Eternal Champions Series Review/Retrospective - Sega Mega Drive, Mega CD - Kim Justice 

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The team that did Streets of Rage 4 should remake this.

They should make a modern version of this game. The story line/ story mode would be 🔥

The biggest surprise with this one is all the well written backstory for all the characters. And I quite enjoy the soundtrack, especially Xavier and Larcen's stage themes.

+Kim Justice a few things to correct. Tongue of the Fatman is a fully formed PC fighting game ahead of Street Fighter 2 or Mortal Kombat being around. You can play an online version of it to verify it in the internet archives. The Genesis version was a non-completed game that was sold out of the bankruptcy of Mediagenic or better known as the original Activision. It was barely in full development when the end came. BTW that Football game I had zero to do with and no part in the design, it was called Joe Montana and there's a famous EA had to save Sega story you should know already. Sega hired me because I made some products at the original Activision that got their attention and also my time working for Rainbird. Yes Erik Wahlberg was huge in helping develop the fighting system but I wrote the original design before he was involved. All the fighting styles were my choices, I had VHS fighting tapes which I already owned that were used for references and have been a major martial art follower. Glad to send you the original 800 page game design to show that. Erik was the guy who fixed the major flaws in our fighting system which really showed in the Sega CD version. Also Shadow was drawn by the same artist that did all the other character designs for EC but she was drawn for a prior project. All that existed was her sketch. I was the one that focused on her and Larcen being our breakouts, I did create her storyline and so on. As for Xperts, the story is much more than your present. We showed a demo of doing a game with renders and the company freaking out at a rendered Donkey Kong Country making the Genesis look bad and this put huge pressure to crank out a game that showed rendered characters. We were underfunded, had a crazy scheduled and we weren't allowed to finish the most minimal design. On top of that our cart size was cut back. So yes I'm very disappointed. Also my best friend Tony Van got stuck having to deal with it as I was running Omega, the Test Group, working in Operations, and even doing stuff with Sega Toys at the time, As for Chicago Syndicate I had ZERO to do with that. It broke my heart as my favorite character was given to another group and a developer I truly deplored. So just wanted to settle those points especially the fact you are tying me to that Razorsoft product. While Tongue of the Fatman wasn't perfect look at what we did on PC Jr. specs, 1-bit audio, barely any joysticks that worked for PC's at the time and the fact I created an in-depth fighting system before the others showed up. So thanks for the positive words but I had nothing to make up for when it comes to my role in fighting games. You also missed I was the VP of Heat.net, one of the original online gaming networks which was part of Sega and we created Net-Fighter the first online fighting game which could work over a dial-up modem. Thanks for the video and the kind words. Hope this feedback helps settle some questions.

This was is the purest form of nostalgia ever. The music the stages, its like it was yesterday. That important memory you knew you had but couldn't remember. This might be the earliest memories I have being 4 or 5. Just insanely cool and atmospheric.

update: sega is starting to remember eternal champions was a thing. it was included on the Sega genesis mini, appropriately enough as a western exclusive, alongside the "how the hell are you even here?" virtua fighter 2 port.

I got Eternal Champions as a pack-in game with my Genesis in the Christmas of '95. I had no interest in the game before, but after playing it my first time, I was very impressed with it. Playing the Sega CD sequel was also a very enjoyable experience standing as my favorite game on the system. It's a shame we never got the third game. A pretty twisted irony considering how the series is about people who were set to change the world for the better only to have their lives cut short due to shenanigans. If only this franchise had its own Eternal Champion to give it a second chance at life. EC had such a great cast, and managed to tell a great story without getting in the way of gameplay (something today's games could really take a lesson from).

I love the inclusion of “Crossroads” toward the end. Really solidifies the feels of this franchise not returning.

Imagine a "VS" game with Capcom characters. They could fit into a Mortal Kombat game as well. So many good memories of this game.

