Crossovers seem to be all the rage right now. You know what I mean, characters from one game popping up in places they have no right to be. I mean Tekken characters in Street Fighter? Ridiculous. Of course if that isn’t enough, you can have the mega mash up of Capcom, Namco Bandai and Sega in Project X Zone, and it’s looking like you’ll be able to have your favourite Sony character beat on each other in Super Smash Bros. style game.
Typically I enjoy these types of games, and I can get by without worrying too much about exactly why Solid Snake popped up in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. If I saw Ezio (who really does seem to be putting himself around a bit now) suddenly appear in Halo I’d probably have a few questions, but for the most part the story you get in these crossovers isn’t exactly digging deep.
[drop2]Of course, it is nice that a few titles are making a bit of an effort. Alright, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is hardly going to pick up a “Best Story” award from anyone, but a vague effort was made to explain just what was going on with these two universes colliding.Similarly, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe provided some reasoning, and even used it to shape some of the gameplay. A game in which Superman faces off against… well anyone shouldn’t be much of a challenge, but using the merging of the universes to explain why he’s weakened (and other characters are strengthened) is a nice touch that could have easily been glazed over. Some purists probably would have complained, but at the end of the day all these games are is an excuse to live out those childhood debates.
You all know what I mean, everyone had those “Who would win a fight?” discussions, and it’s a powerful narrative device. It’s not just games that have realised this, Marvel are running their Avengers vs. X-Men comic event right now and only had their Superhero Civil War a few years ago. Going back even further there have been events pitting DC characters against Marvel characters, usually with some villain manipulating the two groups into a fight.
There’s a similar history of crossovers in gaming, they may seem to have hit a popularity spike right now but they’ve been going for a while. X-Men vs. Street Fighter comes from 1996, and although it’s the earliest I could spot it’s still probably not the first example in gaming.
Perhaps it’s a sign of maturity in the industry that developers and publishers are more willing to loan characters out like this, or perhaps someone in a business development unit has realised that it’s a new revenue stream that had potential to be grown out. Whichever it is, these games do hold an appeal for me, largely because they rarely promise more than they deliver. If you want to take the Hulk and see what he looks like punching Blanka in the face then they’re really your only option, and at some level we all have that desire.
I know that I talk about how I love a good story in any form of media, but sometimes you do just want to play, watch or read something with guys hitting other guys or buildings exploding at random (thank you Michael Bay). Crossover titles tend to provide this in spades, and for that reason I hope the utter ridiculousness of these games continues long into the future.
Gamoc
Crossovers aren’t a great way of settling ‘who would win?’ debates. Nerfing characters and improving others goes exactly against doing so.
hazelam
in games they’re not because they have to balance them, how else is somebody like Kano gonna last more then a second against Superman?
but in the comics, and books, they don’t have to bother with that, they can just have them do their stuff, they just have to be more imaginative in how they have the characters deal with each other.
Gamoc
Well yes, I did mean specifically games, I forgot to include that detail.
Cutter.T
I love cross overs, and I don’t even care how badly its done. I even like watching comic relief for that exact reason!
hazelam
they mostly happen in beat em ups, where plot isn’t a big concern anyway.
a few of the memorable ones for me were the spartan in DOA4.
most surprising was despite being a female spartan and with Itagaki still in charge at team ninja, they resisted the urge to stick her in a bikini.
and the Star Wars characters in Soul Calibur 4.
from the Force unleashed game.
Vader was tough but beatable.
the apprentice on the other hand.
that guy pissed me off so much, i’m amazed my joypad survived that game.
my favourite crossover game would have to be Kingdom Hearts though.
sorry, Peter, but i still like disney, so disney characters and characters from various square games?
that’s a dream crossover for me.
speaking of crossovers, anybody read the Star Trek X-Men crossovers?
the X-men end up on the Enterprise D.
jean is impressed by Deanna’s telepathy, after seeing Angel, Riker regrets that he didn’t fly when Q gave him powers, and they end up solving some crisis on some world that involves mutants.
i think Q and the Watcher conspired to bring them together.
hazelam
i just remembered probably the most unlikely crossover ever, another comics crossover this one.
the Punisher meets Archie.
yeah, that Archie.
it’s real, honest, i’ve got a copy.
google it if you don’t believe it’s real.
cc_star
Perhaps it’s a sign of maturity in the industry that developers and publishers are more willing to loan characters out like this, or perhaps someone in a business development unit has realised that it’s a new revenue stream that had potential to be grown out.
It’s definitely the ker………ching element.
Short on new ideas, little appetitie for risks, just stick some bankable characters in a different situation, hey presto, another payday!
bunimomike
Agreed. It’s them running out of great ideas (for 90% of it).
A cheap move at best, I feel.
Crocadillian
Yep. I can’t think of a publisher that isn’t retarded.
tactical20
Was the Dead Space dude in EA Skate I think?
Yersal
Not sure but he was in Tiger 10
Foxhound_Solid
I’d love Sony to do a big online ten player or whatever the magic number was co-op game. Avengers style, how cool would a game where Snake, Drake, Kratos, Sev killzone, Cole, Hale to name a few be. You could even hit it Solo seeing the story, perspectives, choices from each viewpoint if you hit the campaign solo. I’ve seen some great crossovers but I have to say as a huge fan SFvT is a huge let down for me.
Crocadillian
I don’t think crossovers are bad, but I become incredibly skeptical because of the way that publishers may regard them, just because of IP strength and their own special brand of retardedness. Although Nintendo IMO is the only one to have pulled off crossovers extremely well, what they have in gameplay they lack in other areas.
Sympozium
Crossover’s are simply for fans and a great introduction to a new players if done right. Its lovely to see Capcom having a few Versus fighters over the years, especially the one I still bloody want on the Wii, that could introduce me to a new franchise, become a fan really.
They don’t happen often we never see stuff from EA or Activision and that’s good cause having too many is killing the whole idea. So I’m glad publishers don’t resort to much of that.
Its usually Capcom and Koei that actually have loads of crossover’s under there belt. I really liked the Gundam franchise but there was a new game in that year of 2007 and it had a demo which was interesting it had gameplay from Dynasty Warriors which I never played on PS2 and I loved it.
Simply Crossover’s are a godlike gift, it can easily introduce anyone to a new thing, I really like Dynasty Warriors now and I bet many will be fooled from reviews which is typical..
Now I really want ACE:R..gawd Gundam plus other mecha series in one game, shame its Japanese only. Damn you Britain and rest of world for not having the same level of craziness for mecha as Japan.
Its not laziness or risks its simply Fan service.
Shaggy2Dope
Nippon Ichi seem to have quite a few crossover titles as well.