Mega Crossover: Difference between revisions

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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* ''The'' example—the ''ultimate'' example—is the work known as ''[[Undocumented Features]]'', created by [[Eyrie Productions Unlimited]]. More or less continually written since the early 1990s by a dedicated creative team, running into many many megabytes of stories, ''UF'' blends together so many sources that ''no one'' has a definitive count of them, and has successfully combined them all into a single galaxy-spanning space opera epic with an internal history of thousands of years. The earlier works are admittedly crude—the first installment was intended as a joking "we could do something like this" example meant to be discarded when the "real" writing began—but ''UF'' (and other EPU) stories since the middle to late 1990s have all been of exceptional quality and workmanship.
* ''The'' example—the ''ultimate'' example—is the work known as ''[[Undocumented Features]]'', created by [[Eyrie Productions Unlimited]]. More or less continually written since the early 1990s by a dedicated creative team, running into many many megabytes of stories, ''UF'' blends together so many sources that ''no one'' has a definitive count of them, and has successfully combined them all into a single galaxy-spanning space opera epic with an internal history of thousands of years. The earlier works are admittedly crude—the first installment was intended as a joking "we could do something like this" example meant to be discarded when the "real" writing began—but ''UF'' (and other EPU) stories since the middle to late 1990s have all been of exceptional quality and workmanship.
** Also by the fine folks at EPU, ''[[Neon Exodus Evangelion]]'' starts off looking like just an ambitious [[Alternate Universe Fic]] for ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', but before long it becomes clear that this is a Mega Crossover world involving at least a dozen sources besides ''NGE'', and that it only tangentially ''resembles'' [[Canon]] ''Evangelion''. Interesting to note, that much as ''Evangelion'' was a [[Deconstruction]], almost an assault on the tropes of [[Humongous Mecha]], ''Neon Exodus Evangelion'' is an assault on what the authors felt was the meaningless nihilism of the original, and the fic can be somewhat hard to warm to.
** Also by the fine folks at EPU, ''[[Neon Exodus Evangelion]]'' starts off looking like just an ambitious [[Alternate Universe Fic]] for ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', but before long it becomes clear that this is a Mega Crossover world involving at least a dozen sources besides ''NGE'', and that it only tangentially ''resembles'' [[Canon]] ''Evangelion''. Interesting to note, that much as ''Evangelion'' was a [[Deconstruction]], almost an assault on the tropes of [[Humongous Mecha]], ''Neon Exodus Evangelion'' is an assault on what the authors felt was the meaningless nihilism of the original, and the fic can be somewhat hard to warm to.
* A relatively recent (as of 2017) but upcoming challenger to ''Undocumented Features'' first place position is ''[[The Teraverse]]'', a setting built on an odd blend of ''[[The Secret World of Alex Mack]]'' and [[DC Comics]], with somewhere between one and two hundred other works contributing to the mix. A year after the end of ''The Secret World'', Alex Mack is drawn into an interdimensional crisis, and upon her return decides to take on a formal superhero persona -- the first in her version of Earth. When she does, it's almost as though it were a signal for secret wars, ancient conspiracies, and even more people with powers to appear from the shadows where they had lurked up to then.
* ''[[A Game of Gods]]'' involves a group of mysterious beings kidnapping a host of beings from across the multiverse and throwing them into strange and perilous situations. The main cast of characters are diverse, and many of the worlds that the characters visit are drawn from other works of fiction.
* ''[[A Game of Gods]]'' involves a group of mysterious beings kidnapping a host of beings from across the multiverse and throwing them into strange and perilous situations. The main cast of characters are diverse, and many of the worlds that the characters visit are drawn from other works of fiction.
* ''[[Journey Through the Multiverse (Roleplay)|Journey Through the Multiverse]]'' takes the multiverse-hopping premise from [[Kamen Rider Decade]] and [[Kingdom Hearts]] and plays it with a huge multiversal war for power, with multiple factions taking part in the war.
* ''[[Journey Through the Multiverse (Roleplay)|Journey Through the Multiverse]]'' takes the multiverse-hopping premise from [[Kamen Rider Decade]] and [[Kingdom Hearts]] and plays it with a huge multiversal war for power, with multiple factions taking part in the war.

Revision as of 17:38, 11 January 2017

Joes, Vulcans, Autobots, Ghostbusters and Zombies. Place your bets.


