They cant just make it a quick cameo and be done with it.
When a guest character is thrown into a fighting game, theyre part of the crowd.
Theyre designed to be about as important, capable, and fully-formed as everyone else.
To celebrate this trope, heres a look at the twenty-five best guest fighters.
Its an old hat.
His Brutality with the hammer is one of the nastiest things in that game becausehe just doesnt stop!
Not to mention how dark and freaky his arcade mode ending is.
ANITA IN MARVEL SUPER HEROES
Anita, an emotionless girl clutching a headless doll, is from theDarkstalkersseries.
Though she was playable inSuper Puzzle Fighter II Turbo.
She was armed with Donovans levitating sword and could summon fellow unplayableDarkstalkerscharacter Lin-Lin as well as Akuma.
Not that Akuma actually did anything.
Hed just stand there.
The whole thing is weird.
The coolest choice was Big Daddy, the loyal juggernaut of theBioShockseries.
Driven by his blind loyalty to his totally bratty Little Sister, Mr.
Bubbles stomps into a patchwork battlefield filled with cartoon dog rappers, flame-headed clowns, and electric vigilantes.
HEIHACHI MISHIMA IN SOULCALIBUR II
WhenSoulCalibur IIhit consoles, they annoyingly went with exclusive fighters for each system.
GameCube got Link, Xbox got Spawn, and PlayStation 2 got Heihachi Mishima.
I mean, for one, they had already put Yoshimitsus ancestor/predecessor/namesake in there as a recurring character.
Plus of the three, he has the least name recognition.
Heihachi doesnt mess around.
BAYONETTA IN SUPER SMASH BROS.
LikeMortal Kombat,Smashhas become a series overflowing with guest characters.
While certainly helped by fan outcry, Bayonetta showing up was a serious, Haha, really?
Nothing against her games.
Its just that shes such a bizarre tonal mismatch for a Nintendo free-for-all.
Ive never seen such a rush of fan art.
Scorpion showed up with a little extra kick thanks to being redesigned by DC honcho Jim Lee.
The sweetest thing to come out of this crossover is his clash/wager dialogue.
The best ones that come to mind are against Batman and Superman.
Darth Vader, on the other hand, fit in just right.
Not to mention the ending image of him dual-wielding the Soul Edge and Soulcalibur is badass as hell.
Vaders guest appearance in theSoulCaliburseries also helped mefigure out what yearForce Awakenstakes place, so theres that.
KARNOV IN FIGHTERS HISTORY
Does it count as a guest appearance if the character is there from the beginning?
That, and I just want to talk about Karnov.
He sort of looked like a porn parody version of Wario.
Fighters Historywas a fighting game so blatantly similar toStreet Fighter IIthat Capcom actually tried to sue them.
One odd thing that sticks out in all of this is Karnovs design.
InFighters History, Karnov is depicted as a short man who is completely jacked.
BOX ART MEGA MAN IN STREET FIGHTER X TEKKEN
Haha, Capcom, you assholes.
On one hand, its incredibly frustrating to see Capcom disrespect theMega Manfranchise.
The one everyone makes fun of.
He also supplied the voice for Boogerman, which was really just reusing the voice of Barney fromThe Simpsons.
Hey, it worked.
RASH IN KILLER INSTINCT
These cameos are killing me!
He retained his body morphing, thrust-dancing, and use of his speeder and entrance rope.
The Japanese Saturn version had a difficult-to-unlock mech called Zero Gouki.
In laymans terms, its a giant, robot Akuma.
WHY did they make a giant robot Akuma?
I cant say for certain, but hes awesome in action, and he looks sweet as hell.
If only they had a giant Dan Hibiki made of rusted metal and duct tape.
Then they revealed Freddy Krueger and the surprise made everyone quietly nodding their heads in agreement.
MICHAEL JACKSON IN READY 2 RUMBLE BOXING: ROUND 2
RememberReady 2 Rumble?
What we got were a couple of average games with their hearts in the right place.
Then theres the official inclusions of Shaq and Michael Jackson as boxers.
Shaq didnt bring much to the table, but they went ham when it came to Jacko.
They kind of had to include the Alien Xenomorph.
As cool as it was to see the intergalactic rivalry return, they needed something a little extra.
In other words, an Alien with goddamn Baraka claws!
It was like fitting two puzzle pieces into something remarkable.
Finally, he shed the box and yelled, Its show time!
That pales in comparison to the games most amazing Easter egg.
About a half hour of dialogue was recorded for this bit.
If Snake were to get eliminated during one of these conversations, his ally would yell, Snake?
Yes,even Slippyhas his own horrified reaction to Snake losing mid-fight.
There was no story reason and he didnt look any older.
Also, by beating him, youd be treated to a graphic of theFatal Furycast surrounding a weeping Ryo.
THE BAZ IN DIVEKICK
Lot of backstory on this one.
When Capcom was makingStreet Fighter II, there were plenty of character concepts that didnt make the cut.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG IN SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL
The great, long war had finally come to an end.
Although the console war became bigger than these two companies, Nintendo survived while Sega did not.
Sega continued making games, which meant dealing with Nintendo.
Finally, we got the long-awaited Mario/Sonic clash…withMario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.
Figurative blood, at least.
When Sonic was announced forSuper Smash Bros. Brawl, there was much rejoicing.
AL DILLON IN MORTAL KOMBAT X
Predator was inMortal Kombat Xand they did a great job with him.
All good, but he was overshadowed by what came with him.
By downloading Predator, you also got three extra character skins.
One was Johnny Cage dressed as a commando.
One was Scorpion in infrared Predator-vision colors.
The other was Carl Weathers Jax.
By using the skin, Jax would become Colonel Al Dillon, Carl Weathers ill-fated character fromPredator.
before they reenact the manliest handshake in cinema history.
AKUMA IN X-MEN: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM
It had to be this one.
In early 1994,Super Street Fighter II Turbointroduced Akuma as a hidden boss and unlockable badass.
Later that year, Capcom created their first Marvel fighting game withX-Men: Children of the Atom.
There was no explanation.
There was no story.
Akuma showing up inX-Men, while nonsensical, was also revolutionary and pretty important.
It led to Anita showing up inMarvel Super Heroesand continued into the creation ofX-Men vs. Street Fighter.
That ultimately led to the ever-popularMarvel vs. Capcomand its sequels.
Its like hes the patron saint of crossovers.
I still have my fingers crossed for aMortal Kombatappearance one day.
This article was first published on May 11, 2016.
