Wait... What are YOU Doing Here?!: Vol. 1
Let's face it, ladies and germs: crossovers are EVERYWHERE now, combining some of our favorite franchises together for some of the most hype content that you have ever seen in your life!..... most of the time. However, sometimes you get that crossover that is so weird, SO random, SO BIZARRE, that it just sticks out so much more to you. So, today, let's take a stroll down memory lane to see some of the most odd crossovers that have ever come out of video games.
25 Games
Alright, we may as well get the obvious pick out of the way first, because HOLY FUCK, there is a lot to go through here. Ever since its inception, Fortnite has had SO MANY crossovers included in it over the years, to the point where I think it may have the single most crossovers out of any video game ever made. Sure, there are some franchises and characters here that you would expect from a game like this, like Master Chief from Halo and poooooooooosibly the Predator, but then you have other shit like the Marvel heroes and villains, the DC heroes and villains, Chun Li and Ryu from Street Fighter, Kratos from God of War, Fry, Leela, and Bender from Futurama, Peter Griffin from Family Guy, John Wick, Rick and Morty, the Terminator, a xenomorph, Ellen Ripley, and SO MANY OTHERS! Hell, there's been points where they have even integrated real-life people into the game as well, and at this point, these crossovers are NEVER gonna stop, so I will just stop here for the sake of keeping my sanity in-tact.
I, like many others, am a massive fan of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and while I haven't played all of the games in the series, I have thoroughly enjoyed all the ones that I have played despite some of the issues that they have (except for Chain of Memories, that one can fuck off). However, even as a big fan of the series, I can still take a step back and realize that this series, as a concept, should NEVER have worked in the first place. It was literally an elevator pitch, taking the many magical and wondrous worlds of Disney, sprinkling in some well-known Final Fantasy elements and characters in there, as well as an original set of characters that would collide with the two franchises time and time again throughout their journey. It sounded like a recipe for disaster, but somehow against all the odds, it managed to work out incredibly well, with the series still going to this day, and there have been plenty of great games to come from this idea that many still enjoy even now............ as long as you ignore how garbage the story is.
Out of all of the franchises that Mario could ever do a crossover with, the Raving Rabbids was probably the very last one that most people could've guessed, so when this game was announced, most people were left.... optimistically confused. Thankfully, the game turned out to be pretty great (I assume, cause I didn't play it), and it was successful enough to get a full-blown sequel, so it was clear that this combination worked wonders, to the surprise of everyone.
Mortal Kombat is certainly no stranger when it comes to awfully strange, yet somehow fitting crossovers, and this could even be seen before the series got rebooted in 2011. We got a full-ass crossover title in the form of Mortal Kombat vs. the DC Universe, which had the warriors of MK battling it out against the heroes and villains of DC Comics. I myself haven't played it, so I can't speak on how good the game is, but what I can speak on is that it didn't do well financially at all, leading to Midway shutting their doors, so needless to say, this crossover was a bomb. Thankfully though, Mortal Kombat would be brought back with a fresh start, and with this fresh start, we got guest appearances from characters from ALL OVER THE PLACE. Things started out small with Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street and Kratos from God of War, but by the second entry, we had a xenomorph from Alien, a predator from Predator, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the list just goes on and on from there. This crossover mayhem doesn't seem like it is slowing down anytime either, so I can't wait until we get to Mortal Kombat 13, where they end up adding Super Saiyan Shaggy as a guest character.
This is probably one of the most surprising crossovers that I have ever seen, just because of how impossible it sounds in concept. We have an indie game, Crypt of the Necrodancer, a wonderful mix of dungeon crawling and rhythm game mechanics, getting a full-blown, officially supported crossover with The Legend of Zelda. Just think about that for a second... Nintendo allowed an indie dev to make a crossover game with one of their biggest franchises........ NINTENDO allowed that to happen. And while I myself haven't played it, I believe it worked out pretty well, cause not only was the game considered to be pretty great by the general public, but the game ended up getting plenty of DLC as well, which is pretty cool. Maybe this will somehow lead to more mainstream/indie game crossovers at some point? Like, full crossovers, not just like a bonus character or something in a game? I dunno, but I REALLY hope this becomes a recurring thing.
