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Canon Welding / Video Games

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Canon Welding in video games.

  • In 2011, Bandai Namco Entertainment merged parts of the previously unrelated (despite numerous Shout-Outs) Galaxian/Galaga series, Ace Combat series, Ridge Racer series, and some other games note  into an overarching United Galaxy Space Force (UGSF) series. Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere serves as its starting point, while its name is theorized to come from the United Galaxy Space Force organization mentioned in Galaxian.
  • Betrayal at Krondor and Riftwar, mentioned under Cross-Media.
  • BioShock Infinite combined all of the previous BioShock games, and perhaps even the System Shock titles, into the umbrella of the multiverse. Logistically, this is Ken Levin's way of hand-waving his recurring power-ups and obstacles.
    Elizabeth: (delighted) A Sky-Hook!
    Booker: A "Sky-Hook"? You mean the Air-Grabber? Kids use 'em to ride up around the pneumo lines.
    Elizabeth: Air-Grabber, huh. "Constants and variables"...
    Booker: Constants and what?
    Elizabeth: Nevermind.
  • Blaster Master Zero seems to be a straightforward Continuity Reboot of Blaster Master, and while that's still true for the most part (Jason, Fred, and Eve all have different backstories than whatever was previously established), it's also canonically a Stealth Sequel to Metafight, the original Japanese version of the game (the heroes from that game are the creators of Sophia III and Eve). Then, by way of multiverse shenanigans, the trilogy also found itself linked to the Azure Striker Gunvolt Series: Copen's Guest Fighter cameo in Blaster Master Zero II, which was originally just seen as non-canon fanservice (due to Inti Creates developing both games and already having characters from their other titles make playable appearances in the first Zero), eventually resulted in a Blaster Rifle making its way into the core plot of Luminous Avenger iX 2.
  • In Bravely Second, players can obtain a high-level staff known as Musashi's Oar from a blue treasure chest in the Witherwoods. The weapon in and of itself alludes to the oar Musashi famously used in his duel against Kojiro Sasaki, with its description noting Musashi to hail from the island nation of Wa (which vanished centuries ago, long before the time of Bravely Default). The last sentence of the account states "No record remains of his death, but it is said that he was summoned to be a hero for another world." This is a reference to one of Square Enix's lesser-known titles from their Squaresoft days, Brave Fencer Musashi — specifically the Hero Summon ritual (or "Vocatus Heroa" as it's referred to as in Samurai Legend). The implication is that the Musashiden games, or at least their version of Musashi, are therefore canon to the setting of the Bravely series — an interesting thought given that the Big Bad of Samurai Legend is actually the real-life Kojiro Sasaki, never mind a presumably different Kojiro from Musashi's home world serving as his rival throughout BFM.
  • Call of Duty attempted this in Black Ops: Cold War, including Modern Warfare's Imran Zakhayev (or, more precisely, his incarnation mentioned in the 2019 reboot) as a minor character, and the closed captions for Vanguard reveal trailer shown during the promotional event in Warzone revealed that one of the antagonists is named Steiner — in at least a Shout-Out to the original Black Ops.
  • Capcom:
    • Some of the company's more robust crossovers, like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 3, imply that many a Capcom franchise share some implicit but mostly unexplored degree of connectivity (going beyond the Shared Universe the Street Fighter franchise is known to be part of). For example, Morrigan in TvC expresses disappointment that Viewtiful Joe didn't live up to what she learned from Joe's rival Alastor. Alastor, as per the PS2 version of Viewtiful Joe, is the spirit of the sword Dante picks up in the original Devil May Cry and Dante's (admittedly non-canonical) story in Viewtiful Joe has Mundus, the Big Bad of DMC1, as The Man Behind the Man. Then, Dante and Joe are shown to be buddies/friendly rivals given their MvC3 intro quotes for each other, which would be strange (seeing as they never actually met in Viewtiful Joe) if not for the fact that Dante was a playable character in the PSP port of Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble.
