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All Hail the Fighting Game Crossover!

All Hail the Fighting Game Crossover!

Sit back and think for a moment. What genre of game manages to pull off crossovers like they’re no big deal? The ones that make you giggle with glee whenever your favorite folks interact? Time’s up! Fighting games for the win, people. Those are the mashups to beat.

Crossovers in games aren’t unexpected or unusual. They happen all the time. And fighting games have become a master of such things. They make it feel effortless, even when the interactions are forced. From the very beginning, titles like The King of Fighters ’94 and Marvel vs. Capcom started something. Solid gameplay in a franchise where you didn’t need a substantial or logical explanation for inclusions and anyone could pop in and play helped set standards.

These initial entries helped broach the idea of mashups and how wonderful they could be, but it’s only in the last few years that companies have gone above and beyond. Take Super Smash Bros. It pretty much set the standard for fighting game crossovers in 1999, even if it wasn’t the first. It’s all because when Nintendo got in the game, it went with all of its most popular characters. These were people you wouldn’t even think would fight, but there they are, and it worked! Each entry has gone further. Super Smash Bros. Melee was amazing because of the variety and balance. Brawl stood out dueto its story mode and appearances from Sonic the Hedgehog and Metal Gear ‘s Solid Snake. Super Smash Bros. ‘s most recent Wii U and 3DS game went even crazier, pulling in Ryu from Street Fighter , Cloud from Final Fantasy VII , Mega Man, and Pac-Man. Seeing Cloud and Ryu face off for the first time was a fantasy come to life!

Mortal Kombat has done quite well to set some bars as well. Starting in 2011, the series began pulling in guest stars that made sense. After all, Nightmare on Elm Street ‘s Freddy Krueger and God of War ‘s Kratos would be right at home in such a brutal game. Fatalities are a way of life for them. Mortal Kombat X one-upped those two by bringing in four more even more appropriate cinematic stars. Alien ‘s Xenomorph, Friday the 13th ‘s Jason Voorhees, The Predator ‘s, well, Predator, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ‘s Leatherface all come out to play. By which I mean haunt your nightmares, because it wasn’t enough that horror movies established their prowess. Now you also have to worry about fellow Mortal Kombat X players kicking your butt with them.

All Hail the Fighting Game Crossover!

You have to take the fan community into account as well. M.U.G.E.N. , the freeware engine for 2D fighters, has been growing since 1999. People around the world put their best efforts into getting all of their favorite characters from every franchise into the game. With multiple guilds and archives , dedicated fans have created hundreds of high quality characters and stages to enjoy, further proving the potential of fighting games to encourage creativity and welcome crossovers.

We still haven’t seen all of our dream matches yet. The thought of Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter isn’t quite a reality yet. But it’s nothing to be too concerned about. There’s always room for a genre to grow, and grow it will. After all, we’re getting a new The King of Fighters this year, Rash from Battletoads will be in Killer Instinct soon, Akuma will be in Tekken 7 , and we already know Bayonetta and another Fire Emblem hero will appear in Super Smash Bros. The future is bright indeed.

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