Favourite Stages

RopeDrink

Had a nice long friendly SF4 session with Cunny earlier when I felt compelled to MSG him after he chose SF4's Airfield at least 6-Times in a row. It's not that I mind the stage (quite like the music and upbeat nature of it) just it doesn't do my FPS any favours as it's a wide open level though even if FPS wasn't an issue it's not a stage I'd like to repeat too much.

It got us talking about favourite stages and whatnot, so I figured I'd start a thread on that same topic.

While I tend to use the Fighting Games forum specifically for SF4, let's not limit it to that - Simply put, whats your favourite (or utmost HATED) stage(s) in the games you're currently playing?


SF4 Likes:

Old-Temple // Deserted Temple: Like both the tunes, basically.

Beautiful Bay // Morning Mist Bay: MMBay is one of my favourites - I like the music mostly, except when health is low - The tune is ruined by that part - BBay doesn't have this problem, though, but I prefer the misty creepy style of MMist.

Crowded Downtown: Prefer it to the Downtown at Night (though I'd happily play that one, too). It's just that type of level that gets you into a fight and there's so much going on in the background for people to enjoy.

Special mention goes to Volcanic Rim - I do enjoy it but I find it gets overused online by people wanting that 'epic' fight (Champ Finals and such).


SF4 Hates:

Secret Laboratory: Just can't f'ing stand it at all - It's not visually appealing and the music is grating - Only thing I liked about it is when you're facing Seth in CPU mode when the alarms go off when someones about to get massacred in R2.

Training Room: Ugh, cheap ass dance track set inside a boring cube. Might be nice for FPS but good lord it's boring and ugly.


Other Memorable Stages:
Cracker Jack's level in SF EX+A,
Garuda's level in SF EX+A,
Yoshimitsu's level in Tekken 2,
Guiles level from SF2 (Classic),
IK+ on the C64 still has one amazing background. It's just the one single level but there is so much that goes on randomly back there that it's always impressive, even for such an old game.

Not sure of the name but in X-Men vs SF there was a nice stage where you're surrounded by police vehicles, cops and police dogs. As the fight goes on, depending on how much people are smashed into the ground, you can break down through the floor and into the sewers which I always thought was nice.


Oh well, rant over - Now it's your turn. The above is my personal preference // opinion... Give us yours!

K.O.Kiki

Rock's stage (car parking lot) in Garou:MotW, which featured a ditty inspired by Robert Miles' "Children".

Makoto's Dojo stage from 3rd Strike -- awesome music, awesome set design.

The Mall stage from Tekken 4 was pretty cool, too.

Pretty much any stage in Dead or Alive 4 (hate the game, love the stage designs).

TBH, I hate all the stages in SFIV right now (except for Airfield), but the volcano one is the absolute WORST. Horrible loud SFX, and the colours make it slightly harder to see WTH is going on sometimes.

Orim

Pretty much every stage in SF2 prior to Super?(Whenever thay introduced the new characters). Great music, great design and great jokes.
If I had to pick one I would say Vegas stage. Partly because it's the only street fighter stage that makes a difference to the fight.

Always enjoyed the artic stage in CvS2. Twas a fun stage, had a good party atmosphere.

The clock stage in MvC2 looks damn pretty and in the xbox version the time on the clock is the same as your time on the xbox. Was it the same on the dreamcast? Anyway it's a nice touch.

The stages in Garou are really good. I like the way some (all?) change between round. I reckon my fav would Terrys train stage. Nothing like a fight on a moving train to get the blood pumping.

A lot of people give out about the stages in SF4 but I like most of them. I just wish each character had their own stage. As for a fave it's a toss-up between crowded downtown or the underpass.

Placebo

guiles stage, very open.
hate seths, seems compact

Doctor DooM

Seriously, IK+ for the win. Best background in any game EVAR.

Retr0gamer

The only good stages in SFIV are the airfield and chun-li's chinese stage, although I kind of like the Russian one and the distillery as well. The music is awful in them all though. I hope they go back to having a stage for each character, it's much more iconic. I think every stage in SF2 is excellent in particular, guiles, vegas, balrogs, zangiefs and Kens.

The Neo Geo games had some gorgeous backgrounds. Samurai Showdown 2's temple in the bamboo forest is great as is the iconic one on the rocks along the coast. Really like the Garou stage in the bell tower that changes each round with the time of day.

Slightly controversial but I actually like the Pit stages in the older MK games

Doctor DooM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Slightly controversial but I actually like the Pit stages in the older MK games

I don't think that's all that controversial. MK and MK 2 had some nice levels. The Pit was amazing to me as a kid. Especially the megadrive version with it's easter eggs iflying n the background.