    • If that wasn't enough, there are multiple hints throughout Bayonetta pointing to the fact that it exists in the same world as Devil May Cry, including the description for the Bracelet of Time* name-dropping Dante's mother Eva while establishing her as an Umbra Witch who "entered into a contract with the legendary dark knight" (i.e. Sparda). Given that DMC and Bayonetta were created by the same guy (who was also responsible for the first Viewtiful Joe), this is not entirely surprising. In fact, Kamiya has stated he believes all the games he directed are part of a shared setting.
      • Speaking of Bayonetta, the Switch version of Bayonetta 2 also melds her guest appearance in Super Smash Bros. 4. If you use a Smash amiibo not tied to a specific equipment in-game, Rodin will tell Bayonetta that she got a package from her "fight club" and will ask her to take him along the next time she's invited. Indeed, when she came back in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, she brought Rodin with her as an Assist Trophy.
    • Word of God states Sexy Silvia and Wonder-Cheerleader (an Expy of the former) are actually the same person, which would make her full name Silvianne "Silvia" Lumière. Joe is even directly mentioned during one of Wonder-Pink's failed QTE sequences, alluding to the third Viewtiful Joe game that was never made.
    • In a similar vein to Kamiya, Strider creator Kouichi Yotsui has added nods and references in his works that seem to imply they all are part of a shared setting, although he's not as bold as Kamiya and has always kept things implied as he explains other companies own the rights of the games he made. Since most of his works remain Japan-exclusives, this is mostly appreciated in his trilogy of action games (the original Strider, Cannon Dancer, and Moon Diver), each of which feature a number of allusions to each other. In particular with Cannon Dancer, Yotsui was initially vaguely stating its main character Kirin has some relation to the Kuniang Chinese sisters from Strider (mostly over their ability to produce blades of plasma from kicking), but when the game was rereleased in 2023, he straight-up said he envisioned Kirin as the nephew of the Chinese sisters, who raised and trained him at a point they fell on hard times.
      • Interestingly enough, Capcom may have reciprocated the sentiment, as they included some nods to Cannon Dancer in Zeku's Strider-inspired design from Street Fighter V, like giving him a similar ability to create blades with his kicks or moves named after Kirin and his mercenary group Teki.
  • If the quote is any indication, Command & Conquer: Red Alert was about to be welded with the Command & Conquer: Tiberian Series before going off the rails and becoming its own universe.
    Nadia: This temporary chaos in Europe would only serve to fuel The Brotherhood's cause...
    The Advisor/Kane: ...The temporary future? Comrade chairman, I am the future!
  • Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3-D are linked together by way of Commander Keen's Billy Blaze being the grandson of Wolfenstein's B.J. Blazkowicz. A common fan theory is that the protagonist of Doom is also part of the family. The RPG versions of their respective games go with this — the "Harbinger of Doom" from Wolfenstein RPG is basically Doom's Cyberdemon without prosthetics, and the hero of Doom RPG is explicitly given the last name "Blazkowicz." Also, Doom II's Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D's Easter Egg Bonus Level, though no in-story reason is given for their existence.
  • Control has multiple easter eggs that strongly imply that this game takes place in the same universe as Alan Wake. Later on, the AWE DLC would confirm this to be true beyond any possible doubt. Additionally, it's strongly implied that Quantum Break is also in the same universe, although the status of that one is less clear.
  • In the PC game series Dark Parables, all fairy tales are true, and they're all part of one gigantic story. Sleeping Beauty is sister-in-law to The Frog Prince while Gerda is descended from Hansel, for starters. Sometimes characters from two (or more) different fairy tales will even turn out to be the same person; for example, Snow White is also the Snow Queen.
  • While Doom (2016) seemingly started as a separate Doom continuity à la Doom³ while still making obligatory references, Doom Eternal outright confirms that the Doom Slayer is indeed the same Doomguy from the classic games whose battle in Hell ended up leading him into another dimension. At the same time Doom 64 is also welded into the main canon, despite it being made by Midway Games instead of id Software, and the lore bits about the Slayer in Quake Champions are confirmed to be accurate, despite that game's Loose Canon approach. And if that's not enough, the presence of the lost city of Hebeth during the Mars Core mission heavily implies that Doom³ may have also occurred within the main timeline, albeit with a different protagonist than classic Doomguy.
  • Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart ties to Dragon Quest II and the rest of the original trilogy. Terry's Wonderland ties into Dragon Quest VI.
  • In 1998, Dynamix released Starsiege: Tribes and held Alpha Test Releases of what was supposed to be its companion game, Starsiege, which didn't hit shelves until 1999. Tribes was intended to be the Distant (Chronological) Sequel to Starsiege, taking place eleven centuries into the future. Together, the two games created a Shared Universe which welded together a number of other Dynamix titles, as well as some which predated Dynamix's founding. Dynamix used Hunter Hunted as the Point of Divergence for their new universe, which included the Metaltech/EarthSiege and Missionforce/Cyberstorm series of games. It also included the Stellar 7 series of tank simulation games, recasting its Big Bad Gir Draxon as the leader of the BioDerm rebellion seen in Tribes 2. Starsiege and Tribes both have impressive Compendiums full of concept art explaining the history and culture of this shared universe.
  • Elemental — War of Magic shares a lot of its terminology (especially in its backstory) with Galactic Civilizations, indicating that the game may be set on ancient Altaria and the channellers are Sufficiently Advanced Aliens.
  • Having released the humorous ship adventure Eye of the Kraken and the classical noir Carte Blanche: A Fistful of Teeth, the video game company Absurdus made a sudden decision to declare the two games a part of a trilogy, and announce the third part The Eight Tentacles of the Apocalypse, in which the Turkish diplomat Abdullah from the first game and the noir detective Edgar Delacroix from the second one join forces to stop the awakening of the Kraken. Lampshaded by the developers themselves: "You didn't know these games were part of a trilogy? Neither did we, but it is now an undisputable fact."
  • The Final Fantasy series is mostly a thematic/non-linear series, but has a few counts of direct crossovers.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Up until Fire Emblem: Awakening, it was assumed that, barring remakes and direct sequels/prequels (and Gaiden which was a Gaiden Game to Shadow Dragon featuring a small number of its characters), all Fire Emblem games were set in different universes and did not impact each other. note  However, SpotPass and DLC content for Awakening used characters from previous Fire Emblem games — including ones that were not set in the Archanea universe note  — and so to get around this, introduced a "gateway" (the Outrealm Gate) that allowed characters to travel between the different universes. This would imply that all of the worlds are connected, physically or otherwise, as part of some greater universe rather than separate, alternate worlds. Fire Emblem Fates even adds the Super Smash Bros. universe to the mix.
    • Outside of a multidimensional context, the universe of Archanea, Valentia, and Jugdral was merged with that of Tellius.
    • A localized example comes from Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, the 2017 remake of Gaiden. While Gaiden was indeed a side-story to the titles set in Archanea, there were very few tangible links between games beyond the appearances of the Whitewing sisters and Zeke, an amnesiac Camus from Shadow Dragon, with one of these — Alm inexplicably finding the Falchion in Duma Temple — leaving players scratching their heads in confusion for many years. The remake, on the other hand, more neatly ties together Gaiden with the Archanean games as part of its expanded retelling. Aside of definitively stating Camus decides to stay in Valentia with his lover Tatiana following his stint as Sirius provided both of them survive to the end, SoV establishes Mila and Duma as members of the Divine Dragon Tribe who were exiled thousands of years beforehand, with Naga forging a second Falchion from one of her fangs and giving it to Duma as a countermeasure should they succumb to degeneration, much like many of the other dragons would in the backstory of Marth's games. In fact, Mila describes the Valentian Falchion as the "one and only godslaying sword," implying it was crafted far earlier than its Archanean counterpart. Furthermore, the postgame involves traveling across the sea to the western outskirts of Archanea, where the player investigates the ruins of Thabes, an ancient civilization in the Mamorthod Desert mentioned in Mystery of the Emblem. This dungeon, Thabes Labyrinth, manages to provide some much-needed backstory for none other than Grima, the Big Bad of Awakening, revealing he and the Death Masks, the original Risen, were the products of forbidden experiments conducted by a mad alchemist named Forneus, forcing the Thabean Council to seal him and his creations away within his workshop.
