• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Let's look over Nintendo's recent crossovers

Nintendo's been on a roll in the last couple of gens regarding their crossovers with 3rd-party developers and their IP's. Most specifically the last 3 or so years as you'll see.

I'm mostly going to focus on crossovers starting on Wii and DS, even if we had some prior such as Wario Blast Featuring Bomberman (see, Nintendo cares about him!).

May as well attempt to go in order of release, I'll focus on NA dates for this for ease. Also I'll only focus on the first entries in a continuing franchise and just group all entries under one, same with versions, focusing on the main console ones if they exist for ease.

MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGamesBox.jpg

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

Platforms: Wii and DS
Developer: Sega Sports R&D and Racjin (Wii version), Sega Sports R&D and TOSE (DS version)
Publisher: Sega (NA and EU), Nintendo (JP)
IP's: Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog
NA release date: November 6th, 2007

The crossover that made the world stand still when it was announced. Some were disappointed this wasn't about Super Smash Bros. Brawl (that'd come in October 2007!) and not even a platformer at that. This originated by Yuji Naka who kept pushing for a crossover throughout the GC-era. Sega obtained the Olympic Beijing license and initially were apparently making a Sonic-only game, but seemingly they pitched it to Nintendo to add Mario and company, and they said yes!

This game sold INSANE amounts, over 11 million across both systems, with the Wii version at 7 million and the DS version at 4 million. The series is still on-going today with a new game for each Olympic event, with Vancouver on Wii and DS in 2009, London on Wii and 3DS in 2010 and early 2011 respectively. Sochi then followed on Wii U only in 2013, and finally Rio being the most recent on Wii U and 3DS in 2016. We'll surely see Pyeongchang on Switch next year or so.


Pokemon Conquest

Platforms: DS
Developer: Tecmo Koei (likely by Omega Force, the director worked on Samurai Warriors games)
Publisher: Nintendo/The Pokemon Company
IP's: Pokemon and Nobunaga's Ambition
NA release date: June 18th, 2012

Now this is a more bizarre crossover IMO. Giving the Pokemon series it's first tactical RPG to my knowledge. It's a shame this wasn't on 3DS despite it being out over a year into the system's lifespan, but what can you do? For reasons unknown, this is the only entry to date. The game did well in Japan selling 341,000 copies as of 2012, not sure about the western sales.


Hyrule Warriors

Platforms: Wii U (Hyrule Warriors Legends is on 3DS also)
Developer: Omega Force and Team Ninja
Publisher: Koei Tecmo (JP), Nintendo (NA and EU)
IP's: The Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors
NA release date: September 26th, 2014 (Legends came out on March 25th, 2016)

Another crossover with Koei Tecmo, only this time it's with The Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors, but this time it's the gameplay of DW with the Zelda IP. The game got quite a bit of DLC with more characters and such. Later on it got an expanded 3DS version and the results were not very favorable. This wouldn't be the only Warriors crossover, as we'll get into in a bit! Surprisingly there isn't a Deluxe release on Switch yet with ALL content. Maybe next year?


Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

Platforms: Wii U
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Nintendo
IP's: Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei
NA release date: June 24th, 2016

This crossover is unique in that rather than combining two series of characters or have one side be the gameplay with the other IP on top of it, here it's more like both IP's inspired and created an entirely original one. However there are appearances by certain FE characters. Certainly in contrast to what folks expected the crossover to be upon its unveiling on January 23rd, 2013, instead we got a game with J-Pop as a key theme taking place in Tokyo. It's certainly a unique title in Nintendo's catalog, that's for sure!


Pokken Tournament/Pokken Tournament DX

Platforms: Arcade, Wii U, Switch (DX)
Developer: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Publisher: Nintendo/The Pokemon Company
IP's: Pokemon and Tekken
NA release date: March 16th, 2016 (Wii U), September 22nd, 2017 (Switch)

Pokk%C3%A9n-Fighters-Clip.gif


We all remember that teaser back on August 17th, 2013 that originated from the Pokemon Game Show right? So many questions with so little to go on, it was an agonizing wait, but MAN was it fun to see this teaser and imagine the possibilities!

So eventually a whole year later on August 26th, 2014, the game would finally be unveiled... for arcades. Yeah that was disappointing, but it seemed to make sense with tests and whatnot I think BN said?

Then ANOTHER year later on August 21st, 2015 (was this deliberate?), it was finally announced for Wii U. The Wii U version would have exclusive Pokemon over the arcade original (Mewtwo, Braixen, and Garchomp), though they would be added to the arcade version later on.

But then, all of the sudden four new Pokemon were released... only in the arcade version (Darkrai, Scizor, Croagunk, and Empoleon), even though three of them were leaked via data-mining the Wii U version.

But fret not, for during the Pokemon Direct on June 6th, 2017, it was announced that these Pokemon and new features would be coming to the newly announced Pokken Tournament DX for Switch! PLUS, they added one new Pokemon; Decidueye!


Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

Platforms: Switch
Developer: Ubisoft Paris and Ubisoft Milan
Publisher: Ubisoft (NA and EU), Nintendo (JP)
IP's: Mario and Rabbids
NA release date: August 29th, 2017

Now this may be the most bizarre idea for a crossover so far. We have Mario teaming up with the Raving Rabbids, by Ubisoft, in a X-COM-style tactical RPG? What's that? It looks gorgeous, hilarious, fun, and is composed by Grant Kirkhope in his first Nintendo IP game since DK64? Why is this not in my hands right now?

Credit for the initial leak goes to Gameblog for first mentioning it as a Yoshi and Rabbids crossover back on October 13th, 2016 (just one week prior to the Switch's unveiling at that). Most people barfed at the concept, but following its proper unveiling at E3 2017, people are actually falling in love with this game, to everyone's shock.

Credit must be given to director Davide Soliani, who's clearly shown his absolute love and passion towards the project and I highly doubt this game would look nearly as good (at least by Ubisoft) without him, but that's just me. :p Hopefully he has a future with Nintendo, at Ubisoft, or maybe even at Nintendo itself, just saying, he clearly loves Nintendo, so why not? :p


Fire Emblem Warriors

Platforms: Switch and New 3DS
Developer: Omega Force and Team Ninja
Publisher: Koei Tecmo (JP), Nintendo (NA and EU)
IP's: Fire Emblem and Dynasty Warriors
NA release date: Fall 2017 (Amazon JP says September 28th, 2017)

The last game on the list and the follow-up to Hyrule Warriors. Now it's Fire Emblem's turn to try out the Dynasty Warriors formula. Unlike HW, for the 3DS version, it's actually a New 3DS-exclusive title ala Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, likely because HWL ran like poop on the regular 3DS and only decent/acceptable on the New 3DS IIRC.

That's pretty much it! I hope you enjoyed my look at Nintendo's recent crossovers, and hopefully I didn't miss any. :p
 
Tokyo Mirage Sessions was my fav :(

Game was a lot better than people realize and would have sold better on a more successful platform.

Edit: I'm also really looking forward to Mario Rabbids Kingdom Battle. I wasn't as down on it as a lot of people initially after the leaks, but it still clearly exceeded my expectations even. About 3 weeks away!
 
All I await now is my childhood dream of playing as Goku in smash.

That'll be the day all those Smash Flash games just drop.
 
They seem to be getting more lenient on lending out their IP's, is Mario + Rabbids the first time a non-Japanese third party has made one?
 
Cool thread idea. Crossovers are neat but I'm not sure I would count Pokken Tournament. There's not much crossing over. In fact Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition had more crossover with the Nintendo costumes, Mario powerups and music.

Waiting for Soul Caliber vs. Fire Emblem/Zelda.

Also Tokyo Mirage Session is such an awesome crossover because of how uniquely it was handled.

Peach rabbid is repulsive. They're literally losing sales having that shit on the cover.

9Mze7CV_d.jpg


Also in relation here is a gif I made of a schoolgirl attacking a panda wearing Peach's dress by taking a selfie with her in front on Snoop Dogg and who I assume are strippers since they are pole dancing.

e8h218.gif
 
DOH, how did I forget that lol!

I'll add it in a few.

Great! It deserves as much recognition as possible. People with a Wii U that enjoy JRPG's should definitely pick it up if they haven't already.

I would love a sequel but sadly it doesn't seem like that's likely, but I'd love to be proven wrong as I think a Switch sequel (or even enhanced port) would sell much better.
 

hatchx

Banned
Seems like Tecmo Koei, Sega, and Namco are pretty close to Nintendo (also factoring in characters in Smash, Namco developing Wii sports for WiiU, and f-zero and star fox on GameCube).

It's really cool to finally see a western 3rd party take on a cross over. Very excited for MarioXRabbids.

Would love to see more cross overs. It'd be nice to see the lesser franchises explored (ie; back to fzero, star fox). Also would be cool to see Capcom or Square Enix take something on.
 

JazzmanZ

Member
I'm surprised you didn't mention Squares efforts with the Fortune Street games and Mario hoops having square characters cameo
 
I always love a good crossover. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is my favourite so far. Great game that didn't get the attention it deserved. I would love to see another crossover with the SMT franchise in the future whether it be a TMS sequel or something else entirely.
 

