For me, the Alpha 2 stages were my favs! I loved Rolentos stage. One day in the 90s, I was curious to see what the tip looked like when the elevator (from Final Fights Rolento stage) travels vertically. At the top, you get a beautiful view of New York (I think) Was one of my favs. But I love the all! Fei Long with a towel at round his neck eating an apple in Dans stage, Sakuras brother playing video games at her house whilst she fights outside, the toilets in Birdies stage, Ryus snow capped moonlit stage, Niagra falls in Charlie vs Bison stage 1 but that grass stage with that music? Perfection.
You mentioned a lot of my favourite stages already so im just gonna name a few, Ibuki 3s stage fantastic colors and details, great nature motive, love the Gato stage in Garou for the same reason, i also love the MvC2 clocktower stage in both variations but snowy one is a little cooler, the clocktower crumbles at the end of the match if you finished your opponent with certain moves too! Also love the CvS2 Osaka rooftop stage in the rain and the windmill stage, just soo chill and calming.
Vampire Savior has a lot of great stages too, love the Leilei stage for its colors and Tower of Arrogance for the crazy perspective, standing on the side of a building, lookin down to the ground 😀
Guardian Dogs Temple from SVC Chaos is a vibe. A true sense of uneasiness as you fight for a second chance at life. To this day I can’t get over how serious fighting on that stage felt; the music, the boss and atmosphere really push you to go all out.
The London stage in Capcom vs Snk and Tekken 7's Infinite Azure will always stick with me. Not so much for the stage design but the music really proved iconic for my friends and I.
I cant remember this one stage from some mugen game I think, it was like some sunset feudal setting with NO Music, just the sound of wind blowing. It was some samurai fighting mugen game.
For Tekken my favorites are definitely Moonlit Wilderness from TK5 the soundtrack of the stage is really fire and Vermillion Gates form Tekken 7 as i really like the Japanese architecture and the sakura trees around and the soundtrack is also fire , for Dragon Ball games usually my favorite is Hyperbolic Time Chamber specially on some dbz games the background changes and its really cool,
Hallway scene was masterful in its own way, but when you discover that scene at the same short timeframe that you did the protector club scene in your formative years, you gotta admit that you've just been spoiled. Nothing will ever measure up again till you see the bloopers..
Only then do you get the perspective of the planning and fire under everyone's ass to do it in one go. So amazing.
My favourite stages are always the ones based in London (CvS2 & TvC etc.), not so much because that's where I live but because the music is always great
I have a thing for the POKEFLOATS stage in Smash. Just something about the pacing of panning camera and the platforms that just pop into view that makes it so satisfying and fun.
I absolutely LOVE the dramatic stages: dark, foreboding, and isolating, with major points added for RAIN or a Thunderstorm in the background! It really hammers home that this fight is important and will major consequences for who loses and who wins. Examples: the raining OSAKA boss stage from CVS2, especially at low, howling theme. There's the HONMARU stage from Tekken 4, where only Jin/Kazuya/Heihachi. There's of course aforementioned FIELD stage from SFA. There's Moonlit Wilderness and GROUND ZERO FUNK from Tekken 5, the Castle Siege from Soul Calibur 3, the Volcano from T7… LOVE a dark and rainy battlefield!!
I had to subscribe regardless of the click bait which was a dope click bait because you are a fan of martial arts movies like me and ghost dog is a cult classic. Which means you are probably a Wu Tang Clan fan because RZA produced the soundtrack and was in the film. I love fighting games and all the games you mentioned I have. I am a big soul calibur fan, virtual fighter. I love MK games of course. Samurai Showdown is definitely a dope game and all the sequels. Dope content my man.
One of the my favorite stages is the home stage of Gordon in Savage Reign because of a funny detail: There are two policemen in the background, one that is very engaged in the combat and cheering up, and his partner that is trying to pull him off while shouting and gesturing they have duties to accomplish. That is seconded only by the stage of M.Bison in Street Fighter Alpha 2 where two of his henchmen are engaged in conversations, but as soon as M.Bison pass in front of them they stand still and salute their leader.
My brain goes to this one in The Art of Fighting 3 where it's partially the audio design of like… having Mardi Gras happening a few blocks down and you can hear distant marching band and crowd noise, but it's just that; distant, with the lights and glitz happening waaaaaaaay in the background while Ryo is punching Karman Cole in the face.
