The Jeffersons meet The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The Jetsons meet The Flintstones. Sabrina the Teenage Witch meets Boy Meets World. Television has seen some amazing crossovers where the casts of two shows collide in one or more episodes. Sure, gaming has Street Fighter X Tekken, but it still has some catching up to do.
Enter Project X Zone from Namco Bandai.
The Japanese publisher today announced the new strategy role-playing game crossover for the Nintendo 3DS that will hit North American retailers this year. Project X Zone combines over 50 characters from 29 different game franchises from Namco Bandai, Sega, and Capcom.
“Project X Zone is the first title to ever combine such a large cast of characters from a varied list of game franchises into one grand adventure,” Namco Bandai vice president of marketing Carlson Choi said in a statement. “Developing a cohesive game and storyline to encompass all of these great characters and their battle-styles was a huge challenge that has paid off greatly with the creation of a truly unique and groundbreaking gaming experience.”
Developer Monolith Soft (Xenoblade Chronicles) is handling the production. Players must pick a team of two characters, like Tekken’s Jin and Xiaoyu, Shining Force EXA’s Toma and Cyrille, or Mega Man X’s X and Zero, to take on a world of chaos and evil. Throughout the adventure, gamers can team up with a third solo unit who adds augmented attacks to the pair’s abilities.
Namco Bandai released Project X Zone in Japan in 2012. Interestingly, that version of the game had over 80 characters, while the announcement of the localized North American version only claims “over 50.” It’s possible that Namco just wants to hold some back as bonuses for dedicated players, but it may have other, downloadable-content-related plans.
You can see just how crazy a crossover like this is in the Japanese trailer below: