10 Most Iconic Character Selection Menus

Consider, if you will, the humble character selection screen. You see them in a variety of game genres, from fighting games to racing to the occasional platformer.




The purpose of a character selection screen isn’t just to give you a menu to pick a playable character; it’s about setting the tone for the game to come.

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A truly great character selection screen has cool artwork and graphics, awesome tunes, and generally makes all the playable characters look equally eye-catching.

Let’s take a trip back and highlight some of the coolest, most distinctive character selection screens in gaming.

To keep things interesting, we’re keeping things to one screen per series, or else half of these would have the same characters.


I’m Gonna Take You For A Ride

Marvel vs Capcom 2 character select

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is technically the fourth game in Capcom’s versus series of fighting games, following X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Marvel vs. Capcom.


As the culmination of three previous games’ worth of characters, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 naturally had to go whole-hog with it.

When you first enter the character selection screen, you’re greeted with the massive holographic globe, onto which appear the game’s titanic 56-character roster.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention that classic earworm of a theme song.

Fun fact, the game’s soundtrack was actually considered a negative back in its day. In spite of that, the character selection theme has endured.

9 Super Smash Bros.

“FREE FOR ALLLLL!”

Super Smash Bros character select

The original Super Smash Bros. for the N64 was Nintendo’s first genuine shot at creating a novel fighting game, and what a shot it was.

Arguably the cornerstone of this game’s excellent presentation was its character selection screen.


The jazzy theme song and stylish icons set the stage, but what really got you was the little 3D model animations.

While later Smash games would have larger, more stylistically elaborate character selection screens, the original one was the only one to have the models actually appear and animate like that.

8 Super Mario Bros. 2

Raise Your Hand

Super Mario All-Stars Super Mario Bros. 2 character select

Putting aside the whole “it’s not actually a Mario game” thing, Super Mario Bros. 2 actually set a few standards that would stick with the series into the modern day.

The first of these standards was multiple playable characters, plus a character selection screen to go with them.

Imagine being used to the original Super Mario Bros., where you’d just start the game as Mario or Luigi by default, only to boot up the sequel and be greeted by a whole four characters ready to go.


The most recent Mario platformers like Super Mario Wonder all have character selection now because Super Mario Bros. 2 put its foot in the door.

7 Mortal Kombat

Love Those Janky Portraits

Mortal Kombat character select

In a time when everyone else was using traditional sprites, the original Mortal Kombat threw a Hail Mary with its digitized actors.

The character selection screen sets this ambitious move on full display, showing not just the actor sprites on the bottom corners, but giving you a good look at their faces in the center icons.

By today’s standards, it obviously looks a little janky, especially compared to the elaborate presentation of Mortal Kombat 1.

Remember, though, the series maintained this approach up through Mortal Kombat 3.

No matter how janky it was, it was distinct enough to work.


6 Super Mario Kart

Look At ‘Em Spin

Super Mario Kart character select

Super Mario Kart on the SNES was another first for Nintendo, bringing Mario behind the wheel for a new kind of racing gameplay.

Compared to some of the menus of games to come, the original’s character selection is rather humble.

It just has the characters on little view screens zooming by while you pick your favorite.

What was neat, though, is that highlighting a character had them spin in place.

This served as a little appetizer of the game’s proprietary Mode 7 3D, one of the elements that really made Super Mario Kart distinct.

5 Tekken 3

No More Slate Gray

Tekken 3 character select


The first two Tekken games had mostly identical character selection screens.

You had a solid, slate gray background, a bar full of character icons on the bottom, and two windows with some mildly aggressive closeups on your highlighted character.

Tekken 3, though, injected a little more style into its character selection screen.

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It’s a similar layout, with the icons on the bottom and the windows in the middle.

However, the character portraits are a little taller, giving you a better profile, and the art makes them look much cooler.

Speaking of, there’s also a cool elevator effect in the background, making you feel like you’re on your way to another big fight.

4 Soulcalibur 2

A Little Verticality Works Wonders

Soulcalibur 2 character select

The original Soul Blade, also being a Namco game, had a similarly bland character selection screen like Tekken.


Soulcalibur wasn’t much better, still using the icon bar and windows, but swapping out the boring background with a colorful gradient.

The game that really got things going was Soulcalibur 2.

The character icons were moved to the center, while the sides were used to fully show off your selected character’s model, encased in flickering colored flames.

As a little cherry on top, whenever you selected your character, they’d perform a dramatic zoom-in with a cool pose and quip.

3 Guilty Gear X2

Awesome Music, Awesome Art

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core character select

The first two Guilty Gear games had the makings of an excellent character selection screen, but couldn’t quite seal the deal.

The first game had awesome music and the second had cool character art, but Guilty Gear X2 brought those elements together with a good-looking menu.


The original release of X2 presented its characters in a nifty circular menu, with the highlighted fighters shown as exceptionally detailed anime art on the side.

Subsequent versions of X2 swapped the circular menu for a more traditional spread menu, though it kept the character art and awesome rock music.

2 Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

“Better Not Let The Dark Side Win!”

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle multiplayer menu

Fun fact: the original Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure 2 did have multiplayer, but it was severely limited in terms of characters, maps, and even just general presentation.

This is probably why the version most of us remember is the GameCube port, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.

The Battle version added a bunch of new multiplayer content, including more characters and maps for each game mode and a flashy new menu to put it all in.


If you grew up a GameCube kid in the early 2000s, you’ve undoubtedly got the character selection screen and its theme music permanently seared into your mind.

1 Street Fighter 2

All Around The World

Super Street Fighter 2 character select

Naturally, no discussion of character selection screens would be complete without Street Fighter 2, the game that really evolved fighting games as a whole.

The original Street Fighter didn’t even have a character selection, since you could only play as Ryu, so Street Fighter 2’s menu was a major step in more ways than one.

The menu itself was simple, yet distinct, showing the character icons in a couple of bars with artwork on the side.

One cool thing about this menu was that you could see where every character was from on the map up top, which you’d return to between fights to see where you’re headed next.

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