10 Best Crazy Gaming Crossovers That Somehow Worked

Crossovers are all the rage these days thanks to the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While not inherently new, crossover events have been featured in media for longer than you realize. The recent It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia/Abbot Elementary crossover episodes made news, but there was also the old Flintstones/Jetsons crossover event I owned on VHS.

These crossover events don’t exist only in television or movies but also in video games, with Fortnite possibly the biggest example. Where else can you team up with Hank Hill and John Wick?

These crossover events make sense in Fortnite, but it's far from the only example of crossovers in video games. As for these 10 gaming

crossover events, they shouldn’t have worked out, yet, like life, they found a way.

10 Starlink and Star Fox

The Best Star Fox Game In Years

If you have never heard of Starlink, I don’t blame you.

Fully titled Starlink: Battle for Atlas, it’s an Ubisoft sci-fi action-adventure game that allows people to traverse through the Atlas system. It was an okay game that ultimately became lost in the gaming shuffle.

There’s a bigger chance you’ve heard of Star Fox. However, with the way Nintendo has handled (re: ignored) the franchise recently, I won’t blame you if you’ve never heard of it outside of Smash Bros. Star Fox is a space-combat rail-shooter, with its Nintendo 64 release being the most iconic.

Yet despite the success of Star Fox 64, Nintendo hasn’t given the Star Fox IP much love since, with several failed releases over the years, most notably 2016’s Star Fox Zero. Two years later, Star Fox made a crossover appearance in the Nintendo Switch version of Starlink.

While the idea of Nintendo and Ubisoft collaborating wasn’t new (we’ll get to the 2017 game later on), it still felt a bit out of left field given the failures of Star Fox, yet it worked out quite well, making the Switch version of Starlink the best one to own.

9 Soulcalibur 2

The Legend Will Never Die

If I told you today that a fighting game was going to be released in 2026 without crossover characters, that would be breaking news. They’ve become commonplace, with the most notable examples being Mortal Kombat and Super Smash Bros.

If we go back to 2002, however, there’s Super Smash Bros. and… that’s pretty much it. The fact that Soulcalibur 2 was releasing with crossover characters specific to the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox was a pretty big deal.

Seeing The Legend of Zelda’s Link and Tekken’s Heihachi Mishima appear in a different game was huge news, as well as an absolute blast to play. Spawn appearing on the Xbox version is pretty cool as well, though a bit weird to not see, say, Master Chief appear in the game.

8 Legend of Zelda and Hyrule Warriors

Now A Part Of The Zelda Timeline!

The idea of taking an iconic Nintendo IP and placing it into another franchise is becoming increasingly common, even if it was still somewhat novel in 2014.

Hyrule Warriors isn’t the first time we’ve seen a major Nintendo franchise appear in another series, but there is one thing that makes it feel notable: the importance of Hyrule Warriors to the overall Legend of Zelda timeline.

You see, these games aren’t just fun spin-offs that let you hack and slash enemies as Link, though the original Hyrule Warriors is just that.

Since then, both Age of Calamity and Age of Imprisonment have become official canon events to the Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom timelines, which makes the fact that this crossover game not only works but is essential to the overall Zelda story pretty impressive.

7 Super Smash Bros.

Everybody's Here

Okay, I’ve avoided it for long enough.

Super Smash Bros. shouldn’t have worked the way it did. It should never have become a major crossover event that encompasses all of gaming, not just Nintendo characters.

In reality, the first game in the series for the Nintendo 64 is fun, don’t get me wrong, but it’s an admittedly shallow and lackluster fighting game. Super Smash Bros. Melee does expand on this, however, which is one reason why it's easily the best in the entire franchise.

So how do you top it? By bringing in third-party characters, and that’s what puts it on our list. Hideo Kojima reportedly begged Masahiro Sakurai to include Snake in Smash Bros. From there, the floodgates were open, and the rest is history. 2018's Super Smash Bros.

Ultimate is the franchise's peak for crossover events, featuring characters from dozens of iconic third-party gaming franchises. It has you wondering how the next entry in the Smash Bros. series can even dream of topping it.

6 Marvel vs. Capcom

Wanna Take You For A Ride

Smash wasn’t the first fighting game to deliver on the crossover event appeal. Though, to be fair, neither was Marvel vs. Capcom.

The “MVC series” first began in 1996 with X-Men vs. Street Fighter, pitting iconic characters from video games and comic books against each other. It was an instant hit, but it’s nowhere near the popularity of the Marvel vs. Capcom game as we know it today.

