Marvel Versus Series Backgrounds

This is part two of my backgrounds edit commentary. Many people enjoyed my first installment, which covered Capcom Fighting Games. Some enjoyed the commentary, others just the pictures, but it was fun regardless. I dive less into the process of creating these here, so read that first link if you missed it.

Today, I'm looking at X-Men Vs. Street Fighter (XSF) and Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter (MSF). For the most part, they shared backgrounds, but all are alternates, much like Vampire/Darkstalkers / Vampire Hunter/Night Warriors and Vampire Savior / Vampire Savior 2.

What's interesting is that some changes were made. The first few edits were almost identical, but the later edits, as you'll see, had some strange alterations to them.

The coolest aspect of these is that as you look at them from afar like this, they do seem very much like comic books. I never really thought so until I saw them from this perspective.

The Simple Edits

The first two edits here are identical in resolution, therefore, they're the simple edits. You can mouseover these to see the alternate directly.

Titled Death Valley and Death Valley 1 in MSF, this was a pretty easy edit. The sky is the background, the tall mountains are the second layer, the front layer is fairly straightforward and then you've got Blanka and Beast with a little smoke in the foreground. For this, I used the same PSD so resizing was easy. You'll see my oval moon dilemma, but otherwise, there's not much to comment on here. A nighttime/daytime alternate. The mountain on the right is slightly different. I'm unsure if this is my edit or if it's the stage itself.

Death Valley

XSF (mouseover for comparison)

MSF

The Temple Of Fists

You'll notice that the statue in the XSF version was removed to add a cherry blossom tree to the right. On the left, the deer went from standing to sitting, and the small house was enclosed rather than people sitting sipping drinks. The trees in the back are blossoming pink now as well. Finally, some birds inhabit the area to the left of the tree. Otherwise, this is a completely perfect transition, same resolution and all. It was a quick edit as well. The background included the dojo, bushes and the sky. The main frame was everything else but the deer, pot atop the steps, people in the house and other small things.

The Temple Of Fists

XSF (mouseover for comparison)

MSF

The More Interesting Edits

On The Hilltop

Why the resolution difference? I can't figure that out, really. 800x480 in XSF, 726x480 in MSF. Look at the Showdown In The Park images below, and the sequel had a much higher res. Why they shrunk it for this stage is beyond me. The differences other than nighttime shades are minimal. In XSF you have a pair of squirrels on the right (I chose a nice still of this one) as well as a bird on the left (Can you see him? Small guy on the lowest branch). In MSF, you've got the pair of owls. Otherwise, these are identical barring the resolution.

On The Hilltop

XSF

MSF

The Cataract

I think I missed part of the MSF edit here. These could be the same resolution, but I think something is missing. It's an interesting comparison though, as almost nothing changed. MSF has some additional colors on the weeds to the left and right near the ground. There is more sky in that version as well. The colors are fantastic also. The bubbles below the waterfall gave me a hard time. Hard enough so that I just used the same layer from my first edit (MSF) on the second (XSF)! A pretty wild stage if you ask me.

The Cataract

XSF

MSF

Showdown In The Park

What a huge difference. The resolution alone says it all. 640x309 in XSF, 768x417 in MSF. What happened? Well, first off, the city background was dropped and huge fluffy clouds appeared in the sequel. This gave it added height, and you'll also notice the bridge and trees in the distance aren't quite as squashed. The lake in front of the bridge is bigger, and the one closer to the foreground is wider. A bridge replaces the rocks on the bottom of the pic, and you can see clearly that it's much wider. Look at the trees to the right as well. So much cooler in the sequel. That, and Nash, Gambit, Rogue and Rose's cameos. The first three had animations. I chose which I preferred. Nash reading was cool and the star-cross'd lovers looking at each other was another nice choice.

Showdown In The Park

XSF

MSF

Marvel Vs. Capcom

I was ready to post those images and I decided to celebrate finishing another class. 2 classes done towards getting my Master's degree, and I hated that last class. SO...I went into Marvel Vs. Capcom (MVC) and grabbed a few images.

Stage 9

This first image was from the ninth stage in the game. Just as I was finishing my last capture, the colors changed! What fortune! Had I done it too quickly, I would've missed the first of two transformations. You'll see all three versions of the stage below. Lightning appears later on, but I didn't capture this. It was a really easy edit, sky, background, foreground. These turned out well.

MVC: Stage 9

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Stage 7

I liked XSF in the arcades but thought MSF to be gaudy and a bit much. However, I think the backgrounds were the best in the series. As I edited MVC, there wasn't much I cared to grab. Level 9 was cool, 10 was pretty barren (may cap that), but here's stage 7, another quick edit. There were four layers here, the top one just being the flag and some rubble to the left. The background is the sky (oval planet, again!), the darker buildings way in the back, then the foreground. You should be able to see the three main layers pretty easily.

Stage 7

One Final Edit

Captain America's BG

I said to myself that I wasn't going to even touch this. The backgrounds in Marvel Super Heroes (MSH, now we're done w/ the acronyms) were HUGE! You saw that already in my Shuma Gorath Capture. Well, I decided to attack Captain America's stage and yeah, it was a headache. I expected it, but went for it anyways. All the stages on this page so far were fairly straightforward. This one required a lot of editing and I took many liberties (no pun intended) in my edit. Resizing, stretching, chopping...it's all there. Fortunately it ended up well. You've got the sky and buildings, Lady Liberty and the water (can you see the seams? This was like 10 frames merged), the scaffolding and pillars, and finally, the foreground. It ended up being pretty wild. Below you can see a thumbnail of the massive 1397x622 image. Enjoy, b/c this one drove me mad.

MVC: Captain America

click for 1397x622 image