Eternal Champions (SEGA Genesis) - All Throws & Special Grab Moves

Character select:
Larcen - 0:00
Blade - 0:07
Xavier - 0:18
Trident - 0:37
Shadow - 0:41
Slash - 0:44
Jetta - 0:58
R.A.X. - 1:08
Midknight - 1:13
Eternal Champion - 1:32*

*Playable using a ROM hack, or cheating system such as Action Replay.

Eternal Champions is a 2D fighting game created by SEGA for their Genesis console in 1993. An updated version of the game called Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side was later released on SEGA CD, with additional features.

The Eternal Champions franchise had two spin-off games. The character Larcen starred in a Game Gear action game called Chicago Syndicate, and Shadow featured in the side-scrolling beat 'em up X-Perts on Genesis. Eternal Champions was also featured in the UK magazine Sonic The Comic.

Eternal Champions has a compelling storyline. 9 characters from different time periods, who were killed by an act of injustice, must fight in a tournament for the chance of resurrection. Each combatant can change the course of history for the better if brought back to life.

Eternal Champions is somewhat a Mortal Kombat clone, as it features stage-specific fatality moves called 'Overkills'. However, it uses a pixel art style like Street Fighter, rather than using digitised sprites. The dark comic-style graphics and stiff animations remind me of the game Justice League Task Force for SEGA Genesis.

Certain imagery used in Eternal Champions, such as the yin-yang power meter and the versus screen portraits with blank / illuminated eyes are reminiscent of Mortal Kombat. Midknight resembles a Mortal Kombat style character the most, and even performs Raiden’s electric fly move. The cyborg kickboxer R.A.X. is a rip-off of Jax from Mortal Kombat. Blade is suspiciously similar to Marvel’s superhero vampire hunter of the same name, except his shades are more like the style that Johnny Cage would wear in the early Mortal Kombat games.

The quality of the character designs is variable. Larcen is particularly memorable, as a 1920s gangster with spiked brass knuckles and a grappling hook. The female fighters Jetta and Shadow feel like throwaway characters. Shadow is supposed to be a ninja, but this isn't apparent from her design. It would have been nice to have story cutscenes at the start and end of the game, rather than the player having to manually read the character bios in order to fully appreciate the ending text.

The gameplay feels unbalanced, with some character’s special moves having unavoidable consequences for their opponent, such as being frozen or slowed down, without the move having to actually connect with them. One my first match of the game, my opponent was using a speed buff, making me think I had selected a ridiculously high speed setting from the options menu.

The final boss fight is terrible. The player must fight several iterations of the same boss during one round. His life bar refills each time he resurrects, while the player's does not. The resurrection animation is long and uneventful, making it very boring to sit through.

Eternal Champions lacks a choice of difficulty settings. This means that the player must endure cheap AI which constantly blocks most moves. I found that an essential strategy to beat the game was to trap the opponent in a corner of the stage and spam a throw move repeatedly.

The variety of throw moves in Eternal Champions is not as good as I was expecting. Three of the characters (Larcen, Shadow, and Jetta) have the same basic throw. This suggests that the developers were lacking in imagination. They didn't even implement a basic Tomoe Nage throw, which is a staple of the Mortal Kombat franchise. Midknight has the best selection of grabs.

The caveman / Blanka knock-off Slash has an interesting throw move, where the player must manually swing their club to bat the opponent like a baseball, as they descend through the air. If the player whiffs the strike, Slash is momentarily stunned as he shows a tired animation. It is unique for a fighting game to include a throw which requires a manual timed input.

Several characters have a ranged grab move where the player must charge backwards, then press forward + attack to use it. These moves have quite long animations which are boring to watch. Larcen's ranged grab is supposed to wrap his opponent's legs with his grappling hook, but this is so poorly animated that it's unclear what's happening.

Overall, Eternal Champions falls short of the quality I would expect from a retro SEGA title. It has the edginess which SEGA built a reputation for with the Genesis console, minus the charm. SEGA tried too hard to replicate the shock value of Mortal Kombat, at the expense of fun gameplay. Fortunately, SEGA went on to perfect the dark and edgy cartoon look with their 1995 masterpiece Comix Zone.

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