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[ourumov]

Advice:
Don't transform this thread in a VS of fighting games, it's a mere analysis.

It's kinda curious how each iteration of the III series gave us worse and worse backgrounds. It's very surprising how New Generation is still the best when it comes to backgrounds.

For instance, let's do a comparison through the Elena backgrounds.

New Generation -> Features awesome sprites of Sagat and Adon doing a fight in the background. The waterfalls, chaman and guru are there too.

2nd Impact -> Loses the Sagat and Adon Sprites and his awesome fight... Other details were missed too.

3rd Strike -> Beats and Beats in a simplistic red backgrounds...

But this is not the only case ! A lot of backgrounds suffer from this. The Ibuki, Alex, Sean are other examples. Sometimes it's just details, others we are talking about full layers that disappear and others they re-change the whole background.
The example comes with the Ken Stage of New Generation. It's a nice street of the old Kyoto where to gayjins are hanging around with two Geishas (that's what I call Capcom style ). It features three layers and it's a nice background IMO...
Well, the fact is that it totally dissappeared in the following iterations. We all know and remember the docks from 2nd Impact with the yatch on the background or the shared background Ken has on 3rd Strike (shared with Alex).

I could go for hours and hours commenting about these little differences that have no explanation because I doubt the CPS-3 hasn't power to do SF3 backgrounds with awesome animation in characters always.
It's not that they affect gameplay nor make the games a lot ugglier just that I am a background-freak, specially in Street Fighter games. There are tons of details going on in the backgrounds that are nice to see when you are discovering the game (not in a tough battle or practising) and the pinnacle of all this will be SFZ2.
Probably that explains the fact that New Generation features the richest backgrounds since its release was very near to the SFZ2 (one year) while all the others appeared later being more near to SFZ3 which we all know it's not any beauty of backgrounds.

 

[Ferrio]

Same with the CvS series.

Though I orgasm evertime i see Makoto's walking animation.

 

[ourumov]

Kinda OT, but didn't start you playing with Yang ? I was waiting for your tips in that thread you made.

 

[anotheriori]

This most likely is due to the fact that more characters were added later on, they cut out background stuff (pretty much everything by 3s). Most of 3s stages are static with no life, unlike ng or 2i. I really liked the dynamic stages of ng/2i as well.. with pseudo destructable stages.

 

[Ferrio]

Kinda OT, but didn't start you playing with Yang ? I was waiting for your tips in that thread you made.

You want tips, from someone who *just * started playing yang and hasn't even tried it out on a human opponent yet?

 

[ourumov]

Yes that's another thing I liked. It reminded me about SF2. Yang's stage features two nice statues that can be broken and that contain other statues inside... the owner also changes his mood then

 

[ourumov]

Yes that's another thing I liked. It reminded me about SF2. Yang's stage features two nice statues that can be broken and that contain other statues inside... the owner also changes his mood then

Ooops...I thought you were more advanced XD Let's call it tips, let's call it impressions on combos/SA.
I like Yang a lot, although I find myself playing a lot better with Yun and that's a thing I hate.

 

[Ferrio]

Ooops...I thought you were more advanced XD Let's call it tips, let's call it impressions on combos/SA.
I like Yang a lot, although I find myself playing a lot better with Yun and that's a thing I hate.

Not much I really know, or I'm confident in.

Let's see.

-I use SAII

Main Combos I use:
c.mk, qcf+lpx3/EX qcf+px3
c.mk, SAII
c.lkx1-2, EX qcf+p
mp, hp, b+hp, SAII
Dive Kick, lk (c.lk), EX qcf+px3
Dive Kick, lk, mk, hk
Command Throw, EX qcf+px3


Main Pokes:
c.mk
hk
hp

Jump ins:
Dive Kick (mostly)
HK
MK, df+mk

 

[anotheriori]

for the most part yun > yang probably because the sa3 makes him top tier in the right hands.
Yang is supposed to be good with long SA bar i think it was SA2 (the kicks super) so c.lk or c.mk into ex slashes. I think SA1 would be good too for punishing stuff or 2 in 1 into super. or for randomly throwing out. Although SA2 from strong->fierce->back+fierce is free damage.. Most of his normals are pretty much like yun (liberal use of dive kicks, and command grab). No bar punish would probably be c.mk into slashes he also seems to have a better anti-air (vertical kick move) but probably isn't that good since it's easily parried.

yep just edited wasn't sure which was which.

 

[Ferrio]

The kick super is SAII. Good cause it's two bars, lots of EXs and decent damage.

c.mk, qcf+lpx1 Gives you frame advantage if blocked too.

 

[keeblerdrow]

I love how you derailed your own thread in 2 replies after specifically asking not to have the thread derailed.

