History Main / VersusCharacterSplash

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat''. You can also enter [[XtremeKoolLetterz Kombat Kodes]] during this screen to alter the fight in some way.
-->JA-JA-JAAN!
* ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'' does this for major bosses, complete with a [[ArtShift more realistic]], [[OutOfGenreExperience exaggerated depiction]] of the two participants which doesn't appear anywhere else in the game.

* Early entries in ''Franchise/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 are ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters99 KOF '99]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2001 KOF 2001]]''.

* In ''[[VideoGame/ScottPilgrim Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game]]'', this appears before every boss fight.

* The final boss of ''VideoGame/{{Sonic Rush|Series}}'' has a "Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman" and "Blaze vs. Eggman Nega" splash displayed on the spare screen.

* The ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Stake_your_Soul! "Stake your Soul!"]] from the fighting game-themed archetype [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Vanquish_Soul "Vanquish Soul"]] is inspired by one of these, showing [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Vanquish_Soul_Pantera "Vanquish Soul Panthera"]] and [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Vanquish_Soul_Caesar_Valius "Vanquish Soul Caesar Valius]] facing off with a lightning bolt in the shape of the letters "VS" dividing their portraits.

* A non-fighting game example, once you reach the stage boss in ''Videogame/BindingOfIsaac'', there is a versus shot of Isaac versus whatever the boss you'll be fighting.

* A non-fighting game example, ''VideoGame/BlackRockShooter'' has this while Rock has to fight bosses. It's quite unique in this medium, the game being an ActionRPG-[[TurnBasedCombat Turn-Based]] [[RolePlayingGame RPG]] hybrid.

A [[SuperTrope stock]] BattleIntro. 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.

* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': In the 'Mysterious Console' DLC, this occurs once Noni is about to battle a dungeon boss.

%% ZCE * ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': Introduced in the ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY XY]]'' series.
* In ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}! Yume Kira Dream'' episode 19, the blimp at the tea robot competition displays "VS." splashes on its screen for the students competing against each other, with one showing Mametchi and Nandetchi and one depicting Himespetchi and Hoshigirltchi.

* Early entries in ''Franchise/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 are ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters99 KOF '99]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2001 KOF 2001]]]''.

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

%% ZCE * ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': Introduced in the ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY XY]]'' series.
* The last episode of ''Manga/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.
* Featured in the third season of ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds.'' Naturally the English dub removed this feature.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pYp6ZlUQfM teaser trailer]] for ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'' does this for Amuro and Char just before the title reveal, actually predating TropeCodifier ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' by a few years.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Parodied during the ''Longring Longland arc" (aka the Davy Back Fight arc) during the Combat portion. Just before Luffy and Foxy take the ring, the Foxy Pirate manage to use some cloud dials to darken the sky for a bit and send out some projections of Luffy and Foxy's bounty poster into the sky side by side to help hype up the event.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' anime, where this is used for an arm wrestling tournament of all things.

* One appears in Season 8 episode 33 ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' when the Supermen are about to fight Huo Haha and his group of dark wizards in a civilized manner (read: pretend to use their violent attacks without inflicting actual pain on each other since it's Peace Day).
* Used in episode 21 of ''Animation/PleasantGoatFunClass: Sports are Fun''. 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 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. The trope's use within [[Franchise/StreetFighter the series]] predates that game, including use in the original ''VideoGame/{{Street Fighter|I}}''.
* The ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series has this with a voiceover guy who says "Versus!" before each match in Classic Mode. ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' features a proper versus screen when loading a match.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has quite an elaborate one which begins with the character's sprites posing before zooming in to a more traditional versus splash with their insignia behind them.
** The game's predecessor, ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'', did something similar in the ''XX'' series, but with closeups of the portraits instead of the posing sprites. The other games opt for a more traditional versus splash incorporating each fighter's in-game artwork.
%% Needs Context * A staple of the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series' trial sequences.