Sacred Grove in TFH is amazing as well. Tranquil forest with god rays casting down through the canopy of trees, the tranquil lake in the background and the big tree framed by the round start with the bumpin' bop is some INCREDIBLE stuff. Mixing in the dynamic music system is just gravy on top of that. I also dig Arizona stage for the sunset aesthetic and how the big archway of stone in the background makes it feel so vast, but honestly, most of the TFH backgrounds are pretty ACE and really use the space well.
I've always loved Necro's New Gen/2nd Impact Stage. Russian Mad Scientist lab on a train is kinda just a WILD ass stage theme to have going on, and my eyes are always drawn to the big person in the background messing around the jumper cables sparking the positives and negatives together. 2nd Impact gets a second shout-out as well for me LOVING gil's stage there where you get the shot of the starry sky with the pyramids and obilesks jutting out before panning down to Illuminati bearing witness to their Messiah's grand struggle.
I also find it interesting that you didn't mention the drug trip abstract background. Your various Final Destinations, Fetus of God, TVC's final boss encounter with Yami, whatever the weird ass hall of mirrors is when you fight Devil in Tekken 2, etc. When done right, these create that feeling of that epic final struggle. at worst, they are the most distracting sorts. some of the variants of Final Destination throughout the years seem intent on Flash-banging the players, for example.
Finally, I wanna point out a way to do the background cameo INCREDIBLY poorly, and most of the time it's in Platform fighters. I'm thinkin' the likes of the Yellow Devil in Dr. Wily's Castle in Smash 4, or any given stage in Playstation All-Stars where the devs are so hell-bent on making players notice the cameo that it distracts from the battle at hand.
Tekken 2; Kazuya Mishima's Eternal Darkness stage. The background may just be a fade to black, but the intricate, cathedral-style flooring paired with the iconic and reverbing "Emotionless Passion" console track really sells the ambience of a grim showdown with Kazuya and his Devil form, much more than following Hall of Mirrors and its background music, in my opinion. And it's the ONLY in-game stage to be featured in Tekken 2's promotional artwork. I'll take that as his Smash stage over the Mishima Dojo, any day.
Kinda wish you brought up destructible stages like DBFZ. Like how you could blow up Cell's Stage to create the destroyed crater just like in the anime. Or how in that game you can swat away projectiles and stuff and they fly into the background. In stages like the arena they do damage to Hercule's house.
I personally love the Calebcity vine where his home is burst into by fighting characters. He's just realizes there is nothing he can do and just goes back to eating his cereal. I hope at someone is able to recreate it.
I could listen to this man read a car repair manual. Dude's gifted in the ways of narration. Can't wait to see some of the Hustle Chronicles make their yt debut lmao
The interactivity of Dead or Alive stages, particularly from DOA2-4 always keeps me coming back to those games. One of my favorites is DOATEC HQ from DOA3, this beautiful glass building where you can either knock your opponent out the windows into a Chinese electric sign or you can knock them down into a secret lab in the center of the building. It's so sick
I haven't even played the game, but something just hits different on the alpha 2 grassland. There are many stages that hit that type of atmosphere, but I haven't seen any that can come close to the vibes on that one
This is an awesome video. I love this kind of talk about specifics in fighting games. I think stages can be overlooked when we get so involved in frame data, character metas, and everything else. One thing that really draws me to fighting games is the beautiful artwork. Arcsys obviously does this well, and some games like melty blood draw me in when I had no interest because I like the aesthetic of the stages.
All my fav stages are character specific stages, almost like their hoods. It feels like you get to know them a little more about them, especially when you play as them.
Man I gotta say that Rugal's '98 stage is possibly the most kickass stage ever. It's the Black Noah, the ship from '94 that you fought on AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN. And there's all the freaky monitors with the eyes, and the creepy machines and God it's so cool.
Hot take but I love the SVC Chaos stages, those stages look misterious, makes me ask "what happen in this land", there si an abandoned city, an abandoned church, a Big and strange factory, a flying Crystal with Jesus protecting it. Then I read the Manwas and I discover than the characters are in a limbo in the afterlife trying to survive
This is why I think The Grid -like stages should be banned from tournament play. Not because they give anyone advantages but because artists poured their lives into designing these stages and epic fights and we're all just going to shapeland??? Nah, man. Real fights in real places, get people pumped up. My personal favorite that I miss dearly is KoF 2000 aquarium stage with the guy in a seal costume in the background. That stage rules. I also really like how Arcana Heart 3 picked some random ass town in Massachusetts as a stage lol I don't even know who the fuck went to Franklin but they got it perfect
In games like Street Fighter or The King of Fighters, I hate when they fight in places where there's no one to be seen, or even worse, where the people in the background don't even pay attention to the fight.