I still think Eternal Champions should get another chance, on the PS4

If Hollywood knew how to make good and proper video game movies, I always thought this would have been a good movie,

I remember literally spending hours reading through chatacter lore and mastering all level executions and now famous "fatalities" back then this was ground breaking. I wish they remade this game or even made a sequel. There is plenty to work with and the story is already amazing and that's with just a start and one game

Got EC for Christmas in 93 and was blown away...even a little overwhelmed..but fu**ing loved it!👊💥🤘

Great video. And to all the people that made both Eternal Champions and Challenge from the Darkside, a huge thank you for taking the original cartridge game a step further in every way. I played it religiously and got friends to play and learn it and it was some of the best times in fighting game fests. I got my son to give it a try and he is pretty good at it. I wish the higher ups at Sega gave the third installment the chance it deserved. Who knows, it could have had a revival sometime this gen.

I loved this game yes the characters where a bit pants but they had a great storyline behind them and I remember doing a fatality for the first time so in typical 90s fashion I had to learn them all. My favourite was the gangster drive by.

Never got to play the other games in the series (would love to get my hands on the Sega CD one), but Eternal Champions for the Mega Drive is exceedingly underrated.

It is criminal that you are not a mainstream personality. Easily the most authentic passion and story telling ability. You are the best.

I'm a say this on every ETERNAL CHAMPIONS RU-vid video I see until it happens..... They need to bring this game back NEW AND IMPROVED! They brought back KILLER INSTINCT and it looks great!

I have GREAT memories of this game. In late 93, the then new Official Sega magazine put this game on I think was their debut issue, quoting that it was "Better than Street Fighter 2". What a time that was, with both SF2 and MK fightin for the top slot, being released roughly at the same time on the Megarive. Eternal Champions then. I remember renting the game many a time and loving it. I thought it was great. The backstory was brilliant, and like you said, since it was a new game with no baggage to anybody, it had no arcade comparison. That sadly went against it. MK and SF had huge fanbases that couldnt wait to get their mits on their fave charachters on their own MDs and tellys. Despite the genuine greatness gone into Eternal Champions,and raving reviews, it sadly didnt keep up with the massive race being lead by SF and MK. I remember too, they got their own comic slot in the Sonic the Comic at the time! Thanks for this retrospective. Its absolutely brilliant.

It's awesome that Eternal Champions is on the Sega Genesis Mini.

Eternal Champions is Sega genesis most overlooked Fighting game.

Wow, hadn't realized that about Bone Thugs haha

Bone thug in the background was the icing, took me back!

Good to se somebody with thoughts similar to mine on this game. I loved Eternal Champions. It was absolutely up there with SF and MK. I always felt like there was potential for an absolutely fantastic sequel that just never came. Challenge from the darkside did wonders by adding the other special kills and new characters. One of the few complaints I had about the game was some of the special moves, although original and true to the martial art of that fighter, had little to no purpose or use. Rax's ability to hover for an extended period of time comes to mind as does the overlap of several of Midnights moves. I'm one of the few who had a Saturn to go along with my playstation. If they ever did release the third installment of this series for it, I would've been waiting there for it with money in hand and a hardon in my pants. So much potential here that never got fulfilled.

The album version of crossroads! Well done

You know considering sor4 is coming, maybe just maybe there's hope for this appearing one day, even a HD remake would be great.

You used my Tower of Doom photo! (with TMHT: HsH)! Awesome! :D The 256 colour thing with the Mega-CD game is a myth. Otherwise this was a great review.

Great video, excellent work. It was especially interesting to hear about the behind-the-scenes stuff. It's a shame Sega of Japan axed the Saturn game. Challenge From the Dark Side was one of my first Sega CD games back in the day, and it still remains today as one of my favorite fighting games of the era. It really was a huge step above the Genesis/Mega Drive version, especially in terms of gameplay.