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat''. You can also enter [[XtremeKoolLetterz Kombat Kodes]] during this screen to alter the fight in some way.
-->JA-JA-JAAN!
* ''VideoGame/LegendOfSuccessJoe'', before the in-ring matches, shows the faces of Joe and his opponent next to each other on a screen that dissolves to show their names. Amazingly these are some of the worst graphics in the game: the faces are the small character portraits blown up and shifted to grayscale.
* In ''VideoGame/MarioParty9'', ''VideoGame/MarioParty10'' and ''VideoGame/MarioPartyIslandTour'', the boss battle mini-games are preceded by a screen showing the player characters opposing the upcoming boss character, with the players on the left and the boss on the right. Whichever character is currently Captain will be in front of the others.
* The final boss of ''VideoGame/{{Sonic Rush|Series}}'' had a "Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman" and "Blaze vs. Eggman Nega" splash displayed on the spare screen.
* ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' doesn't have an elaborate display (due to budget limitations and loading issues), but on the loading screen before the match starts, concept art of each character in the match appears, in order from first to last, first player to second player.
* ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' had a pretty nice one with the versus screen being made like a fight poster before the screen zooms in on the portraits of the selected fighter with a red hue before cutting to the fight proper.

* In ''[[VideoGame/ScottPilgrim Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game]]'', this would appear before every boss fight.
* The first two games in the ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' series only showed the names of the fighters in each match-up before a fight. ''Tekken 3'' was the first in the series to show portraits of the fighters, and ''Tekken 4'' was the first one to also include pre-battle taunts.
* ''VideoGame/{{Guacamelee}}'' precedes each boss fight with one of these, [[http://i.neoseeker.com/n/1/temple2_06.jpg set up like Lucha Libre advertisement posters.]]
* ''Money Idol Exchanger'' has a bizarre double-vision pre-battle versus screen also used for character selection in two-player mode. The cropped and 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.
* 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''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'' shows one of these before every match starts as of patch 7.00, with the Radiant heroes along the top and the Dire heroes along the bottom... even though actual gameplay has the Radiant heroes at the south end of the map.
* The fighting games associated with ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' 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.]]
* ''VideoGame/MikeShadowIPaidForIt'': Before each fight, the game displays "Mike Shadow VS. Vending Machine" on a screen like this.
* ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'' does this for major bosses, complete with a [[ArtShift more realistic,]] [[OutOfGenreExperience exaggerated depiction]] of the two participants which doesn't appear anywhere else in the game.
* ''VideoGame/RockOfAges'' has VS screens before every match.

* ''Webcomic/TwistedTropes'': [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]] decides to fight a baby in the airplace for crying for too long and after the "VS" screen uses a Shoryuken.

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

* Appears in every entry of the ''VideoGame/{{Soul|Series}}'' series starting from ''Soulcalibur II'' and ''Soulcalibur III'', where pressing a button will even make a character say something (a feature which was removed beginning with ''Soulcalibur IV''), which can get ridiculous in the [=GameCube=] version of the former with [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link's]] VoiceGrunting.

* A staple of the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series' trial sequences.

* The fighting games associated with ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' make sure to include this.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* For platform game example, in ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'', when entering a boss fight, you'll see Peppino's and Boss' sprite complete with VS message but characters have more realistic proportions than they're normally depicted.

* In ''VideoGame/MarioParty9'' and ''VideoGame/MarioParty10'', the boss battle mini-games are preceded by a screen showing the player characters opposing the upcoming boss character, with the players on the left and the boss on the right. Whichever character is currently Captain will be in front of the others.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty9'' uses one just before the boss battle mini-games.

[[folder:Anime]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty 9'' uses one just before the boss battle mini-games.

* 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.]]

* ''Pinball/{{Deadpool}}'' uses one as a prelude to its WizardMode (the final confrontation between Deadpool and Mister Sinister).

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

* Appears in every entry of the ''VideoGame/{{Soul|Series}}'' series starting from ''Soulcalibur II'' and ''Soulcalibur III'', where pressing a button will even make a character say something, which can get ridiculous in the [=GameCube=] version of the former with [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link's]] VoiceGrunting.

* Appears in every entry of the ''VideoGame/{{Soul|Series}}'' series from. In ''Soulcalibur II'' and ''Soulcalibur III'', pressing a button will even make a character say something, which can gets ridiculous in the former with [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link's]] VoiceGrunting.

* Despite ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' having plenty of [[ShoutOut Shout-Outs]] 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.