  • When Genshin Impact was launched, there was little in common between its open-world fantasy setting and the science fiction action games previously made by miHoYo. But then eagle-eyed fans playing Honkai Impact 3rd spotted something surprising on one of the monitors Otto Apocalypse was using to search through the multiverse — Stormterror, the boss of Genshin Impact's prologue chapter. Word of God has since confirmed that Genshin is a distant "branch" in the same multiverse as HI3 and Honkai: Star Rail (with the latter explicitly noted to be set in an Alternate Universe parallel to that of the former). This multiverse has since been given the name "Hoyoverse", with multiple cases of alternate versions of characters appearing across the three games and at least one character from HI3 (Welt Yang) crossing over to the universe Star Rail is set in.
  • The PS2-era Grand Theft Auto games are in the same continuity as the Manhunt series — Carcer City is explicitly stated to be a location in the Grand Theft Autoverse, and it was introduced even before Manhunt was released. And the Grand Theft Auto IV universe (which it shares with Grand Theft Auto V) may be shared with Bully, with the appearance of the Bullworth Academy on TV.
  • Several Sony Online Entertainment employees have joked that their zombie apocalypse sandbox game H1Z1 and their MMOFPS Planetside 2 exist in the same universe, where Planetside is a Lost Colony of escapees from H1Z1. The Nanite Systems MegaCorp that makes vehicles and weapons in Planetside appear in H1Z1, apparently as a pharmaceutical company. The New Conglomerate MegaCorp likewise appears in H1Z1 as a manufacturer of bluejeans. However, in practice it is just a Production Throwback.
  • Kirby:
  • Lands of Lore hints at a Shared Universe with The Legend of Kyrandia. In The Hand of Fate, one of the letters Zanthia recovers is addressed to Scotia. She later refers to King Richard as well. The Throne of Chaos has several plants which your character believes are Pseudobushia Hugiflora, plant life encountered in Kyrandia. The Draracle's museum in Guardians of Destiny has an enormous gemstone on display, which the tour guide voice compares to the Kyragem as a similar funneler of magic.
  • The Legend of Zelda series has long had a confusing timeline, with fans trying to figure out exactly where each game falls among the others. This was finally cleared up when Word of God declared that there were actually three main timelines, splitting off from Ocarina of Time: one where Link defeats Ganondorf and, after returning to the past, is able to stop him before he rises to power (the Child Timeline); one where Link defeats Ganondorf and stays in the future permanently (the Adult Timeline); and one where Ganondorf defeats Link and has to be banished by other means (the Downfall Timeline). Then, in 2017, Breath of the Wild welded all three timelines together in a single canon: locations throughout Hyrule are named after major and minor characters from every single game in the franchise, suggesting that the branching realities merged again at some point in the past. However, its direct sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, (further) complicated matters with backstory reveals for the Kingdom of Hyrule and Ganondorf seemingly incongruous with previously established canon, making it unclear if the "Wild Saga" is simply a Soft Reboot (with these new backstory elements happening at some point in the long gap between BotW and its predecessors) or the starting point of an entirely new canon altogether (with the other games still happening in Broad Strokes).
  • Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth officially acknowledges Yakuza: Dead Souls, Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, and Like a Dragon: Ishin! — the first of which being a non-canon spinoff and the other two being historical period pieces using characters from the Like a Dragon franchise as a Universal-Adaptor Cast — as things Kazuma Kiryu canonically remembers, though they were All Just a Dream to him.
  • Mega Man Legends was originally in its own continuity (hence jokes and references to the original series being a Show Within a Show). However, the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX games have more directly connected it as being the far distant future of the original Mega Man and Mega Man X.
