11 Weird Video Game Crossovers You Won’t Believe Happened
Kratos needs to unwind too.
Crossovers are a widely established concept within creative media, merging different universes to bring in a wider appeal. Within gaming, this can be as small as an easter egg but sometimes the idea expands into a full game, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle being a recent example.
Fighting games are particularly susceptible to this, often featuring guest appearances like The Walking Dead’s Negan in Tekken 7. Others titles even base their entire roster on two universes crossing over, like Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe or Marvel Vs. Capcom.
Big publishers often keep this internal thought to not share any profits, bringing together their own first party franchises together as a celebration of its history. Super Smash Bros, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, Final Fantasy’s numerous spinoffs, all notable instances that released to varying success.
This practice has also brought us some truly bizarre moments though, taking characters out of their established settings and into something a lot more peculiar. From fully-fledged crossover to simple cameos, here are some of the stranger examples we’ve witnessed in gaming.
11. Fight Night Round 2 – Little Mac
EA’s presence on Nintendo consoles has been severely lacking in recent years, bringing little more than their annual FIFA entries. The mid-2000s was a different time however and back then, Nintendo struck a deal with EA Sports that saw several Nintendo cameos across EA’s Gamecube releases.
EA’s boxing franchise Fight Night was included in this deal and upon launching the second entry, Round 2, they tapped into Nintendo’s own boxing series, Punch-Out!!. Including SNES classic Super Punch Out!! as a bonus game, Little Mac was an unlockable playable character within Round 2 upon completing every SNES circuit.
Notably, Little Mac lacks his trademark green shorts and black hair design, as seen from his NES/Wii/Smash Bros appearances.
Instead they went for the blond-haired SNES-era look, which makes sense with Super Punch-Out!!’s inclusion but it’s a historical oddity in the wider series. It’s an interesting side note in Punch-Out!!’s history, if not much else.