It's no secret that Capcom does a lot of crossovers, specifically with fighting games, with them clashing their characters against many others from other companies, like Marvel, SNK, and so on. However, this is probably the most surprising crossover they have ever done, seeing as how... well, it wasn't even theirs at first, being just a simple fan game that they decided to fully support and liscence. Good thing they did too, cause the game managed to be great, giving us the classic and addicting Mega Man gameplay we have come to love, while taking on plenty of different, well-known Street Fighter faces. Just imagine if we ever managed to get anymore crossovers from Capcom like this...... or, you know, any new Mega Man game in general. Had to throw that in, since I am still salty.
So, for the record, I myself have never played Ape Escape 3, or any of the other Ape Escape games for that matter, but this crossover is still odd enough to the point where I have to bring it up. In Ape Escape 3, after beating the main game, there is a little minigame you can purchase known as Mesal Gear Solid: Snake Escape, which, as the name implies, is a crossover with Metal Gear, a franchise that is COMPLETELY different from Ape Escape in just about every way. Somehow though, these two managed to collide, and the crossover doesn't even stop there. In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, there is also a minigame in there known as Snake vs. Monkey, where Solid Snake is tasked with taking down a group of enemies... who happen to be the monkeys from Ape Escape. I have no idea how this crossover idea came to be, or how it ended up actually happening, but I am so happy that it does exist, as it is so goofy and funny all at the same time.
Let's face it, it was inevitable that Mario and Sonic were gonna end up crossing over at some point. They are two of the biggest names in the video game industry, ones that are constantly compared to one another and often clashed against each other to see which one is the best. So, we eventually did get this crossover, and it had Mario, Sonic and pals being sent to........... the Olympic Games............ oooooooooookay then? It is definitely not the first thing I think of when I picture a Mario and Sonic crossover, but it managed to work nonetheless, spawning a series that is still going to this day, and will probably keep going for years to come.
After it was released, Asura's Wrath ended up getting plenty of DLC, which would also not only actually finish up the main plot of the game (seriously, what was all that about), but also give fans a little extra surprise. There would be two episodes released for the game, completely non-canon to the main story, that would have Asura facing off against Ryu and Akuma from Street Fighter. Why are they here and how did any of this happen? WHO CARES, because this shit here is AWESOME! Not only are the fights with these guys just as action-packed, fast, and over-the-top as the rest of the game is, but they also manage to throw you for a loop as to what goes on in them, with you first fighting them in the Street Fighter IV style, and then you switch up to fighting them in the typical Asura's Wrath style. It may be a pointless crossover that comes out of nowhere, but it is one that is incredibly fun and insane as well, much like the rest of the game, and that's all that matters at the end of it all.
For some versions of Shovel Knight out there, you mainly get the standard game with all of the sweet bells and whistles attatched to it, but for different versions of the game, you can get a... special treat right along with it. For every version of the game released on a Sony console, there is a new item that you can acquire known as the Curious Map, and with this item in hand, you then have the chance of encountering a new wanderer on the map. This new wanderer just so happens to be Kratos from God of War (wow, he is in a lot of these, isn't he), and you now challenge him to a sweet boss fight, where he will use all of his fighting techniques against you, and even raise the stakes in Round 2 of the fight to make taking him down all the sweeter. However, believe it or not, that isn't even the best crossover that Shovel Knight got. If you were to play a version of this game released on a Microsoft platform, you can go to a new stage that is uncreatively titled Mysterious Area, where you will encounter a new set of foes to fight: the Battletoads! Not only is this pretty cool because this is one of the first instances that we have seen these guys in decades, but you can also take on each toad individually, in sections that mimic segments of the original game, including the repelling bit and the speed-bike segments. As a big fan of both God of War and Battletoads, being able to fight them in these two different versions of the game was a MASSIVE treat, and I'm still kind of shocked that they even managed to get put in this game in the first place.
