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Description

Over two months ago, I discovered a YouTube channel called Thorgi’s Arcade . It’s a channel that focuses on video games, particularly fighting games. Perhaps the most notable show on it is Build the Roster, which is where Aaron, the channel’s creator, comes up with a roster for a hypothetical fighting game, which is usually either a sequel, a crossover, or both.

I’ve quite enjoyed the episodes I’ve seen so far, and they inspired me to come up with a roster for a fighting game that doesn’t exist yet. And as you can see, I decided to make one for Sega vs. Capcom. This is a crossover fighting game I’ve seen plenty of people wanting to see happen, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized how weird it is that it doesn’t exist yet. Not only do both companies have franchises that are similar to each other to varying degrees, but they seem to have a pretty decent relationship together given all the collaborations they had over the years. Frankly, if Capcom wants to make a crossover fighting game that involves some company other than Marvel, SNK, Tatsunoko, or Bandai-Namco, I’d say Sega would make a lot of sense.

In case you don’t recognize some of these characters, here’s the list:

First row: NiGHTS into Dreams…: Reala, NiGHTS; Sonic the Hedgehog: Shadow, Dr. Eggman, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, Sonic; Mega Man: Mega Man X, Vile (MMX series), Proto Man (classic series), Roll.EXE (Battle Network series); Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Arthur; Power Stone: Edward Falcon, Rouge, Valgas

Second row: Jet Set Radio: Beat; Space Channel 5: Ulala; Alex Kidd: Alex Kidd; Streets of Rage: Adam Hunter, Blaze Fielding, Axel Stone; Virtua Fighter: Pai Chan, Akira Yuki; Street Fighter: Ryu, Chun-Li, Makoto, Q; Final Fight: Mike Haggar; Rival Schools: Batsu Ichimonji; Darkstalkers: Morrigan, Jon Talbain

Third row: Sega Saturn commercials: Segata Sanshiro; Sakura Wars: Ciseaux, Sakura Shinguji; Golden Axe: Death Adder, Gilius Thunderhead; Shinobi: Joe Musashi; Persona 5: Joker; Bayonetta: Bayonetta; Devil May Cry: Dante, Vergil; Strider: Strider Hiryu; The King of Dragons: Wizard; Star Gladiator: Hayato Kanzaki; Resident Evil: Claire Redfield, Albert Wesker; Monster Hunter: Palico

Template: www.deviantart.com/infantry00/…

Characters are owned by either Sega or Capcom.

Honestly, I’m not certain if 48 characters is a feasible number for Capcom to achieve for a starting roster or if it would be too much, so let’s pretend that some of the characters on this roster are actually DLC.

I want to make one thing very clear: this is not some kind of ultimate be-all and end-all roster for this hypothetical crossover game. To me, this is just ONE possible roster out of many that anyone familiar with both companies could come up with. If Capcom and Sega finally made this game a reality, I highly doubt the roster they would pick would be identical to the one I came up. Sure, there are some characters that would no doubt be part of that roster, but I would be incredibly lucky if more than 50% of the characters on my roster were included on the official roster should this game ever get made.

I’m also aware there are several characters from both companies that are missing. Frankly, there were plenty of characters I wanted to add (particularly on the Sega side), but I couldn’t fit them all. But hey, those missing characters could always be included as DLC or in a possible sequel. Admittedly, it’s way too soon to even think about a sequel to a game that doesn’t exist yet, but I needed to mention that.

Also, a decade ago, a friend of mine called Papa-T-41 came up with his own Sega vs. Capcom roster . I remember that he mentioned some of the Capcom characters he picked for that roster were partly because they appeared in games released on Sega consoles. I thought it was a good idea and applied it here as well. As such, about half of the Capcom characters on my roster also had games on Sega consoles.

There are some characters from the Capcom side that I did not include because I wanted to give the opportunity for Capcom characters who haven’t been playable in a vs. game yet to finally be playable in one. In particular, I did not include Frank West, Zero, and Viewtiful Joe because they were playable in both Tatsunoko vs. Capcom AND Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (along with Infinite in the cases of Frank and Zero). These characters were able to fight characters from Marvel AND Tatsunoko, so may as well let other characters get a similar opportunity with Sega

But when everything is said and done, I did this roster just for fun, so don’t take this roster too seriously if you disagree with some of my picks.

