It always feels special when franchises get to cross over. Marvel’s superheroes took on Street Fighter. Mario challenged Sonic at the Olympics. Then Tekken, Resident Evil, Yakuza, Sakura Wars, Ace Attorney, Fire Emblem, and more all blended together in Project X Zone 2. Just in case Super Smash Bros' different mixes sounded tame.
However, all these crossovers are the result of long boardroom talks between one company and another. Everything has to be above board and agreed to. Anything can interrupt the process, be it cold feet, a rival deal, or a sharp-eyed lawyer finding someone trying to pull a fast one. These and other reasons are why these crossovers almost happened but ultimately disappeared.
9 Capcom Vs SNK 3
Maybe it’s because the two companies have exchanged plenty of staff over the years, but Capcom and SNK are much chummier with each other nowadays. Street Fighter 5 characters managed to appear in King of Fighters: All Star, and they exchanged congratulatory artwork at Evo 2022. But that wasn’t always the case. After the success of Capcom Vs SNK 2, Capcom was ready to make a new entry in 3D.
The problem was that SNK had severe money troubles in 2001, and Capcom’s crossover deal wasn’t enough to get them out of the red. If anything, Capcom asking them for CvS3 was like someone asking their recently evicted friend for a favor. Instead, the reformed SNK Playmore would make SNK Vs Capcom Chaos in 2003 to mixed reception.
8 Capcom Fighting All-Stars
SNK’s fall would be Capcom’s gain, as they’d rework CvS3’s assets into Capcom Fighting All-Stars, where different characters from the company dueled it out with each other. It was headed by former KOF director Toyohisa Tanabe and a brace of ex-SNK staff. The SNK influence was noticeable, with its directional inputs, and a big story involving the "Code Holders" DD, Luke (not that one), and Ingrid trying to save Metro City from a terrorist attack.
It managed to have location tests, where the feedback wasn't good. This combined with strained relations between Tanabe and Capcom led to the project's cancelation. No one save the involved parties knows how tense things got, but considering its successor Capcom Fighting Evolution had to scour through their old 2D games for sprites instead of using All-Stars' assets suggests at least some lingering acrimony.
7 Mega Man Universe
It would only get worse for Capcom by the end of the decade. While Street Fighter 4 caught on, their attempts to appeal to the West directly with the Bionic Commando reboot and Spyborgs didn’t live up to expectations. Then there were their projects based on their mega-mascot Mega Man: the long-awaited Mega Man Legends 3, and a 2.5D platformer called Mega Man Universe.
It would’ve allowed players to create their own levels a la LittleBigPlanet, and customize their own Mega Man. They could play as a Western-looking Mega Man, the original Japanese Rockman, and Bad Box Art Mega Man, alongside Ryu from Street Fighter, Arthur from Ghosts n’ Goblins, and a range of DLC. Unfortunately, once Mega Man head Keiji Inafune left Capcom, both projects were canceled, leaving the franchise adrift for the best part of a decade.
6 Fire Emblem X Pokemon
Technically, the worlds of Fire Emblem and Pokemon have clashed with each other since Super Smash Bros Melee when Marth and Roy made their Smash debut. But around 2011, Nintendo director Kaori Ando felt the two franchises were compatible enough as RPGs, and could’ve resulted in a fun game. It would've been a joint venture between the Big N and Atlus.
Unfortunately, the Pokemon Company had already decided to collaborate with Koei-Tecmo to make Pokemon Conquest, their crossover with the Nobunaga’s Ambition series. Atlus had their own troubles at the time too, delaying openings for other projects. After two years, they had an opening for their own proposal: Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei. This would become 2015’s Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.
5 Mario X Rabbids
Okay, this did actually happen. Just not in the way it was originally envisioned. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle united the Italian plumber and his friends with Ubisoft’s lagomorphs in a turn-based strategy game. It played quite well and gained a sequel in late 2022 with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. But it was originally going to be a self-aware platform game for the Wii.
Mario would have to save the Princess, Toads, and Bowser alike from the bonkers bunnies as they invaded the entirety of the Mushroom Kingdom. However, despite Ubisoft commissioning artwork for a pitch to Nintendo, they weren’t listening. The company would have to wait until 2014 for them to say yes to what would become Kingdom Battle instead.
4 Marvel Vs Nintendo
Maybe Nintendo cooled off the idea of crossovers during the Wii era because of Activision’s own unfortunate pitch for a crossover. When they were making Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, they thought it would be cool if Legend of Zelda’s Link and Metroid’s Samus Aran appeared as playable characters in the Wii port.
It wouldn’t usually be out of the question, as the two appeared in other non-Nintendo games like SoulCalibur 2 and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The developers pitched the idea to Nintendo via a demo of the two in action. Unfortunately, they made it with the PS2 version. Demonstration or not, this was enough to anger Nintendo into denying Activision’s request and demanding Link and Samus’ immediate removal.
3 Marvel Vs DC (& Mortal Kombat)
Marvel had better luck working with Capcom back in the day, though they weren’t limited to the Osaka-based company. They managed to have a few discussions with NetherRealm Studios across 2021-2022, leading to rumors that they were working on a fighting game based on the World War Hulk storyline. Then, since NetherRealm is owned by Warner Bros, fans hoped it would lead to a Marvel Vs DC game.
This hypothetical game might've even had guests from the Mortal Kombat series, since the Injustice games found room for Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Raiden. Whatever was discussed between the two hasn’t seemed to have borne fruit, with the company now working on Mortal Kombat 1. Then again, given how Injustice 2 managed to pit DC off against Hellboy and the Ninja Turtles, it may be too early to rule anything out just yet.
2 Street Fighter Vs Mortal Kombat
As far as dream crossovers go, Street Fighter Vs Mortal Kombat would be one of the biggest. The two games kept the arcades going throughout the early 1990s and fueled the console war between the SNES and Genesis. MK co-creator Ed Boon even asked Capcom to allow an SF character into MK, citing Ryu as his dream guest character.
Former SF producer Yoshinori Ono confirmed this pitch happened, and that it was rejected. According to him, there were many Capcom executives who felt the series wasn’t a good fit for their characters. MK is much bigger in the West than in the East, with Japan banning Mortal Kombat 11 for its gore. So, fans are unfortunately more likely to see a Street Fighter X Tekken 2 than SF vs MK.
1 Tekken X Angry Birds & Colonel Sanders
Speaking of Tekken, the series has fallen in love with guest characters in the past few years. What became a dalliance with Tekken 3’s Gon became a who’s-who of famous figures in Tekken 7. SF’s Akuma, Final Fantasy 15’s Noctis, Fatal Fury’s Geese Howard, and The Walking Dead’s Negan all managed to lay their hands, feet, and weapons on Jin, Kazuya, Paul, Nina, and co. As strange as they are, It could’ve been stranger.
On director/producer Katsuhiro Harada’s podcast, the man himself brought up a meeting where both the Angry Birds and KFC’s Colonel Sanders were pitched as guest characters. Harada got as far as getting in touch with the fast-food company but had no luck. In an interview with Xiaomist, Harada still hoped Sanders would make it in one day, and that he’d add Call of Duty’s Captain Price, Deadpool, and John Wick to the series if it were possible.