I don't know, I guess they liked the other one better, so they would have more room to show a bigger picture of the character, and info about them. They did use that style of select screen for MK:D though.

I like the one they used better too...

That one is better. They should have stuck with it IMO.

I think they changed it because the old Select Screen could only hold 20 Portraits and the final game had 21 playable characters (excluding Blaze and MoKap)