The Fan Work equivalent of the Massive Multiplayer Crossover—a fan-made creation combining three or more properties into a single, hopefully coherent, whole. By necessity also a variety of Alternate Universe Fic, the Mega Crossover attempts to dovetail many often wildly different settings together in the process of telling its story; it is perhaps the ultimate challenge an author can pose to himself.

When well done, a Mega Crossover can be an amazing and impressive piece of work, often epic in scale. When it isn't, it's an obvious stillborn Frankensteinian mess. Particularly bad, violently out-of-control megacrossovers, where sources are thrown together with no regard to blending their continuities, simply because the author is hopelessly in love with all those series, books, and comics, are called crossorgies.

The only problem with liking a Mega Crossover is that no matter how amazingly good it may be, trying to describe it to someone else inevitably ends up sounding corny and geeky.

Examples of Mega Crossover include:


Fan Fic

Fan Vid

  • The grandaddy of all Fanvids is the Daicon IV Opening, made for a Japanese anime convention in 1983 by a group who would go on to become Studio Gainax. It's impossible to list (although somebody tried) all the sci-fi, fantasy, movie, comic book and game references found in these five incredibly animated minutes.
  • Dead Fantasy unites (mostly) female characters from Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Ninja Gaiden as they end up having to fight each other in very brutal ways.
  • Niconico video list Muv-Luv Crossovers, blends the Unlimited storyline of Muv-Luv, and spliced it with Gunparade March universe, in addition to having characters from Zegapain. Running parallel to the story is the Planet Fairy setting of Sentou Yousei Yukikaze, in which Ryu Sohma becomes the copilot to Rei Fukai after his transformation from Takuto Kaneshiro. And both worlds are fighting what seemed to be a combination of JAM, BETA, and/or Festum, and it seems that Sumika is the AI core of Yukikaze, linking the two worlds. The story is told in Visual Novel-style dialogues interspersed with footages from anime/games related to the media, as well as careful splicing to ensure that everything is consistent. The "opening" animation of the series proper is in the second episode, but while it starts with Muv-Luv setting and the beginning of Argento Soma, Yukikaze's arc proper starts at episode 6. As of 12 February 2011, the series has 10 episodes ranging from 20 to 30 minutes. Unfortunately, since the series is very heavy on dialogues, non-Japanese speaking viewers would have quite a problem in following it.
  • Many MUGEN video series on Youtube, when they're not just series of fights, will be a Mega Crossover, such as:

Fan Game

  • Gokou Sama(aka Somarinoa or Thor Steinbach) is currently working on following Mega Crossover Video Games: Ultimate Showdown(top down action game about characters from everything engages massive duel of death) and Amalgam Online(Alien-themed Mega Crossover Strategy game)
  • Mushroom Kingdom Fusion, a fangame-in-progress, sends Mario and Luigi (later a host of others) across a few of the most famous gaming franchises in order to bring down Legion before he can successfully fuse all worlds and drain the energy from the reaction...or something. The creators are keeping the plot a secret—will they finish before it becomes the gaming equivalent of a Dead Fic? Given the ambition of the project, I'd have to guess no...but hey, we know Solid Snake is mentoring them! If that doesn't make it awesome, what does?
    • And it's sister project 'Super Mario Fusion Revival'. Which, though more Mario-centric, still features levels and areas from many other franchise once outside the first world. A smaller and less ambitious project then MKF, but built with a stronger engine and with great care put into each stage. Take a look for yourselves.
  • Card Sagas Wars (see here) is another ambitious fangame, combining many characters from several different games. It's the sort of thing that can only exist due to dedicated fans or else the legalities of it would make everyone's heads spin.
  • Xeno Fighters R, a Bullet Hell Shmup featuring ships and characters from Gradius, Raiden, Legendary Wings, Twinbee, Galaga, and even Pokemon.
  • MariO takes the original Super Mario Bros. and gives Mario a Portal gun.

Other

Real Life

  1. The Clan has been crossed with (as of this writing): Devil May Cry, Digimon, Disgaea, Full Metal Panic!, Harry Potter, Hellsing, Mahou Sensei Negima, Lyrical Nanoha, Ouran High School Host Club, Persona, Pokémon, Ranma ½, Rosario + Vampire Sailor Moon, Suzumiya Haruhi, To Aru Majutsu no Index, Usagi Drop, Valkyria Chronicles and a few others... not including the Nasuverse and Sekirei elements already present in the fanfic it's based on.