What if Sega preferred Eternal Champions?/Tattoo Assassins

Tattoo Assassins is a fighting game developed by the pinball division of Data East, which was released on the Arcades in March 1995 and on the Saturn and PlayStation in July and September of the same year. Spearheaded by Bob Gale (screenwriter for Back to the Future) and Joe Kaminkow (leader of Data East Pinball, now known as Stern Pinball), Tattoo Assassins was designed to be Data East's answer to Mortal Kombat.

Reception
Before, during and after it's release, Tattoo Assassins was met with negative reception by critics and gamers alike, for its irresponsive controls, missing animation frames, odd story and overall lack of originality. Nonetheless, it ended up being more successful than all installments of the Fighter's History series combined.

This led to fractures between the Japanese and American divisions of Data East. Even though Tattoo Assassins was a relative commercial success. It didn't do well enough to diminish Data East's financial problems. As a result, Data East launched a bid to be acquired in 1996. Sega acquired Data East before Christmas of the same year. However, both the Japanese and American divisions of Sega unanimously decided to fold Data East and hire all of it's employees to work for Sega. A decision which commenced on June of the following year.