SNK is the god of backgrounds, IMO. KOF 94-96 are just impressive and the best, no doubt; so much detail, crowded with spectators, that's the gold standard to me. KOF '99 went for a different style, with more solitaire stages, but they were very detailed anyway, and with great visual effects. Samurai Shodown 2 is just IN-CRE-DI-BLE, so much ambient.
Sadly from KOF 2000 onwards the King of Fighters series just used very dull and uninspired stages, with very few people watching the fight. And the worst (to me) was that they just started filling the stage with cameos (that looked terrible, IMO, with barely 2 to 3 frames of animation) to cover up the fact the stages were terrible, lacking detail and utterly uninspired (and for some people, IT WORKED!). Sadly the golden age of sprite artist was like 20 years ago, and we'll never see such great backgrounds as before…
For me, the Alpha 2 stages were my favs! I loved Rolentos stage. One day in the 90s, I was curious to see what the tip looked like when the elevator (from Final Fights Rolento stage) travels vertically. At the top, you get a beautiful view of New York (I think) Was one of my favs. But I love the all! Fei Long with a towel at round his neck eating an apple in Dans stage, Sakuras brother playing video games at her house whilst she fights outside, the toilets in Birdies stage, Ryus snow capped moonlit stage, Niagra falls in Charlie vs Bison stage 1 but that grass stage with that music? Perfection.
I absolutely love the Danger Room from Children of the Atom. Changing from jungle to space. Very dynamic and interesting locales all in one area.
8:00 Hahahaha duuuuude i never even saw him in the back, he just blended right into the crowd 😀
You mentioned a lot of my favourite stages already so im just gonna name a few, Ibuki 3s stage fantastic colors and details, great nature motive, love the Gato stage in Garou for the same reason, i also love the MvC2 clocktower stage in both variations but snowy one is a little cooler, the clocktower crumbles at the end of the match if you finished your opponent with certain moves too! Also love the CvS2 Osaka rooftop stage in the rain and the windmill stage, just soo chill and calming.
Vampire Savior has a lot of great stages too, love the Leilei stage for its colors and Tower of Arrogance for the crazy perspective, standing on the side of a building, lookin down to the ground 😀
sf2 ken stage man ….. best song capcom ever made
stages that have a lot of history behind em will always get my favor
Guardian Dogs Temple from SVC Chaos is a vibe. A true sense of uneasiness as you fight for a second chance at life. To this day I can’t get over how serious fighting on that stage felt; the music, the boss and atmosphere really push you to go all out.
Hmmm 2nd video of yours i watched and something tells me you a Tekken boy 👈
The London stage in Capcom vs Snk and Tekken 7's Infinite Azure will always stick with me. Not so much for the stage design but the music really proved iconic for my friends and I.
I cant remember this one stage from some mugen game I think, it was like some sunset feudal setting with NO Music, just the sound of wind blowing. It was some samurai fighting mugen game.
Dark Stalkers had GREAT idle bg animations, like demitri's harem. But KOF13 is too fckin amazing.
For Tekken my favorites are definitely Moonlit Wilderness from TK5 the soundtrack of the stage is really fire and Vermillion Gates form Tekken 7 as i really like the Japanese architecture and the sakura trees around and the soundtrack is also fire , for Dragon Ball games usually my favorite is Hyperbolic Time Chamber specially on some dbz games the background changes and its really cool,
Is Karin's stage in SFV based on a real place or just lifted right out of the Last Blade series?
Hallway scene was masterful in its own way, but when you discover that scene at the same short timeframe that you did the protector club scene in your formative years, you gotta admit that you've just been spoiled. Nothing will ever measure up again till you see the bloopers..
Only then do you get the perspective of the planning and fire under everyone's ass to do it in one go. So amazing.
Its cool the hallway scene was remade in sifu. Looks so sick
No mention of Charlotte’s stage in Samurai Shodown 2 with the sick artwork of all the characters fighting against the boss Mizuki.
