The 10 WORST Crossover Video Games

“Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite” (2017)

On the surface, it seemed as if “Marvel vs. Capcom” was ready to evolve alongside modern fighting games with a new artstyle, new cinematic story mode, and a revert back to the original games’s 2v2 format. Even though “Infinite” does feel good to play, everything else about it is so lackluster. Much of the roster is just ripped from MvC3, there isn’t any impact behind hits, combos, and Hyper Combos, and the story mode is a freakin’ trainwreck of cringey dialogue and poorly explained plotlines. MvCI got such a bad rap from fans that it effectively killed the franchise for almost an entire decade before we got the MvC collection in 2024.

“Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring” (1998)

For a 3D arena fighter, “Ehrgeiz” is a pretty decent game. The controls could be a little less janky and stilted, but for the most part, it’s serviceable. The big issue with this game, however, is its handling of the “Final Fantasy VII” cast. “Ehrgeiz” lets you play as Cloud, Tifa, Sephiroth, Yuffie, Vincent, and Zack, but there’s just one big problem: they all play the same and have moves that do not fit their characters whatsoever. Look, we can kind of see Tifa pulling off a suplex or piledriver, but Cloud or Yuffie locking someone in an arm bar or headlock is something neither of them would ever do. Don’t they all have large, bladed weapons they can use instead?

“Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe” (2008)

At the time, this was truly one of the most bizarre crossovers we had seen. Warner Bros is really okay with seeing Scorpion roast Batman alive and Wonder Woman getting blown up by Sonya Blade? Well, not entirely. While the awkward controls were enough to make this crossover unsavory, MKvDC's true claim to infamy was in how it baby-proofed all of the MK aspects. Tell us what kind of a “Mortal Kombat” game would it be - crossover or not - if the finishing moves cannot have any blood or viscera on screen? Couple that with a story plagued by the lazy “worlds colliding and dooming each other” stakes, and MKvDC proved to be much worse than it could have been.

“Nicktoons MLB” (2011)

Already, “Nicktoons MLB” is off to a horrible start just by premise alone. You want to make a video game where outlandish Nickelodeon characters are playing alongside realistic-looking Major League Baseball players? …Okay, but what about this game makes it a Nickelodeon video game outside of cosmetics? Well, nothing, really. Only some of the roster has special abilities, and if you want just a team of Nicktoons characters, the game won’t let you do that; you can only choose five. The ball parks don’t even have anything interesting going on that isn’t just visuals. It’s just a bland mess made only for players who love baseball AND Nickelodeon cartoons, not one or the other.

“Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games” (2013)

The “Mario & Sonic” franchise is decent for the most part. They may only be mid collections of minigames, but they can be entertaining to play once in a blue moon. As for “Sochi 2014”, this was the absolute worst entry in the entire franchise. Whereas the first “Winter Olympics” entry in the series was a fun introduction of the event, “Sochi 2014” felt like a soulless cash grab. Not only was the selection of events mundane, but the controls somehow got worse compared to previous installments! We’re not quite sure how you pull that off, but ever since this game, the “Mario & Sonic” games have suffered from a pretty middling reputation now, even after “Tokyo 2020” made its way to Switch.

“PlayStation Move Heroes” (2011)

No, it is not the last of the mundane minigame-centric crossovers, but as far as PlayStation is concerned, this was one of Sony’s worst outings. “PlayStation Move Heroes” finally made our dreams come true by putting Sly Cooper, Jak, Daxter, Ratchet, and Clank into one game, teaming up to save their respective worlds from calamity. Unfortunately, this was not the epic adventure we had been wishing for. “PlayStation Move Heroes” turned out to be nothing more than a slew of boring platforming and combat challenges that, for some reason, could only be done with the PlayStation Move controllers, which barely worked half of the time. You expect us to suffer through a handful of hours of broken controls and Sly looking gross as hell? Naw, dude, send it back. “PlayStation All-Stars” was worth the wait.

“Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion” (2011)

Speaking of “Smash Bros” copycats, “Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion” made the right calls on which characters to include. Well. for the most part; it’s confusing why Chowder is in here, but whatever. Even though every character mirrored someone from Nintendo’s famed fighting franchise, the sheer lack of originality was the problem here - it was the lack of refinement. “Punch Time Explosion’s” animations and physics are so out of whack that it makes the game look like a technical mess. Many of the animations look like they were only keyframed while visual and audio effects often cut each other off randomly. Honestly, you’d think we were playing an alpha build.

“Funko Fusion” (2024)

Whereas our previous entries were technical messes or simply failed in providing quality gameplay, “Funko Fusion” is…well, a mash of both problems and more. Here we have a game that wants to be a third-person shooter, but also a platformer, but also a puzzle game, but also a boss gauntlet, but also a collectathon, but also melee combat-oriented, but also open world…if possible. While the game only saw some minor visual bugs, “Funko Fusion’s” biggest crime is the simple lack of direction and focus. And what better way to display that than the IP selection for this massive crossover? When you have IPs appealing to kids like “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and “He-Man” mixing in with more adult IPs like “Hot Fuzz”, “The Thing”, and “Invincible”, we gotta ask who is your demographic?

“Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy” & “Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto’s Rampage” (2004)

When it comes to crossovers between two specific video game IPs, both Spyro fans and Crash fans have a deep love and appreciation for each other. However, that same passion was not represented in “Crash Purple” and “Spyro Orange”. While both feature some 2D platforming gameplay, most of your time is spent playing uneventful minigames that somehow get Crash and Spyro to team up and foil their villains’ plot. Yeah, nothing about these games make any sense, and the sheer mundanity caused both fandoms to reject this fantasy we once desired. At least we’ve seen the two together in later, significantly better games like “Skylanders: Imaginators” and “Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled”.

“Jump Force” (2019)

What was to be the biggest celebration of Shonen Jump’s history became one of the worst games we ever saw in 2019. “Jump Force” was the weirdest and ugliest crossover game to have come out at the time. Why would you want your manga & anime characters looking as realistic as this? What was arguably worst about “Jump Force” wasn’t the visuals or the bloated story, not even the lackluster level design. No, it was mainly the gameplay itself. This was a fighting game that required no strategy here. You could practically button-mash your worries away as every character had a light attack, a heavy attack, a dodge, a block, and maybe a ranged attack. It’s a 3D arena brawler with absolutely no thought put into it. The only credit we can give it is how it managed to make Yugi a viable fighter against Goku.

What’s the worst video game crossover you’ve played? Did it make our list? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!