Super Roster Maker - Nintendo vs. Sega

The rivalry between Nintendo and Sega is a classic part of the video game industry’s history. While today, Nintendo could be seen as the victor of the old-school console wars, with Sega having bowed out to become a third-party developer, back in the 8 and 16-bit era, Nintendo and Sega ruled the gaming landscape. Since then, games like Super Smash Bros., Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Project X Zone have mixed together characters from both companies, but fans still speculate about seeing an equal crossover between these once bitter rivals.

That is the basis of this Super Roster Maker, Nintendo vs. Sega.

We will be creating a hypothetical fighting game roster with an equal number of characters from both Nintendo and Sega. I will be following the template I used for some of my other Super Roster Maker articles to create the roster here. Aside from that, there will be a maximum of only four characters per franchise, so no one series makes up the bulk of one side’s roster. (Looking at you two, Mario and Sonic.)

PART 1: THE ICONS

In this part, I will choose a small number of characters for each side that represent both companies, as an example of their current image in the gaming landscape.

Nintendo’s picks are:

Mario (Super Mario), Link (The Legend of Zelda), & Charizard (Pokemon)

For Nintendo’s Icons, these three franchises are some of Nintendo’s highest earning series and for many people, there are the first series that come to mind when people think of Nintendo. Mario and Link may not need much explanation, but Charizard was chosen for Pokemon over the series mascot Pikachu as Charizard is at a comparable size to a normal person, which a good deal of the roster is going to be. Pikachu being canonically small may need some a work-around to be viable in a setting like this.

Sega’s picks are:

Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog), Bayonetta (Bayonetta), & Joker (Persona)

While Sonic is fairly obvious, being Sega’s mascot, Bayonetta and Joker have their main basis of inclusion here as their inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The fact that they were chosen to represent Sega alongside Sonic in a roster with multiple video game all-stars proves that they have massive appeal in the gaming space.

PART 2: THE FIGHTERS

For this section, we will be looking at the fighting game site Eventhubs for two popular competitive games from each company and pulling the most popular or highest tiered characters from those games to add to the list (two from each game). We will also add a third, more obscure fighting game and add two characters each from those games selected by what posters on different fan forums said were the best or most popular characters in those games. Nintendo’s games were Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokken Tournament DX, and ARMS, while Sega’s games were Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, and Eternal Champions.

Nintendo’s picks are:

From Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Ganondorf (The Legend of Zelda) & Peach (Super Mario)

From Pokken Tournament DX: Lucario & Aegislash

From ARMS: Min Min & Twintelle

Sega’s picks are:

From Persona 4 Arena Ultimax: Akihiko Sanada & Yu Narukami

From Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown: Sarah Bryant & Akira Yuki

From Eternal Champions: Larcen Tyler & Trident

PART 3: THE STARS

In this portion, we’ll pick one character each to represent eight current or upcoming games from each company. These characters and the games they are from represent the current range offered by each publisher and a roster like this could serve as an advertising vehicle for those franchises.

Nintendo’s picks are:

Tom Nook (Animal Crossing: New Horizons)

Toxtricity (Pokemon Sword & Shield)

Ring Fit Athlete (Ring Fit Adventure)

Bowser (Super Mario Odyssey/Super Mario Maker 2)

Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

Cadet Howard (Astral Chain)

Byleth (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Samus Aran (Metroid Prime 4)

Sega’s picks are:

Dr. Eggman (Sonic Forces)

Kazuma Kiryu (Yakuza 6: The Song of Life)

Sakura Amamiya (Sakura Wars)

Ryuji Sakamoto (Persona 5)

Jin (Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom)

ARKS Cadet (Phantasy Star Online)

Selvaria Bles (Valkyria Chronicles 4)

Jack Frost (Shin Megami Tensei V)

PART 4: THE WILD CARDS

Now, the final section, the Wild Cards. This is where we’ll see some more variety in character picks. For both sides, we’ll pick characters for three different sub-categories: two each for game developers’ favorite characters, two each for fan favorite characters, and three each for either obscure characters or characters that can be tied to experimental ideas or presentations.

Nintendo’s Dev Favs: Kirby (Kirby) & Fox McCloud (Star Fox)

Our developer favorites for Nintendo are Kirby for Mahahiro Sakurai and Fox McCloud from Star Fox for Shigeru Miyamoto. Special note about Kirby, while I said earlier that Pikachu was excluded for being a canonically small character and Kirby is about the same, a potential work-around for this is to have Kirby pilot a mech (like in the game Kirby: Planet Robobot) for most of his attacks.

Sega’s Dev Favs: Goro Majima (Yakuza) & Aiai (Super Monkey Ball)

Our developer favorites for Sega come from Sega president Hajime Satomi for Goro Majima and game developer Toshihiro Nagoshi for Aiai.

Nintendo’s Fan Favs: Luigi (Super Mario) & Isabelle (Animal Crossing)

Sega’s Fan Favs: Segata Sanshiro (Sega Saturn) & Ryo Hazuki (Shenmue)

Not much to explain here. These characters were chosen through different fan polls and forum polls where these characters ranked high in popularity.

Nintendo’s Experimental Picks: Andy (Advance Wars), Dillon (Dillon’s Rolling Western), & Isaac (Golden Sun)

Coming from the Advance Wars series of strategy games, Andy could use various kinds of military weaponry or call in attacks from vehicles like tanks or fighter jets. Dillon, from his self-titled series of tower defense games, could work like a Nintendo version of Sonic, using a lot of rolling and dash attacks while mixing things up with some Wild West style gunplay. Finally, Isaac, protagonist of the cult-hit RPG Golden Sun, can use sword attacks, magic, Psynergy powers, or call in his party members to help with bigger attacks.

Sega’s Experimental Picks: Beat (Jet Set Radio), Zobio & Zobiko (The House of the Dead), NiGHTS (NiGHTS)

Beat, from the hip-hop styled 3D platformer Jet Set Radio, could have a moveset based around skating tricks, speed, spray paint/graffiti tags, and possibly calling in other members of the GGs for help. Zibo & Zobiko, the undead protagonist couple from the Japan-only game The House of the Dead EX, could use attacks themed around some of the series other zombies of monsters and possibly some gunplay elements calling back to the series’ main gameplay. Finally, NiGHTS, from his self-titled aerial adventure series, can have a moveset based around flying, shapeshifting, and possibly some kind of reality warping effects. (His games are based around dreams after all.)

FINAL RESULTS

Nintendo’s Characters: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Charizard, Lucario, Aegislash, Toxtricity, Link, Ganondorf, Zelda, Min Min, Twintelle, Isabelle, Tom Nook, Ring Fit Athlete, Cadet Howard, Byleth, Samus, Kirby, Fox, Andy, Dillon, Isaac

Sega’s Characters: Sonic, Dr. Eggman, Bayonetta, Joker, Ryuji, Yu, Akihiko, Akira, Sarah, Larcen, Trident, Kiryu, Majima, Sakura, Jin, ARKS Cadet, Selvaria, Jack Frost, Aiai, Segata, Ryo, Beat, Zobio & Zobiko, NiGHTS

Our final roster gives us a total of 48 characters, with 24 for each side and representing a total of 31 different series. Super Mario, Pokemon, and Persona each have four characters, The Legend of Zelda comes in with three, and the rest all have one or two characters each. (I kind of expected Sonic to get the full four characters here, but I guess Sega likes to spread the love a little more.)

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What did you think of this roster? Who do you think should make it into a Nintendo/Sega crossover? Make yourself heard in the comments below.

Thanks for coming!