The earliest crossover game was featured in Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, a classic game combining popular characters of two franchises to collide in combat. Following the success of this game, the title paved the way for many more crossovers to come across the years. The most recently released crossover which fans anticipated after a ten year wait was Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (then Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 featuring new characters and finishes). The Marvel and Capcom franchises had done well with the constant addition of new characters to their existing roster. With a growing fanbase of character requests and crossover possibilities, other companies are now doing the same thing; inserting popular characters into a crossover scenario to battle it out or introduce a new element in the parent game altogether.
Setting aside crossover games that focus on battles, there are games which are developed using crossovered characters to solve a mystery. One of the most prominent games is Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney. This was announced in Japan several months ago and the game will be released on the 3DS on November 29, 2012. Professor Layton acting as a detective while Phoenix Wright, the main protagonist (lawyer) in the Ace Attorney helping each other to solve a mystery of a woman convicted of witchcraft. The game is an adventure puzzle game requiring players to follow clues to solve the mystery of this woman and the main antagonist in the game. This game is expected to receive a wide array positive reviews as Phoenix Wright is a well-loved character in Japan. As a side-note, Phoenix Wright appeared in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as a new, playable combatant.
In other settings, crossovers appear in sports settings. Almost released at every Olympic event is Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Players can control the cast of Mario and Sonic respectively to participate in sports and upload their scores onto leaderboards. With that said, the game is only fun for a short period of time before excitement dies out. Playing the games, choosing characters to participate in events is awkward and cumbersome. For example, using Doctor Eggman to participate in a 100 meter run does not fit his persona. This goes for the same with Mario, Bowser and the like. Crossovers such as this hurts the franchise more than helping it. Using loved characters to act out of character is not appealing, especially for gamers who grew up with these characters. To put it bluntly, these characters should remain in their own niche without further diminishing the franchise.
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May 18th, 2013 
