Best Capcom Crossover Games

Capcom is a gaming company that needs very little introduction to most. Plying their electronic trade since the late seventies, they really came to solidify themselves as gaming powerhouses in the late eighties and nineties. With the release of titles such as Street Fighter 2, Final Fight, and then Resident Evil, Capcom revealed their true power levels and became a force to be reckoned with in the world of gaming.

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By  Michael Katz

Some companies tried to out-perform them, and others sought to work with them, producing some of the most memorable crossovers ever made. Capcom has even blended their own franchises together, but excluding these "in-house" crossovers like Cannon Spike, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, and Street Fighter X Mega Man, here is a list of the times Capcom characters have hashed it out with those from different company franchises.

Updated on August 29th, 2024 by David Heath: Capcom's crossovers have been on a lot of people's minds lately and for a multitude of reasons. Street Fighter 6 will soon see Fatal Fury/King of Fighters' Terry Bogard join its roster in mere weeks, while his sister-in-law Mai Shiranui will turn up next summer. SNK gave SVC: SNK vs Capcom Chaos a surprise re-release, followed by Capcom bringing Capcom Vs SNK 1 & 2 back via the Capcom Fighting Collection 2. Then, biggest of all, every Marvel game Capcom made up to Marvel Vs Capcom 2 will be turning up in the Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection, all with online play, rollback netcode, and other features. So, it's a fitting time to give this list a refresh, giving some individual games their laurels alongside some lesser-known Capcom crossovers that caught on with players.

14 Cross Edge

The Darkstalkers Enter the World of JRPGs

• Developer: Idea Factory.
• Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360.
• Release: May 2009.

Cross Edge, a turn-based, team battle RPG, didn't get the most glowing reception on release, though it's one of the more curious crossovers Capcom has been involved in. They worked with Bandai-Namco, Nippon Ichi, Idea Factory, and Gust Corporation to combine characters from Disgaea, Spectral Souls, Ar Tonelico, Blazing Souls, Atelier Marie, Mana Khemia 2 and Darkstalkers as they and the heroes, York and Miko, get isekai'd to another world.

All those games are fairly popular RPGs, except for Darkstalkers, which is a fighting game. The gothic horror likes of Morrigan, Lilith, Dmitri, Felicia, and Jedah stick out next to the more typical RPG heroes. Though that might be why they were included: to shake things up more and make the game stand out in a way that the Breath of Fire characters couldn't. That, or Idea Factory just really liked Capcom's series of horror fighters and wanted to give it more attention.

13 Street Fighter X Tekken

The Black Sheep of Tag Games

Street Fighter X Tekken has had a bit of a critical resurgence, as some fans loved the final result, and its last few updates fixed a selection of its initial problems. Even so, it never lived up to either Capcom or Bandai-Namco's expectations because its development seemed cursed. It was supposed to capitalize on Street Fighter 4's success and Tekken's status as the premier 3D fighter, with some great, flashy trailers of their cast duking it out.

Instead, it had a confusing range of techniques, microtransaction-based gems, a furor surrounding its on-disc DLC, and a comeback mechanic ('Pandora') that could make the player lose the game if they accidentally set it off. At its heart, it still offered some strong Street Fighter gameplay with some Tekken strings. Though if they were able to trim out its flaws, it would've caught on better, wouldn't have hurt Tekken Tag Tournament 2's sales, and Bandai-Namco's long-awaited retort, Tekken X Street Fighter, wouldn't be vaporware.

12 X-Men vs Street Fighter

The Beginning of a Beautiful Crossover

Capcom's collaborations with Marvel had been going well since they made a beat 'em up based on The Punisher, but they really took off when they put them in their fighting games. X-Men: Children of the Atom was a step forward for the genre in 1994, and Marvel Super Heroes improved on that in 1995. Then 1996 brought the first ripple of an iconic series to come in X-Men Vs Street Fighter.

It introduces tag-style gameplay, as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, etc., could partner up with Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, etc., in a faster-paced fighter where they could tag in and out to keep the combos going. It's still a fun game to play today, though players who are used to the three-way, frenetic action of later Marvel games might find it rather light compared to the full capabilities of a Marvel crossover.

11 Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter

"The Wildest Crossover You Never Dreamt"

Before Capcom broadened its scope into the first Marvel Vs Capcom, they took X-Men Vs Street Fighter and replaced most of the X-Men with the cast of Marvel Super Heroes to produce Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter. Cyclops, Wolverine, and the boss Apocalypse get to stay, though Storm, Sabertooth, and Gambit were traded out for Captain America, the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Omega Red.

Otherwise, it was nearly exactly the same game as X-Men Vs Street Fighter. It had the same stages with a few graphical changes (Peter Parker turns up on the TV studio stage if no one's playing Spider-Man), and the same tag gameplay. Characters just had a few move tweaks, got more super combos, and the announcer got more hyped up if someone won a round with said supers ("HYPER CHARGING STAAAARRRR!!").

10 Namco x Capcom

The First Step in Monolith Soft's Action RPG Series

• Developer: Monolith Soft.
• Platform: PlayStation 2.
• Release: May 2005.

When people first heard Namco was crossing over with Capcom, they thought they'd get a Marvel-style fighting game. Instead, they got a tactical RPG that never made its way outside Japan. Western fans just had to watch its stunning intro video of Ryu and Tekken's Jin throwing hands, Chun-Li throwing kicks with Wonder Momo, Mega Man Legends' Volnutt and Roll blasting with Xenosaga's KOS-MOS, and someone remembering Resident Evil: Dead Aim and Dino Crisis exist with Regina and Fong Ling.

