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''Eternal Champions'' is a fighting game originally conceived by Scott Berfield, produced by Mike Latham for Sega of America, and developed by Sega Interactive Development Division in . It was one of the only fighting games of its time developed from the ground up as a home console title, rather than being released in arcades first and later ported to home systems, as was the standard during that era. Sega released ''Eternal Champions'' for their Mega Drive/Genesis in 1993, hoping to capitalize on the fighting game mania that the game industry was in the midst of following the massive success of ''Street Fighter II'' (1991) and ''Mortal Kombat'' (1992). The game tried to set itself apart with unique features like a heavier emphasis on its story, characters pulled from different time periods, reflectable projectiles, force fields, fighters that carried weapons, a training mode where players had to defend themselves against robotic traps, a novel method of executing moves, and elaborate stage-specific finishing moves called "Overkills". Two years later, the sequel ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' (sometimes known as ''Eternal Champions CD'' or ''Eternal Champions 2'') was released for the Mega-CD/Sega CD. There were also two spin-offs, action/adventure games set in the ''Eternal Champions'' universe and featuring some of its characters. ''Eternal Champions'' was added to the Wii's Virtual Console download service on December 3, 2007, where it became the first game to be rated 18 by PEGI in the service. ==Gameplay== The game followed the typical eight-way directional pad/stick with six-button layout common to most fighting games at the time (more commonly in this case, ''Street Fighter II''), forcing users of the standard three-button Mega Drive/Genesis controller to purchase a more elaborate, six-button controller or else use an inconvenient method of switching between punches and kicks by pressing start, as this game was especially developed to be played with the Sega Activator. The joystick or D-pad is used to move away, towards, jump and crouch. There were three punches and three kicks that vary based upon speed and power. The weakest punches and kicks are fast but do minimal damage, medium attacks are a good mix of recovery speed and damage, and strong attacks are the most powerful but recover the slowest. Attacks can be blocked by pressing away (for high attacks) or down and away (for low attacks). Grapples are executed by standing close to an opponent and pressing toward or away and either medium or the strong punch button. These attacks cannot be blocked or escaped. Each character has their own unique special attacks that are performed differently from those of other characters. If a character is hit several times in a row they become "dizzy" and their opponent can land a free attack. In ''Eternal Champions'', all special move commands are performed by either pressing multiple buttons together, or holding back or down to charge and then pressing towards or up together with a button. There are no rolling motions in this game, and a given special move may only be performed with a specific button. As seen in ''Art of Fighting'' released the previous year, ''Eternal Champions'' has a "special attack meter" that decreases each time a character performed a special move such as a projectile; different special attacks decreased the meter by different amounts and the characters each have a taunt move that decreases their opponent's special attack meter as well. This feature gave ''Eternal Champions'' an added element of strategy that made it unique among similar titles of its genre at the time, though it was not without its critics: while its intention was to keep the action fast-paced by preventing fighters from trading endless projectiles from opposite ends of the screen and barring players from cheap wins due to repeated hits on opponents trapped at the edge of the screen, players found they could exploit the game's controls to achieve wins by retreating into a defensive shell to constantly recharge their meter or by circumventing special moves altogether and blitzing their opponent with a flurry of simple button presses. Characters that had more dynamic normal attacks tended to dominate. A problem with the special attack meter on the Sega Mega Drive original game is that when in tournament mode (the main single player arcade mode), the computer opponent operates independently of its special attack power availability. In other words, the computer can repeatedly do special moves even after its meter has reached zero. The game introduces stage-specific finishing moves called Overkills. These are performed by defeating an opponent such that they fall upon a certain area of ground. If they land in the right spot, the life bars disappear and some element of the background kills them. The Overkills include being pulled underwater and mauled to death by carnivorous plants in Trident's stage, knocked into the flaming stake in Xavier's stage, electrocuted and vaporized by the neon sign in Shadow's stage, eaten whole and then having an item of clothing or weapon spat out by a Tyrannosaurus in Slash's stage, killed in a drive-by shooting in Larcen's stage, getting frozen and disintegrated before being swept up by robots in R.A.X's stage, being swallowed up by an earthquake in Jetta's stage, having a napalm bomb dropped on the loser's body in Midknight's stage, and getting knocked into a large exhaust fan in Blade's stage. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eternal Champions」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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