According to the game's official Twitter account, the only characters that the developers would not add to the game if given the opportunity were Calvin and Hobbes from the comic strip of the same name. Despite the concept of the game being around public domain characters already ruling out the still-copyrighted Calvin and Hobbes characters, the reasoning for refusing to consider them was out of respect for creator Bill Watterson and his refusal to license the comics for merchandise despite their popularity, feeling that it would go against the strip's ideals and ruin its authenticity.
The first official crossover between a Nintendo property and a Sega property is often assumed to be either Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games or Super Smash Bros. Brawl. While these are indeed the first Nintendo-Sega crossovers within the gaming medium, there have been instances prior of crossovers in supplementary marketing material:
• A 1994 advert made by DIC for animation industry insiders showing their global reach through the Panda Club and Dragon Club TV blocks in China shows Sonic the Hedgehog waving through a TV screen while Mario pats him on the back, joined by Madeline from the Madeline book series and Billy Lee as seen in the cartoon adaptation of Double Dragon. • The infamous Fight for the FoxBox promotional film made by 4Kids Entertainment in 2003, which utilizes existing anime and cartoon clips to make a new crossover story, shows Dr. Eggman and King Dedede as allies alongside Dial-bolic from Ultimate MUSCLE, Dr. K from Cubix: Robots for Everyone, and Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles working for Wayne from The Cramp Twins in an attempt to shut down the titular television channel. Although the villains do interact in this half-hour film, the heroes mostly do not, with Kirby and Sonic never sharing screen time in particular.
This is, of course, discounting instances of unauthorised parodies and mockery at the height of the console wars.
The player has a chance to randomly encounter an unnamed clown during their playthrough, who only appears once in the entire game to hand them a slip of paper. The note in question reads as follows:
"Ever Dream This Clown?
Every night, all over the world, hundreds of people see this clown in their dreams. If this clown appears in your dreams don't play any game with him. If you want more information go to:
nachogames.itch.io/unlikely"
The link in question leads to the Itch.io page for the game Unlikely, another game made by Nacho Sama. Additionally, the note itself appears to be a reference to "This Man", an urban legend created by Italian sociologist Andrea Natella about a mysterious individual who has appeared in the dreams of people all over the world since 2006.
On April 1st, 2024, Shady Lewd Kart added Wild Woody from the game of the same name as a free DLC character. Notably, it was revealed in a comment on the DLC's announcement trailer that Sega did not actually own the rights to the Wild Woody IP, instead being owned by the original creators. This was further emphasized on the DLC's Steam page, which includes a disclaimer that Shady Corner Games was in no way associated with Sega, and that they were given permission to add Wild Woody to the game by the creators of the IP. Wild Woody's original voice actor Joseph Kerska also reprised his role for the appearance and a story campaign, and that despite the date it was released, the DLC was not considered an April Fools joke.
Pixar's higher-ups almost rejected the prospect of including Pixar content in Kingdom Hearts III, as none of them were gamers or knew what Kingdom Hearts is or how popular it was. Theme park creative director Tasha Sounart managed to convince them on how popular Kingdom Hearts is, and pointed out that catering to the series' teen audience lined up with Pixar's desire to be seen as an all-ages film studio instead of simply being perceived as targeting children and their parents alone. Sounart noted that, while the Pixar studio members familiar with Kingdom Hearts did not need to extensively detail the lore to those that weren't except when needed, it was needed to be clarified that the Pixar characters would not be meeting one another, or any other Disney characters aside from Donald and Goofy, as Pixar has an aversion to crossovers and shared universes outside of their signature Easter eggs.
In 2021, as part of a collaboration with the children's yogurt brand Danimals, Sonic Dash added brand mascot Bongo to the game as a playable character, unlocked by scanning a QR code on the back of Sonic Dash-branded Danimals products to download the game. This method could also be used to unlock the "Pirate Sonic" and "Captain Shadow" character variants, which could be earned by collecting all four birthday-themed items on the track, including a Danimals smoothie pack.
Prior to release, Arc System Works announced that the game would feature twenty characters as paid DLC for the game's first season, meaning that the game would launch with only half of its planned roster. This prompted backlash from fans, who pointed out that the game reused assets from past fighting games and that half of Team RWBY would be sold separately while the other half was in the base game. In response, Toshimichi Mori announced that the remaining Team RWBY members (Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long) would be free of charge, and that the costs for the characters would not exceed that of the game's base retail cost.
