25 Best Video Game Crossovers #15 – #6

Once again, Capcom likes to cross over with everything. This time, it puts its iconic Street Fighter series up against the greats from Namco Bandai’s Tekken. The game ran on a Street Fighter style engine and introduced some controversial gameplay changes like Gems and Quick Combos. Though it got a rocky start, as time went on the fighting game community opened up to this interesting crossover, and it is now making appearances at major tournaments around the world.

Fans waited ages for Mario/Sonic crossover and what they got… was an Olympic themed mini-game compilation. Granted, it wasn’t what most of us were looking for, but it was still quite fun, and the franchise only got better as more and more Olympic games passed.

Though this crossover was an obvious attempt to muscle in on Mario Kart’s rule over the kart racing genre, it was actually quite fun. The ability to transform into different vehicle types each with different control schemes was awesome and the tracks were really imaginative. Also, you could play as Wreck-It-Ralph! It’s a shame that more people didn’t give this game a fair shot.

Battletoads & Double Dragon may have been gaming’s first crossover ever. Taking place in the days of the NES, this game put together two of the most iconic beat 'em ups of the time into one awesome package. This game basically started the crossover craze, and it has only gotten crazier since.

Sure, it might be a Smash Brothers clone but it’s a really good Smash Brothers clone! PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale pitted Kratos against Parappa the Rapper against Big Daddy against Raiden from Metal Gear, and it was awesome. The AP based fighting system was far less random than Smash’s percentile based system, and stage hazards/items were balanced in a way that made sense, rather than being overpowered. It tried to be a game that appealed to both the professional and casual markets and to an extent it succeeded. We can’t wait to see what Sony has in store for us in possible sequels.

Soul Calibur has had tons of cameos from all sorts of different games and movies. Heihachi from Tekken, Link from The Legend of Zelda, Spawn from… Spawn, and even Darth Vader and Yoda got in on the action. Unfortunately, Soul Calibur V didn’t have any cameo characters, other than a “Devil Jin” fighting style for its create-a-character mode. Hopefully, Soul Calibur VI will come back to the wacky crossover goodness.

At this point, most fighting game fans consider The King of Fighters to be its own franchise, but in reality it’s actually a crossover title. The game put together characters from Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting as well as older Konami games like Ikari Warriors. New characters are constantly being made, but old ones are always being imported from the original games as well.

Square-Enix decided to cross over with itself in Dissidia Final Fantasy, and no one cared because it was awesome. Finally being able to take Final Fantasy characters into battle against each other was just too cool for anyone to pass up. Sure, the story was overly melodramatic and saturated with vague concepts like, “friendship saving the day,” and “faith in the light helping all,” but hey, that just comes with the Final Fantasy territory.

Easily one of the best crossovers of all time wasn’t an official game at all. Super Mario Crossover is a flash game (which you can play with an actual gamepad), that imports all sorts of classic characters into the world of Super Mario Bros. 1. You can freeze Bullet Bills with Samus’s charge beam, clink to walls with Ryu Hayabusa, shoot Bowser in the face with a Mega Buster blast, and much more. The most recent update is even adding even more characters, graphical skins, and power ups. Check it out at www.explodingrabbit.com

Speaking of free games, CAPCOM WILL CROSSOVER WITH ANYTHING! Street Fighter X Mega Man started as a fan project, until Capcom eventually threw their own support behind the game. It features Mega Man fighting through eight Street Fighter themed stages, taking on eight iconic Street Fighter characters, and taking their special moves as his weapons. It was the sole game that came out in celebration of Mega Man’s 25^th anniversary. We miss you, Mega Man.