My favourite stages are always the ones based in London (CvS2 & TvC etc.), not so much because that's where I live but because the music is always great
Bro… SF2? MK1 & Mk2? WTF????
I have a thing for the POKEFLOATS stage in Smash. Just something about the pacing of panning camera and the platforms that just pop into view that makes it so satisfying and fun.
Great videos, keep it up
I absolutely LOVE the dramatic stages: dark, foreboding, and isolating, with major points added for RAIN or a Thunderstorm in the background! It really hammers home that this fight is important and will major consequences for who loses and who wins. Examples: the raining OSAKA boss stage from CVS2, especially at low, howling theme. There's the HONMARU stage from Tekken 4, where only Jin/Kazuya/Heihachi. There's of course aforementioned FIELD stage from SFA. There's Moonlit Wilderness and GROUND ZERO FUNK from Tekken 5, the Castle Siege from Soul Calibur 3, the Volcano from T7… LOVE a dark and rainy battlefield!!
Sifu game has the old boy scene re-created.
Click bait I was looking for Morpheus vs ghost dog aka Forest Whitaker. You had it in the thumbnail.
I had to subscribe regardless of the click bait which was a dope click bait because you are a fan of martial arts movies like me and ghost dog is a cult classic. Which means you are probably a Wu Tang Clan fan because RZA produced the soundtrack and was in the film. I love fighting games and all the games you mentioned I have. I am a big soul calibur fan, virtual fighter. I love MK games of course. Samurai Showdown is definitely a dope game and all the sequels. Dope content my man.
One of the my favorite stages is the home stage of Gordon in Savage Reign because of a funny detail: There are two policemen in the background, one that is very engaged in the combat and cheering up, and his partner that is trying to pull him off while shouting and gesturing they have duties to accomplish.
That is seconded only by the stage of M.Bison in Street Fighter Alpha 2 where two of his henchmen are engaged in conversations, but as soon as M.Bison pass in front of them they stand still and salute their leader.
My brain goes to this one in The Art of Fighting 3 where it's partially the audio design of like… having Mardi Gras happening a few blocks down and you can hear distant marching band and crowd noise, but it's just that; distant, with the lights and glitz happening waaaaaaaay in the background while Ryo is punching Karman Cole in the face.
Sacred Grove in TFH is amazing as well. Tranquil forest with god rays casting down through the canopy of trees, the tranquil lake in the background and the big tree framed by the round start with the bumpin' bop is some INCREDIBLE stuff. Mixing in the dynamic music system is just gravy on top of that. I also dig Arizona stage for the sunset aesthetic and how the big archway of stone in the background makes it feel so vast, but honestly, most of the TFH backgrounds are pretty ACE and really use the space well.
I've always loved Necro's New Gen/2nd Impact Stage. Russian Mad Scientist lab on a train is kinda just a WILD ass stage theme to have going on, and my eyes are always drawn to the big person in the background messing around the jumper cables sparking the positives and negatives together. 2nd Impact gets a second shout-out as well for me LOVING gil's stage there where you get the shot of the starry sky with the pyramids and obilesks jutting out before panning down to Illuminati bearing witness to their Messiah's grand struggle.
I also find it interesting that you didn't mention the drug trip abstract background. Your various Final Destinations, Fetus of God, TVC's final boss encounter with Yami, whatever the weird ass hall of mirrors is when you fight Devil in Tekken 2, etc. When done right, these create that feeling of that epic final struggle. at worst, they are the most distracting sorts. some of the variants of Final Destination throughout the years seem intent on Flash-banging the players, for example.
Finally, I wanna point out a way to do the background cameo INCREDIBLY poorly, and most of the time it's in Platform fighters. I'm thinkin' the likes of the Yellow Devil in Dr. Wily's Castle in Smash 4, or any given stage in Playstation All-Stars where the devs are so hell-bent on making players notice the cameo that it distracts from the battle at hand.
These open field dark sky cloudy tall grass levels always get me
Oh yeah and I love how games like powerstone have the levels that force you to roam
My favourite stage is fight on a Moving Train on Megaman X4
Tekken 2; Kazuya Mishima's Eternal Darkness stage. The background may just be a fade to black, but the intricate, cathedral-style flooring paired with the iconic and reverbing "Emotionless Passion" console track really sells the ambience of a grim showdown with Kazuya and his Devil form, much more than following Hall of Mirrors and its background music, in my opinion. And it's the ONLY in-game stage to be featured in Tekken 2's promotional artwork. I'll take that as his Smash stage over the Mishima Dojo, any day.
