These Gaming Collaborations & Crossovers Changed Everything
Gaming collaborations and crossovers have changed the gaming landscape since the very beginning. When companies take a chance on each other and it pays off, magic is created and these are some of the most magical combinations of IP’s:
10 – Square & Namco
Ehrgeiz isn’t a recent title and it seemed under-appreciated and undersold on the original PlayStation, but it was one of those crossover fighting games that introduced characters from one series to fans of another. In this case, Namco fighting game fans were given access to Squaresoft characters such as Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockheart and Red XIII. You could pit these characters against each other to see which would win in a fist fight, or you could pit them against Namco characters such as Prince Doza, Lee Shuwen, or my personal favorite, “Yoyo” Yoko Kishibojin. Each character felt unique during a time where Mortal Kombat felt uninventive as opposed to their modern-day titles or the controversial original titles. Ehrgeiz was inspired by titles such as Marvel vs Capcom but was unable to inspire as much crossover potential for fighting titles due to the lack of exposure.
9 – Nintendo & Universal Studios
Nintendo themed areas will be coming to Universal Studios parks soon, starting with Universal Japan. Though they haven’t officially opened the first Super Nintendo Land, the theme park attraction has been teased in a recent trailer and various aspects of the park have been teased online. The parks will be mostly inspired by Mario imagery, with pipes, Goomba’s and Piranha Plants all over the place for Nintendo fans to gawk at. Considering the popularity of Nintendo in the late 80’s and early 90’s, something like this should have been done years ago, but it’s great to see the world of Nintendo coming to life in Universal theme parks now. The parks will include Nintendo themed rides, as you’d expect, but nothing has been made official as of yet. I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be seeing a Mario Kart themed ride in the future though.
8 – Pizza Hut & Everquest 2
Imagine a time where people had to go out and hunt for their own food. Now imagine a time where you could have it delivered, but it required using the phone. Now finally, imagine ordering your favorite pizza without having to leave your favorite game. This was the case during the mid-2000’s for Everquest fans, as Sony Online Entertainment and Pizza Hut solidified a UI option that allowed the ordering of pizza. All MMO gamers at the time had to do is type /pizza in the base game UI to get a pop-up menu for Pizza Hut, allowing them to have a fresh pie delivered to them without leaving Everquest 2. Truly an innovative way to enable laziness, Sony Online Entertainment found a way to streamline the ordering experience in a way that Skip the Dishes and Door Dash only dream to achieve.