A-Trak

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Slightly controversial but I actually like the Pit stages in the older MK games

I misread that and thought you meant stages from "Pit Fighter."
Still though.......

animaX

Always loved Remy's stage in third strike. Not just the background but the music too.
http://www.zweifuss.com/backgrounds.htm

FutureGuy

Street Fighter 4
Like: Airstrip, Morning Mist Bay, Russian Train stage, Temple, Volcanic Rim
Dislike: Laboratory

Having said all that, I would love a return to the days when each character had a specific stage and music. While on the subject...

Street Fighter II-Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Favourite Music: Ryu, Ken, Guile, Blanka, Dictator, Cammy, Fei Long
Favourite Stages: Ryu, Ken, Claw, Sagat, Cammy

Doctor DooM

I don't think I have met a single person who likes non character specific stages.

*Waits for someone to prove him wrong*

Hercule

My Faves:

The final stage of Tekken 2, devil/angel battle where there are mirrors the whole way back showing 5-6 images of the fight in perspective

The stage just before you fight Goenitz (against Chigusa iirc) in king of fighters 96 - big massive stadium with the classic KoF tune - EPIC

The wobbly river-raft in Soul Blade

chopperbyrne

The animated movie inspired stage from Alpha 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XmsIUATwK8

Retr0gamer

I like Gens stage in Alpha 2. It looks **** on the PS1 version but in the arcade and Saturn version there's reflections in the puddles.

columok

-Definately Balrog's stage from Street Fighter 2 cause I remember it from the first time I saw SF2 in Dunne's in Cornelscourt. Spamming Blanka's electricity was all i had. Great music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZOQV26hPr8&feature=related

-Pirate's Cove in Tekken 5 (really love the music)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMpXA0VKCmU

-The power plant from One Must Fall 2097 mainly cause I played the hell out of that demo for years. Love the music and was the first time I saw convincing environmental hazards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjj9umuLn0w

D4RK ONION

Airport, and that one under the bridge in SF4 are nice, airport is the only one in which I can stand the music.

I was so drawn in by tekken 4's stages, mainly because you could thrash people into stuff. There was a few ones that really stand out in my mind, mainly the one in the forest, where you could fight in the swamp and everything, the underground carpark one was cool, and the one set outside the japanese shop street was great because you could throw people into the telephone boxes and they'd smash/ Groundbreaking stuff :P

Guile, Ryu and 'rogs stages from SF2 were class, mainly for the music, and the pretty colours!

Retr0gamer

Forgot the stages in Bushido Blade! They were huge and the enviroment made a big difference to the gameplay.

A-Trak

Fei Longs from HDR would be one of my current favourites, the music rocks.

Creature

With regard to SF4 I really like the Russian trainyard and night time jungle stage, they're probably my favourite in the game. I also like the African airfield, Asian boats and the cruise ship stages. Not mad on Seths one or the American one with the cars, they're both a bit too flashy and tend to slow the game down when online.
I love all the old Sf2 stages, especially Bison, Balrog and Vega's stages. Always hated Dhalsim's one though, those damn noisy Elephants lol.

I think stages are a quite important and far too often overlooked aspect of fighting games. As is the stage theme music. That's one of the areas where SF4 falls down IMO. None of the stages are really as remarkable as anything from the old games and the BGM is almost nonexistent. I mean I can only think of two themes offhand, the Russian trainyard and the African airfield and I have played the game quite a lot at this point. I really hope they fix this in SSF4 by introducing a stage for each character and memorable BGM.


Also I must mention SF Alpha 2. As Chopper mentioned above, the Australian Field stage, but also Adon's Thai river, Charlie's Jet (with the most awesome stage music ever btw), Ryu's snowy field, Ken's pool party, Birdie's toilet stage. I couldn't be arsed going through them all but there's not one that I don't like. And Alpha 2 features my personal favourite stage over any other from any game; Rolento's skyscraper stage. Wait for the second round

Placebo

do ppl wanna start playing alpha? wud be great

Dreddybajs

3S: Ryu's stage cause the music owns.

SF4: Overpass stage with the fat kid

ST: Balrog's stage


As an addendum to what Ropedrink mentioned in the OP, I prefer if people I'm playing with choose random stage every time just because of the size differences in the stages. In casuals it hardly matters but if it happened in a tournament I'd ask them to restart and choose random stage. :pac:

D4RK ONION

Yeah, I loved Alpha 2's ryu level, quite beautiful...

blag

Placebo wrote: »

do ppl wanna start playing alpha? wud be great

Creature and I were brushing up on our Alpha 2 skills in the last few weeks,It's a fun game but the CC's ruin it for me,still great to play casually.

Back on topic;I'm not too fond f most of the stages in IV,particularly the Volcono stage that Ken players online seem to love so much...but nothing's as bad as T Hawks stage in ST purely because of the grating music.

K.O.Kiki

CCs in A3 are worse than CCs in A2, IMO.

Maybe Alpha 2 Gold? (CCs a bit harder to activate IIRC)