User blog:Bugashi/Character Crossover Connections - Part 1

Ok, after some consideration, I figured I'd do something of a blog series, seeing just how many gaming universes and series can be connected to each other. After all, with games like Smash Bros, and Marvel Vs. Capcom mixing things up, it's safe to say that a number of universes are already connected. But what about joining the grand multitude of these worlds into one massive multiverse, where characters from random obscure first person shooter could cross paths with lesser known hard to find RPG from long long ago, or a quaky arcade fighting game beating up on serious tough as nails bullet hell shooter.

While some may opt to unite popular characters, I'm thinking something not so well known series, so as to test my gaming knowledge. Who knows, I may just introduce a lesser known series of games to a new generation, that or I may end up boring people to death. Ether way, I may as well lay down some ground rules, in order to keep things from becoming some giant mess.
 * Connections between games must be the actual characters, or creatures.
 * This rule is important because of how many games will include things like unlockable outfits resembling a character from another series, or will feature a character hidden away as a toy or figure. To add, there's also a large number of games that share popular characters by name. To me, these are not connections, but more of an easter egg. Fun to hunt down, though not a solid connection.


 * Connections must be made in the base game's reality.
 * This rule may seem a little confusing, so let me clarify. When the characters or creatures meet, it can not be in a dream sequence, or under some sort of delusion or hallucination. If they actually came across each other, they would have to do so in person. Recorded messages are ok, as long as the character leaving the message can be identified, given how it's still evidence of their existence. Outside of that, no disembodied voices, no ghosts versions of the characters, no matter what. The only exception being...


 * Connections within the same series are valid, as long as it's the same continuity.
 * This is important to remember, given the number of reboots that have been released. While some reboots are more of a new installment attempting to make a new start, some reboots throw everything out the window, with the exception of namesake. So that means games like DmC: Devil May Cry, and the original Devil May Cry are two separate universes.


 * Ancestry does count.
 * While series continuity still applies, this rule is more for those characters with ties to other series within the same company. The only thing is, the ancestry must be by blood. Nothing against adoption, but we have to draw a line somewhere if we're allowing family ties.


 * Unofficial fan creations do not count.
 * Finally, this goes without saying, fan made characters and/or games that are not part of the official series can not be used for connections. The only time a fan made character can be used, is if it's in a game made by the official license holders (like Skull Man in Megaman 4). It doesn't matter if they're carrying the love child of Sonic the Hedgehog, or if they're the reincarnation of Aerith after the events of Final Fantasy VII. No fan characters. No fan games. No excuses.

So, with that out of the way, who's willing to draw first blood? Well, how about connecting two of the baddest armored suit wearing characters in gaming for a test run. By that, I mean Master Chief from Halo, and Samus Arin from Metroid. Should be relatively easy given their popularity, that and there's enough cross over material to... I don't know, make it viable at best?

Let's start with the world of Halo, where Master Chief resides. After John-117 donned the armor, another Spartan made it through the Spartan-II program, and was being prepped for a classified mission. However, when their ship hit an anomaly in space, they were sent back to the 21st century, and into another game as well. That character was Nicole-458, and the game was Dead or Alive 4.

Now, Dead or Alive is a series that owes a lot to Virtua Fighter. As a matter of fact, the first DoA game was made on the same hardware, all in the desire to create a 3D fighter that was easier to pick up than Sega's 3D fighting series. While the series is now better known for more Xtreme reasons, homage was later paid when Akira Yuki, Pai Chan, and other characters from the Virtua Fighter series were brought in for Dead or Alive 5.

Now that we're in the world of Virtua Fighter, let's head back to the days of the Sega Saturn. Such an awesome system, such a short lifespan. Blame it on whatever you want, this console wasn't one to back away from competition. Not only did it duke it out against the Playstation, but it played host to some memorable fighters such as Nightwarriors, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Last Bronx, Fighting Vipers, as well as Fighters Megamix. Fighters Megamix really lived up to it's name, mixing not just characters from Fighting Vipers and Virtua Fighter, but characters from Virtua Cop, Datona USA, Rent-A-Hero, and... Sonic The Fighters.

From here, it shouldn't be all that hard. I mean, Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear more or less bridged the gap from Fighters Megamix into the world of Sonic the Hedgehog. From there you could go right into Super Smash Bros. Brawl and be done with it. Well, what if instead of using Smash, we went for one of the Sonic & Mario Olympic games instead? Well, that would generally lead to Mario, in which I guess we would have to find a way to connect Mario to Samus... Oh wait, Samus appears in Super Mario RPG on the SNES.

So yeah, it is definitely feasible for Master Chief to not just run into Samus, but he could also join the cast of Smash, and duke it out with a number of fighters along the way. The route he'd have to take would generally be...
 * 1) Halo series to Dead or Alive 4
 * 2) Dead or Alive series to Virtua Fighter
 * 3) Virtua Fighter to Fighters Megamix
 * 4) Fighters Megamix to Sonic the Fighters
 * 5) Sonic series to Sonic & Mario at the Olympic Games
 * 6) Sonic & Mario at the Olympic Games to Super Mario series
 * 7) Super Mario RPG to Metroid

​Happy trails John-117.