[Platy]

I love the ones with fanservice ... so puzzle fighter stages and mostly


and

----------------------------------------------------------

Emugif.com is a good site for stages ... it is not perfect (sorry, no jojo) but has lots of ones !
(the menu is not firefox/chrome friendly)

Like the ones above and below ...

Palace of Versailles (Charlotte' Stage) in Samurai Shodown...

Oh man. Ryu's snowy stage was also great. I tried to find a screenshot of it, failed and instead got artwork of the stages http://www.sfgalleries.net/art/sfa2/backgrounds/

also
Zero 2 stages
Zero 2 Alpha stages

Most of the backgrounds from KoF 2000, particularly the aquarium and the warehouse.

(also a favorite)

Whoa, nice to see Darkstalkers 3/Vampire Saviour locales get mentioned. Fetus of God would be all kinds of fucked up but awesome. I'd also put down a vote for Yun/Yang's, Elena's & Ken's stages in Third Strike.

Street III stages to don't overload the post (those gifs are HUGE)

[giancarlo123x]

[IMG]http://i51.************/23u3r43.png[/IMG]
I love all of MK1 stages, those Alpha stages look amazing also.

[Finaika]

[bernardobri]

[Octorockin']

If you looked at anything from Garou, KoF, SFZero, SF3, Vampire Savior, Samurai Spirits, or Bakumatsu Romance you will find so much gorgeous and mindblowing art that could never be replicated today.

This is one of my favorites. The sense of depth is so creative.

[andymcc]

is that an axelay stage? lol

my personal favorite is the field of wheat in Samurai Shodown 2.

[Zonar]

X-men COTA danger room


Pretty much all of COTA boards

[ProtoCents]

Sean's Stage:

Holy.

[luka]

KOFXI has some nice artwork.

[Slamtastic]

Not necessarily this specific one, but just stages with multiple parts in general. Need more of those.

[enzo_gt]

VS is probably the winner for the amount of good stages it has, but for something recent: love this stage sooooooooo much.

TOO MANY DIMENSIONS.

But yeah that and the Construction Building stage are the two best stages in the SFIV series, funny they were both introduced in SSFIV.

[someguyinahat]

Mega Man: the Power Battles has a giant robotic whale. All other arguments are invalid.

[-Eddman-]

Wow at Capcom/SNK pixel artists in the late 90's. Their stuff is just out of this world.

Some of my favorites:

T. Hawk's stage in Super SFII. (Hospicio Cabañas in my hometown, Guadalajara)

[IMG]http://i27.************/md12k4.jpg[/IMG]

Cathedral from Mortal Kombat 3.



Chizuru's stage from KOF '96.



Sorry I couldn't find a better pic, bu Jago stage from Killer Instinct (Arcade).

[Labombadog]

I love this thread.

MK2's The Pit.

[Rahxephon91]

Best stage music as well. This is true love making!

[cj_iwakura]

BlazBlue needs some more love in here, namely



and

[Seven Force]

I was playing Vampire Savior training mode on this stage a couple weeks ago and realized that I was fighting on the side of a building. Mind blowing moment for me.

Holy shit, I never noticed that. Dunno why, but I always saw it as some sort of space station hangar. (Which makes no sense in the context of Darkstalkers now that I think about it...)

[Finaika]

One cannot put back the clock.

[patrickthehedgehog]

My pick:




I think in 3D the railroad track down the center and the road to the left would make a cool dimensional effect!

a few others:

[Cloudius12]

Chizuru's stage from KOF '96.

In addition to that Goenitz's version, his theme rocks.

[Izayoi]

I really love BlazBlue backgrounds. They look even more gorgeous in motion.

[BowieZ]

This is my all time favorite.

[GhaleonQ]

As mentioned, Bakumatsu Romance/The Last Blade have the best background in any fighting video game that aren't just fan service. It's not even close, I think.

(Scroll down. They don't even include all of the real-time elements, but they still look great.)
http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/The_Last_Blade
http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/The_Last_Blade_2

[Duke Togo]

[Zee-Row]

I always liked Richard Meyer's stage in Fatal Fury 1 not only for the background but for the catchy music.

