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AtomVC Monday: Champions, Heroes, and more
Ah, another week, another Virtual Console update. This week brings us classics from Sega, Hudson, and Compile. First we have Eternal Champions, Sega's answer to both Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter for the Genesis. While not really the best fighter on the Genesis, it boasted many unique elements, as well as being much more story-driven than most fighting games of it's time. In fact, the story was one of the best parts of the game. Next up, The Dynastic Hero for the Turbografx CD. Basically an upgraded port of Wonder Boy in Monster World, The Dynastic Hero is still a fun, colorful platformer. It has a neat animated intro, too. Finally, there's Zanac, for the NES. Developed by Compile, who later went on to give us wonderful games like Puyo Puyo, Blazing Lazers, and the "Crush" series of pinball games for the TG-16, Zanac is a vertical shmup originally released in 1986. Perhaps the coolest part of Zanac is it's dynamic AI, that would adjust itself depending on the player's performance. Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of old school shmups or just want to check out some of Compile's early work.
All in all, not the best Virtual Console Monday, but not terrible, either. Zanac at the very least is worth checking out. Now that the holidays are coming up, though, let's all hope that the Christmas Eve VC update brings with it some of the VC games that fans have been clamoring for!
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One Response to “VC Monday: Champions, Heroes, and more”
Gaming Map
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Eternal Champions is exactly one of the reasons I want to see Sega announce support for Sega CD games on the Virtual Console (other than for Shining Force CD, that is), as without a shallow of a doubt, its successor proclaimed prominently as one of the best titles on Sega’s ill-fated upgrade to the Genesis hardware, titled Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side, puts the original game to shame, simply put.
Unfortunately, with the Sega CD’s decline in sales, especially thanks in part to Sega’s decision to announce the Saturn and 32X around Eternal Champion CD’s release, the game met with little fanfare, despite the constant praise the game had received from those who actually took the risk and effort to actually track down a copy of the game at retail stores across the country.
You know, I’m still rather bitter that the final installment in the trilogy, planned for the Sega Saturn as Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter, was canceled shortly after beginning production. For some reason, in Sega’s infinite wisdom, they found it necessary to cancel this promising fighting title in favor of further promoting Virtua Fighter in the US, which we all know has never really been that popular in North America compared to other fighters released around the same time.
The Virtua Fighter series has always been more popular in its native country, Japan, and while it was a novel plan for Sega to try to push VF in the United States, it didn’t necessarily mean that they had to outright cancel Eternal Champions: The Final Chapter as a result.