I loved Eternal Champions in the 90s and I still do. I think it looks gorgeous on the Mega Drive _not so much on the Mega CD though. I like the neat set up screen, I like the fighters, the backgrounds, the special moves, it's a great game that I would not trade for a Capcom smash hits, even if you bundled it with the console to do what the competition does.

The Sega CD version of this game is a really good fighting game, lots of strategy. The overkill’s are great.

The Sega CD version of this was amazing. Great fatalities with much better graphics.

Had the first game as a kid. Could not get far in the single player but loved playing the versus mode and reading the character bios

Fun Fact: Bone Thugs N Harmony's song "Eternal" samples the tune you're playing @ 6:28

I could never get into Eternal Champions back in the day for some reason, but my god does that Mega CD version look amazing!

Remember this as a great game on the MegaDrive. Had a ton of fun playing it, but it was getting close to the MEga Drive's end of life-and sadly, the game never got it's credo. I had the comics too, I may be misremembering, but I think it was a draw between MidKnight and Shadow, in the final chapter of the fight. Looking at the game, though, makes me just remember how imaginative it really was. It was not trying to do the same thing as the other games, it was standing out with its own brand, and image. The cast of characters were really diverse and imaginative. One of those games that stuck with me.

The end of the video is really sad :( i thought eternal champions disappear for lack of success. Knowing that it happened Only because sega japan dont care for it Made me angry

The CG scene for the mega cd is incredible compared to other FMV on the system

My love for you grows with every video I watch :) I could listen to you talk about games for hours

Eternal Champions deserves a proper comeback and re-releases of the games, as well as a proper follow up. It'll be insanely hard to capture the feel of the original games though I admit. The fact that Sega basically killed it for Virtua Fighter kills me...

I played the first game and it was my favorite fighting game at the time. I never knew about the second game but always wondered why more wasn't done with the series.

Oh how I wish the MK series buys the characters from Sega and put them in the game. The characters would fit in with them

Your videos are fast becoming my most looked forward to on youtube, and you just sealed the deal with a Falconhoof reference! Great stuff Kim!

As usual, great video, very complete and documented review! Good job, thanks!

never heard of the activator! 32 years old, thought I had seen it all! Great vid Kim! Thanks

As a kid both playing Eternal Champions and listening to BoneThugz at the same time, none of us ever put the two together.

Video game video with bone thugs in the background, would watch again.

Fantastic retrospective Kim. Top-notch stuff, you always manage to thoroughly research these titles, likely more than necessary, & I always pick up something I did not know before. When I watch some other vids from your channel that the titles themselves don't interest me, you're doing a great job making & presenting them to keep me enthralled. Really couldn't believe the work/effort put into these titles & the promotional agendas that were pushed for this, the Bone Thugs "borrowing" is crazy as well! Thanks!

Awesome video as always Kim and this time with added bonus of a largely Bone Thugs soundtrack = what's not to like?

The storyline for this game was awesome

I was looking at old VG magazines a few years back, and Eternal Champions often had solid scores across the board. It had fatalities from MK, the most colors, high-quality visuals -- but I find that most of us back then ignored it. You would find ads everywhere, and its appeal certainty made me rent it several times -- but I never was really having fun. I would buy the sega cd version much later. I tried to get into it again, but it just never had the gameplay or movement that I liked in other fighting games. Its hard to say exactly why the series didnt catch on with a big enough crowd back then. The visuals and sound are above-average for their time, that's for sure, but nobody at school was talking about Eternal Champions and its gory fatalities -- even though you would think it would garner more attention. Some games that stuck around just had something special about the way they controlled. SF2, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters and several others -- they all had balanced gameplay, characters that appealed to players, and more. There were a lot of good fighting games back then, so you really had to have something new and innovative to stand out. Great video, tho.

I had EC 2 on Sega CD & Loved it... Awesome work & video.. Very informative

Alright. Sega's new trailer recently has launched and there's a trademark going around for 'Eternal Champions'. We're in, PEOPLE!!

