Poke'-G Warlord

So my semester is over, and I have one lone final to do next Tuesday.

This leaves quite a bit of free time, and I've been formulating plans on what to do with it. I will share on them in time, but first, I might as well cover up to the end of the semester, which is one Hell of a recap.

Where to start?


Perhaps with ( Ise Jingu. )

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Being the end of the semester for us, but the start of the new school year for the Japanese students, my dorm held its fundraiser dance again. Here you can see everyone being given the rundown before the event starts.

( Spring Dance )

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So recently a crazy announcement was made. Midway acquired the DC Comics license, and taking a page out from Capcom's playbook, they are making Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The part of me that loves crossovers is ecstatic. The part of me that loves good crossovers... not so much. No fatalities, and let's face it, you'd rather see DC take on Marvel and Capcom rather than the Kombatants. There's even a MUGEN project out there that tried to do it, and was authentic enough in what they had done to fool me into believing the DC characters actually had a 2D fighter out there.

But regardless, it got me to thinking about all the crossovers I've seen, and there have been quite a few. The Mask and Ace Ventura met up once, simply for sharing the same actor, and the Turtles took one the Power Rangers in Space. I wrote up a list of every crossover I knew of, and of course it pales to the real number, and ranked the top 10 greatest crossovers.

Great encompasses both personal joy caused at seeing the pairing, and overall impact to crossovers in general. The crossover must be official (although not necessarily cannon), and the properties origins cannot originate from within the same company, which tosses out crossovers like The Avengers, Destroy All Monsters, Smash Bros., and Flintsones Meet the Jetsons. If a company created them, they're going to do a mashup sooner or later, it's their obligation.

However, a company can purchase the rights from previous owners, that's fine. So Batman (having been created by Bob Kane) and Superman (by Jerry Seigel) being united after their creation under DC actually works, although it did not make the top 10.

So enjoy!


#10 - Nike Goes Plum Loco

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, Basketball was America's greatest sport. Why? The sport simply had the most superstars to offer. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, and the legend himself, Michael Jordan are only a few of the personas that graced the public image. Basketball players did endorsement deals to death, and the sporting companies of course loved it. The most recognizable Basketball supporter: Nike. Basketball and Nike were inseperable at that time, and Nike pulled out all the stops to keep that attention. Thus the world was treated to Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny teaming up for two commercials, which would inspire Space Jam. Thanks to Space Jam, everyone remembers this as the prime NBA crossover, forgetting that Nike pulled a similar stunt pairing up Charles Barkley and Godzilla.

Sadly the film follow-up has yet to develop, although Dark Horse obliged with a comic book. I'm still hoping.

#9 - The Impossible Movie

When thinking of crossovers, I always forget about this one. However, its importance should never be taken for granted. Warner Bros. and Disney are two gigantic corporations who answer to no one. NO ONE! Yet the impossible happened and Warner Bros. licensed out their characters to Disney for a movie about cartoon characters being real. Yes, I speak of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Corporate egos were cast aside for an idea that just appealed, and helped make the film as real as it could be. And so audiences everywhere got to see the battle of the Ducks, and the companies' two mascots Bugs and Mickey, on screen at the same time. Quite literally as equal screen time between the two was a prerequisite for the deal.

#8 - The Greatest Fighting Series Ever

Street Fighter was an awesome game that I played all the time with my friends. X-Men was an awesome show that I watched all the time with my friends (cause I didn't have cable). They were two of the defining parts of my first grade year. Eventually, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, the Power Rangers, and the Biker Mice From Mars would all throw these two awesome things out of the spotlight for a few years.

Then, late in fourth grade while browsing the Southern Park Mall arcade, a deep triumphant voice shouted from behind.

X-MEN

VS

STREET FIGHTER

Those of you who know the game know the call I speak of. I spun around to be greeted by the image or Ryu and Cyclops locking hands in an eternal friendship that blew my God damn mind. I was unaware of Street Fighter Alpha at this point, and the new gameplay, graphics, and super moves that could obliterate certain stages, complete with X-Men authentically ripped from the TV series was beyond fun, and I found myself reintroduced into the Street Fighter series.

The two teams would later invite their friends for two equally amazing rounds of Marvel vs. Capcom, but X-Men vs. Street Fighter was the first, the proof of concept, and the one that took most of my quarters.

#7 - The Illogical Crossover

I use the word illogical here not in a negative sense, but in the completely out of the blue never in a million years would you have put these two things together sense. Yet one day while sitting in 10th grade biology, Andy passes me his gaming magazine to point out Kingdom Hearts.

