Focus on the background: animated GIFs of fighting game stages
May 11, 2013 7:28 AM   Subscribe

"I have a huge collection of fighting game backgrounds as gifs. Figured you guys might appreciate it."
posted by filthy light thief (27 comments total) 53 users marked this as a favorite
 
The reddit thread has a few more backgrounds not included in this collection (example: Fetus of God from Darkstalkers), and plenty of GIF Sounds (GIF Sound, previously).
posted by filthy light thief at 7:32 AM on May 11, 2013 [3 favorites]


This is awesome. But what's with all the sailing ships? Is there a high-seas pirate fighting game series that I was unaware of?
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:41 AM on May 11, 2013


I'm not sure. There are no credits to the games, and I'm not that well versed in fighting games, so I'll leave it up to others to figure out what's what. Then again, someone might have already made a list.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:43 AM on May 11, 2013


It's like a finger pointing at the moon... don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory.
posted by Artw at 7:47 AM on May 11, 2013 [2 favorites]


Oh no. Now I have Guile's song stuck in my head again.
posted by painquale at 7:48 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Now someone needs to connect these all together in a Sierra-style adventure game.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:49 AM on May 11, 2013 [6 favorites]


I like the monkey scrubbing his back in the pool while the others applaud.
posted by arcticseal at 7:53 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


This is awesome. But what's with all the sailing ships? Is there a high-seas pirate fighting game series that I was unaware of?
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:41 AM on May 11
[+] [!]


Fighting games, like all media, have certain tropes and standards to fall back on -- primarily to orient the audience in space and time within the game. Without even looking at the .gifs I can list off a few common "geographical" tropes of fighting games.

1. Ship/dockyards (as you mention)
2. Forbidden temples
3. Crowded city streets
4. Evil overlord's lair
5. Casino
6. Wasteland
7. Sea base
8. Airborne somehow
9. Space/sci fi location
10. Dimensional rift

Etc.
posted by Avenger at 8:36 AM on May 11, 2013 [5 favorites]


Now I see that transportation of all kinds is a major trope in these .gifs. Interesting.
posted by Avenger at 8:42 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Lots of these are from SNK games, and they had series set both in the present (KOF, Fatal Fury, etc) and the past (Samurai Shodown, Last Blade) so there's a nice diversity of environments.

These backgrounds always reduce the location to a cliche or slogan (so, every London one has a double decker) which is both interesting and unsettling. The most recent KOF, in particular, has backgrounds which are inexcusably racist. Which is a shame, because it's a great game otherwise and the HD resolution does wonders for 2D art.
posted by selfnoise at 8:54 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Needs more International Karate III.
posted by usonian at 9:00 AM on May 11, 2013




The Alhambra is an interesting choice.

I think I recognize a few of these - probably from Samurai Showdown or something - but I can't definitely place them.
posted by LionIndex at 9:11 AM on May 11, 2013


I noticed a lot of these bystanders are completely indifferent to the fighting going on right next to them. You've got a sexy vampire witch shooting green fireballs at a 15 foot tall space alien wearing pink and yellow armor, and people in the background are "meh".

Also, I have a feeling this will be appreciated in this thread.
posted by Brocktoon at 9:21 AM on May 11, 2013 [4 favorites]


And I can't match a lot of these with the games either, but I did see that the KoF backgrounds tend to have "KoF" somewhere in the scene.
posted by Brocktoon at 9:23 AM on May 11, 2013


The most recent KOF, in particular, has backgrounds which are inexcusably racist.

Can you elaborate on this? I'm guessing that would be somewhere beyond the usual heavy-handed clichés.
posted by acb at 9:39 AM on May 11, 2013


E. Honda's sumo court from Street Fighter is in there, and there are definitely some thematic consistencies between the different backgrounds. I'm guessing that all the ones with the ominous 6-story pagoda with blood flowing from it are from one game; the ones with the black ball shooting lightning are another. There are some clues for manufacturers in there too - I saw a couple with SNK somewhere, another with Neo-Geo.
posted by LionIndex at 10:38 AM on May 11, 2013


The most recent KOF, in particular, has backgrounds which are inexcusably racist.

Can you elaborate on this? I'm guessing that would be somewhere beyond the usual heavy-handed clichés.


Sure. Here's a blog post on what's probably the worst stage. This post also mentions it.

In general, though, most of the stages feature incredibly broad cultural stereotypes gyrating frenetically. The Indian stage and chinese stage I remember being particularly bad, but I'll have to boot it up sometime to review as the internet is not being super helpful right now.

Which is not really a total departure from some other fighting games that feature world tours, but there's something about the animations in this particular game that have a mean spirited feel to me. I play a lot of 2D fighters and usually when some one else is watching, I end up embarrassed by the ridiculous female costumes, not the backgrounds.

Also, notably KOFXIII does not, IIRC, feature any of the black characters that have appeared in KOF games in the past.

(here's another decent kvetch)
posted by selfnoise at 11:09 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh, by the way, to answer an earlier question upthread:

This is awesome. But what's with all the sailing ships? Is there a high-seas pirate fighting game series that I was unaware of?

The first couple of ones that I saw with ships were all from either Last Blade or Last Blade 2, which take place IIRC during the Bakumatsu and have the backdrop of the dreaded Cmdr Perry. So they're meant to evoke a specific time and place appropriate to the game.

(BTW, those are awesome games and you should definitely play them)
posted by selfnoise at 11:12 AM on May 11, 2013


Oh and hey, if you like this stuff you could find yourself wasting quite a bit of time looking at the categories on Fight-A-Base.
posted by selfnoise at 11:18 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


These are INCREDIBLE and incredibly detailed; check the moving foot of either a dude straining to take a shit or Larry Craig in this one (right stall).
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:31 AM on May 11, 2013


Jonathan Mann wrote a funny song about the people in the background on Fatal Fury. (Skip to 2:40)
posted by roll truck roll at 1:25 PM on May 11, 2013




There was a fighting game in the mid to late 90's featuring mostly pirates and other nautical-themed characters, but its name is eluding me. Possibly a Neo-Geo game?
posted by whir at 2:56 PM on May 11, 2013


So. Much. Beauty.
Tell me this is not art.
These guys should get credit for their work.
Wow!
posted by djrock3k at 7:56 AM on May 12, 2013


This guy talks about the art of doing these captures, with lots of examples.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:43 AM on May 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


(Also, it seems surprisingly hard to set an animated gif as a wallpaper in ubuntu...)
posted by kaibutsu at 11:47 AM on May 12, 2013


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