On July 26, 2023, developer PerBlue released a poll requesting input on various franchises that were in consideration for inclusion in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode. As of March 2024, the only franchises from the poll to still not be part of the game are "Encanto", "Gravity Falls", "Miraculous Ladybug", "Inspector Gadget", "Amphibia", and "Fantasia". Notably, "Miraculous Ladybug" and "Inspector Gadget" are not actually owned by Disney, but appear to have been considered due to the company having ties to each of them. With "Miraculous Ladybug", Disney finances the show through its French division, giving them broadcasting rights in places such as the United States and select European regions. As for "Inspector Gadget", Disney was involved in the production of the 1999 live-action film based on the series due to owning DIC Entertainment at the time from merging with Capital Cities/ABC.
During an interview with Forbes in 2016, producer Toshimichi Mori revealed that he had an interest in the Rooster Teeth webseries RWBY, and even expressed interest in making a game based on it, saying:
"If I were to make a game based on something that wasn't a complete original, which is what I have done in the past, it would be based on the intellectual property of RWBY. So each girl has their own kind of color, theme that they are associated with and the original creator has sadly passed away. If we were to ever make a fighting game of this, I would want to really spearhead that if possible."
Prior to EVO 2017, Rooster Teeth teased the possibility of a RWBY fighting game being announced there on their Twitter account. This game would end up being BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, which was announced after the BlazBlue: Central Fiction championships, where series protagonist Ruby Rose was one of the first four characters announced for the game.
In 2023, the YouTuber Markiplier collaborated with Lilith Games to appear as a collectible hero in Dislyte. In-game, he is a space engineer and temporary member of the Esper Union, having supposedly traveled to Dislyte's world through space and possibly time. While Dislyte released a CGI trailer for the collaboration, Markiplier also made his own video to advertise it titled "I Was Abducted...", where he talks directly to the viewers about how he was "abducted" into the world of Dislyte and his experiences there, seemingly losing his sanity over the course of the skit, until it eventually cuts to him advertising the game normally and remarking how he is both in the game and real-life at the same time.
Sephiroth's inclusion as a DLC fighter was apparently so top secret that even certain members of Square Enix had not known that the villain was going to be included in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate until the corresponding show-stealing announcement at The Game Awards 2020 was made. Even Square Enix employee and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi was quite shocked and stated:
"[...] it was actually extremely confidential that he was even going to be in it, [...] So, none of the dev team knew, including myself. So it was more like when the whole world knew it, and that's when we knew it like, 'Oh, I had no idea!'"
Tetsuya Nomura had requested for the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to be used in Kingdom Hearts III, but Disney responded that he would be "too difficult" to use, though they never clarified why. While his plans for Oswald had he been added to the game are unknown, it's worth noting that Nomura has admitted that Oswald is one of his favorite Disney characters.
The character Minoru Minorikawa was introduced in 2004 with the release of 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei: Densetsu no Kyoudan ni Tate!. Debuting in Episode 8, he appears as a reporter for a newspaper, who is looking into the unresolved suicide of a middle school girl named Chiharu Fuyutsuki from 5 years ago (6 by the end of the game). He works alongside the protagonist, who was Chiharu's teacher back then, to uncover the truth behind her suicide.
In 428: Shibuya Scramble, Minorikawa appears once again, but instead of being a minor late-game character, he became one of the leading protagonists of the game. In this game, he is now a freelance journalist who is attempting to help his old friend Toyama (who used to work at the same newspaper company) in gathering enough stories for Toyama's next magazine issue. During the course of 428, Minorikawa begins reminiscing to his investigation of Chiharu's suicide, with the game making a handful of references to the events of Kinpachi Sensei.
However, the English localization for 428 contains a mistranslation within the reference to Kinpachi Sensei, likely because the latter has never been released in the West. The in-game TIPS for Chiharu Fuyutsuki states that "6 years from now", Minorikawa would solve the mystery behind Chiharu's suicide, while the original Japanese makes it clear that it should be "6 years after this incident." The mistranslation would suggest that Kinpachi Sensei is set years after 428, even though this contradicts Minorikawa's journey from working at a newspaper to working freelance.