[Dark Octave]

(also a favorite)

As nice as this one looks, I really dislike backgrounds that feature a crowd that is completely indifferent or oblivious to two or more people beating the living daylights out of each other just eight feet away.

My favorite stages are the ones with the huge rowdy crowds, who are into the fight. Also when they react to special moves and such, by falling down, backing up or getting even more excited, like in Street Fighter IV.

This is one of the biggest reasons I enjoyed Pit Fighter so much. You actually got to interact and fight the crowd when they went beyond just pushing you back into the arena.

Not as pretty and artistic as the others, but very lively.

[sixteen-bit]

Yep, these are my favorite in 3rd strike.

[Slamtastic]

Holy shit, I never noticed that. Dunno why, but I always saw it as some sort of space station hangar. (Which makes no sense in the context of Darkstalkers now that I think about it...)

I thought I was the only one.

[shidoshi]

Any good source for all of the sprite rip backdrops showing up in this thread? I'm trying to find a particular Capcom vs. SNK stage to contribute, but no luck so far.

[Augemitbutter]

oh man, i love fighting games.

can somebody find the FF3 stage of yamazaki?

[Slamtastic]

If 2.5D counts, MvC3 and MK9 have some amazing stages.

[PBMax]

KOF 94:

[Dark Octave]

lol This is what I'm talking about.

They actin a damn fool!

All it needs is someone hanging from one of the ceiling fans to make it perfect.

[enzo_gt]

I really love BlazBlue backgrounds. They look even more gorgeous in motion. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/WBE5X.jpg[IMG] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/6plGP.jpg[IMG] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/LuTzL.jpg[IMG]

Holy shit, I feel terrible for not owning this game now.

[metareferential]

Now I want every single game you guys mentioned.

And oh, the memories.

[G-Fex]

Not necessarily the stage but the effect to the intro is so damn awesome.

[Izayoi]

Holy shit, I feel terrible for not owning this game now.

It really is an awesome game. Arcsys knows their shit, and it is easily one of the most gorgeous fighters ever released. The backgrounds and HD sprites are top notch.

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Ferk Yeah!

[CO_Andy]

I can't believe we were all clamoring for redone backgrounds and sprites in HD Remix.

How wrong we were :(

[PBMax]

Last Blade:




KOF 99:

[sixteen-bit]

Ferk Yeah!

handjob alert

[PBMax]

SamSho IV:

[sf2fanatic]

Gotta love the classics.

This +1.

Also Vega's stage.

The Pit from MK 3

Does Orchid's stage from KI 1 count?

[Wallach]

http://i.imgur.com/D3d5B.gif

Definitely this. Stage confused the crap out of me as a kid. Why does the background even animate like that?

[BowieZ]

KOF 99:

Now that's gorgeous!!

This is cool:

I can't believe we were all clamoring for redone backgrounds and sprites in HD Remix. How wrong we were :(

Sorry, but this went over my head. *whoosh

[Mr Jared]

Lots of great ones mentioned but I have to throw in "Crowded Downtown" from Street Fighter IV. It was obviously the blue print for how all the stages were supposed to play out. Fantastic music and a TON of action going on in the background, along with special situations that play out depending on what happens in the match. You can tell they put way too much effort into making it because every other stage in vanilla SF4 looks extremely bland while everything made afterward is just as busy.

[Songbird]

I'm going to get a shaming for this, but after SFII myself and nobody else I've known in the UK has ever played the Street Fighter sequels or King of Fighters. Now I regret it - This is art, even if I find the characters tacky.

KOF and Last Blade ones being the best so far.

[Sinatar]

[ProtoCents]

I can't believe we were all clamoring for redone backgrounds and sprites in HD Remix. How wrong we were :(

To be fair, we didn't know that HD Remix would look like complete ass.

[dragonlife]

KOF 99:

Wow. These are beautiful. I love anything with rain in it, so, this is just...wow.