 

[dog$]

I wouldn't say "worse and worse" is entirely true between the games, though; the main thing I noticed is that the shift in the focus of detail was very deliberate and noticeable. To over simplify each game's main theme of detail in backgrounds -

New Gen: Transitions
2nd Impact: Dimension
3rd Strike: Interaction

The majority of stages in New Generation have a lot of changes between the (first) three rounds of the fights; Elena's is very visible, I think Alex/Seans have a lot of traffic and spectator changes, Ken/Ryu's were touched on by the initial post, Ibuki's has a lot of time transitions, the weather changes dramatically in Dudley's stages, etc. Of course, a lot of the stages had very dynamic scope in the backgrounds, a lot of which wasn't visible in the game itself (no matter how high you hit people up in the screen), certainly not compared to 2nd Impact.

For 2nd the main thing I noticed was that a lot of the transitions between matches were gone, but a lot of the new stages simply conveyed a sheer sense of size and dimension which are completely unique to this game. Alex's new stage has a lot of activity in different "parallax" areas, Gill's stage just feels gigantic, Ken's boat almost dwarfs the players...

3rd Strike basically tosses all of the previous backgrounds out, and in static pictures they look very much like standard fare for fighting game backgrounds; enclosed spaces, small scope, no transitions like that of New Gen. Yet the main emphasis was on how the stages reacted to the fighting on screen: such as the bird on Ryu's roof that flaps up and down with supers. The shaking tables and stuff on them in Chun-Li's. The junk flying around in the subway stage.

I'm not sure if one form of background handling is better than the others, in this case; they all have good and bad elements and I don't think there's a clear case of one of the three being 100% preferrable.

... and what scares me in a way is that I could discuss just as much for differences in the music between each of the games. For three games of the same series, it's somewhat remarkable how different the 3 SF3 games really are.

 

[SiegfriedFM]

The problem with 3S is that many of the backgrounds are completely washed out and blurry. Remy, Dudley, Ibuki, Elena for example.

Alex's SF3 stage looks amazing with that wall graffiti...

I hate when Capcom does that. Same thing with Darkstalkers. First one had detailed and animated backgrounds, while the third has really weird and ugly ones (although still quite animated).

 

[Go Go Ackman!]

No thread is complete without screenshots.

 

[jett]

I'm one of the few that prefers the 3S backgrounds. They aren't as animated as the ones in NG/2I(not like these two were brimming with animation), but they look way more detailed to me. I like the art direction better too. NG/21 backgrounds look like something out of SFA2. They just look dated to me.

 

[DarkGiygas]

Some 3rd Strike bg's:

Akuma
Chun-Li
Elena
Gill
Ibuki
Necro
Oro
Urien
Yun

 

[Ferrio]

Beats in my head!

 

[Baron Aloha]

Gill's SF3:NG bg is my favorite from all the SF3 games.

 

[Kai Dracon]

Opinion: I far prefer the 3s backgrounds in most cases. The only thing I was disappointed by was the loss of Ken's awesome stage which was a tribute to the original SF2, and lack of unique backgrounds and theme music for everyone.

On the other hand I consider the stages in 3S (and the music) to be oh, more "mature" or advanced in art style, and look like more of a major progression for the series. Being a digital illustrator, I can tell ya how much talent and style is in some of those stages artistically.

 

[mint]

SNK도 이렇게 했으면 좋을 거에요

 

[XS+]

Only bg I miss from the SF3 series is Alex's from NG, and maybe Gill's 2I bg. I'm another person that prefers 3S's overall (although they have problems too, like two characters sharing bgs.. that's just lazy). Capcom was at an artistic high in 94-95 (with excellent bgs in A2 and MSH).

The music? For the series I always prefered 2I's house/D&B'ish soundtrack (but the sound quality in 2I annd NG just suck compared to 3S)

 

[Saturnman]

Some 3rd Strike bg's:

Akuma
Chun-Li
Elena
Gill
Ibuki
Necro
Oro
Urien
Yun

Can you post those Second Impact backgrounds as well? I haven't seen them in a while.

 

[DarkGiygas]

These are the only ones I've seen ripped...

Apparently NewGen/2i don't work properly with Chankast.

 

[anotheriori]

some of the backgrounds have a mirroring problem at the bottom.

 

[ourumov]

I am surprised you all love the 3S bakcgrounds the best. They are nice but I find them empty, lifeless and without what I call "Capcom Style".

 

[robox]

i don't really like the 3s backgrounds either. too boring.... most of them are in monotonic colour. doesn't help that the music aint all that great either.

cvs1 had far superiour presentation over everything... but the game... wasn't that great.