One common theme I've noticed become more and more popular is the mingling of characters from various franchises in a similar game. For most part's I can see why they would, such as Super Smash Brothers, or SEGA racing/tennis titles, as these games are based around the developer as opposed to a specific series, however some inclusions to gaming rosters don't make sense.
One series that seems to have included this a lot if Soul Calibur, as they have included; Spawn, Heihachi Mishima, Link, Kratos, Ezio, Starkiller, Darth Vader and Yoda. Forgive my skepticism, but in an arcade fighting game about an evil sword I cannot see any logical link to these characters despite their in game story descriptions. If Darth Vader truly wanted an evil sword, I'm sure with the help of the Empire, the Death Star, the Force and a light saber he could get what he wanted and not need to worry about Voldo knocking him out in a two out of three fighting competition.
Super Smash Brothers was an example I gave of where this mingling works, as Nintendo has a colourful roster of anthropomorphic characters and colourful child friendly settings - which is also the reason why I feel that Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games is a great child friendly way to get children to be interested in sports. My gripe with this is when they brought Solid Snake into the roster. Again, when using the logic that can be said about Darth Vader, how could Solid Snake lose in a brawling competition when he's against a fat plumber and a blue hedgehog? Even ignoring the practicality of it, when he's standing next to characters like Kirby or Bowser he is aesthetically out of place.
Another point I can't seem to understand is when a none gaming entity is merged with a pure gaming company. A brilliant example of this is Mortal Kombat in it's later years, when they merged with the DC Universe, or when they included Freddy Kruger in their latest game (as a DLC character). My main complaints about this aren't particularly from a gameplay perspective - as who doesn't want to see a fight between Batman and Superman - but from a 'lore' perspective. Freddy Kruger has his own back story, and he exists in the dreams of people on Earth, similarly with the DC roster - they each have their cities, ethics and modus operandi; I just find it difficult to believe, and completely out of character, that Batman would choose to fight Superman or Sonya Blade knowing the Joker is on the loose, as well as Darkseid and the various murderers/villains form the Mortal Kombat universe..
When typing this I can think of bonus and secret characters, such as Fred Durst being present in an old WWE game, or gimmicky characters like Mokap being present in Mortal Kombat. I was not referring to these of tongue-in-cheek inclusions, as they seem to make sense as either in jokes or an acknowledgement to a person related to the franchise or someone who helped contribute in some way.
On arguing that two franchises mixing for the pure benefit of profit I do concede that the mix between Square-Enix and Disney completely disproved my skepticism when they made Kingdom Hearts, which is still one of my favorite franchises to date.
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