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 was 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 used, they usually say something or pose. For example in Pocket Fighter Ibuki performs the "peace" sign when selected, in SFXTK Ibuki says "Alright ready steady go!" while in SSFIV that only uses character art she doesn't do anything when selected.. In the same game she also does a ninja-like Idle Pose when left on the marker. And finally in Street Fighter V she stays in a fighting stance and when she is selected she does a ninja pose saying "Quickly On The Scene".

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) 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 in the title screen. Gold for example allows the player to select Cammy from M. Bison's slot despite Cammy being an altogether different character with a different fightstyle 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" selection.

Downloadable Content
More recent games allow for downloadable content (DLC). In these games the initial roster is either released with missing characters that will be filled in as new characters are released, 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.