These and even more classic Capcom and Namco characters all turn up in a tale where original characters Reiji and Xiaomu have to figure out why all these different universes are colliding together. It was a popular game, though reviewers at the time felt Monolith was more concerned with fanservice than game balance. That is, they really wanted all these different characters to have fun exchanges with each other, though they couldn't nail how to make the gameplay more in-depth than 'Use Ability Points to Combo Foes'.

9 Project X Zone

Namco x Capcom x Sega

The West never got Namco x Capcom officially, but they got the next best thing in Project X Zone on the Nintendo 3DS. It had the same positives and negatives, in that it had a wide range of characters exchanging comic dialogue with each other, and the gameplay wasn't any deeper than a beat 'em up. Still, by allowing more freeform movement and timing-based Critical Hits, the combat was more fun.

This time, Namco and Capcom's eclectic cast are joined by Sega characters like Virtua Fighter's Akira and Pai, Sakura from Sakura Wars, Ulala from Space Channel 5, and Bruno Delinger from Dynamite Cop (aka Die Hard Arcade). As fun as they are, the roster focuses more on characters from other RPGs instead of eyebrow-raising selections like Namco x Capcom did. Fans of Tales of Vesperia, Super Robot Wars, God Eater, Valkyria Chronicles 3, etc., will be happy. Those expecting Sonic the Hedgehog to meet Klonoa and Blanka won't.

8 Project X Zone 2

Namco x Capcom x Sega x Nintendo... Kind Of

Those dimensional rifts keep happening. Only this time, it's pulled in some Nintendo characters too! Or rather, it pulled in characters from one Nintendo franchise. Chrom and Lucina from Fire Emblem Awakening join in the tactical fun, where the gameplay isn't all that different. Paired units exchange combos and Critical Hits with Support Units providing additional hits.

Again, its character interactions are more appealing, particularly as the roster has more character variety this time. RPG fans might lament the reduction of their favorite franchises, though if they ever wanted to see how Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima would react to Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney, hear Chun-Li, Xiaoyu, and Pai realize they're all kung fu girl tropes or fight against Segata Sanshiro himself, Project X Zone 2 will scratch that itch.

7 Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars

Perhaps the Most Underrated Crossover Fighter

• Developer: Eighting.
• Platforms: Arcade, Nintendo Wii.
• Release: January 2010.

In an ironic twist, Namco x Capcom, a series with characters East and West are familiar with, never left Japan, but Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, a game filled largely with characters only Japanese people and old-school otaku would know, did get a global release. Kind of. Likely based on Street Fighter 4's success at the time, Nintendo wanted an equivalent fighter for their console and helped Capcom clear the licenses for their crossover to escape Japan's shores. It worked for everyone on the Tatsunoko side except Hakushon Daimaoh from The Genie Family.

So, they replaced him with 4 new characters: Mega Man X's Zero, Dead Rising's Frank West, Gatchaman's Joe the Condor, and Tekkaman Blade (aka Teknoman). It was basically a preview of what Marvel Vs Capcom 3 would offer, from the simplified controls to some shared moves between Capcom's heroes and heroines. Only instead of 3-on-3 combat, it went back to tag teams. It was popular enough to create a fan base who'd love to see a sequel, though without a big company handling the licenses, it seems unlikely.

6 Tekken 7

The Raging Demon Terrorizes the Tekken Cast

Street Fighter X Tekken's messy reception made Bandai-Namco's Tekken X Street Fighter, a crossover that would've given the SF cast Tekken-style move lists, a less appealing prospect. Particularly when Tekken Tag Tournament 2 ended up selling so poorly that Bandai-Namco thought about chucking it into the vault next to the SoulCalibur series. Instead, they gave Tekken 7 a shot, and it ended up becoming the best-selling entry in the series.

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Especially when they decided to give players a taste of what TxSF might've been like by adding Street Fighter's Akuma to the roster. Not only that, he'd play a key part in the story as someone tasked by Heihachi's late wife Kazumi to finish off her husband and her demonic son Kazuya. Instead, his 2D-style jumps, bounding combos, Demon Flips, EX moves, and super combos saw him torment everyone else on the roster. Even with his high skill level, he became top tier, leaving Tekken fans dreading the unlikely possibility of him coming back for Tekken 8.

5 Capcom vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000

Mastering the Art of the Combination Attack

In the West, Street Fighter's biggest rival is Mortal Kombat. In the East, it's King of Fighters. Capcom and SNK have been butting heads in front of and behind the scenes since the 1980s. However, by the late 1990s, Street Fighter 2 producer Yoshiki Okamoto and his former colleague-turned-King of Fighters producer Takashi Nishiyama (also the co-creator of Street Fighter 1) worked out a deal where the two would make a series of crossover games.

SNK actually made the most entries, though many of them were on the obscure Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld. Capcom's results were much more popular, and they began with Capcom Vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000. Unlike the Marvel games, the action was more like a mix of Street Fighter (combos, Capcom groove, etc.) And King of Fighters (4-button layout, SNK groove, etc.). Still, the first entry feels rougher than its sequel thanks to its fixed Ratio system and limited groove options.