It's no secret that 2D fighting games from the 90's and early 2000's featured some of the most beautifully frantic pixel-art backdrops in all of gaming. Many forum threads have sprung up over the years with the sole purpose of sharing animated GIF captures of some of Capcom and SNK's best work from that era and admiring the artistry on display. It would be a valid criticism of most modern fighting games to say that their backgrounds are generally less "alive" and filled with detail than their 90's predecessors, and one thing that I feel really helps those old backgrounds crackle with energy is the fact that many of them are littered with onlookers going absolutely ballistic.
Noticing the outlandish behavior of background observers in classic fighting game backgrounds has always been entertaining to me, so I thought I'd reach out to ERA and see if anyone else enjoys it as much as I do.
Let's start with a good example: Galford's stage from Samurai Shodown 2.
Here's a shot of the whole scene in motion. Just look at this. Nothing sells the intensity of the fight like a crowd of onlookers acting like they're witnessing the coolest shit that has ever happened in their entire lives.
Look at these dudes. The guy on the left is so amped up that he's essentially headbanging while choking his friend out of sheer, unbridled hype for the fight taking place on the dock in front of them. And the guy being choked is so jazzed about it that he doesn't even seem to mind. If anything, it looks like being choked is just juicing him up even more, judging by his tense, energized posture. Hell, even the cat can't help but be swept up in the thrill of it all.
This shark might be dead, but that's not stopping him from going HAM like the rest of the audience in attendance. Or maybe the guy above him is spinning the shark to add to the hype. Either way, nothing injects some intensity into a 1-on-1 fight like an open-mouthed shark spinning at 60rpm in the background.
This guy is clearly old and feeble, but he's fighting through brittle bones and a weakened constitution to rise to his feet and cheer on the action like a ravenous, wild animal. If this is the last thing he sees in his life, he will have died happy.
I think the guy in the top left here is my favorite in the entire scene. He looks so amped up, like he's about to pass out from adrenaline and testosterone overload. It's like he's mustering all the willpower in his being to not jump into the fight barehanded and start swinging on the armed combatants through sheer force of hype. Look at that fighting stance, those hyperventilated breaths... he's ready and raring to go.
I'll finish with this. Leave it to 90's fighting game backgrounds to make endlessly petting (or feeding?) a dog on loop look cool. It could just be black pixels meant to represent the dog's brow and eyes, but he almost looks to be wearing black sunglasses as well.
Noticing the outlandish behavior of background observers in classic fighting game backgrounds has always been entertaining to me, so I thought I'd reach out to ERA and see if anyone else enjoys it as much as I do.
Let's start with a good example: Galford's stage from Samurai Shodown 2.
Here's a shot of the whole scene in motion. Just look at this. Nothing sells the intensity of the fight like a crowd of onlookers acting like they're witnessing the coolest shit that has ever happened in their entire lives.
Look at these dudes. The guy on the left is so amped up that he's essentially headbanging while choking his friend out of sheer, unbridled hype for the fight taking place on the dock in front of them. And the guy being choked is so jazzed about it that he doesn't even seem to mind. If anything, it looks like being choked is just juicing him up even more, judging by his tense, energized posture. Hell, even the cat can't help but be swept up in the thrill of it all.
This shark might be dead, but that's not stopping him from going HAM like the rest of the audience in attendance. Or maybe the guy above him is spinning the shark to add to the hype. Either way, nothing injects some intensity into a 1-on-1 fight like an open-mouthed shark spinning at 60rpm in the background.
This guy is clearly old and feeble, but he's fighting through brittle bones and a weakened constitution to rise to his feet and cheer on the action like a ravenous, wild animal. If this is the last thing he sees in his life, he will have died happy.
I think the guy in the top left here is my favorite in the entire scene. He looks so amped up, like he's about to pass out from adrenaline and testosterone overload. It's like he's mustering all the willpower in his being to not jump into the fight barehanded and start swinging on the armed combatants through sheer force of hype. Look at that fighting stance, those hyperventilated breaths... he's ready and raring to go.
I'll finish with this. Leave it to 90's fighting game backgrounds to make endlessly petting (or feeding?) a dog on loop look cool. It could just be black pixels meant to represent the dog's brow and eyes, but he almost looks to be wearing black sunglasses as well.