And now, time to explain why I picked all those characters in this long wall of text:

Sonic characters: For rather obvious reasons, Sonic is the one Sega character who is the most likely to appear in this hypothetical crossover game. As for the five remaining characters, they are, after the Blue Blur himself, the five most prominent characters in the Sonic franchise and thus the ones who are the most likely to appear alongside Sonic in this game.

Ryu, Chun-Li, and Morrigan: It has become a tradition for any game with the words 'Capcom' and 'vs.' in the title to feature these three characters (with the exception of Morrigan not being playable in the SNK-developed game SVC Chaos) and I have absolutely no problem with keeping that tradition alive.

Bayonetta and Dante: Both characters were created by Hideki Kamiya and fans have been wanting to see these two in the same game for years. I don’t know about you, but this crossover fighting game seems like the perfect fit for this meeting.

Reala, Death Adder, Ciseaux, Vile, Valgas, Vergil, and Wesker: I added all these villains for the same main reason: the story mode. At some point while making this roster, I got the idea of including a story mode. Said mode would of course include lots of fights between the playable characters. And while it is possible to explain why a hero would be fighting another hero, I’d say it’s much easier to explain why a hero would be fighting a villain instead. With the exception of Eggman, who I already included before thinking of a story mode, the remaining villains were included because of that. Also, in the case of Ciseaux, I’m not too familiar with the Sakura Wars series beyond the first Project X Zone game. But according to TV Tropes, he’s apparently considered a fan-favorite among Sakura Wars fans, so I decided “Eh, why not?” Plus, I feel like he’s the kind of character who would make those who are not familiar with the SW series see him as an odd pick and go “Who’s that rabbit and why was he chosen over any of the Yakuza characters?” And as I will explain later on with a certain Capcom character, it can be fun to include lesser-known characters as well.

NiGHTS, Ulala, Beat, Alex Kidd, Gilius Thunderhead, and Joe Musashi: All these characters (alongside the Sonic characters and Reala) were featured in the Sega Superstars/All-Stars series, so I thought it would make a lot of sense to include them as well. I wanted to include other characters like AiAi from Super Monkey Ball, but I wanted to leave enough room for other Sega characters who weren’t featured in those crossover games.

Virtua Fighters characters: Given that this is a fighting game, it makes a lot of sense to include characters from Sega’s most prominent fighting game series. I went with Akira Yuki and Pai Chan because, well, they’re pretty much the only VF characters I’m familiar with thanks to the first Project X Zone.

Streets of Rage characters: Beat’em up game characters are simply a perfect fit for a fighting game, so that’s why I added them. I kept hesitating between including all three protagonists from the original SOR or only one or two of them, but I ultimately decided to go with all three of them.

Sakura Shinguji: Before I added Ciseaux, I added Sakura. In this case, I only added her after being reminded that she’s among the most popular Sega characters in Japan. If she’s really that popular, then adding her might be a good idea.

Joker: The Persona series is pretty popular these days. And with Persona 5 being quite beloved, it would make a lot of sense to include its protagonist. However, the only thing that could possibly prevent him from appearing in this hypothetical game would be if a fighting game featuring Persona 5 characters was in development at the same time. After all, there’s Persona 4 Arena (and its Ultimax sequel), so a Persona 5 fighting game could always happen. Otherwise, I think Joker has a chance of appearing in this potential crossover.

Segata Sanshiro: Initially, I wasn’t planning on adding Segata to the roster given that he’s a character who came from commercials. However, I was reminded that he did appear in a few video games over the years, such as Project X Zone 2. As such, including him in this game could work. I’m aware that Sega in 2020 introduced Segata’s son as his successor, thus meaning that the character might be retired. But at the same time, including Segata in this crossover could be a great swan song for the character. And afterwards, his son could replace him in the aforementioned possible sequel that is way too soon to even think about. Plus, imagine his moveset. Aside from including martial arts moves, he could throw Sega Saturns at his opponent. As for his Level 3 Hyper, I could see him throw his opponent far into the distance, resulting in the opponent exploding upon hitting the ground. This would be followed by Segata walking away while his opponent would be exploding for the second time in a row, referencing that one Bomberman commercial. And lots of other references to his commercials could be included. All in all, this character is way too awesome to not be included in a fighting game.

