Eternal Champions

Eternal Champions is an 1993 arcade style fighting game published and developed by Sega Enterprises. Released shortly after Burning Rival, Dark Edge, and Holosseum, and both during a wave of success of the fighting games bolstered by Street Fighter II (1991) Mortal Kombat (1992) sega developed this game for their sega genesis/mega drive exclusively.

The game features similar death moves to Mortal Kombat's famous fatalites, known as overkills. It featured a heavy emphasis on the story, reflective projectiles, force fields, training rooms filled with elaborate traps, and a novel method of special executing moves. There was also a sequel two years later known as Eternal Champions: Challenge From The Dark Side (even sometimes known as Eternal Champions 2 or even Eternal Champions CD).

Eternal Champions was added as a downloadable virtual console game to the Nintendo Wii on 12/3/07. There were also two spin off games, Larcen Tyler's Chicago Syndicate, and Shadow Yamoto's X-Perts.

Story
An omniscient being known as the Eternal Champion predicts that mankind will soon fade to existence due to the untimely and unjust deaths of key individuals throughout history who were destined for greatness. Seeking to restore balance to the world, the Eternal Champion gathers these souls from time moments before their deaths to participate in a fighting tournament. The victor will be able to change their fate and bring balance to the universe, whilst the losers will be forced to live out their deaths just as history intended.

Unlike most fighting games, or video games in general, there are no characters in this game that are "bad" or "evil". Each character has been chosen because they are either inherently good, or they have the potential to do great good and change the course of history for the better. Despite the ability to kill opponents in this game, this is not relevant to the story. Much like games such as Mortal Kombat (which pioneered finishing moves in fighting games), the game's "Overkills" are not canon and simply a gameplay element for the enjoyment of the player. It is actually revealed in a few character endings that some of the fighters had become allies or friends during the course of the tournament.

Characters

 * Slash - A caveman from the prehistoric great rift valley in 50,000 BC.
 * Trident - A green gladiator from the year 110 BC.
 * Xavier Pendragon - Former blacksmith from Salem, 1692.
 * Jetta Maxx - Young russian acrobatic woman from the year 1899. (Note: In the game's instruction manual it mentions her being one of the cousins of Czar Nicholas II)
 * Larcen Tyler - Ex-cat burglar working for the mob from 1920's Chicago.
 * Mitchell Midleton Knight (Midknight) - London born biochemical scientist working for the C.I.A. back in 1967. (Jeet Kune Do Practitioner)
 * Shadow Yamoto - Female assassin from Japan in the year 1993.
 * Johnathan Blade - A bounty hunter (formerly a police officer) born in Syria, raised in africa. From the year 2030.
 * R.A.X. Coswell - A professional Muay Thai fighter from the year 2345.
 * Eternal Champion - A protector of the balance of good. Also serves as the boss in the game. (Unplayable Character)

Overkills
Alike Mortal Kombat stage fatalities, Eternal Champions featured something called overkills. Overkills are the excessive force or action that goes further than is necessary to achieve it's goal. They are simply executed by just standing within a certain area in the stages. However they differ stage to stage, depending on which background it is, your in for getting a gruesome finishing move. Here are 9 of them:


 * 50,000 BC.(Slash) - Eaten whole by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
 * 110 BC.(Trident) - Pulled under water and mauled to death by carnivorous plants.
 * 1692 A.D.(Xavier) - Body burned badly by flaming stake.
 * 1899 A.D.(Jetta) - Being swallowed up by an earthquake.
 * 1920 A.D.(Larcen) - Killed in a nearby drive-by shooting.
 * 1967 A.D.(Midknight) - The falling loser will receive a napalm bomb straight to the corpse.
 * 1993 A.D.(Shadow) - Electrocuted and vaporized by an neon sign.
 * 2030 A.D.(Blade) - Getting knocked/kicked or thrown into a large exhaust fan.
 * 2345 A.D.(R.A.X.) - Gets frozen disintegrated and swept up by robots.