Published , by Shack Staff
Published , by Shack Staff
Bonjour, good folks. Another week and another February are beginning to circle around the drain. Our friends in Texas have started to thaw out and spring will be around the corner before you know it. The birds and bees will soon be buzzing and slamming into each other to create new life. The resulting baby birds and bees are the results of combining DNA.
Some of the most surprising video games are the result of wild combinations of gameplay mechanics or franchises that fans never dreamed would pair up. In the spirit of such releases, we asked our staff to come up with their dream video game crossovers. Hopefully, they can come up with something cooler than adding new sword characters to Smash Bros. Ultimate.
I want to be a super simpleton for this answer. Before Fortnite came along, the premier destination for crossover content was the Super Smash Bros. series. It still is, in a lot of ways, and we've gotten characters from franchises I would never have dreamed of. There's just one character missing for me.
The Kingdom Hearts addict in me still wants to see Sora make it into Smash. Yes, Greg Burke has explained to me countless times why this is impossible and why it can never be. It won't make me stop pining for this idea. Hand me a Keyblade and let me send Mario flying straight into the nether of Kingdom Hearts itself. KH and Smash are two of my favorite gaming series of all time. Let me have this one.
I mean, why not? Japan’s two largest JRPG franchises, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a crossover yet. Give us a new Hero that wakes up on the shores of a mysterious land… the Kanto region! Boom. Now just replace all of the standard DQ monsters with Pokemon and you’ve got yourself a clashing of worlds. It could be a hot mess, but I’d love it.
I feel like there are some decent parallels between this classic anime and my favorite MMO about space ninjas. For starters, they both revolve around children burdened with great power and responsibility that have to pilot mechs because their parents say so. And they both feature pretty trippy story arcs. Getting some Warframes based off of the EVA units would be incredible! Maybe even some skin for the pilots based off Shinji, Asuka, and Rei? I mean, I’ve already given a lot of my Warframes and weapons a makeover with a purple and green motif to make them look like EVA Unit-01, so I’m more than ready to take it to the next level with a full-on collab. Space Mom, if you’re out there and listening, please please please make this happen!
I’m a simple boy with simple desires. I want a AAA-budget driving game that uses Carmageddon mechanics and destruction while making use of the car roster/handling/graphics/livery system of the Forza series. Running over people in cars is always wonderful, but it would be more wonderful to do with a fully-licensed Ferrari F40 with a Night Court paint job at 4K/120Hz. I want all kinds of roadkill, from farm animals to exotic endangered species. I want pedestrians ranging from generic folk to iconic celebrities such as Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
I love Rare as a developer. The company has a long history of creating fantastic games full of comedy. Things like Conker’s Bad Fur Day really pushed the line of adult humor on Nintendo’s family-friendly box back in the ‘90s and Sea of Thieves is chock full of cheeky comedy gold. While the studio is working on new IPs these days, I would love to see them tackle the Fable franchise. I think the art style of Sea of Thieves could work really well in Fable and the company still has the comedy chops to make something funny. But hey, even if this never happens, I’m just glad Xbox has another Fable title in the works.
I think Agent 47 should make appearances in far more games, even if it’s just as an Easter egg. Seeing that bald head with the barcode never gets old for me, and there are a lot of games where it could fit. Ghost Recon Breakpoint, although not exactly my favorite game by any means, would be a cool place. Breakpoint already does crossovers, and the stories would line up quite nicely. You don’t even need to put 47 in Breakpoint, just tie narratives together and let Agen 47 take someone out in the Breakpoint universe, but in Hitman 3.
Okay, stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Imagine a really great tactical game series with a great protagonist. Someone so good at hiding in plain sight that he managed to vanish from his own video game series entirely. Then, let’s take that and throw it all together into a bowl with Big Boss and what do we have? An absolute nightmare of tactically that sounds brilliant and refreshing.
Truth be told, I really just want a new Splinter Cell game, but I know the chances of that happening are slim. So, instead, I’ll gladly settle with a Metal Gear Solid game that offers a ton of tactical options that also incorporates Sam Fisher or Sam Fisher-esque characters into it.
Actually, just give me Splinter Cell, Ubisoft. You cowards.
I have really enjoyed the beat 'em-up resurgence in the past years where we saw the likes of Double Dragon, River City, and Streets of Rage make impressive comebacks in excellent forms. I think ultimately, I’d like to see a little something-something like the Battletoads/Double Dragon crossover of old. This time though, I’d like to see the true kings crossover. I want Billy Lee, Jimmy Lee, and Marian of Double Dragon, Kunio, Riki, Misako, and Kyoko of River City, and Axl, Blaze, Skate, Adam Hunter, and other Streets of Rage alumni in the same place brawling it out in any given combination against a dastardly army of thugs from these aforementioned franchises.
It would be quite the crossover, a Super Smash Bros. mashup of solid beat 'em-up characters, but dang if it doesn’t seem like it would be incredible in the right hands. With DotEmu hit their home run with Streets of Rage 4 and WayForward having knocked it out of the park on their front with River City Girls, I think I’d like to see either of these folks put it together. Maybe a collaboration? One can dream.
I want him in the game so bad. He’s a huge character that’s unfortunately owned by Disney, so I don’t think we’ll ever see it. But I want it.
What is my ideal fantasy game crossover? Hear me out on this one but I want an actual Mario/Sonic crossover that isn’t the Olympics or a fighting game. It could be similar to the Mario/Rabbids game where the team-up doesn’t feel like it would be a good fit but the idea of the game works. It could be a classic platforming game similar to Sonic Generations but has some Mario levels too. It would be cool to see both characters in their natural game style without having running the 100-yard dash or competing in judo.
Metroid Prime 4 will eventually turn the first-person action-adventure exploration trilogy into a quadrilogy and with the gigantic and growing install base of the Nintendo Switch, this entry is poised to be the best-selling Metroid game ever. I would love to see an Outer Wilds influence in a hypothetical first-person spinoff series for Samus Aran or maybe a new character introduced in the Metroid universe.
Imagine a Metroid game with an entire solar system to explore, with each planet slowly unraveling a mystery and upgrades that unlock new areas to explore in a completely free-form but gently guided manner. A time-loop mechanic isn’t necessary and might even detract from the core experience of immersing yourself in the vast worlds found in Metroid titles. But it could be something worked cleverly into the plot and even into the players’ control, changing landscapes or eventually allowing you to manipulate the planets themselves. I’m a sucker for Metroid Prime and Outer Wilds, I think both are pinnacles of the genres they represent within first-person games and could make for an interesting crossover.
Do you feel inspired by the staff selections? Do you think they are poop? Could you come up with something better? Let us know in the comments below and maybe your dreams could come true!