Makoto: There are several reasons why I included Makoto in this roster. 1. Her first appearance was in Street Fighter III: Third Strike, which was released on the Dreamcast. 2. Of all the SFIII characters, she’s my personal favorite. 3. She is hugely popular among Street Fighter fans, ranking at number 2 in an official character poll. 4. She hasn’t been playable in any crossover fighting game (she appeared in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters series, but those were digital collectible card games). 5. As far as I know (and I could be wrong about this), she hasn’t been playable in any game since Street Fighter IV. Including her in this crossover could be a good way to make up for her absence in Capcom fighting games made since then.

Q: Another character from Third Strike who is also quite popular. On the aforementioned character poll, he ended up at number 4, only beaten by Juri Han, Makoto, and Sakura. Unlike Makoto, he hasn’t been playable in any fighting game since SFIII, which means this is another character who hasn’t been featured in a crossover fighting game. Initially, I wasn’t planning on adding another SFIII character to this roster. Instead, I was planning on adding Luke from Street Fighter V. Why? Because Capcom stated that Luke is supposed to be important to the future of Street Fighter. Thus, I feel like Capcom would likely further emphasize how important he is by including him in the next crossover they will end up making. However, Luke is a divisive character among fans and thus not really among the most beloved SF characters. Sure, his popularity could end up improving at some point in the future. But right now, I’d much rather include a character who is already beloved among fans, so Q it is.

Mike Haggar: With the inclusion of Streets of Rage characters, it was only fitting to include at least one character from Capcom’s very own urban beat’em up series. I was thinking about maybe replacing Haggar with either Guy or Cody, but ultimately, the idea of a fight between Haggar and Knuckles was too good to pass on.

Batsu Ichimonji: The Rival Schools series is one that managed to get a rather devoted fanbase over time. In addition to that, Project Justice, the final entry in that series, was released on the Dreamcast back in the day. And given how much of a big deal it was to see Akira Kazama added to Street Fighter V, I’d say it would be a good idea to include a character from that series. However, I haven’t played any RS game, so I decided to play it safe and go with Batsu due to the fact I have at least some familiarities with him thanks to Project X Zone. I was tempted to go with Shoma Sawamura (the baseball player) instead, but I decided against it.

Jon Talbain: I looked at the list of Darkstalkers characters who haven’t been playable in a Capcom vs. game yet, and I was shocked to learn that Jon Talbain was among them. To me, he would be a perfect addition, particularly given that he’s a werewolf. Plus, I would love it if Sonic’s intro quote against him was something along the lines of “So, you’re a werewolf, huh? I used to be one myself a while ago.” as a reference to Sonic Unleashed.

Mega Man X: Under different circumstances, I would have picked a different incarnation of Mega Man who hasn’t been playable in a Capcom vs. game (like the one from Battle Network for instance). However, the only Capcom vs. game where X was playable so far has been Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which is considered by many to be one of the weakest vs. games for various reasons. I think X deserves to be playable in at least one decently received vs. game. And assuming Capcom doesn’t do anything stupid like the DLC controversy they did with Street Fighter X Tekken, I think this potential crossover could get a decent reception.

Proto Man: Some of the vs. games (such as the Tatsunoko one) went with the approach of having a line-up of Mega Man characters who come from various MM series. I like that approach and that’s what I’m doing here. Mega Man and Roll were previously playable in the vs. games, so Proto Man seems like the next logical choice.

Roll.EXE: I decided to include a Mega Man character whose overall personality would be more cheerful than the other MM characters I already included. Plus, I thought about adding one character from the Battle Network series given it hasn’t been featured in a Capcom vs. game yet (at least AFAIK). Thus, I killed two birds with one stone by adding this version of Roll. Honestly, I think she has the potential for being a pretty decent fighter given her bow and arrows, along with her antennae that she could use to whip her opponent.

