Eternal Champions

Eternal Champions is a 2D fighting game developed by Sega, and released in 1993.

In 1993, the latest trend in the video game world was the fighting game, bolstered by the recent successes of Street Fighter II (1991), Fatal Fury (1991) and Mortal Kombat (1992). Hoping to ride this wave of success, Sega developed Eternal Champions for their Genesis and Sega Mega-CD systems. While the game never caught on due to its limited availability, among other reasons, it did employ various features that were well ahead of their time, including stage fatalities or "overkills", being much more story-driven, reflective projectiles, forcefields, training rooms filled with elaborate traps, and a new method of executing moves which to this day still remains fairly unique in the fighting game genre. Two years later a sequel Eternal Champions: Challenge From The Dark Side (sometimes known as 'Eternal Champions CD') was released for Sega's ill-fated Genesis 'add-on' the Sega Mega-CD, and a final title Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter was advertised for the Sega Saturn but the game was cancelled shortly after beginning production. The Final Chapter was cancelled in order to push Virtua Fighter in the US.

Nine of the greatest fighters throughout history have met untimely and unjust deaths. They now compete against each other for a chance to face the "Eternal Champion" and reclaim their souls. The victor will return to Earth with the chance to avenge his or her own death and restore balance to the universe.