Game: Eternal Champions
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1993
Often compared to Street Fighter II, this game features 9 fighters all vying for a shot at the "Eternal Champion" position (which is inexplicably up for grabs, considering the "eternal" part). It's a pretty standard 1 vs 1 fighter, with one player, two player and training modes and the main mode being a tournament based fighting experience. Controller-wise the game is like Street Fighter II in dealing with the 3 button controller, using the start button to switch between punches and kicks, but properly mapping the controls to 6 button controllers.
The character design in the game isn't bad, there's marked differences between each character's story, looks and movesets. In terms of stats, the characters are also fairly balanced which helps in two player mode, my only real complaint would be that none of the characters stand out as new in terms of concept or fighting style. With a total of 9 playable characters, its fair to say there's not much choice, comparing the game to later versions of Street Fighter II which featured 12, and then 16 characters.
Graphically, the game features fairly detailed backgrounds as well as good animation and character sprites, in this respect it's even better than Street Fighter II. There's a good choice of locations and consequently backgrounds to choose from, and overkill moves to end fights with, similar to the Mortal Kombat series. Musically the game features a good selection of tracks, which work well with the fast paced action of the game.
In the main tournament mode the game's main problem becomes apparent. One player battles are made almost impossible by a strangely high difficulty level, (through 20+ attempts I couldn't get to even the second battle) which cannot even be altered. This leaves only the two player experience to be enjoyable which luckily since the characters are fairly balanced, and the fighting in game is well programmed works well. There's also adjustable fight speeds, although unfortunately only 3; Slow (which is far too slow), Normal and Overkill (which is far too fast). Inbetween speeds for both of these would be greatly appreciated although Overkill does show just how the fast the Mega Drive can run.
Overall this combination of factors makes the game feel like a somewhat unfinished product. The fighting feels good, and there's a decent amount of moves and finishers. The game also looks and sounds good, so its a shame to have to quit one player mode out of frustration at there being no difficulty setting, and the game is only really saved by getting a friend of similar skill to step in as an opponent, under which circumstances it can be pretty fun. More fighters and a slightly faster fighting speed would make this game an unbeatable Mega Drive fighter, but as it is, it works and that's pretty much it.
Rating: 69/100
Grade: C
Game: Primal Rage
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Probe Entertainment
Release Date: 1995
Primal Rage features a choice of 7 different prehistoric animals to fight as, all fitting into the categories of dinosaur or monkey. This is an incredibly limited fighter selection, worse than both the original Street Fighter II on SNES and the game I'm comparing it to in this review, Eternal Champions. Also the characters aren't nearly as varied as the latter, in fact I'm not even sure that some of them are different species.
The main mode sees you beating other fighters to control various parts of "Urth", the landmap of the game, and convert worshippers who are promptly eaten by the player before the final battle. There's also a large amount of blood involved in gameplay, capitalising on the gore craze stemming from Mortal Kombat on the Mega Drive. There's two ingame health gauges, the health one represented by a heart and the condition one represented by a brain, which once drained, immobilizes the player for a while.
Gameplay isn't as good here as on Eternal Champions, there's less moves and the control system revolves around 4 buttons, to accommodate those on 3 button controllers (the start button is also used to attack). It's also slower overall, and the animation is more in the style of Mortal Kombat, but 3 years after it things should have advanced some. The backgrounds are also less detailed than Eternal Champions, again coming a year after that game, there's no room for excuses. Musically the game isn't too bad although I prefer Eternal Champions, this does feel more epic which suits the fighting prehistoric animals.
Luckily unlike Eternal Champions, there's good difficulty options in this game; a scale of 1-20 being used to set difficulty to a precise level acceptable to the player, and allowing them to get better at the game. For two players, there's not many games where you can fight these kind of animals so it has appeal in that respect, however the choice of fighters and gameplay once again holds it back.
Overall Primal Rage is a good concept and the difficulty settings are as you'd want them to be in any fighting game. Graphically it's inferior in many ways and there's not as many moves or combos as many other fighting games. The heart and brain meters are a good idea, and work decently in game, but without more characters and a better overall fighting experience, the game falls flat as another half-baked concept. Its a fair amount of fun for two players, for a while but you'll most likely end up lusting for Street Fighter II.
Rating: 60/100
Grade: D
Between the two games, there's a clear winner. Although the difficulty options on Eternal Champions make the one player mode a nightmare, it plays wonderfully with two players, and I'd only consider choosing Primal Rage over it, if I had no-one else to compete against. Both games could be improved and they're no-where near the peak of fighting games, however there are good ideas and features in both. Thankfully the gaming industry saw to it that later games had more fighters, and customisable difficulty settings as standard.
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