Arthur: This one was partly because of Ghouls ‘n Ghosts on the Genesis, partly because I once again thought “Eh, why not?” In this case, they could include elements from the recent “Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Resurrection” to Arthur’s moveset (not sure what exactly given that I haven’t played that game, though).

Edward Falcon and Rouge: Power Stone is, much like Rival Schools, another fighting game series abandoned by Capcom despite its devoted fanbase. The two PS games were available on the Dreamcast, and lots of fans have been wanting to see this series return one way or another, hence why I’m including them. Initially, I wasn’t planning on adding Rouge, until I learned that she’s considered a fan-favorite as well, so may as well include her.

Strider Hiryu: With the inclusion of Joe Musashi, it only made sense to include Capcom’s highly-skilled ninja to the roster so they could duke it out.

Wizard: I’m pretty certain most of you have no idea who I’m talking about. The Wizard is from The King of Dragons, an arcade beat’em up game from 1991. It’s a pretty obscure title, but it has been featured in a few compilations, including Capcom Beat’Em Up Bundle. If it weren’t for the latter, I probably would still be unfamiliar with that game. You might be wondering why I’m including him instead of an actual popular character. Well, it is pretty common for crossover fighting games to include obscure characters. Super Smash Bros. did that plenty of times, and Capcom’s crossover games have done that as well. It can be fun to see fighting game developers thinking outside of the box and including such obscure characters that few gamers would be wanting to see included in a fighting game roster. I can totally see fans taking a look at this character and be like “Wait, they included this guy instead of Juri Han? Come on!” Plus, The King of Dragons is a beat’em up game set in a world of fantasy like Golden Axe. Having the Wizard meet characters from that game just makes a lot of sense to me.

Hayato Kanzaki: I’ve never played either Star Gladiator or its sequel Plasma Sword, but I know the latter was on the Dreamcast, so once more: “Eh, why not?”

Claire Redfield: Initially, I was planning on having her brother Chris instead. This was mostly for the sake of having a game where Roger Craig Smith gets to voice one character from Sega and one from Capcom at the same time. I still think it would be quite funny to see (or hear in this case), but it’s also a joke that wouldn’t make much sense to Japanese gamers given that Jun'ichi Kanemaru, Sonic’s Japanese voice actor, has never voiced Chris or any other Resident Evil character for that matter. Thus, I decided to go with a different RE protagonist who hasn’t been playable in a vs. game yet and went with Claire. The latter and Wesker were also featured in a few RE games available on Sega consoles, so we can add these two to that list. Admittedly, as someone who hasn’t played any RE game, I have no idea if Claire would play differently from other RE protagonists who were previously playable in other fighting games, but whatever.

Palico: At first, I was thinking about having a Monster Hunter (either the same one from Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite or a brand new one), but then I got the idea of having one of the Palicos be playable. I may not be a fan of the Monster Hunter series (it’s a long story), but I think the Palico could make for an interesting choice.

However, there’s one last character I need to talk about and it’s a character important for both the story mode and the arcade mode: the Final Boss. About half of the MVC games featured a Marvel villain as the Final Boss. Naturally, I picked a Sega character for that, and I decided to go with Metal Sonic, given that he’s pretty much the second most-popular Sonic villain after Eggman. For this boss fight, I was thinking it could consist of two phases, much like Galactus in MVC3. In this case, you would start by fighting Metal Sonic in his regular form. Afterwards, you would fight him in a super-powered form. At first, I was thinking he could turn into Metal Madness from Sonic Heroes. But then I got the idea of Metal Sonic turning into a brand-new form as a result of a major upgrade done by Dr. Wily. Said form could be designed by someone who actually worked on any of the Mega Man games from the classic series such as Mega Man 11. Frankly, having a Sega character getting an upgrade from a Capcom character sounds like a good idea to me for this game’s Final Boss. And afterwards, I could see Metal Sonic and Wily being added as playable characters, either by unlocking them (through beating the story mode) or by making them DLC (at a reasonable price of course).

And there you have my roster for a possible Sega vs. Capcom game. Is it a perfect roster? No, but some might argue there are few crossover fighting games which managed to have a perfect roster that satisfied every gamer out there. I could go on and on about other ideas I had for this potential game, but I think I said enough.