So if there’s already an established formula of success, what makes Marvel vs. Capcom such a crazy crossover event that shouldn’t have worked? It’s the fact that Capcom decided to open up the doors to their vault. It’s not just the iconic Street Fighter characters; there are some sleeper hits in here, such as Strider Hiyru.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 would up the ante with an even more impressive roster of characters, including some deep cuts from both the Marvel and Capcom libraries.

5 Kingdom Hearts

Gawrsh!

Today, the idea of Kingdom Hearts isn't necessarily shocking, especially since there are so many games in the franchise. Over twenty years ago, though, it seems like a wild idea that shouldn't have worked.

This was well before a world where Disney was as widely available as it is today. Back in my day, there was this thing called the Disney Vault, and if you didn't buy a VHS copy of your favorite Disney movie, you had no way to watch it. Today, Disney is everywhere, from its theme parks and streaming service to video games and even a trading card game with Disney Lorcana.

Again, that's today. If I told you that in 2002, there would be an action RPG starring an original character voiced by the kid from The Sixth Sense, as well as a concentrated effort to bring back the original voice actors from iconic Disney movies (James Hader is Hades, Pat Carrol returns as Ursula), you'd laugh in my face.

That's Kingdom Hearts, though, and while the franchise has arguably gone off the rails in recent years, the original PS2 game is still a classic.

4 Final Fantasy XIV and Fall Guys

Right You Are, Ken

Fall Guys took the world by storm when it released in 2020.

It was a perfect storm: people were still content to stay at home in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Fall Guys was the perfect game for hanging out and interacting with our friends. It's essentially a virtual version of game shows like Wipeout and Takeshi's Castle that requires physics-based platforming in a Battle Royale-esque environment.

It was wild, it was wacky, and it was certainly not something that seemed ripe to collaborate with a story-driven MMORPG. Yet that's what happens with Fall Guys and Final Fantasy XIV, which, at the time of writing, just finished up its most recent collaboration event.

As it turns out, introducing Fall Guys events to FF14's Golden Saucer attraction is a match made in heaven. It's not perfect, but it gives people a reason to log in, play games, and have fun aside from the traditional MMORPG endgame content.

3 Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei

Oh My God, It's A Mirage

This is the gaming event that, on paper, tended to make sense, even if it came out of left field.

Delivering a Fire Emblem game with the look and feel of a Shin Megami Tensei experience is a match made in heaven, and its working title, Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, presented a lot of intrigue. It would be released as Tokyo Mirage Sessions, completely under the radar. Of course, that's in part due to the Wii U's failure, but it was a stark departure from the Fire Emblem franchise.

This is where the game should have fallen apart: it's not a Fire Emblem game at heart, and as good as the Shin Megami Tensei franchise is, it was falling behind the popularity and quality of Persona by now. Yet Tokyo Mirage Sessions is good and unique enough to warrant a playthrough for JRPG fans.

2 Mario + Rabbids

Super Mario XCOM

Literally nobody asked for this.

The Rabbids had long outstayed their welcome by this point, and seeing them appear alongside Mario and company in a traditional game was not only confusing, but it felt like a dilution of the Mario brand. Then we played the game and realized it was a far better XCOM game than whatever that FPS spin-off was with The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

It turns out that putting the Rabbids into the Mushroom Kingdom is a match made in heaven, especially when it pairs with legitimately deep and engaging strategy gameplay.

This is a Mario game first, a strategy game second, and a Rabbids game third; they never overstep their bounds or hog the spotlight, instead offering a nice, lighthearted take on what's normally a serious and stressful atmosphere in a game like XCOM.

Mario + Rabbids is so good that not only did it win over all of its skeptics, but it had people cheering for its eventual sequel. Nintendo, if you're listening, I wouldn't mind a third game, either!

1 Pokemon Conquest

Gotta Battle 'Em All

I'd say nobody asked for this game, too, but the more prevailing question, instead of why (which was still asked, mind you), was, "What the heck is Nobunaga's Ambition?"

Great question! Nobunaga's Ambition is a turn-based strategy RPG series from Koei Tecmo that had little to no North American audience when Pokémon Conquest was released in 2012 for the Nintendo DS. Despite coming out of left field, though, the game is a true triumph, capturing the very best of what makes Pokémon battles so good and delivering a seamless transition into the turn-based strategy genre.

There have been countless Pokémon spin-offs over the years, but none of them have come close to matching the strength of Pokémon Conquest. It pays respect to both franchises while delivering a unique and exciting experience that has us wondering why it never got a sequel.