It may have been a stupid game about flinging birds at pigs, but Angry Birds managed to get big and successful enough to where it would not only get sequels to this day, but it would also get some... questionable crossovers. The first would be through Angry Birds Rio, an entire game that is a crossover to the... ahem, CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED film, Rio. I mean, I guess I can kinda see their reasoning behind this one? We have a game about birds, and that is a movie about birds, so logically, the two go together perfectly, no questions asked! But the weirdness doesn't stop there, ladies and gentlemen, because the series would also get two more crossover titles with... Star Wars? Uh, sure, why not. These games are pretty much just your typical Angry Birds affair, except now you have birds that use blasters and lightsabers, all themed around different Star Wars characters, and every world/stage in the game takes place in a Star Wars location. Oh, but that's not even where it ends, because after that, Angry Birds would also get a crossover title with... Transformers! Because the two have SO MUCH IN COMMON! And this one doesn't even play like an Angry Birds game, and more like a very easy rail shooter. You'll be running around as Redimus Prime (I swear, if that's actually his name) and tapping things on the screen in front of you and in the background, shooting them down to eliminate all of the Deceptipigs that you can. After this though, there have been no more major crossover titles involving Angry Birds, which is kinda disappointing, to be honest. They could've probably got away with doing a Marvel crossover at this rate, or hey, now that Rovio is owned by Sega, they could do a Sonic crossover game.............. which they are probably actually planning as we speak.
Originally, in most parts of the world, people would know this game as Bomberman GB, the first Game Boy game for the Bomberman series, and it plays pretty much exactly how you would expect it to with no more surprises. However, for some reason, for American and Europe, Nintendo decided to change the game entirely by adding... Wario to the mix, and retitling the game to Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!. This has got to be one of the earliest examples of a strange-ass crossover that I have ever seen. I mean, I get it, Nintendo did publish the game for us over here, but what reason could they POSSIBLY have had for making this Bomberman game center around Wario? Maybe because they thought it would sell more? I dunno, but all I know is that now it exists as this really weird part of the Bomberman franchise that none try to question too often.
This one doesn't seem as surprising as others, as for plenty of years before this game, Traveller's Tales were making PLENTY of Lego games based on popular media franchises, like Star Wars, DC Comics, Indiana Jones and so on, but with this game, instead of crossing over with just one movie franchise or whatever, it decides to crossover with EVERYBODY! Of course, we got some of the regular franchises that you would expect to see, like DC, The Lord of the Rings and what have you, but then you have properties popping up that you would've never expected, like The Simpsons, Portal, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Teen Titans GO!, The Powerpuff Girls, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Knight Rider...... FUCKING KNIGHT RIDER. It is just so weird seeing all of these different properties, some COMPLETELY different in many ways from others, come together all in the simplest way possible.... through Lego. Makes you wonder what other kinds of franchises they could've gotten in on the fun if they made another one of these.
What we have here is a game that TECHNICALLY isn't a crossover in the traditional sense, but one that fits the bill of being a bizarre crossover, because... well, I mean, look at it! It's a Dance Dance Revolution game solely revolving around the world of Mario and its characters, with them all dancing to classic and new Mario tunes. Of course, I can't hate this concept or game in the slightest, considering that Waluigi is the villain, and they all got the moves, but you just have to wonder how this all came about in the first place.