Description

Over two months ago, I discovered a YouTube channel called Thorgi’s Arcade . It’s a channel that focuses on video games, particularly fighting games. Perhaps the most notable show on it is Build the Roster, which is where Aaron, the channel’s creator, comes up with a roster for a hypothetical fighting game, which is usually either a sequel, a crossover, or both.

I’ve quite enjoyed the episodes I’ve seen so far, and they inspired me to come up with a roster for a fighting game that doesn’t exist yet. And as you can see, I decided to make one for Sega vs. Capcom. This is a crossover fighting game I’ve seen plenty of people wanting to see happen, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized how weird it is that it doesn’t exist yet. Not only do both companies have franchises that are similar to each other to varying degrees, but they seem to have a pretty decent relationship together given all the collaborations they had over the years. Frankly, if Capcom wants to make a crossover fighting game that involves some company other than Marvel, SNK, Tatsunoko, or Bandai-Namco, I’d say Sega would make a lot of sense.

In case you don’t recognize some of these characters, here’s the list:

First row: NiGHTS into Dreams…: Reala, NiGHTS; Sonic the Hedgehog: Shadow, Dr. Eggman, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, Sonic; Mega Man: Mega Man X, Vile (MMX series), Proto Man (classic series), Roll.EXE (Battle Network series); Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Arthur; Power Stone: Edward Falcon, Rouge, Valgas

Second row: Jet Set Radio: Beat; Space Channel 5: Ulala; Alex Kidd: Alex Kidd; Streets of Rage: Adam Hunter, Blaze Fielding, Axel Stone; Virtua Fighter: Pai Chan, Akira Yuki; Street Fighter: Ryu, Chun-Li, Makoto, Q; Final Fight: Mike Haggar; Rival Schools: Batsu Ichimonji; Darkstalkers: Morrigan, Jon Talbain

Third row: Sega Saturn commercials: Segata Sanshiro; Sakura Wars: Ciseaux, Sakura Shinguji; Golden Axe: Death Adder, Gilius Thunderhead; Shinobi: Joe Musashi; Persona 5: Joker; Bayonetta: Bayonetta; Devil May Cry: Dante, Vergil; Strider: Strider Hiryu; The King of Dragons: Wizard; Star Gladiator: Hayato Kanzaki; Resident Evil: Claire Redfield, Albert Wesker; Monster Hunter: Palico

Template: www.deviantart.com/infantry00/…

Characters are owned by either Sega or Capcom.

Honestly, I’m not certain if 48 characters is a feasible number for Capcom to achieve for a starting roster or if it would be too much, so let’s pretend that some of the characters on this roster are actually DLC.

I want to make one thing very clear: this is not some kind of ultimate be-all and end-all roster for this hypothetical crossover game. To me, this is just ONE possible roster out of many that anyone familiar with both companies could come up with. If Capcom and Sega finally made this game a reality, I highly doubt the roster they would pick would be identical to the one I came up. Sure, there are some characters that would no doubt be part of that roster, but I would be incredibly lucky if more than 50% of the characters on my roster were included on the official roster should this game ever get made.

I’m also aware there are several characters from both companies that are missing. Frankly, there were plenty of characters I wanted to add (particularly on the Sega side), but I couldn’t fit them all. But hey, those missing characters could always be included as DLC or in a possible sequel. Admittedly, it’s way too soon to even think about a sequel to a game that doesn’t exist yet, but I needed to mention that.

Also, a decade ago, a friend of mine called Papa-T-41 came up with his own Sega vs. Capcom roster . I remember that he mentioned some of the Capcom characters he picked for that roster were partly because they appeared in games released on Sega consoles. I thought it was a good idea and applied it here as well. As such, about half of the Capcom characters on my roster also had games on Sega consoles.

There are some characters from the Capcom side that I did not include because I wanted to give the opportunity for Capcom characters who haven’t been playable in a vs. game yet to finally be playable in one. In particular, I did not include Frank West, Zero, and Viewtiful Joe because they were playable in both Tatsunoko vs. Capcom AND Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (along with Infinite in the cases of Frank and Zero). These characters were able to fight characters from Marvel AND Tatsunoko, so may as well let other characters get a similar opportunity with Sega

But when everything is said and done, I did this roster just for fun, so don’t take this roster too seriously if you disagree with some of my picks.

