Study reveals the most bizarre game crossovers fans want: Mario, GTA, Smash, COD, more

Michael Gwilliam

Gaming crossovers are all the rage these days with the likes of Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Mortal Kombat, Fortnite, and most recently, Call of Duty leading the way by adding characters from other games as playable heroes.

With crossovers never as popular as they are now, a new study has revealed what fans really want to see and the results are absolutely mind-blowing.

According to the survey, nearly 1,000 gamers were polled and asked which gaming universes they’d like to see collide. To celebrate the results, artists were then commissioned to create art bringing some of these most-wanted crossovers to life.

Speaking of most-wanted, 35.1% of fans surveyed said they wanted to see Mario Kart crossover with Need For Speed. Following that, Sony’s legendary Grand Turismo series was second with 23.4% and then Twisted Metal at 21.1%.

Mario Kart Need for Speed
Fans are down to see a Need for Speed race with Mario Kart.

Having Nintendo’s kart racing gem merge with either Twisted Metal or Need For Speed could be downright amazing, but it’s unlikely we’d ever see Sony and Nintendo work together for that to happen.

In one of the most bizarre categories, 7.8% of football fans wanted to see Madden NFL crossover with Smash Bros while 21.3% wanted to see the series work with Street Fighter. In the end, however, Rocket League won the poll, suggesting fans would be down to see the series and the NFL in some capacity.

On the FPS front, fans really want to see Call of Duty crossover with either Doom or Metal Gear. Considering COD is adding Rambo and John McClane, is it really too out of line to see Solid Snake and Doom Guy duke it out in Warzone?

Fans want to see some strange crossovers.

In another weird one, many fans want Super Mario to crossover with Crash Bandicoot and Grand Theft Auto of all things. While Crash may seem the most likely out of the two, especially with rumors about him appearing in Smash Bros, GTA seems wildly out of place for everyone’s favorite video game plumber.

For Zelda, those surveyed would like to see Final Fantasy, Assassin’s Creed and God of War link up with the Hero of Time in an adventure. There’s even a small percentage who want a League of Legends and Overwatch crossover into Hyrule.

A Link and Cloud fusion could make many dreams come true.

Finally, in what may be the most doable, fans really want Mortal Kombat to duke it out with WWE and Resident Evil.

While most of these may just be pipe dreams, never say never. We never expected to see Master Chief and Kratos in the same game, but Fortnite made it happen. Hopefully, we’ll get the chance to see more of these during the Xbox Series X and PS5’s lifespan.

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About The Author

Michael Gwilliam is a senior writer at Dexerto based in Ontario, Canada. He specializes in Overwatch, Smash, influencers, and Twitch culture. Gwilliam has written for sites across Canada including the Toronto Sun. You can contact him at michael.gwilliam@dexerto.com or on Twitter @TheGwilliam