In almost every single way, NBA Street V3 just seems like a very typical basketball game, meant to make a quick buck off of those sports game nuts before they pump out the next game next year and repeat the process over and over again. However, there is a little more... weirdness to it, as in the GameCube version of this game, alongside all of the regular NBA stars you can play as, you can also play as... Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach, for some reason. Apparently this was part of a deal Nintendo made with EA Sports to have their characters appear in this game, along with SSX On Tour, which kind of makes sense, but it is still just SO FUCKING WEIRD, seeing these cartoon characters playing basketball right alongside all of these others who are meant to represent real people. Just think, what if this deal extended further then just the sports games, and we ended up getting this in other EA franchises as well? Man, I can't wait to play as Mario in Dead Space: Extraction!
Despite not being as popular as some of the other modern reinventions of fighting game franchises at the time, the 2013 Killer Instinct game did manage to last for a little bit before kicking the bucket, and not only that, but they managed to get some weird-ass crossovers in there as well. First off, we have the Arbiter from Halo, who is definitely cool to see in here, and it makes sense since these are both owned by Xbox, but it is kinda weird seeing him in action alongside all the others, and we have General RAAM from Gears of War, who just feels like he was put in as an obligation, as Halo already got their chance to shine here, and they needed to put in another very similar character in from Gears just to make fans of that series happy. However, none of that even comes close to undoubtedly the weirdest character to crossover into this game: Rash from Battletoads. Once again, this one makes plenty of sense, not just because it is an Xbox series, but also because Rash was created by Rare, but it is strange seeing how one of the first instances of Battletoads coming back was with this very odd guest spot in this game. Not only that, being seeing a photorealistic version of Rash is cursed, and I'm not sure if I like it all that much.
Naturally, since this is the Sony equivelant of Super Smash Bros., there were characters brought in from all over the place for this game, some fairly obvious for the game and expected, but then there are others that are just sort of... odd. Just to name off a few, we have Dante from Devil May Cry, but specifically from DMC: Devil May Cry, because we all know how much everyone LOVES that game, Emmett Graves from Starhawk, because we all definitely remember what Starhawk was, Isaac Clarke from Dead Space, because he definitely seems like the kind of character meant to be in a fighting game, Nariko from Heavenly Sword, because we all definitely remember what Heavenly Sword was, and finally, we not only have the regular Cole McGrath from Infamous, but we also have the EVIL Cole McGrath from Infamous as well.............. that one isn't confusing, that one if just fucking stupid. Of course, there are clear reasons as to why a lot of these characters were included in this game at the time, but looking back on it now, you really see just how far Sony was willing to reach just to get SOME recognizable characters into here just to try to have as big of a roster as Nintendo did in their platform fighter. I'm just saying guys, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro were RIGHT THERE, and you could've used them. They may be third party, but you got other third party characters in there, so what's your excuse?
I think there must be an unspoken rule out there that states that if you are a popular video game franchise, you have to have at least one "what-the-fuck" character inclusion in your game at some point, and Soulcalibur is no exception to this rule. Of course, there have been plenty of understandable crossover characters in these games, such as plenty of characters from Tekken, and I would even say that Geralt from The Witcher and Ezio from Assassin's Creed also fit in with the others in these games..... to a degree, but then you have others that just feel very weird to see, such as Link from The Legend of Zelda, Spawn from the comic of the same name, 2B from Nier: Automata, and even Darth Vader, Yoda, and Starkiller from the Star Wars franchise. Admittedly though, seeing all of these characters appear in this series at some point or another is pretty cool, but you just gotta wonder how they manage to keep appearing every time, and just what other characters they are planning on bringing in next........ then again, that would require them to actually make a new Soulcalibur game, and uh, that's probably not gonna happen.
