History Main / VersusCharacterSplash

* The ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series has this with a [[EarWorm memorable]] voiceover guy who says "Versus!" before each match in Classic Mode. ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' features a proper versus screen when loading a match.

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': Used in episode 21 of ''Pleasant Goat Fun Class: Chapter of Sports''. Weslie and Wolffy compete in a game of badminton and it briefly shows a splash screen with Weslie's team vs. Wolffy's team.

* The ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series has this with a [[EarWorm memorable]] voiceover guy who says "Versus!" before each match.

While serviceable and almost unnoticeable on its own, this trope makes for great parody fodder and self-one-upsmanship in that viewers are trained to expect awesome fight scenes whenever they see one. Thus, overusing this trope can easily crank up the viewer's excitement in a short period of time.

* ''Violence Fight'' has a simple version of this using the normal character sprites.

* The fighting games associated with [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]] make sure to include this.
** [[VideoGame/JojosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture Heritage for the Future]]'s screen does it with a simple display of both participants' heads with "VS" in between, immediately cutting to the fight.
** [[VideoGame/JojosBizarreAdventureAllStarBattle All-Star Battle]]'s [[https://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/536/5360430/2428131-img0003.jpg screen]] displays both characters' in-game art inside manga-style panels, as well as displaying their names and fighting style. The "VS" stretches the height of the screen.
** [[VideoGame/JojosBizarreAdventureEyesOfHeaven Eyes of Heaven]]'s [[https://i0.wp.com/operationrainfall.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/JoJos-Bizarre-Adventure-Eyes-of-Heaven-Dream-Matchup.jpg screen]] puts the characters' art inside cards instead, with one character in each tag-team in front of the other. It also adds on which part each character is from, what the teams' Dual Heat Attacks are, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr4OT_9JWoQ the jazziest loading screen music you've ever heard.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tekken}} Get ready for the next battle!]]]]

Somewhere on this splash will be the word "vs" or "versus". Sometimes "and" will be used to indicate team-ups. While these are secondary to the actual image, the presence of these small words is still a hallmark of the trope. Sometimes, a voice will announce the confrontation as well, and if so, expect the announcer to be a LargeHam.

[[folder: Anime ]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Introduced in the [[VideoGame/PokemonXandY XY]] series.

* ''Manga/LuckyStar'' borrows the one from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII: 3rd Strike'' for a SuddenVideogameMoment in which Konata defeats Guile with a HurricaneKick.

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Professional Wrestling ]]
* ProfessionalWrestling usually introduces this with a "this is why they're fighting" montage. Also played completely straight when Darts and Snooker get this treatment, mainly used to introduce highlights of a match.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTDp6659f2s Some]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-tL7W-lpaI examples]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* A non fighting game example, the VideoGame/BlackRockShooter game has it while Rock has to fight bosses, it's quite unique in this medium, being an ActionRPG, TurnBasedRPG Hybrid.
* The TropeCodifier is ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'', where at the beginning of each match-up after stage selection, a screen would flare up with profile shots of the two battling characters before switching to the actual fight. It predates that game, including use in the original ''StreetFighter''.

* Appears in the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'', where pressing a button will make a character say something. In ''Soulcalibur II'', it gets ridiculous with Link's VoiceGrunting.

** The game's predecessor, ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'', also did a similar one, but with closeups of the portraits instead of the posing sprites.

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat''. You can also enter [[XtremeKoolLetterz kombat kodes]] during this screen to alter the fight in some way.
--> JA-JA-JAAN!

* Despite ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' having plenty of {{Shout Out}}s to other fighting games (and more), this trope is notably averted; instead there's just a long loading screen between character select and match start. The development team cites technical difficulties (i.e. even more loading) as their rationale.

* In [[VideoGame/ScottPilgrim Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World]], this would appear before every boss fight.

* Early entries in VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters series have this, but only in the home console versions (more specifically the UsefulNotes/PlayStation versions). The only games that do this in the arcade version is ''KOF '99'' and ''KOF 2001''.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Used in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' involving an underground tournament of aliens. They have a digital graphics screen, and a semi-monotone announcer, making this effect happen before each matchup of combatants.

Compare JuxtaposedHalvesShot (where half of two characters sides/faces are juxtaposed to or beside each other), MirroredConfrontationShot (a similar but conflict exclusive trope), and SuperMovePortraitAttack.

* Used liberally in 'Manga/{{Eyeshield21}}'', most often during football matches, though they appear in other places for epic effect, most notably an early story that begins with with Sena AND Shin VS motorcycles. [[spoiler:The motorcycles lose.]]

* ''Money Idol Exchanger'' has a bizarre double-vision pre-battle versus screen also used for character selection in two-player mode. The captioned {{Character Portrait}}s, with "VS" popping up between them in rainbow letters, are positioned above sprites of the same girls that are also not the SuperDeformed ones players actually control.

[[quoteright:330:[[VideoGame/StreetFighterII http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sf_vs_screen_1999.gif]]]]

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Introduced in the XY series.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:ProfessionalWrestling]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat''. You can also enter kombat kodes during this screen to alter the fight in some way.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* Appears in the ''SoulSeries'', where pressing a button will make a character say something. In ''Soulcalibur II'', it gets ridiculous with Link's VoiceGrunting.

* Used liberally in ''{{Eyeshield21}}'', most often during football matches, though they appear in other places for epic effect, most notably an early story that begins with with Sena AND Shin VS motorcycles. [[spoiler:The motorcycles lose.]]

* The last episode of ''YuruYuri'' used this for the competition among the girls, complete with angry faces and everything. Until it gets to Ayano, who's all out of competition and is left standing opposite a question mark.

* Used in an episode of ''WesternAnimationBen10Omniverse'' involving an underground tournament of aliens. They have a digital graphics screen, and a semi-monotone announcer, making this effect happen before each matchup of combatants.

[[quoteright:330:[[VideoGame/StreetFighterII http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sf_vs_screen_1999.gif]]]]

* Featured in the third season of YuGiOh5Ds. Naturally the English dub removed this feature.

* Used in ''{{Scott Pilgrim vs The World}}'' for each confrontation between Pilgrim and the Evil Exes.

* ''MortalKombat''. You can also enter kombat kodes during this screen to alter the fight in some way.

* Used in an episode of ''Ben10Omniverse'' involving an underground tournament of aliens. They have a digital graphics screen, and a semi-monotone announcer, making this effect happen before each matchup of combatants.