different too, whether it's the the highly technological look of Rax, or the rugged and dirty look of Slash. The graphics do a great job of detailing the characters, and then even further enhance them with individual levels for the characters that are from that character’s time period. The levels look very impressive, as they are fully animated in the background, making the levels seem much more alive. On top of that each level contains an “overkill,” which is something related to the environment that obliterates your opponent after the final blow. These are quite impressive, though sadly, ridiculously hard to do. The characters are alive just as much, if not more so than the levels with their great animation and detail that can be seen in them.
The details don’t stop at the graphics; they carry right on over into the audio. Each character has a spoken insult, with a voice that matches the character perfectly, and that can be executed at will. Unlike some other games on the Genesis with voice synthesis, you can actually understand what is being said here. The music sets the moods in the different levels excellently. On top of that there are the sound effects: As expected you’ll get a lot of the usual punching and kicking sounds, but also great sound effects to match the various other moves that get dished out.
Eternal Champions, on top of great sound and graphics, has an excellent multiplayer mode, which adds tremendous replay value to the game. Right now you’re wondering, “How can this game have more replay value than any other fighting game?” It’s a little thing called the Battle Room, which can be customized with dangers and traps galore. Thus, your fight is more than just a fight against your opponent, but also a fight against your environment. On top of that, multiplayer options allow you to turn off “inner strength” (the power with which special moves are done), set it to always full, or to the normal setting at which it drains as you use it and gradually refills. Multiplayer options also let you set things such as handicaps, time limits, game speed (Slow, Normal, Turbo), and various other options.
For those new to the game, Eternal Champions also features a training area with everything from fighting holo-opponents, to dexterity balls. This will allow you to familiarize yourself with the characters, the movement, and the attacks. This is, however, fairly useless to those of us that have played any fighting games before, as the controls are the same as those found in many other games using 6 buttons for the various basic attacks.
The key word when talking about Eternal Champions is “variety”. The game breathes variety in its fighting moves, graphics, sound, and gameplay. This game is definitely one of those hidden wonders that has somehow never been recognized as one of the truly great games. I’d recommend this game to any vintage gamer, or any serious fighter fan.