And now, time to explain why I picked all those characters in this long wall of text:

Sonic characters: For rather obvious reasons, Sonic is the one Sega character who is the most likely to appear in this hypothetical crossover game. As for the five remaining characters, they are, after the Blue Blur himself, the five most prominent characters in the Sonic franchise and thus the ones who are the most likely to appear alongside Sonic in this game.

Ryu, Chun-Li, and Morrigan: It has become a tradition for any game with the words 'Capcom' and 'vs.' in the title to feature these three characters (with the exception of Morrigan not being playable in the SNK-developed game SVC Chaos) and I have absolutely no problem with keeping that tradition alive.

Bayonetta and Dante: Both characters were created by Hideki Kamiya and fans have been wanting to see these two in the same game for years. I don’t know about you, but this crossover fighting game seems like the perfect fit for this meeting.

Reala, Death Adder, Ciseaux, Vile, Valgas, Vergil, and Wesker: I added all these villains for the same main reason: the story mode. At some point while making this roster, I got the idea of including a story mode. Said mode would of course include lots of fights between the playable characters. And while it is possible to explain why a hero would be fighting another hero, I’d say it’s much easier to explain why a hero would be fighting a villain instead. With the exception of Eggman, who I already included before thinking of a story mode, the remaining villains were included because of that. Also, in the case of Ciseaux, I’m not too familiar with the Sakura Wars series beyond the first Project X Zone game. But according to TV Tropes, he’s apparently considered a fan-favorite among Sakura Wars fans, so I decided “Eh, why not?” Plus, I feel like he’s the kind of character who would make those who are not familiar with the SW series see him as an odd pick and go “Who’s that rabbit and why was he chosen over any of the Yakuza characters?” And as I will explain later on with a certain Capcom character, it can be fun to include lesser-known characters as well.

NiGHTS, Ulala, Beat, Alex Kidd, Gilius Thunderhead, and Joe Musashi: All these characters (alongside the Sonic characters and Reala) were featured in the Sega Superstars/All-Stars series, so I thought it would make a lot of sense to include them as well. I wanted to include other characters like AiAi from Super Monkey Ball, but I wanted to leave enough room for other Sega characters who weren’t featured in those crossover games.

Virtua Fighters characters: Given that this is a fighting game, it makes a lot of sense to include characters from Sega’s most prominent fighting game series. I went with Akira Yuki and Pai Chan because, well, they’re pretty much the only VF characters I’m familiar with thanks to the first Project X Zone.

Streets of Rage characters: Beat’em up game characters are simply a perfect fit for a fighting game, so that’s why I added them. I kept hesitating between including all three protagonists from the original SOR or only one or two of them, but I ultimately decided to go with all three of them.

Sakura Shinguji: Before I added Ciseaux, I added Sakura. In this case, I only added her after being reminded that she’s among the most popular Sega characters in Japan. If she’s really that popular, then adding her might be a good idea.

Joker: The Persona series is pretty popular these days. And with Persona 5 being quite beloved, it would make a lot of sense to include its protagonist. However, the only thing that could possibly prevent him from appearing in this hypothetical game would be if a fighting game featuring Persona 5 characters was in development at the same time. After all, there’s Persona 4 Arena (and its Ultimax sequel), so a Persona 5 fighting game could always happen. Otherwise, I think Joker has a chance of appearing in this potential crossover.

Segata Sanshiro: Initially, I wasn’t planning on adding Segata to the roster given that he’s a character who came from commercials. However, I was reminded that he did appear in a few video games over the years, such as Project X Zone 2. As such, including him in this game could work. I’m aware that Sega in 2020 introduced Segata’s son as his successor, thus meaning that the character might be retired. But at the same time, including Segata in this crossover could be a great swan song for the character. And afterwards, his son could replace him in the aforementioned possible sequel that is way too soon to even think about. Plus, imagine his moveset. Aside from including martial arts moves, he could throw Sega Saturns at his opponent. As for his Level 3 Hyper, I could see him throw his opponent far into the distance, resulting in the opponent exploding upon hitting the ground. This would be followed by Segata walking away while his opponent would be exploding for the second time in a row, referencing that one Bomberman commercial. And lots of other references to his commercials could be included. All in all, this character is way too awesome to not be included in a fighting game.