During the dialogue between Little John and Baloo as part of their Friendship Campaign "Bear Country", they both point out how they each look and sound similar to the other. This is a reference to how they were both voiced by Phil Harris in their respective films, as well as the fact that some of Little John's animations in "Robin Hood" were copied from Baloo's animations in "The Jungle Book".
Bubsy: Paws on Fire! attempted to raise funds for DLC with a Kickstarter campaign before its launch, which would've added new levels with new themes, mini-games, costumes, and Commander Video from Bit.Trip as a guest character. The Kickstarter was heavily criticized for the confusing structure it had, where the funding goal would merely add extra one-liners and two costumes for Bubsy while the stretch goals were individual parts of a short extra world, known as the "Impossible World". The campaign did not reach its base goal, and Paws on Fire! recieved no DLC.
Despite its status as a crossover game, both Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino and Ace Attorney series creator Shu Takumi view Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney as a legitimate installment in their respective series, rather than as a simple spin-off. In an "Iwata Asks" interview, when asked if the game was ideal for those who hadn't played either series, Hino specifically said:
"Yes, I think so. This title is not a spin-off from either series. When we were working on the game, we always had the image in mind that it was a fusion of the two. As a result, I think this title outdoes both original series in terms of volume and quality. In that sense, I think that even people who don’t own a Nintendo 3DS yet have to get hold of this game. I’d consider it a “must buy”. (laughs)
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Inverse Ninjas vs. The Public Domain marks one of the first uses of Mickey Mouse in a non-parody-protected legitimate commercial product for a North American market without Disney endorsement, with Mickey's update being planned to come out to the hour of his entrance into the public domain, but releasing early by mistake. The social media account for the game noted that, although the game's concept is quite silly and lighthearted, utilizing the juxtaposition of characters who would typically not be armed wielding guns, and in spite of the long history of counterculture artists highlighting Mickey Mouse for mockery because of the saccharine image he would develop and how it juxtaposes against Disney's cutthroat corporate activities, it was intended as a sincere tribute to the characters featured, rather than a satire or parody, also noting that Mickey Mouse had been depicted wielding guns in earlier Disney cartoons:
"We're not the Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey guys, we actually like Mickey Mouse.
This isn't a parody, it's a love letter, and the mouse deserves his damn gun back."
The first official crossover between a Nintendo property and a Sega property is often assumed to be either Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games or Super Smash Bros. Brawl. While these are indeed the first Nintendo-Sega crossovers within the gaming medium, there have been instances prior of crossovers in supplementary marketing material:
The player has a chance to randomly encounter an unnamed clown during their playthrough, who only appears once in the entire game to hand them a slip of paper. The note in question reads as follows:
In 2021, as part of a collaboration with the children's yogurt brand Danimals, Sonic Dash added brand mascot Bongo to the game as a playable character, unlocked by scanning a QR code on the back of Sonic Dash-branded Danimals products to download the game. This method could also be used to unlock the "Pirate Sonic" and "Captain Shadow" character variants, which could be earned by collecting all four birthday-themed items on the track, including a Danimals smoothie pack.
In 2023, the YouTuber Markiplier collaborated with Lilith Games to appear as a collectible hero in Dislyte. In-game, he is a space engineer and temporary member of the Esper Union, having supposedly traveled to Dislyte's world through space and possibly time. While Dislyte released a CGI trailer for the collaboration, Markiplier also made his own video to advertise it titled "I Was Abducted...", where he talks directly to the viewers about how he was "abducted" into the world of Dislyte and his experiences there, seemingly losing his sanity over the course of the skit, until it eventually cuts to him advertising the game normally and remarking how he is both in the game and real-life at the same time.
The character Minoru Minorikawa was introduced in 2004 with the release of 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei: Densetsu no Kyoudan ni Tate!. Debuting in Episode 8, he appears as a reporter for a newspaper, who is looking into the unresolved suicide of a middle school girl named Chiharu Fuyutsuki from 5 years ago (6 by the end of the game). He works alongside the protagonist, who was Chiharu's teacher back then, to uncover the truth behind her suicide.