As of me making this list, I have yet to play any of the games in the Dead by Daylight franchise, but I am aware of just how popular the first game in this series....... is? (Or maybe was, I dunno, haven't checked in lately) And of course, when a game like this gets really popular, it manages to get crossovers all over the place, and for a nice change of pace, most of the ones in this game actually make some kind of sense! Most of these feature characters from other popular horror games, or even from popular horror movies, like Halloween, Scream, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Saw, just to name a few, but of course, not every single crossover feels as legitimate as all of the others. First of all, there was a crossover that brought Albert Wesker as a killer, even though we already had Nemesis to fill in the Resident Evil spot for this game, and he does look pretty goofy in-game from what I have seen, and eventually, we will also have Dracula from Castlevania in this game, which does somewhat fit in with all of the others, but I dunno, putting a vampire in this game just kinda seems... off..... but maybe that's just me. However, none of that even compares to what is undoubtably the strangest "crossover" we ever got in this game, and that is......... Nicolas Cage. It's none of the characters that he plays, it's just... The Cagester.......... because why the hell not! I dunno, maybe one day, the people Behavior Interactive just watched Willy's Wonderland and realized just how awesome Nick is, so they needed to put him in the game as soon as they could. I mean, can't say I blame them, cause Willy's Wonderland is peak cinema, clearly.
Oh yeah, this is a thing that exists....... anyone else just kinda forget that this was a thing that Ubisoft tried to make popular, and to my knowledge, are STILL trying to make popular? I mean, it must be working, seeing the big numbers that they are claiming the game has, as well as the ridiculous amount of characters that are being brought into this game! Naturally, we have characters that feel like they fit in this universe, like Rayman and Ezio from Assassin's Creed, but then you have crossovers from all over the place, including characters from SpongeBob SquarePants, Star Wars, Adventure Time, Kung Fu Panda, Steven Universe, The Walking Dead, Ben 10, and even actual wrestlers from the WWE, just to name a few. That is a ridiculous amount of guest characters covering MANY different other properties from not just video games, but other mediums entirely, and it just seems like if there is a chance that a popular character could make it into Brawlhalla, Ubisoft is gonna take that chance and go fully swinging with it. And hey, you know what, I'd say let them go for it. Make just as ridiculous as Fortnite has become, I'll wait.
In many ways, Fighting Vipers may seem like a pretty average fighting game with nothing going on with it, with your average set of characters, average fights, average slight changes to the formula, all that jazz, but little do you know that there is something... truly special in this game. Specifically, this referring to the Japanese version of the game, where if you lose the first fight of arcade mode, you are then given the chance to fight and unlock the one, the only...... PEPSIMAN!......... what, don't tell me you don't know who Pepsiman is? He is only the best mascot and superhero of all time, being the Japanese mascot for Pepsi for a good while in the 90s, and being the only reason why I am actually considering drinking Pepsi once in my life. I have no clue how or why he ended up in this random fighting game, but you know what, I don't care, because Pepsiman is too good for this world, and we need him to be put in every game ever made!
Alongside the mainline console and handheld Mario Kart games, there have also been a set of Mario Kart games released exclusively for arcades known as Mario Kart Arcade GP, and let me tell you, if you haven't played these games before, you should, because they are pretty fucking sweet from what I remember, and I loved trying them out back when I was a kid. However, despite how much I did love these games, something about them always weirded me out....... why the hell is Pac-Man here? Yeah, I know the games were co-developed by Namco, but there has never been a direct reason given for why Pac-Man and his pals are playable characters in these games, but hey, I got no problem with them being there, so it's cool. The random crossovers don't just stop there either, because in the second and third of these games, they also added Mametchi from Tamagotchi and Don-Chan from Taiko no Tatsujin, which makes me think that Nintendo will just allow Namco to insert whatever characters they want into these games. Can't wait for the next game to come out and put in a character from Dark Souls, just to really fuck with people even more then they already have.
