The first crossover game was featured in Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, a classic game that combines popular characters from two franchises to collide in combat. Following the success of this game, the title paved the way for many more crossovers to emerge over the years. The most recently released crossover that fans anticipated after a ten-year wait was Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (then Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with new characters and finishes). The Marvel and Capcom franchises had been doing well with the constant addition of new characters to their existing roster. With a growing fanbase of character requests and crossover possibilities, other companies are now following suit; insert popular characters into a crossover stage to fight or introduce a new element to the main game altogether.

Crossover games that focus on battles aside, there are games that are developed using crossover characters to solve a mystery. One of the most prominent games is Professor Layton vs. Ace Lawyer. This was announced in Japan several months ago and the game will be released on 3DS on November 29, 2012. Professor Layton acts as a detective while Phoenix Wright, the main protagonist (lawyer) in Ace Attorney, helps each other solve a mystery. . of a woman convicted of witchcraft. The game is an adventure puzzle game that requires players to follow clues to solve the mystery of this woman and the main antagonist of the game. This game is expected to receive a wide range of positive reviews as Phoenix Wright is a much-loved character in Japan. As a side note, Phoenix Wright appeared in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as a new playable fighter.

In other configurations, the crossovers appear in sports configurations. Almost released at every Olympic event is Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Players can control the cast of Mario and Sonic respectively to participate in sports and upload their scores to the leaderboards. That said, the game is only fun for a short period of time before the excitement wears off. Playing the games, choosing characters to participate in events is awkward and cumbersome. For example, using Doctor Eggman to participate in a 100 meter race does not fit his personality. This goes for the same with Mario, Bowser and the like. Crossovers like this hurt the franchise more than help it. Using beloved characters to act out of character is not appealing, especially to players who grew up with these characters. To put it bluntly, these characters need to stay in their own niche without diminishing the franchise further.

Crossovers are being overused. Like every year, a new crossover game is released that appeals to fans of both franchises and represents their main characters. At the same time, fans of both franchises are forced to buy the game even if it has no plot and is a basic fighting game. Crossovers used to be something fans looked forward to; how the mechanics will change in a brand new game but with the constant ‘crossover’, the same characters appear and do the same thing, repetitively. It can easily be said that the concept is becoming obsolete and, frankly, boring. If companies plan to do a crossover, they should consider including a story with their characters instead of creating another beat ’em up. Without a doubt there are many classic crossover games but with a list that adds up to more than fifty titles with the same concept, the crossovers are the same as the previous one.