What makes a good cross over game?

The following elements and systems make a good cross over game or what I consider a good cross over game. That bare in mind this might change and evolve as time goes on.

Theme

Now theming is the most important aspect because you're throwing in characters into the same arena. Sure you could have an NBA star in your game where cartoony characters fight it out but the question is, "should you?" Look at Nickelodeon with it's cartoony cast of characters and not real characters along with sticking to the classic characters.

Move sets need to match

The move sets/ power system needs to match the characters you're using; the balance doesn't matter but the character's in game and or in universe powers need to match instead. Yes this causes some characters to become similar, not as good, etc. However you're using the crossover as a heavy element; you must have the gameplay for said character be good/ enjoyable if you're going to break away from the source material.

Gameplay to audience match

What I mean by this is you need mechanics and gameplay that will work for your audience; for Smash they made it easy to get out of attacks that cause you to be multi-jabbed, allowing for tilt directions for where you're falling, etc. Keep in mind this is a game made for/ directed for children to be playing meant to be an anti-fighting game, a party game. You wouldn't make a Mortal Kombat VS Marvel crossover without any bloodshed and gore now would you?

As fun as it would be; not having matching characters is silly at the end of the day. This being said; these kind of things are what holds back a lot of Platform Fighters within the genre.

Echo fighters fundamentals

You can have echo fighters to save on budget but you must have aspects about the character bleed through the echo fighter and make them their own character at the end of the day; it's simple, cheap and effective without having to do much balancing changes. That and I love echo fighters so idk.

Care about the IP?

You need to have the character be really good and I mean good if you want people to pick up and play said character at the end of the day; if it's not a fun to use/ powered character then you wasted an IP sure but less important characters if you screw them up; no one is going to care but are going to be shocked by them being fun to play.

A strong IP character being not fun to play can hurt a game; meaning the more important the IP, the better the move set needs to be. When I mean strong, I mean fun, enjoyable to use and not overpowered.

Feel like the character

This is also important; the given character in question needs to feel like the character and not be a copy cat like Ganon and need their own feel and act like said character, not an actor being that character; otherwise you get Multiverses.

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