avatarCan Hoang Tran

Summary

The article expresses skepticism towards the possibility of a legitimate crossover between the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter franchises, despite Ed Boon's desire to feature Ryu as a special guest character in Mortal Kombat.

Abstract

The article discusses the long-standing rivalry between the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter franchises, noting their distinct styles and the unique features that make each game popular. The author expresses doubt that a crossover would be successful due to the violent nature of Mortal Kombat's fatalities and the more restrained style of Street Fighter. The author also points out that a crossover would require significant compromises, potentially alienating fans of both franchises.

Opinions

  • The author believes that a crossover between Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter is unlikely due to their vastly different styles and the violent nature of Mortal Kombat's fatalities.
  • The author suggests that a crossover would require significant compromises, potentially leading to dissatisfaction among fans of both franchises.
  • The author mentions that a crossover would require cooperation between Capcom and Warner Brothers, which could be challenging due to each company's desire to maintain control over their respective franchises.
  • The author expresses concern that a crossover could lead to the watering down of Mortal Kombat's unique features, such as its fatalities and X-ray moves.
  • The author notes that previous crossovers, such as Street Fighter X Tekken, were successful due to the commonalities between the games, which are not present in the case of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.
  • The author suggests that fans should enjoy unofficial crossovers via platforms like M.U.G.E.N and online fan fiction instead of hoping for an official crossover.
  • The author expresses skepticism towards Ed Boon's desire to feature Ryu as a special guest character in Mortal Kombat, suggesting that it is unlikely to happen.

Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter Will NEVER happen, LIVE WITH IT!!!

Mortal Kombat co-creator, Ed Boon, expressed his desire to have Ryu from Street Fighter appear as a special guest character.

Concept art promoting special “SF vs. MK” content for M.U.G.E.N.

Thank you, Ed Boon, I mean this SARCASTICALLY, for reviving calls for a legit crossover between the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter franchises. The two franchises have been strong rivals to each other through the 90s era.

Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise (which celebrated its 35th-anniversary last year) gained fame with Street Fighter II and its enhanced versions (SFII: Championship Edition, SFII Turbo, Super SF II: The New Challengers, and SSFII Turbo).

Midway (before its bankruptcy in the 2000s) released Mortal Kombat at arcades in the early 90s and it became a hit. It was the first known fighting game to feature live actors who were digitized into playable game sprites. Mortal Kombat featured a dynamic called the “Fatality” where players can execute their opponents, within a short time span, in ways that would definitely be violations of the Geneva Convention.

Scorpion and Sub-Zero, though not the main heroes, became the faces of the franchise.

Cover art for Mortal Kombat 11 which features Scorpion.

The Midway franchise stood firm up to Mortal Kombat 3 (I was a Stryker player and I’m NOT ashamed to admit it) and its enhanced ports (Ultimate MK3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy), then lost its luster with Mortal Kombat 4 until the series was rebooted with Mortal Kombat 9 (simply titled Mortal Kombat).

There was little success with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe but it led to interesting crossovers with Mortal Kombat X & MK11 and NetherRealm Studios’ (made up of the MK development team, minus John Tobias) other successful franchise, Injustice (a fighting game with DC Comics characters for the uninformed).

Capcom and NetherRealms (Warner Brothers by extension) have enjoyed the success of several crossover titles, though there are still people who want an actual crossover (not talking about MUGEN) between Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.

Ed Boon, one of the co-creators of Mortal Kombat, recently expressed his desire to have Ryu, the face of Street Fighter, as a special guest character. You can wish all you want, but it’s NEVER going to happen!

People who wish for an actual crossover between the two franchises need to understand and accept that it’s a pipe dream, live with it, and move on. I can compare this to the Tekken fans requesting Kazuma Kiryu, one of the heroes from Sega’s Yakuza franchise (now rebranded as Like A Dragon) be added as a special guest character for Tekken 8 as he was highly requested as a special addition to Tekken 7, but likely will not happen.

Why wouldn’t this crossover ever come to fruition, as an official title?

I remember back in the latter half of the 2000s when I and other fighting game fans saw the teaser trailer for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. I thought the premise was intriguing and interesting but my mind was screaming “WHAT THE ROYAL F — K!?”

The one question that came to my mind was “how is this game going to get pulled off?”

