What a couple of days it has been. Right after the Game Awards last Thursday Super Smash Bros Ultimate released, and the next day the Russo Brothers graced us with the first Avengers: Endgame trailer. I think we can all agree that we are truly spoiled to live in a time where both this game and movie are happening. There has been a little talk from both calling themselves the biggest crossover of all time. No doubt they are the biggest crossovers in their respective medium, but we are nerds! We need to fight and figure out which side is right!
Smash Ultimate is the culmination of taking our favorite video game characters of all time and having them duke it out. What started out as a fun Nintendo brawler in the 90’s has transformed itself into the quintessential fantasy for our inner 10-year-old selves. The original console war of Mario vs Sonic: who would win? That fight has been available for a while now. Link vs Cloud: who is the better swordsman? Settle it in Smash!
Avengers: Endgame is the follow up to the massive Infinity War that we saw last year. The biggest team up yet for Marvel super heroes to take on a foe yet. Any movie that considers to have well over 20 big impactful characters should not be as good as Infinity War was. The Endgame trailer has not showed too much, but it is definitely building our hype to see what happens after the snap. How is Tony Stark getting out of his situation? How is Scott Lang there? What is going on with Hawkeye? There are so many questions that we have to wait until the end of April for. This is the event Marvel has been building up to for the last 10 years.
Pokemon, and assist trophies that show even more popular characters. There are over 100 different stages to play on that can each have three different forms to play on. You can play the music in this game from countless series for over 28 hours non-stop.
Nintendo’s crossover goes beyond just numbers alone though. Everyone wants their characters in Smash. Of course, the recognition draws companies in, but it cuts down the walls of competition. Look at the Game Awards last night with Geoff Keighley. Yes, there were awesome announcements and it was cool seeing game developers receive their deserving rewards, but truly the best moment happened at the beginning of the show. Shawn Layden, Phil Spencer, and Reggie Fils-Aime all took the stage to talk about the importance of gamers coming together.
“As an industry, we are most powerful when we come together. United by our common love of the art form of games.”
Smash Ultimate is that idea in video game form. It doesn’t matter what kind of past the company has had with Nintendo or what platform that character has largely been on. If they deserve the recognition, there has been a conversation on whether or not they should be included. The characters don’t need to have a connection to be included. Representation is what makes Smash special.
The Case for Avengers
If we go by impact, Avengers is the bigger crossover. As mentioned before, Avengers: Endgame is what Marvel has been building up to for the last decade. The journey that started with Iron Man and continuously added more legendary comic book super heroes that are loved by everyone now, not just comic book fans. Even though Smash has been going for a longer time than the MCU, Avengers feels like it has been building up longer because it has been a slow burn. When we see a Smash game about every five years, we get a BIG update of characters. We watch multiple MCU films every year. The story itself progresses a lot slower because of that. For example, Thanos was shown for the first time in 2012 and we are just now seeing him in action.
“Part of the journey is the end.”
Marvel has been building a literal universe for their films like in the comics. The stories and characters are actually connected to each other. This crossover makes a bigger impact on an emotional level. In the Endgame trailer, we see Tony making a message for Pepper Potts. That relationship is something that we have all been on the ride for the past decade. We have seen their ups and downs as a couple. We know where Tony started and where he is now as a character.
Conclusion
Whatever side you’re on, Super Smash Bros Ultimate and the Avengers movies are special, gigantic crossovers. It is hard to envision any other IPs pulling off as special of movies or games as Nintendo and Marvel have done. Where one side favors representation of the past of our childhood heroes, the other builds up a story and brings different heroes to a relevant point for the current time.
Do you think Super Smash Bros or Avengers is the biggest crossover in histroy? Let me know in the comments!