Disney and Square Enix were making a video game together, and Final Fantasy VII characters were going to be in it. While the game is primarily based around the Disney universes and some original characters, the inclusion of the FFVII cast make it a true crossover that spawned two more games that crossed over even more by throwing in more Final Fantasies and some of Disney's live action films, namely TRON. God. Damn. TRON. TRON 2.0 may have failed to become a movie, but the spirit of that crazy film lives on. I've got my fingers crossed for a Black Hole world in Kingdom Hearts III.

#6 - The Comic Giants

Comic books. They're everywhere, and their influence is seen throughout American, and even worldwide, society. While there are numerous comic book companies, only two have a history spanning 50 years, and thus are understandably the largest and most powerful, controlling the most, and most recognizable, heros and villains. Marvel, and DC.

I could go any way with this, and talk about any of their many crossovers, including the card game VS., in which you could unleash an army of MIGHTY SENTINELS on Bruce Wayne's poor butler Alfred.

Sense?
None.

Fun.
Hell yeah.

Name any DC hero/villain (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Joker, DarkSeid, Justice League), then any Marvel hero/villain (Spiderman, IronMan, X-Men, Dr. Doom, Avengers), then have them meet up, and you have yourself an epic winner. The ridiculous simplicity of the formula is what kept it from being higher on the list. That and the fact that as long as Warner Bros. hangs on to DC, we ain't seeing filmed versions anytime soon. They can't even do a normal DC crossover right, and they've held the reigns for over twenty years.

#5 - The Debate of Our Childhood is Settled

Growing up, video games rocked. Pre 1989, there was only one name that graced the mind when video games were brought up, Nintendo. True, there was the Master System, but that failed miserably stateside. Then came the Sega Genesis, Sega's entry into the 16 bit generation, followed by Nintendo's own entry, the Super Nintendo. Sega, to push it's name out of obscurity and become a threat created a campaign to trash Nintendo's family image. Sega was cool, and Nintendo wasn't, or at least that's what they wanted you to believe. To counter Nintendo's iconic Mario, Sega created the lightning fast, fast talking Sonic the Hedgehog. Throughout the 90s, you either took sides, or bought both systems like I did. Even when taking that easy way out, I longed to see the two companies go at it with their mascots, but aside from low blows in commercials and gaming magazines, it was all but a dream.

Until 2008. Though the days of Sega consoles are long gone, a horde of gaming fans remembered the ancient rivalry, and when Nintendo opened it's doors for a third party character to enter the formally Nintendo only arena of the Smash Bros. world, there was only one choice. One.

Sonic crushed opposition in the polls, and Nintendo lived up to its word and held secret meetings with the heads of Sega over a licensing compromise. While we still were unsure of the legitamcy of Nintendo's poll, Sega announced an Olympic themed crossover between Mario and Sonic, and our hopes and dreams suddenly gained a new momentum. Then in late 2007 Nintendo countered Segas announcement with their own, Sonic was in Brawl.

And now in one of the greatest fighters of our time, every gamer who was a child in the days of Super and Genesis can relive the greatest rivalry they have ever known right in their own home.

God bless you, Sakurai. Bless you.

#4 - The Grand Daddy of Them All

If doing a top ten crossover list, an obligatory space must be reserved for the one that started it all. Long, long ago, movies were popular. You could go out on the town, pay a nickel, and see five cartoons, two moving pictures, eat a tub of popcorn, and have a pair of sodas for you and the missus. Even then, in the early days of cinema, there were characters so beloved, either in full length features or shorts, that they would return again and again.

Then one day Universal Pictures had an idea. It was a crazy idea, unheard of... unfathomable even. They would answer the ancient and age old question: Who would win in a fight between Frankenstein and the Wolf Man. Universal was in the midst of their golden age of horror pictures, and as such held the rights to both characters. Thus a canon story was whipped up, serving as a true sequel to both monsters previous film. The success of this novel idea resurfaced in more crossover pictures with other horror icons, and even Abbot and Costello.

They laughed, laughed and scorned, but Universal showed that the world would pay to see pop culture icons go at each other on screen, and paved the way for every other entry on this list. Including the next three, which beat this only for achieving better name recognition as the pinnacle examples of crossoverdom.

Who's lauging now?

So then, let's recap:

10) Nike Ads
9) Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
8) X-Men vs. Street Fighter (and sequels)
7) The Kingdom Hearts series
6) Anytime Marvel and DC go at it
5) Super Smash Bros. Brawl (specifically the guests)
4) Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

And so without further ado ( I give you... )

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With time running out and a backlog of items to show to you, today we shall have an extended episode ( of... )

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Make sure you see parts 2 and 3, they get a lot better.

And with that, I'm out hipcats.

Later.