With Street Fighter X Tekken and Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney under production, we can't help but ponder what other crossover opportunities developers have yet to capitalize on. What characters are you dying to see come together in a match or as a team? Below are ten video game collisions that need to happen.
Assassin's Creed vs. Hitman
Who would take the other out first? Both Ezio Auditore and Agent 47 have demonstrated excellent records of performance, using their stealth and assassination skills to overwhelm their targets. Each can hold his own in close combat and use the environment to his advantage—Ezio can scale buildings like a pro while 47 takes immaculate measures to successfully infiltrate a location. Both can eliminate even the most well-guarded men. The agent might have the edge with firearms (new technology in Ezio's age), but Ezio has a whole brotherhood supporting him.
Nathan Drake and Lara Croft
What action-adventure–loving, archeology-minded gamer wouldn't love a crossover featuring the lovely Lara Croft and the fearless Nathan Drake? Their two skulls put together could overcome any challenge, and as partners they could brave the farthest corners of the world for treasure and make it back again in time for afternoon tea—or, in Nathan's case, a little romance. Both characters can traverse treacherous areas and survive a shoot-out, but imagine their combined brush with the supernatural: With Lara's British flair and Nathan's heart for the chase, they'd make an unforgettable duo.
Resident Evil Meets Dead Space
It's time for the members of S.T.A.R.S. to be reacquainted with true horror. They've fought zombies and grotesque monsters in countries dotted all over the map, but they've never been dispatched to outer space. The next biggest threat lurks not in another remote location on the globe, but in the endless black expanse enveloping it. Isaac Clarke could work with the likes of Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield to destroy Necromorphs—reanimated human corpses, or glorified zombies—and other horrors trapped with them in deep space.
Ratchet and Clank vs. Jak and Daxter
The biggest platforming characters of the current and last generation of games come in pairs: Ratchet and his robot buddy, Clank, and Jak and his ottsel sidekick, Daxter. Naughty Dog has moved on where Insomniac Games has stayed put, but a game that combined the two's universes would be an adventure of galactic proportions mixed with prophecies and reopened time rifts. It would be a game ripe with two separate, unique strains of humor and overflowing with kick-ass guns, not to mention the threats. Get ready to battle wave after wave of aliens, robots, and soldiers as you explore planets, city infrastructure, and more.
Super Meat Boy Meets LittleBigPlanet
Sackboy and Meat Boy both run around crazy worlds and levels, but Meat Boy has it a little rougher, suffering bloody death after bloody death as he's forced to bypass devious traps and take countless leaps of faith—most likely into oblivion. Players of LittleBigPlanet can create new set pieces that demand more than just superb platforming skills, but it's the mix of LBP's cheery surroundings and SMB's dreary backdrops that we're interested in, along with co-op and a variety of challenge types.
BlazBlue vs. Guilty Gear
The upcoming Street Fighter X Tekken is already marked on the calendars of fighting game lovers everywhere, and if fighters have taught us anything, it's that when one champion rises, a newcomer enters the scene. We'd love for this crossover to inspire a BlazBlue and Guilty Gear combo. They might not be as big of titles as Street Fighter and Tekken, but BlazBlue and Guilty Gear are quirky favorites among fighting fans. A crossover with these two could bring about some hilarious interactions and one-liners much like those in BlazBlue, whose English voice-overs take the crown for comedy.
Bayonetta Meets Space Channel 5
This one's certainly an odd choice, but Bayonetta has moves—she knows how to make Witch Time action look good. Why not put her heels to the dance floor for a monster-destroying dance-a-thon, Cheshire? She could boogie her way through Paradiso, Purgatorio, and Inferno, burning up the stage to the devil's fiddle, collecting halos, and, ahem, unleashing her climax the hotter her dancing gets. She's already used to walking up walls in the moonlight—what chance does zero gravity stand at throwing off this witch's groove? As an added bonus, it would give you a dance game you actually cared about, whether you're keeping pace with Bayonetta or playing solely with button controls.
Bioshock Meets Sid Meier's Civilization
From Rapture to Columbia, BioShock is all about corrupted ideals and societies gone wrong. In the games, you're tasked with surviving the mad confines of these utopias and salvaging what you can, whether that involves freeing Little Sisters or rescuing a towered maiden in distress. If BioShock and Civilization came together in one, you could design your own crazed society and rule over it—squashing nascent uprisings, distributing precious resources, and barring the way for unwelcome guests.
Mario Kart Meets Super Smash Bros.
What if your favorite Nintendo characters—Link, Pikachu, Kirby, whoever you please—could take the wheel alongside the stars of the Mushroom Kingdom? An all-star cast of Nintendo icons would bring their own power to the race track, from items and abilities like Link's bow and arrow to Pikachu's electricity and Kirby's kart-sized appetite. It would pack all the excitement and glory of Super Smash Bros. into a cup race that throws out all the rules you've come to know in Mario Kart. Expanding the roster would also allow for some creative new courses.
Scribblenauts Meets RPGs
Limited only by your imagination—and your vocabulary … and the number of entries in the game's dictionary—Scribblenauts puts pen and paper in gamers' hands and invites them to think through a predicament any way they like. Now picture that, only on a grander scale. The ability to conjure dragons, beasts, and consumables out of thin air would be right at home in any RPG game, letting players break all the standard conventions and rules. On their quest, players could cross into otherwise inaccessible territory from the start, bring their own animal familiars or magical summons into battle, summon more potions and helpful items, and design their own weapons and armor—the unlimited possibilities could change the genre. But with so much available, the more creative the player, the smarter the game would have to be in response—able to limit the player's inventions or to counteract a player's smart thinking with new challenges and problems that alter the story and gameplay.
This kind of crossover would work best with an old school RPG—something more like Dragon Quest than today's open world Final Fantasy—just because those are the most notorious offenders when it comes to players getting stuck or lost and wishing they had a magic solution.
