Character Select



In fighting games, Character Select, also called Character Select Screen or just Select Screen, is the feature where players decide which fighting character they will pick for battle.

Description
In the Street Fighter series, somewhat ironically, the character select screen had debuted in the second game, as the first one simply had Ryu and Ken, and the position of player decided which character would be played. The character select screen usually has the following elements:
 * A way of indicating which character is highlighted with an arrow or other visual marker.
 * The names of all characters (usually when highlighted).
 * Artwork of character model (depending on the game) of the character to give a visual indicator of the character to players before selecting them.
 * Stats of the character, which could include items such as weight, height, difficulty, individual stats, among other things.

In older games, characters would simply be represented by a picture and the announcer wouldn't say their names. In more modern games, the character model is used to visualize them. When the character model is selected, they usually either say something or pose. For example, in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, Ryu crosses his arms, while in Street Fighter X Tekken, Dhalsim says "Allow me to show you the wonders of yoga", and in Street Fighter V, M. Bison laughs and says "Very good".

Extra Options
Some games ask for extra options to be selected. In Street Fighter V in all game modes the game will ask for what V-Trigger is desired from the player. In Street Fighter X Tekken the game will ask how much health the player wants to start off with in local vs in terms of total health (for example, Ibuki and Ling Xiaoyu have a below average max of 900 while Zangief has an above average total max of 1100, so picking 100% for Ibuki would mean she has 900 and Zangief would have 1100 and lower percentages will be scaled from their top health values so for example, if 75% health is chosen for Ibuki, it would be 75% of 900 and in Zangief's case, it would be 75% of 1100) and what Gem Units from a preset of 5 (as of the latest patch) the player desires to use.

Hidden Options
Some games (primarily the Alpha series) were infamous of keeping secrets from within the character selection screen. Alpha 2 Gold for example allows the player to select Cammy from M. Bison's character slot despite, Cammy being an altogether different character with a different fighting style and being hidden from the normal selection of characters. Other games need sequences of buttons, such as Super Turbo for picking Akuma and others require the usage of the "random" character selection slot which usually takes the form of a question mark.

Downloadable Content
More recent games allow for downloadable content (DLC). In these games, the initial roster is released with missing characters that will be filled in as new characters are released in due time. For example, Ibuki in Season 2 of Street Fighter V and others are changed in orientation such as SFXT's character select.

Trivia

 * In many character select screens, characters who are related to each other in a way are usually placed near each other (immediately left right up or down) or if they are enemies in canon they are usually (but not always) placed on the equivalent spot of the opposite side.