Your Top 3 2D Fighter Stages

[Phar]

Been playing a bit of Street Fighter Alpha 2 this evening, when I got upto Sakura and just thought what a fantastic stage, I just love the setting of it along with the kid sat in the living room playing his console, which got me to thinking what my other favourites are.



This stage from KOF99, the attention to detail is incredible and the fact that it starts out as a perfect summers day, by the second round it begins to get cloudy and by the third the heavens have opened make it one of my favourites.



The Manhattan stage from X-Men vs Street Fighter, Capcom just nailed the whole art style of this, looks just like it came straight from a Marvel comic, the destructible road that sends you fighting into the sewers is another thing I love about this stage.

[Iron Z]

Last Blade - the house on fire and starts to collapse is pretty damn good

Garou - Terry's train stage is CLASSIC snk style (ist also in KoF i think)

and a tie between Moriyas stage in Last Blade and the Challenge stage in SF Alpha 2...wavy grass + lightning = the win.

bonus mention for the original Pit stage in Mk...cos everyones jaw dropped the first time someone sent you flying off into the spikes!

[BigDeadFreak]

This stage from KOF99, the attention to detail is incredible and the fact that it starts out as a perfect summers day, by the second round it begins to get cloudy and by the third the heavens have opened make it one of my favourites.

I love the way SNK fighters have that feature in their stages. Whilst it's not the best game in the world, I really enjoyed that aspect of Real Bout Special when I had it on the Saturn.

For me one of the best stages has to be Balrog's/Vega's from Street Fighter II. Seeing hime dive down off the wire fence for the first time was amazing.

[eastyy]

got to say xmen children of the atom had some great stages

Like the danger room for example

[Kubrick]

Last Blade - the house on fire and starts to collapse is pretty damn good

Garou - Terry's train stage is CLASSIC snk style (ist also in KoF i think)

and a tie between Moriyas stage in Last Blade and the Challenge stage in SF Alpha 2...wavy grass + lightning = the win.

Agreed. These are pretty-much my favourites too.

I really like the way a lot of stages in SNK games evolve/change after each round.

[Skull Commander]

I'v always enjoyed E Honda's bath stage from Street Fighter 2. Very iconic.

For cheese factor the stage with the scary trees in Mortal Kombat 2 that growl at you. Also the first Mortal Kombat games first stage background with all the Monks in the crowd.

Also have a soft spot for Galford's dock scene in Samurai Shodown. Plenty of bustle and barrels to slice in half!

[Phar]

Last Blade - the house on fire and starts to collapse is pretty damn good

Thats the one where theres no soundtrack, just the sound of flames?, really like that stage as well, was also impressed with how SNK did the heatwave effect.

Few people mentioned MK, forgot how good some of those were tbh, not my favourites but the more I think about it there was loads of iconic stages from those games, as mentioned the Pit, Woods and also the acid stage.

Thinking about some more I really liked were ones that had reference to previous games like the traffic jam in KOF98 where you can see Neo Geo Land Arcade from KOF95 just in the distance, also the stage from Capcom Vs SNK where your fighting in a destructible wooden building, when one of the panels falls down you can see the convenience store from Ryu's stage in Street Fighter Alpha just over the road.

[crazymadone]

Chun-Li's stage in 3rd Strike is a personal favourite of mine (the one that's the Chinese market kind of thing), but the rest of the stages in 3rd Strike aren't that good compared to the first two SFIII games.

The stages in Samurai Spirits III are all pretty good. There's one I really like, it's in the mist in front of a temple. There's no music but a gong goes off every so often. And the Nakoruru snow stage.

And as mentioned before Honda and Vega's stages from SF2 are iconic, but I think the Ryu stage with the cannons is the most iconic of all

[Flabio]

I quite like the simplicity of the grassy field in the storm from the battle with Dictator in Alpha 3 (or was it 2? I can't remember).

[samanosuke]

1. Gato's stage from MotW - incredible animation on the waterfall, the setting sun and the epic music make this my favourite stage of all time.

2. Ryu's stage froom SFII: CE - an absolute classic, enhanced by the great music.

3. Don't know whose stage it is but the one in Capcom vs SNK for the DC with the huge shadows on the wall in the background.

[TheShend]

What I enjoy about this stage is that when you lose, the kid also loses his game then throws the pad down in frustration but when you win, he wins his game and celebrates. Lovely touch ^_^