Sometimes when you play a game, you can’t help but think about similar games, or games that would work well with it. That’s the idea behind today’s gallery. We’ll probably never see any of these games together because of licensing or other considerations, but despite that, we still think they’d be great crossover titles. Check out these eight crossover ideas, and let us know your favorites in the comments!
Jak & Daxter / Ratchet & Clank
This one is really a no-brainer. Two sets of partners exploring semi-open world settings means that you could easily mesh the universes, and since Ratchet and Clank tend to be tooling around in a spaceship, they could just crash land on Jak & Daxter’s planet. Cue the sci-fi-ish 3D platforming, wild weapons, and snarky dialogue. Not only would the two duos be great together, but we’d get to play a game developed by both Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog (Let me dream).
Metal Gear / Splinter Cell
There are so many ways this one could go down. After all, the Metal Gear timeline is all over the map, so is it really that surprising that Solid Snake and Sam Fisher might be out in the field on similar missions? You’d be able to play converging campaigns from each character’s viewpoint, and then team up with a friend (or an AI partner) for co-op stealth action. Man, that sounds great just typing it. No matter which way this crossover leans, you’d end up with a great game.
Star Trek / Mass Effect
The parallels between these two series are fairly clear, and it’s high time we though about having the Enterprise and Normandy meet up. After all, we’ve never really gotten a Star Trek game worthy of the name, and the Mass Effect series has the blueprint for making it great. What if the Reapers were assimilated by the Borg, which then set its sights on humanity? You could have Federation / Council alliances, plenty of iconic characters from both universes, and you’d get to see a fight between Wrex and Worf (of course, their respective captains would stop the fight before either one was killed). How could it get any better than that?
Mortal Kombat / Street Fighter / Tekken
On last week’s Escapist Podcast, someone suggested that if all the fighting game devs banded together, they could make their own fighting game console. Let’s not go that far. Let’s just make one huge collaborative tournament fighting game. Characters from every franchise, with abilities culled from all the different games, combine to create the greatest fighting game ever made. Scorpion vs. Ryu would only be the beginning. The esports implications alone would be huge.
Mario / Sonic
Yes, I know about that whole Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games minigame-laden nonsense. We don’t speak of that. These two characters represent the best of 2D platforming, and it’s a shame that SEGA and Nintendo haven’t been able to capitalize on that in any way. Make them a team, and design the stages so that they can be completed with either character, but the most efficient way is swapping between them. Bring in their respective adversaries as partners in an evil plot, and you’ve got the makings of an instant classic.
Marvel / DC
Pretty much everyone wants to see a game that pits Marvel superheroes against DC superheroes. I’m not even sure that anyone cares what genre that game ends up being. We’d certainly take a fighting game, with all the special abilities well-represented. I’d also be happy with a Super Smash Bros style affair that pit the two comic powerhouses against one another. Heck, I’d even take a Marvel Ultimate Alliance-style beat-em-up. I just want to see the rosters come to life.
Resident Evil / Silent Hill
At first glance, Resident Evil / Silent Hill crossover might sound far-fetched. After all, recent RE games have been more about shooting up the place than real survival horror. Plus, it’s about dealing with external threats. SH has always been more about the internal threats you bring with you. Meshing the two together could be tricky, but adding a bit of action to Silent Hill and toning down the action in Resident Evil could bring both of them into one really awesome sweet spot, especially if we get to see freaky Wesker clash with Pyramid Head.
Uncharted / Tomb Raider
Possibly the most obvious entry on this list, the Uncharted / Tomb Raider crossover almost has to happen at some point. After all, both Drake and Lara are similar characters, and they spend their time in similar locales hunting similar treasures. The biggest surprise is that they haven’t butted heads in a tomb somewhere by now. Such a crossover wouldn’t be that different from the gameplay in either title, but the big payoff would be when Indiana Jones shows up at the end of the game, steals the treasure they were both hunting, and rides off into the sunset yelling “THIS BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!”