I feel like mobile games, just by nature, are bound to have some of the weirdest pieces of cross-promotion material and guest characters that you could possibly find, and this was certainly the case when it came to Sonic Dash. Most of the crossovers in this game just came in the form of the characters you would play as, with a lot of them being from Sonic, naturally, but then you get other characters like some of the birds from Angry Birds, which... only makes complete sense now, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, which is more reasonable but still somewhat strange, Hello Kitty and all her pals, because that's certainly what I thought was missing from Sonic for all of these years, and to top it all off, we even got Bongo from Danimals!.......... you know, Danimals? That one yogurt brand you would pass by all the time while you were in the grocery store? Yeah, that one. Can't say I'm surprised that this one managed to get plenty of weird crossovers and guest stars, seeing that this is a mobile game, and not gonna lie, seeing some of these characters in this game is kinda cool, but Bongo still fucking bewilders me even after knowing about it for quite a bit now......... and it also doesn't help that his design is fucking terrifying.
You remember that one time when you were playing through Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 when you were a kid, having so much fun, racking up all of the points and pulling off some of the most insane tricks that you could possibly imagine, only to then get rewarded with the chance of being able to play as Spider-Man at the end of it all? Yeah...... those were some good times, weren't they?........ well, what if I tell you that Spider-Man wasn't the only guest character to appear in one of these games? For starters, in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, you are able to unlock the ability to play as Darth Maul, Wolverine, and the Doom Slayer (yes, THAT Doom Slayer), because why the hell not, in Pro Skater 4, you could unlock Jango Fett (but not Boba Fett, because fuck you) and Eddie from Iron Maiden, in Tony Hawk's Underground, you could play as Iron Man and Gene Simmons from Kiss, and the list just goes on and on and on from there, folks, getting weirder and weirder then the last. I have never been into the Tony Hawk games, or skating games in general, but not gonna lie, I do kinda wanna get into these games just to have the chance to play as some of these guest characters. I mean, why would you NOT wanna perform a bunch of sick tricks on your board while playing as the Doomguy? It's every kid's dream!
And finally, here we are...... the top dog, the big motherload of crossovers in video games that everybody knows at this point in time, the one and only, Super Smash Bros.! I'm sure we have all played one of these games at some point in our lives, and most of us would probably go as far to say that we love these games as well, but you gotta admit, some of the character inclusions in this game were pretty strange, even for the time they came out. For starters, when it came to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, this was the first time that we ended up getting 3rd party characters in any of these games, which is pretty neat, but out of all the characters that they could get in there, one of the two that they managed to get was.... Solid Snake. Now, I'm not saying that he was a terrible inclusion, and I am glad that he managed to return in Smash Ultimate with everyone else, but compared to all of the other characters that were included in these games at this points, he just sticks out like the sorest of thumbs. But that's only just scratching the surface of some of the odd characters included in these games, even Nintendo themselves, such as with R.O.B. the Robot, because of course everyone LOVES and remembers that peripheral that you used probably once in your whole life, the Wii Fit Trainer, because who doesn't want to punch her/him in the face, Bayonetta, because she certainly appeals to all general audiences, the Ice Climbers, because of course everyone LOVES and remembers that game that you played probably once in your whole life, Steve, because the kids will buy that shit up before you can even blink, and Piranha Plant, because out of all the Mario characters that we haven't included in one of these games yet, we GOTTA add Piranha Plant......... and nobody else! Of course though, those are all just weird and possibly even dumb choices, but then we get to the character inclusions that just don't make any sense whatsoever. Go back all the way to Smash Bros. Melee, and we got characters like Dr. Mario, Young Link, and Pichu, because all of those characters are TOTALLY just not different versions of characters that we already have, and do I even NEED to say anything about the Echo Fighters?.......... yeah, didn't think so. Sure all of these character inclusions are weird, stupid, or just flat-out hilarious, but you know what, at the end of the day, even with these oddballs all grouped together in one place, we still end up playing as them all and loving them anyway, because they are just that fun to use for a little bit before going back to playing as the other character that you usually use............... but I'm telling you right now, none of these guys even COMPARE to Mr. Game & Watch, who is CLEARLY the best character in Super Smash Bros. history, and I will fight you on the streets if you try to say otherwise.
2 Comments
ive got a bias for playstation all stars lmao i cant put a like on all-stars hate
hello8964
21 days ago