Great stuff man. I never knew the CD version was soooo good. I just bought it on Ebay for 17 bucks. Gonna play it as soon as it comes in the mail.

great video!!! i remember playing it and wish i still had it! thanks for the look back.

I'm a big fan of Eternal Champions. I don't understand why Sega doesn't resurrect this franchise. Imagine, for example, if the team that made the most recent Killer Instinct remake Eternal with all the graphical power available today. It would be amazing. I'm Brazilian and I don't speak English, but as a fan of the game, thanks for the video.

I played them all, but EC was my absolute favorite fighter over the others.

To be honest, I'm surprised someone like Liam of Unseen 64 (or anyone for that matter) hasnt really delved as to what Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter was going to be like.

amazing video, I'm really enjoying your channel. I have EC two copies actually but I didn't know there was a 2nd version.

I loved the narrator of this review as the priest in Princess Bride. "Mawwidge..."

My memory is really patchy but I know I ended up getting an Eternal Champions sticker album at some point and the stickers themselves were super cheap, possibly end-of-line bargain bin fodder... I managed to fill the album so they definitely must have been abundant! Anyone else remember that album?

Glad to see a video of someone giving enternal champions there due, especial the sega cd version that game had an amazing amount of content and in my opinion the best if not in the top 5 games for the system.

wow how'd i miss this excellent video, Thx Kim.

4:45 was not expecting to hear Coil. Brilliant!

I first heard about Eternal Champions in a huge magazine feature detailing all of the character backgrounds (think it might have been Gamesmaster, but not sure), then I read the Sonic the Comic series. I thought it was incredible and, as a big beat em up fan, I desperately wanted to play the game. I finally got hold of it a few years ago and, well... let's just say it fell short of my expectations. I guess over twenty years of anticipation will do that anyway. Still, amazing concept and characters!

I never knew bone got that sample from that game and I had the game and that tape wow

Top stuff, as usual Kim. Awesome!

Another awesome review... Really looking forward to my "Sunday's with Kim"

awesome video, I loved eternal champions, the designs, characters, storywise, and music, even tho gameplay was lacking, always wondered what happened, also dat bone thugs tho, the fact you included it and used crossroads for the ending, km definitely subscribed now

Just found you channel, and I am officially hooked! Thank you!

This game really deserved a sequel, or at least a real chance at the fighting genre

Dope video 💯💯 Love the shine you gave Bone Thugs

i hope this series gets a chance to come back. the game itself is fun even if it is impossibly hard. its still fun nontheless. and this game really deserves a reboot. or at least at new game that continues where the old games in the series left off.

Michael Latham, it may be a long shot, but if you see this, please consider it: I think we all came to the realization a long time ago that there will never be a 3rd fighting game in the franchise (sequel or remake). While this is sad, what are your thoughts on Eternal Champions becoming a Netflix series? The characters and their stories are so great that I can see the concept of the game play out over a 10-13 episode season. With Castlevania getting a hell of a series on Netflix, I think EC would be a viable property for their platform. Side Note: Another gaming franchise that had a story concept I loved and would like to see a show on is Twisted Metal. Those endings, especially from TM: Black were amazing.

My God, is that Coil's 'Ostia - The Death of Pasolini' playing at 5 mins?! Subscribed

Even in 2023, Eternal champions still looks gorgeous!

Great video Kim, I've been a fan of the series since the beginning (when I was 14 years old and loved the original on my Mega Drive.) Last year I've finally managed to get the Mega CD game on Ebay, it was a bit pricey, but worth every cent. Keep up the good work Kim, your channel rocks !!

I would love to hear kim justice to say the introduction to bone-eternal.

I really liked this game, felt like most of the characters had interesting backstories, and they just wanted a chance to do things over. The music was great, graphics were good and I felt it was a pretty decent fighter for its time. The game seemed underrated to me, and thanks for reminding me of the Activator I had forgotten about that thing! Always seemed so janky.

