For as long as fiction has existed, people have always wondered, “What would happen if my favorite characters that could never meet actually met?” Crossovers are nothing new in video games. From character brawlers like Smash Bros bringing Solid Snake in contact with Wario’s farts, to a hint that The Last of Us is the future of Uncharted 3, our imaginations go wild.
Even more fun that thinking about just sticking characters together for the sake of it, I like think about worlds that might be part of the same fictional universe. Like I said earlier Smash is Nintendo characters fighting each other just because. A news article from The Last of Us found in Uncharted 3 is simply an Easter egg.
This article was written for fun. You may disagree with me. Please tell me about your favorite video game crossovers in the comments below. Let’s get started!
Diddy Kong, Banjo-Kazooie and Conker
Retro Studios is not the only company to incorporate other characters from other franchise in with Donkey Kong. The difference here is that it’s canon that Banjo-Kazooie and Conker exist in the same world as Donkey Kong. This time, we have Rareware to thank.
Rare decided to give Diddy Kong his own racing game with controls like Mario Kart but a gameplay structure like Mario 64. Along with Diddy came a slew of animal friends (and not the kind you ride!) When the evil Wizpig invades the planet, Diddy bands together with Banjo and Tiptup the Turtle of Banjo-Kazooie and Conker from Conker’s Bad Fur Day to take him down.
You may cry retcon with the release of Diddy Kong Racing DS, where Banjo and Conker have been replaced with less… copyright infringing characters. But Tiptup the Turtle from Banjo-Kazooie is still playable! Therefore, Banjo lives in the same universe as Diddy and Donkey Kong.
F-Zero and Star Fox
Straight off the idea of a bizarre Diddy Kong racing game comes the idea of a bizarre Star Fox racing game, rumored by Retro Studios. We don’t know if it would have the same type of story mode as Diddy Kong Racing, but the ideas we have for what it could be has the internet abuzz with speculation.
The reason a Star Fox racer seems so strange is because Nintendo already has a space racer franchise that they haven’t done much with in a while. And a certain character existing in both F-Zero and Star Fox has fans speculating that the two share a universe. James McCloud, Fox’s deceased father is playable in F-Zero X and F-Zero GX. The catch is, he’s a human here.
Nintendo Power magazine claims that the character of human James McCloud in F-Zero was just the developers having fun. But, with his similar attire to Star Fox, a racer that looks like an Arwing, and even Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi giving up piloting to become racers at the end of Star Fox Command.
So Why Does This Crossover Make Sense?
What personally clinches it for me, however, (and honestly we’re all having fun here. Don’t get bent out of shape if you disagree) remains the level in the original Star Fox “The Awesome Black Hole.” General Pepper describes the level that it is “a space graveyard created by Andross’ experiments” and “is where [James] vanished.” Could it be possible that James didn’t die, but got turned into a human by Andross and sent to the F-Zero universe? It’s certainly fun to think about.
What crossover do you love? What crossovers do you want to see? Let us know in the comments below!