Moonlit Wilderness is top tier in both the scene and the music.
Kinda wish you brought up destructible stages like DBFZ. Like how you could blow up Cell's Stage to create the destroyed crater just like in the anime. Or how in that game you can swat away projectiles and stuff and they fly into the background. In stages like the arena they do damage to Hercule's house.
Every game needs a wrestling/boxing ring and a train stage. You have failed me if you did neither.
No love for the undulating stages in Virtua Fighter 3? I personally loved Jeffery’s small island stage and Wolf’s endless desert stage.
I personally love the Calebcity vine where his home is burst into by fighting characters.
He's just realizes there is nothing he can do and just goes back to eating his cereal.
I hope at someone is able to recreate it.
Being from New Orleans me and the homies would brawl on that stage all day in Alpha 1
Plus the music rocked
I could listen to this man read a car repair manual. Dude's gifted in the ways of narration. Can't wait to see some of the Hustle Chronicles make their yt debut lmao
The interactivity of Dead or Alive stages, particularly from DOA2-4 always keeps me coming back to those games. One of my favorites is DOATEC HQ from DOA3, this beautiful glass building where you can either knock your opponent out the windows into a Chinese electric sign or you can knock them down into a secret lab in the center of the building. It's so sick
I haven't even played the game, but something just hits different on the alpha 2 grassland. There are many stages that hit that type of atmosphere, but I haven't seen any that can come close to the vibes on that one
This is an awesome video. I love this kind of talk about specifics in fighting games. I think stages can be overlooked when we get so involved in frame data, character metas, and everything else. One thing that really draws me to fighting games is the beautiful artwork. Arcsys obviously does this well, and some games like melty blood draw me in when I had no interest because I like the aesthetic of the stages.
All my fav stages are character specific stages, almost like their hoods. It feels like you get to know them a little more about them, especially when you play as them.
Man I gotta say that Rugal's '98 stage is possibly the most kickass stage ever. It's the Black Noah, the ship from '94 that you fought on AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN. And there's all the freaky monitors with the eyes, and the creepy machines and God it's so cool.
Hot take but I love the SVC Chaos stages, those stages look misterious, makes me ask "what happen in this land", there si an abandoned city, an abandoned church, a Big and strange factory, a flying Crystal with Jesus protecting it. Then I read the Manwas and I discover than the characters are in a limbo in the afterlife trying to survive
This is why I think The Grid -like stages should be banned from tournament play. Not because they give anyone advantages but because artists poured their lives into designing these stages and epic fights and we're all just going to shapeland??? Nah, man. Real fights in real places, get people pumped up.
My personal favorite that I miss dearly is KoF 2000 aquarium stage with the guy in a seal costume in the background. That stage rules. I also really like how Arcana Heart 3 picked some random ass town in Massachusetts as a stage lol I don't even know who the fuck went to Franklin but they got it perfect
Great video man
In games like Street Fighter or The King of Fighters, I hate when they fight in places where there's no one to be seen, or even worse, where the people in the background don't even pay attention to the fight.
SNK is the god of backgrounds, IMO.
KOF 94-96 are just impressive and the best, no doubt; so much detail, crowded with spectators, that's the gold standard to me.
KOF '99 went for a different style, with more solitaire stages, but they were very detailed anyway, and with great visual effects.
Samurai Shodown 2 is just IN-CRE-DI-BLE, so much ambient.
Sadly from KOF 2000 onwards the King of Fighters series just used very dull and uninspired stages, with very few people watching the fight.
And the worst (to me) was that they just started filling the stage with cameos (that looked terrible, IMO, with barely 2 to 3 frames of animation) to cover up the fact the stages were terrible, lacking detail and utterly uninspired (and for some people, IT WORKED!).
Sadly the golden age of sprite artist was like 20 years ago, and we'll never see such great backgrounds as before…
Kim's stage on kof '94 & '95: the thunter cracking and the rain gives an excellent atmosphere.
The church stage of Nightmare. In SC2 while 'rise thy sword' plays,it just give me the chills.
And all of m bison temple stages
dude is just flexing the places he been to lmaoo worst type of person get out my recomends