Great video as always! As a humble request I'd love to see a retrospective/history on the Wonder Boy series. It'd be nice to see since there's a new Wonder Boy game (Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom) coming out really soon, and it looks like a fantastic successor to Wonder Boy III.

Such a great retrospective on a series that could've been so much more

That is not rotorscoping. That is called pre-render graphics, like Donkey Kong County. Rotorscoping is what Prince of presia 1 and 2, Flasjback and Another World did

This video is soo nostalgic now I rem watching this all the way back in elementary now in high school rem when my teacher introduced me to this game then he pulled the actual game cartridge Inbox in everything out of his backpack I remember wanting it so I bought it off him one day memory’s ever since makes me miss elementary and my teachers a lot good times, also miss this video you made apart of my childhood good and memorable.

I loved this game! I have probably beaten this game a dozen times, back in the day. I would love to see a remake of this game.

Midnight looks like the same character model of the character from Comix Zone.

Oh my god my dad totally bought an activator so we could play this game back in the day. Been trying to put a name to that thing for years, lol.

1:28 I can't believe they made Karate Champ for a Sega console...

Didn't expect this video to include Bone Thugs 🐐. Let's goooo, lol!!! We need a Eternal Champions remake/reboot.

Eternal Champions may have only 2 games but has every fighting game beat competition wise. I don't know 5 people that can say they beat the cartridge version or the cd edition. Some game programer needs to buy the property and copyrights and bring this game back.

6:39 Great review, can you let me know what music begins playing around this time stamp? Thank you

There was supposedly news on Shoryuken forums that Michael Latham was working on a new successor to Eternal Champions back in 2017 under the title "Eternal Successors". I haven't found any other info on a remake of the game that's dated.

There was a Panini sticker collection too. I still have mine!

Eternal Champions was one of the few games I had as a kid.

Speaking for all your subscribers: "We need you to interview Michael Latham please!"

I saved for months for the Activator. I've never been so crushed by reality vs. advertisement again.

I was a Master at this game, it was all about the timing for beating each character. Larcen Tyler was the best player to play with imo. And Trident and sometimes Shadow would be the hardest to beat. I could only beat the eternal champion as Larcen, beating the 🐅, 🦅,🦈, and 🐉. Weren't that hard. Just kinda tedious. Great game 👌

This game was a hit among my friends and I. It wasn't a clone of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. It had a look and feel of its own. The graphics weren't colorful and anime drawn like Street Fighter, nor were they digitized sprites like Mortal Kombat. It looked like a dark comic book with a noir atmosphere. It didn't play like SF or MK either. Eternal Champions stood on its own two feet and stood very tall and strong. I heard Sega didn't want to have two different fighting games in their library, so they shelved Eternal Champions to focus on the Virtua Fighter games. But not long after that made the Fighting Vipers game to stand beside VF. Makes no sense as to why they didn't pick back up and modernize the Eternal Champions series. They could've made one beastly 2D sequel on their 2D powerhouse Sega Saturn. I will never understand Sega's decision making process in the 90s. In just one decade they went from being #1 in the arcades and tied in popularity at home to a domino effect of bad decisions and failures. They had to have had the absolute dumbest leaders and management in the history of all companies in the universe.

Such a great, video. You're a treasure, Kim.

Welp, SEGA Japan just updated the Eternal Champions IP after announcing they are bringing back old IPs so let's see how that works out

Great video! I liked the Mega Drive version of this game very much and the synthesized electric guitar sound present in some of the songs. Of course as an FM sound it was still far from an accurate electric guitar sound, but it had lots of personality. Your video and all the behind-the-scenes info you brought makes me wonder what did this series have that made Sega of Japan dislike it that much. Being a Sega of America game isn't enough reason, in my opinion. Something might else might have happened. Who knows for sure? Thanks!