MAtgS

Member
I so wish we were getting HW definitive version on Switch instead of FEW. I know, weird to want a port over a wholly new game but we don't have a single ideal version of HW to go for, either its shitty graphics or less content and a Switch version would solve that.
 

mindsale

Member
Tokyo Morage Sessions is such a weird "crossover" - the Fire Emblem portion is basically in name only. The Persona don't resemble their namesakes in the slightest.

Can't wait for Mario XCOM though. GOTG.
 
I absolutely adore the character selection in Mario & Sonic at the Rio Olympics.

While the first game had 16 characters (not counting Miis) and the second bumped that up to 20 the character selection stayed the same for the third and fourth.

With the fifth game 40/41 characters were available.

M%26SR2016OGFinalRoster.PNG


The biggest equal crossover (excluding Smash) roster outside of Pokémon Conquest.

The Sonic side especially has a wide selection of characters like Eggman Nega, some Team Chaotix, some of the Babylon Rogues from Sonic Riders, some Sinister Six members and even Sticks the Badger from Sonic Boom.

I don't think there has ever been a more varied roster of Sonic characters playable in one game.

Five of the 40 characters seen above in the 3DS version are not in the Wii U version but the latter has Toad exclusively.

In the 3DS version every event is playable by Sonic, Mario and Miis, while 4 other characters are specifically playable for a total of seven characters available per event.

The Wii U version has the same 20 character and Miis from the previous installments playable in all events along with one additional character for a total of 22 characters available per event.
 

Xbro

Member
You're forgetting Fortune Street which was Mario X Dragon Quest

Then there's Project X Zone 2...but that was more Namco, Capcom and Sega.
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
There's also Puzzle & Dragons x Super Mario Bros.

They seem to be getting more lenient on lending out their IP's, is Mario + Rabbids the first time a non-Japanese third party has made one?

It's the first full crossover game that springs to mind, but Nintendo did lend their characters to a few EA sports games on Gamecube.
 

GamerJM

Banned
I actually forgot that TMS is a crossover. In practice it felt a lot more like a typical Atlus joint than anything resembling Fire Emblem despite the references to Fire Emblem things the game had everywhere.
 

Aters

Member
In general I don't like the idea of cross-over. I can give Mario crossover a pass because Mario is not a single franchise, it's many things.
 

L Thammy

Member
I still have a deep ancestral hatred for Rabbids that goes back hundreds of years and is etched into my DNA. But the game genuinely looks good. Mario & Sonic is probably the worst of the crossovers, honestly, even though its' the most natural and obvious.

Pokemon Conquest is frustrating to me because it's so close to something I want. I like Koei's strategy games but they're kind of a pain to get into; Pokemon Conquest is easier but they've killed so much of the depth, which is the point of those games to begin with.

Also, Pokemon Conquest is kind of amazing because it has a guy on the cover who is a famous pedarast and also burned families to death in their homes. That will never get old to me.
 

JoeM86

Member
I like the recent Pokémon crossover

Pokémon Magikarp Jump

It's a crossover and rework of Select Button's other game, Survive! Mola Mola (which is more evident in the Japanese name of this game, Splash! Magikarp) except instead of sending Magikarp on missions it has a chance of dying on, it's all about jumping strength.

 

L Thammy

Member
Nintendo needs to expand their crossovers and return into cereal and soda. That would have me eating breakfast again.


Bowser Vs Count Chocula.
Captain Falcon Vs Captain Crunch.


Coca Cola Zero Suit Sugar
 

jdstorm

Banned
Now for the real question. Given Splatoon's success how soon will we see a crossover/spinoff and what genre will it be?
 

TheMoon

Member
OP, Intelligent Systems did not (co-) develop TMS#FE. That's all ATLUS with the usual Nintendo production oversight.
 

ChrisD

Member
Now for the real question. Given Splatoon's success how soon will we see a crossover/spinoff and what genre will it be?

Splatoon should have got a 2D platformer, not Pikmin. The fluid movement would carry over pretty well, I think.

Love the thread. :)
 

LordKano

Member
Need to add Mario Slam Basketball (Hoops 3 on 3 in THE US) which was developped by Square and had freaking Vivi from FFIX in there.
 

deleted

Member
Pokken is even called Pokémon Tekken in Germany, since Pokken is also the name of a child sickness around here.

I'm excited for the next crossover! Maybe some sort of rpg crossover would make sense? Something absurd like fzero/final fantasy?

Or something like Sonic and Starfox/Lylat Wars?

Aside from that, Rabbids Kingdom is one of the very few games I ever pre-ordered. I'm very hyped for that one.
 
Top Bottom