As was the case with the first game, ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' followed the story of the Eternal Champion, who had felt the balance of the universe and time be disturbed by the deaths of key individuals who were meant to change the world for the greater good, and so to restore the balance, he held a great contest in which the winner would be granted the gift of life back to them, allowing them to fulfill their rightful destiny.
But in this second chapter, it is revealed that the Eternal Champion has an evil counterpart: the Dark Champion. The Dark Champion appears and declares that he also will enter the contest, and that he has hidden four more warriors, preventing the contest from truly being fulfilled. Now the contestants must not only face the Eternal Champion, but the Dark Champion as well, if they want their lives back.
''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' improves upon many factors of the first game's presentation. Some of the changes include:
- Larger character lineup: Bumped up from 9 fighters (plus a boss) in the first game to 13 playable characters, plus two bosses and several hidden fighters, making for a grand total of 25 characters.
- New soundtrack: A brand new soundtrack was written for this game, which takes advantage of Q-Sound technology.
- Better sound effects: Taking advantage of the CD format, the developers improved upon all of the sounds from the first game, making the voices sound cleaner and providing much better fighting sounds.
- Tighter gameplay: The special moves from the first game were rebalanced and take up less energy than before, thus making them easier to use. Also, new moves called "Cinekills" were added, which rewarded a player that could perform one with a short FMV of their opponent's often greusome demise at the hands of the Dark Champion.
- Improved graphics: ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' is the only known Sega CD game to be able to display 256 colors on screen at once, a major improvement over the first game's 64 colors and effectively the only time the Sega CD ever matched the color outputs of other systems at the time, like the Super NES and PC .
- ''Shadow Yamoto'': Hailing from 1993 AD, Shadow was a corporate assassin working from the Black Orchid Corporation in Japan . She was killed by being thrown from the corporation's roof after finding out about their illegal methods of business.
Fighting style: Taijutsu and Ninjitsu
- ''Larcen Tyler'': Hailing from 1920 AD, Larcen was a Cat Burglar from Chicago who worked for a crime boss named Mr. Taglalini. He was killed when sent to plant a package on a supposed rival crime boss in the hospital, only to find the package was a bomb and his real target was the police chief.
Fighting style: Praying Mantis Kung Fu
- ''Midknight'': Hailing from 2100 AD, Midknight was once a scientist turned into a Vampire by a virus he created that the CIA wanted to use to end the Vietnam War . He had spent 133 years looking for a cure and was murdered in London by an Interpol agent, who shot a magnesium stake into his heart.
Fighting style: Jeet Kune Do
- ''Slash'': Hailing from 50,000 BC, Slash was a prime example of the first Cavemen to show early signs of intelligence and cunning. He was stoned by his tribe when he spoke out against their ways and tried to propose Agriculture to his people.
Fighting style: Pain
- ''R.A.X. Coswell'': Hailing from 2345 AD, R.A.X. was a champion of Muay Thai in his time, but was rejected when the fights turned to cybernetic battlers instead. R.A.X. forced himself to get Cyborg upgrades, and was killed when a crooked sponsor paralyzed him with a Computer Virus during a heated match with the reigning champion.
Fighting style: Muay Thai
- ''Jetta Maxx'': Hailing from 1899 AD, Jetta was the cousin to Czar Nicholas II , but rejected her royal background for life as a performer in the circus. She was a pacifist her entire life and was killed during a performance in China when she tried to dissuade a human rights group from using violence to solve their issues.
Fighting style: Savate and Pencak Silat
- ''Trident'': Hailing from 110 BC, Trident was a warrior from Atlantis who was set to battle the Romans for control of the land. The fight was rigged, however, and he was crushed under a stone pillar by his opponent.
Fighting style: Capoeira
- ''Xavier Pendragon'': Hailing from 1692 AD, Xavier was an Alchemist who had discovered a new clean burning fuel that could give off tremendous loads of power, but he was captured and burned at the stake, mistaken for a Warlock .
Fighting style: Hapkido cane fighting
- ''Jonathan Blade'': Hailing from 2030 AD, Blade was once a police officer, but was fired for his hotheaded attitude. He turned to life as a Bounty Hunter and had almost succeeded in capturing a rogue scientist threatening to release a virus that could kill 95% of the world's population. His operation was sabotaged, and Blade was assassinated by the very government he was hired by in the first place.
Fighting style: Kenpo
- ''Riptide'': Hailing from 1566 AD, Riptide was born Sophia DeMedici and became a Pirate on the high seas after being forced into an arranged marriage. She was feared by many pirates since she usually attacked the most vicious ones. She had discovered the stolen treasure of a rival pirate named Hannibal, when Hannibal snuck up on her and killed her with a blow to the head from a shovel.
Fighting style: Kajukenbo
- ''Raven Gindar'': Hailing from 1802 AD, Raven was a White Magic Voodoo preistess who was respected by the natives of her village. The village elder, Raknook, resented this respect, and called for Raven, feigning illness. When she was alone with him, Raknook invoked a powerful Black Magic spell that used her artifact, a mystic Hourglass , to sap her life force and feed it to himself, rejuvinating him and leaving Raven for dead.
Fighting style: Hsing I Kung Fu and Tae Kwon Do
- ''Ramses III'': Hailing from 151 BC. Ramses III was the last great Pharaoh of Egypt . He was brave and bold, but had a fear of drowning, as he never learned to swim. While sitting on a hill overlooking the Nile River , Ramses turned his attention to the construction of a new Pyramid , and in that one moment, his trusted servant shoved him off the cliff and into the raging waters below.
Fighting style: Hung Gar Kung Fu
- ''Dawson McShane'': Hailing from 1849 AD, Dawson was a lone wolf who had a repuation in Europe as an unbeaten gambler and barroom brawler. He came to the United States during the gold rush and got caught up in the affairs of a crooked landowner, whose son murdered the sheriff. Determined to bring them to justice, Dawson captured the landowner's son, but was caught by the landowner himself and hung at the gallows before they could be brought before a judge.
Fighting style: Shotowando (a mixture of Shotokan , Kickboxing , and old-fashioned barroom brawling)
The game generated plently of early excitement based on its impressive computer generated cut scenes, and a wide range of diverse playable characters and secret Easter Eggs that seemed to test the power of the system. However, by 1994 many consumers had already lost faith in the Sega CD and were frustrated with Sega Of America for releasing a CD-ROM system that was not a true hardware upgrade. The fact that Sega had already announced its plans for the Sega Saturn and Sega 32X further dampended the response to the game as it was seen as too little, too late.
The game earned an M (for Mature) rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board for its graphic violence and gore.
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