Stars Who Step Off the Screen & Into Games
Lara Croft started her life in video games, but as we all know she crossed over to blockbuster movies with great success. From there, her character has been used in slots games and a short web series.
Plenty of other on-screen characters have made their way into slots and other online casino games and a lot of popular movie characters have gone on to have successful video game careers; Harry Potter is a great example of this.
What about other crossovers though? More specifically, what about when movie characters make random appearances in video games for no other reason than that they can. Classic video game aliens, made a memorable comeback as the invaders in Sony’s Pixels movie, but that fitted in perfectly with the series. Sometimes however, classic and beloved characters seem to be a little out of place in the video games that they guest-star in. We rounded up some interesting pairings that saw the stars step off the screen and into a parallel gaming universe!
Freddy and Jason - Mortal Kombat
Fans of the Friday the Thirteenth series need no introduction to Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. They don’t quite fit with the premise of the Mortal Kombat games, but they also don’t not fit in. The game’s style is more fantasy-like than Freddy and Jason’s world, but they do have elements of horror in common. In addition, Freddy loves toying with people and Jason loves slaughtering them. Seeing them in the game does make players do a bit of a double take, but it’s all in good fun and brings a new meaning to the iconic words Finish Him!
Yoda and Darth Vader - Soul Calibur IV
The cameo appearances of Darth Vader and Yoda in Soul Calibur IV are a treat for fans and they do fit into the action, although once again they don’t really belong because they don’t have any ties to the storyline and no clever way of linking them is established. The swords in the series are also meant to take the form best suited to whoever is wielding them, but what could actually be better than a light saber?
Arnold Schwarzenegger - WWE2k16
While the 120+ playable characters in WWE2k16 broke franchise records, the only one that wasn’t a regular wrestler was The Terminator. The inclusion was considered quite a bonus for players, available only as a pre-order exclusive. Schwarzenegger himself is a WWE Hall of Fame inductee and long-time fan of the franchise, so was happy to expand their relationship.
Poker Night 2
Let’s end off with what might be the ultimate crossover game; Poker Night 2. The sequel to Valve’s Poker Night at the Inventory, Poker Night features even more characters from other hit franchises. The original game’s Tycho, from webcomic Penny Arcade, the Heavy from Team Fortress 2, Strong Bad from web series Homestar Runner and Max of the Sam & Max franchise are joined by Sam, Max’s partner in crime, Brock Samson from the animated series The Venture Bros, Ash Williams of the Evil Dead horror film franchise and Claptrap, from the Borderlands series.
You get to play against 4 of the characters and can seriously develop your Poker skills, but as with all of the crossovers here, we ask why this game happened at all. The answer is the same in every case; it was possible and it held appeal for fans. There is also something about seeing how much of each character’s personality does fit with the games they need to play and the moves they need to make.
Happily, in all the instances we’ve mentioned of crossovers, the results are also awesome and gamers really enjoy them, but we are sure that there are some that are less than stellar too!