Makoto: There are several reasons why I included Makoto in this roster. 1. Her first appearance was in Street Fighter III: Third Strike, which was released on the Dreamcast. 2. Of all the SFIII characters, she’s my personal favorite. 3. She is hugely popular among Street Fighter fans, ranking at number 2 in an official character poll. 4. She hasn’t been playable in any crossover fighting game (she appeared in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters series, but those were digital collectible card games). 5. As far as I know (and I could be wrong about this), she hasn’t been playable in any game since Street Fighter IV. Including her in this crossover could be a good way to make up for her absence in Capcom fighting games made since then.

Q: Another character from Third Strike who is also quite popular. On the aforementioned character poll, he ended up at number 4, only beaten by Juri Han, Makoto, and Sakura. Unlike Makoto, he hasn’t been playable in any fighting game since SFIII, which means this is another character who hasn’t been featured in a crossover fighting game. Initially, I wasn’t planning on adding another SFIII character to this roster. Instead, I was planning on adding Luke from Street Fighter V. Why? Because Capcom stated that Luke is supposed to be important to the future of Street Fighter. Thus, I feel like Capcom would likely further emphasize how important he is by including him in the next crossover they will end up making. However, Luke is a divisive character among fans and thus not really among the most beloved SF characters. Sure, his popularity could end up improving at some point in the future. But right now, I’d much rather include a character who is already beloved among fans, so Q it is.

Mike Haggar: With the inclusion of Streets of Rage characters, it was only fitting to include at least one character from Capcom’s very own urban beat’em up series. I was thinking about maybe replacing Haggar with either Guy or Cody, but ultimately, the idea of a fight between Haggar and Knuckles was too good to pass on.

Batsu Ichimonji: The Rival Schools series is one that managed to get a rather devoted fanbase over time. In addition to that, Project Justice, the final entry in that series, was released on the Dreamcast back in the day. And given how much of a big deal it was to see Akira Kazama added to Street Fighter V, I’d say it would be a good idea to include a character from that series. However, I haven’t played any RS game, so I decided to play it safe and go with Batsu due to the fact I have at least some familiarities with him thanks to Project X Zone. I was tempted to go with Shoma Sawamura (the baseball player) instead, but I decided against it.

Jon Talbain: I looked at the list of Darkstalkers characters who haven’t been playable in a Capcom vs. game yet, and I was shocked to learn that Jon Talbain was among them. To me, he would be a perfect addition, particularly given that he’s a werewolf. Plus, I would love it if Sonic’s intro quote against him was something along the lines of “So, you’re a werewolf, huh? I used to be one myself a while ago.” as a reference to Sonic Unleashed.

Mega Man X: Under different circumstances, I would have picked a different incarnation of Mega Man who hasn’t been playable in a Capcom vs. game (like the one from Battle Network for instance). However, the only Capcom vs. game where X was playable so far has been Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which is considered by many to be one of the weakest vs. games for various reasons. I think X deserves to be playable in at least one decently received vs. game. And assuming Capcom doesn’t do anything stupid like the DLC controversy they did with Street Fighter X Tekken, I think this potential crossover could get a decent reception.

Proto Man: Some of the vs. games (such as the Tatsunoko one) went with the approach of having a line-up of Mega Man characters who come from various MM series. I like that approach and that’s what I’m doing here. Mega Man and Roll were previously playable in the vs. games, so Proto Man seems like the next logical choice.

Roll.EXE: I decided to include a Mega Man character whose overall personality would be more cheerful than the other MM characters I already included. Plus, I thought about adding one character from the Battle Network series given it hasn’t been featured in a Capcom vs. game yet (at least AFAIK). Thus, I killed two birds with one stone by adding this version of Roll. Honestly, I think she has the potential for being a pretty decent fighter given her bow and arrows, along with her antennae that she could use to whip her opponent.

Arthur: This one was partly because of Ghouls ‘n Ghosts on the Genesis, partly because I once again thought “Eh, why not?” In this case, they could include elements from the recent “Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Resurrection” to Arthur’s moveset (not sure what exactly given that I haven’t played that game, though).

Edward Falcon and Rouge: Power Stone is, much like Rival Schools, another fighting game series abandoned by Capcom despite its devoted fanbase. The two PS games were available on the Dreamcast, and lots of fans have been wanting to see this series return one way or another, hence why I’m including them. Initially, I wasn’t planning on adding Rouge, until I learned that she’s considered a fan-favorite as well, so may as well include her.

Strider Hiryu: With the inclusion of Joe Musashi, it only made sense to include Capcom’s highly-skilled ninja to the roster so they could duke it out.

Wizard: I’m pretty certain most of you have no idea who I’m talking about. The Wizard is from The King of Dragons, an arcade beat’em up game from 1991. It’s a pretty obscure title, but it has been featured in a few compilations, including Capcom Beat’Em Up Bundle. If it weren’t for the latter, I probably would still be unfamiliar with that game. You might be wondering why I’m including him instead of an actual popular character. Well, it is pretty common for crossover fighting games to include obscure characters. Super Smash Bros. did that plenty of times, and Capcom’s crossover games have done that as well. It can be fun to see fighting game developers thinking outside of the box and including such obscure characters that few gamers would be wanting to see included in a fighting game roster. I can totally see fans taking a look at this character and be like “Wait, they included this guy instead of Juri Han? Come on!” Plus, The King of Dragons is a beat’em up game set in a world of fantasy like Golden Axe. Having the Wizard meet characters from that game just makes a lot of sense to me.

Hayato Kanzaki: I’ve never played either Star Gladiator or its sequel Plasma Sword, but I know the latter was on the Dreamcast, so once more: “Eh, why not?”

Claire Redfield: Initially, I was planning on having her brother Chris instead. This was mostly for the sake of having a game where Roger Craig Smith gets to voice one character from Sega and one from Capcom at the same time. I still think it would be quite funny to see (or hear in this case), but it’s also a joke that wouldn’t make much sense to Japanese gamers given that Jun'ichi Kanemaru, Sonic’s Japanese voice actor, has never voiced Chris or any other Resident Evil character for that matter. Thus, I decided to go with a different RE protagonist who hasn’t been playable in a vs. game yet and went with Claire. The latter and Wesker were also featured in a few RE games available on Sega consoles, so we can add these two to that list. Admittedly, as someone who hasn’t played any RE game, I have no idea if Claire would play differently from other RE protagonists who were previously playable in other fighting games, but whatever.

Palico: At first, I was thinking about having a Monster Hunter (either the same one from Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite or a brand new one), but then I got the idea of having one of the Palicos be playable. I may not be a fan of the Monster Hunter series (it’s a long story), but I think the Palico could make for an interesting choice.

However, there’s one last character I need to talk about and it’s a character important for both the story mode and the arcade mode: the Final Boss. About half of the MVC games featured a Marvel villain as the Final Boss. Naturally, I picked a Sega character for that, and I decided to go with Metal Sonic, given that he’s pretty much the second most-popular Sonic villain after Eggman. For this boss fight, I was thinking it could consist of two phases, much like Galactus in MVC3. In this case, you would start by fighting Metal Sonic in his regular form. Afterwards, you would fight him in a super-powered form. At first, I was thinking he could turn into Metal Madness from Sonic Heroes. But then I got the idea of Metal Sonic turning into a brand-new form as a result of a major upgrade done by Dr. Wily. Said form could be designed by someone who actually worked on any of the Mega Man games from the classic series such as Mega Man 11. Frankly, having a Sega character getting an upgrade from a Capcom character sounds like a good idea to me for this game’s Final Boss. And afterwards, I could see Metal Sonic and Wily being added as playable characters, either by unlocking them (through beating the story mode) or by making them DLC (at a reasonable price of course).

And there you have my roster for a possible Sega vs. Capcom game. Is it a perfect roster? No, but some might argue there are few crossover fighting games which managed to have a perfect roster that satisfied every gamer out there. I could go on and on about other ideas I had for this potential game, but I think I said enough.