Mortal Kombat is known for having the victorious fighters killing their opponents in many abnormal means such as burning them until nothing remains but their charred skeletons ala the “Toasty,” blowing up the entire world, stealing their souls, electrocuting them until they explode, ripping their heads from their bodies, and more (one of the reasons I love the series).

DC Comics, until much recently (check out shows like Titans and Doom Patrol), didn’t have any of the gratuitous violence and bloodshed.

I don’t imagine DC fans liking the idea of their beloved heroes getting mutilated and there’s also the fact that most of the MK characters were underpowered when compared to the DC Universe.

It’s doubtful that Capcom’s going to like seeing one of its flagship figures being decapitated, torched to death, or killed in some extremely violent way. This is similar to why Kazuma Kiryu, who doesn’t like to use violence against girls and women, would never be in a fighting game. As Kazuma strongly believes in not hitting girls and women, it would go against his character to be in a fighting game, where he would be required to hit girls and women.

Screenshot of Kazuma Kiryu.

The characters of Street Fighter never killed their opponents let alone with gory methods either.

It would be out of character for Ryu to eviscerate an opponent, especially if the opponent has a good or neutral alignment. Even if the opponent was aligned with evil, Ryu wouldn’t kill let alone mutilate that person.

One can argue that Evil Ryu could kill with the “Shungokusatsu” aka “The Raging Demon” but the move isn’t violent at all. There’s none of the gratuitous violence and bloodshed that makes Mortal Kombat unique.

Ryu’s not the type of person to brutalize an opponent either.

Evil Ryu, yes, but his level of brutality doesn’t involve smashing someone’s head in or tearing their limbs apart.

From Mortal Kombat X and beyond, the violence has become more graphic. A number of NetherRealm employees who worked on MK11’s development were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from being around violent reference material on a regular basis.

I don’t think Capcom fans would want to see Ryu or any other Street Fighter character being treated like an MK character on-screen.

An official crossover wouldn’t be a good idea, either

Despite the mixed positive reviews that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe received, Midway had to water things down. The Fatalities were still violent but they didn’t involve decapitations, forced limb removal, exploding bodies, and everything else.

NetherRealm Studios would have to do the same thing if there was any chance of having a crossover with Street Fighter.

Since Capcom clearly has no desire to have a crossover with Mortal Kombat, the ball is in Capcom’s court and it can issue all the stipulations that it wants.

Compromising will inevitably alienate either fanbase.

NetherRealm Studios would have to completely remove the Fatalities because watering them down isn’t going to work. I don’t think Shang Tsung morphing into a clown and then shooting Sakura in the head will fly with Capcom.

Removing the Fatalities would take the flavor from the MK side of things.

The X-Ray moves, introduced in MK9, would have to be removed or watered down, and that takes more away from making the MK franchise unique.

You risk satisfying one fanbase at the cost of completely antagonizing the other fanbase.

Who’s going to develop or publish the title? That is something that will have to be hashed out between Capcom and Warner Brothers (the current parent company of NetherRealm Studios). I doubt WB would take a backseat if such a collaboration was going to happen.

It’s also doubtful that Capcom would take a backseat either.

Who’s going to be on the development team? Will the developers on both sides be able to play nice with each other?

One of them will have to take the lead in developing and publishing.

There is NO “middle ground” to be met because you’ll satisfy one fanbase while pissing off the other fanbase OR you’ll piss off both fanbases.

Capcom’s other versus series (Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom) worked because they shared commonalities. There’s a huge gap between what makes Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, individually, special.

Street Fighter X Tekken worked, too, surprisingly but Tekken (nobody got mutilated in Tekken either) is not Mortal Kombat. That collaboration was fruitful in the end because Street Fighter’s Akuma was not only added as a special guest character in Tekken 7 but played an important role in the game’s story mode.

As much as many within the fighting game community (FGC) would love for this crossover to happen, officially, it’s not going to happen. Enjoy the unofficial crossovers via M.U.G.E.N and online fan fiction (an acquaintance of mine from Fanfiction.net wrote a crossover story that paired Guy and Kitana together).

If you have the PC port of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, have faith that someone will create an MK character you can download and put in the game.

Street Fighter
Mortal Kombat
Fighting Game
Fighting Game Community
Ryu Vs Ken
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