It's actually a redumental process to make a sprite. Not like Mugen in anyway. What Capcom did with Street Fighter 3, was draw each frame by hand, similar to a cartoon being made, then colouring it in. That's what happens. Also note that SegaSammy is a distributer for Arc System Works (Under the SEGA enterprises). What Guilty Gear did was draw a few frames, and cut out a bunch, then end it. Check out Millia's kick. It really just flys up there because it's a leg, leg moving, curved lines, leg moving then top of the leg. GG's engine is also used in Hotoku no Ken (Fist of the North Star) And then theres The Rumble Fish, which uses a different dynamic. Each limb is drawn by hand, then coloured, then rendered in 3d. To date, TRF is the only game besides Street Fighter 3 to utilize such a dynamic process to create an amazingly fluid animation in a 2d fighting game. Alot has changed with SNKPlaymore when it comes to making 2d fighters. Using a similar technique to SF3's but more lean to cut corners to accomendate it's massive roster. They also use OLDER sprites as "new moves" or "different stance" on older characters in newer games (2k2-Neowave Kim, `98-2k1 Iroi, handful of other characters). Also in consideration how many PEOPLE actually work on these games. A team of 3-4 programmers, 3 artists(character art, in game, ending/intro), 3-4 graphic artists, 2 sound guy and a bunch of Voice Actors. Theres more voice actors then staff for crying out loud. (Psst, CFJ only had 29 people, 10 if you don't count the voice actors, 18 if you count band that does the music) It's much easier to create 3D these days. Because they crank them out at high-res textures then just downsample it per game last generation. Need to be in a FMV? Use the Hi-res model. And for in-game? Just down sample it. And guys, Konami makes Castlevania.