10 Video Game Characters We Can't Believe Got Cut

Before Smash Bros made it seem perfectly normal for Nintendo characters to duff up other companies' intellectual property, Activision planned a crossover that would have become the stuff of legend.

Before porting Marvel: Ultimate Alliance to the Wii, Activision prepared a video for the company bigwigs at Nintendo. Said video wound up being a pitch to add Nintendo icons Link and Samus Aran to the game, an idea which immediately gets our fanboy juices flowing. Samus and Iron Man comparing power armour? Link and Captain America clashing shields? Sign us up!

We're not sure what prompted Activision to come up with this (utterly glorious) idea, but we can guess.

Remember, this was back in 2006 - two years before Marvel would revolutionize the movie industry with Iron Man and the MCU. Marvel comics were seen as a strictly niche interest, so it makes sense that Activision would want to give Wii players an additional incentive to purchase the game - especially as the Wii version was notably inferior to its counterparts on other, more powerful, consoles.

Sadly, Nintendo - ever stingy with its own IP - shut the idea down. However, given Marvel's staggering level of success since then, we wonder if Nintendo would be quite so unwilling to join forces nowadays.

Smash Bros: Avengers, anyone?