Consider, if you will, the humble character selection screen. You see them in a variety of game genres, fromfighting gamesto racing to the occasional platformer.
The purpose of a character selection screen isn’t just to give you a menu to pick a playable character; it’s about setting the tone for the game to come.
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A truly great character selection screen has cool artwork and graphics, awesome tunes, and generally makes all the playable characters look equally eye-catching.
Let’s take a trip back and highlight some of the coolest, most distinctive character selection screens in gaming.
To keep things interesting, we’re keeping things to one screen per series, or else half of these would have the same characters.
10Marvel vs. Capcom 2
I’m Gonna Take You For A Ride
Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
Marvel vs. Capcom 2is technically the fourth game in Capcom’s versus series of fighting games, followingX-Men vs. Street Fighter,Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, andMarvel vs. Capcom.
As the culmination of three previous games’ worth of characters,Marvel vs. Capcom 2naturally had to go whole-hog with it.
When you first enter the character selection screen, you’re greeted with the massive holographic globe, onto which appear the game’stitanic 56-character roster.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention that classic earworm of a theme song.
Fun fact, the game’s soundtrack was actually considered a negative back in its day. In spite of that, the character selection theme has endured.
9Super Smash Bros.
“FREE FOR ALLLLL!”
Super Smash Bros.
The originalSuper Smash Bros.for the N64 was Nintendo’s first genuine shot at creating a novel fighting game, and what a shot it was.
Arguably the cornerstone of this game’s excellent presentation was its character selection screen.
The jazzy theme song and stylish icons set the stage, but what really got you was the little 3D model animations.
While later Smash games would have larger, more stylistically elaborate character selection screens, the original one was the only one to have the models actually appear and animate like that.
8Super Mario Bros. 2
Raise Your Hand
Super Mario Bros. 2
Putting aside the whole “it’s not actually a Mario game" thing,Super Mario Bros. 2actually set a few standards that would stick with the series into the modern day.
The first of these standards was multiple playable characters, plus a character selection screen to go with them.
Imagine being used to the originalSuper Mario Bros., where you’d just start the game as Mario or Luigi by default, only to boot up the sequel and be greeted by a whole four characters ready to go.
The most recent Mario platformers likeSuper Mario Wonderall have character selection now becauseSuper Mario Bros. 2put its foot in the door.
7Mortal Kombat
Love Those Janky Portraits
Mortal Kombat (1992)
In a time when everyone else was using traditional sprites, the originalMortal Kombatthrew a Hail Mary with itsdigitized actors.
The character selection screen sets this ambitious move on full display, showing not just the actor sprites on the bottom corners, but giving you a good look at their faces in the center icons.
By today’s standards, it obviously looks a little janky, especially compared to the elaborate presentation ofMortal Kombat 1.
Remember, though, the series maintained this approach up throughMortal Kombat 3.
No matter how janky it was, it was distinct enough to work.
6Super Mario Kart
Look At ‘Em Spin
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario Karton the SNES was another first for Nintendo, bringing Mario behind the wheel for a new kind of racing gameplay.
Compared to some of the menus ofgames to come, the original’s character selection is rather humble.
It just has the characters on little view screens zooming by while you pick your favorite.
What was neat, though, is that highlighting a character had them spin in place.
This served as a little appetizer of the game’s proprietary Mode 7 3D, one of the elements that really madeSuper Mario Kartdistinct.
No More Slate Gray
The first twoTekkengames had mostly identical character selection screens.
You had a solid, slate gray background, a bar full of character icons on the bottom, and two windows with some mildly aggressive closeups on your highlighted character.
Tekken 3, though, injected a little more style into its character selection screen.
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It’s a similar layout, with the icons on the bottom and the windows in the middle.
However, the character portraits are a little taller, giving you a better profile, and the art makes them look much cooler.
Speaking of, there’s also a cool elevator effect in the background, making you feel like you’re on your way to another big fight.
4Soulcalibur 2
A Little Verticality Works Wonders
Soulcalibur II
The originalSoul Blade, also being a Namco game, had a similarly bland character selection screen likeTekken.
Soulcaliburwasn’t much better, still using the icon bar and windows, but swapping out the boring background with a colorful gradient.
The game that really got things going wasSoulcalibur 2.
The character icons were moved to the center, while the sides were used to fully show off your selected character’s model, encased in flickering colored flames.
As a little cherry on top, whenever you selected your character, they’d perform a dramatic zoom-in with a cool pose and quip.
3Guilty Gear X2
Awesome Music, Awesome Art
Guilty Gear X2
The first twoGuilty Geargames had the makings of an excellent character selection screen, but couldn’t quite seal the deal.
The first game hadawesome musicand the second had cool character art, butGuilty Gear X2brought those elements together with a good-looking menu.
The original release of X2 presented its characters in a nifty circular menu, with the highlighted fighters shown as exceptionally detailed anime art on the side.
Subsequent versions of X2 swapped the circular menu for a more traditional spread menu, though it kept the character art and awesome rock music.
2Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
“Better Not Let The Dark Side Win!”
Sonic Adventure 2
Fun fact: the original Dreamcast version ofSonic Adventure 2did have multiplayer, but it was severely limited in terms of characters, maps, and even just general presentation.
This is probably why the version most of us remember is the GameCube port,Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.
The Battle version added a bunch of new multiplayer content, including more characters and maps for each game mode and a flashy new menu to put it all in.
If you grew up a GameCube kid in the early 2000s, you’ve undoubtedly got the character selection screen and its theme music permanently seared into your mind.
1Street Fighter 2
All Around The World
Street Fighter 2
Naturally, no discussion of character selection screens would be complete withoutStreet Fighter 2, the game that really evolved fighting games as a whole.
The originalStreet Fighterdidn’t even have a character selection, sinceyou could only play as Ryu, soStreet Fighter 2’s menu was a major step in more ways than one.
The menu itself was simple, yet distinct, showing the character icons in a couple of bars with artwork on the side.
One cool thing about this menu was that you could see where every character was from on the map up top, which you’d return to between fights to see where you’re headed next.
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