  • Michael Jackson's Moonwalker was originally just a tie in for the titular singer's movie of the same name in 1990. Nearly ten years later, Jackson was prominently featured in Sega's Space Channel 5 games, with the events of Moonwalker being part of his in-universe backstory. This welding happened because Jackson had a longstanding relationship with Sega and requested a cameo in Space Channel 5, which Sega agreed to.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Deconstructed while being Played for Drama in the Story Mode of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. As a result of Shao Kahn and Darkseid merging (by accident, after being beaten by Raiden and Superman in their respective universes) to become the entity known as Dark Kahn, their mere existence is causing both Mortal Kombat's universe and DC's universe to become one. At first this is seen as heroes and villains crossing over to the other's universes to fight one another, until both factions travel to Outworld/Apokolips, where they see the damage that is being done to their universes by Dark Kahn after he had manipulated them all into fighting one another to make him stronger. By the end, however, Raiden and Superman team up to take out Dark Kahn and their universes separate.
    • Unlike other guest characters in Mortal Kombat, who are stated to come from alternate realities, Spawn implies in his appearance in Mortal Kombat 11 that he actually comes from the same universe as the rest of the main cast. He directly states that Malebolgia is related to Kronika (and through her Shinnok and Cetrion), with further implications that Hell is part of the Netherrealm. Jax and Sonya (two high-ranked members of the US army) know of Jason Wrynn (the man who ordered Al Simmons's death which lead to Al becoming Spawn). As more of a joke, D'Vorah also shows awareness of the Phlebiacs (the family of demons Spawn's eternal nemesis Violator belongs to).
  • Ever since 2004, Ninja Gaiden has been established to be in canonicity with Dead or Alive series with Ryu being the canonical winner of the second tournament and Dead or Alive character Ayane acting as a support character throughout many Ninja Gaiden installments. Kasumi herself would later appear in the newer Ninja Gaiden games, first making two cameo appearances in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 before being bumped up to playable status in Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. In turn, Rachel and Momiji (respectively from the 2004 Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword) would cross over to DOA with Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate. Additionally, Dead or Alive: Dimensions reveals that Sonia, one of Ryu's allies in Ninja Gaiden II, is merely an alias for Irene Lew, his love interest in the original NES trilogy (and wife by the time of the first DOA); Irene shows up in person during Razor's Edge and serves as Ayane's Mission Control after only being indirectly mentioned by Ryu in the original game.
  • When Bohemia Interactive, the Czech developer of Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (their first game), split with the publisher Codemasters, they were able to keep the "assets"note  but not the game's brand name, so they ended up creating a Creator-Driven Successor called ARMA. However, BI has since come out and said that both series are in a Shared Universe, as was BI's spin-off Take On Helicopters, and indeed the British player character of both ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead is a minor antagonist NPC in Take On Helicopters. The final patch (v1.99) for Operation Flashpoint even renames it to ARMA: Cold War Assault. Talk about paying attention to details.
  • Discussed in Project × Zone, where (on top of canonizing about a dozen other crossover games; see the Cross-Media page) the characters from the many different universes have some fun trying to link them together. For instance, the characters of God Eater find it plausible that their world would continue on a downward spiral, necessitating the construction of Basel in their far future. However, it's also acknowledged that certain universes are mutually exclusive with each other (Sakura Wars is technologically and geopolitically incompatible with modern Earth) or completely isolated (Tales of Vesperia is shown to be in its own disconnected bubble), so nothing is set in stone.
  • Quake III: Arena mashes Doom, Quake, and Quake II into a single continuity. Quake Champions mashes all of this with Id's remaining franchise, Wolfenstein, and possibly with Heretic and its sequels, if Galena is any indication.
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart: Ratchet finds in-game recordings of a lombax who'd been tasked with mapping other dimensions as one of the collectable items in the game. The first dimension the lombax mentions visiting is that of Sly Cooper, while others mention Jak and Daxter, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Uncharted. The RYNO VIII also has a chance to bring in characters or objects from those dimensions when used.
  • Sol Cresta ties together all the previous Terra Cresta games, as revealed in the game's database:
    • The Alien Creatures that attacked in Moon Cresta first attacked in the Cosmic Year 0080. While their source was unknown, research later revealed that they were created by the series' main antagonist, Mandler.
    • Five years later came the events of Terra Cresta, in Cosmic Year 0085 when Mandler itself led an attack on Earth, its army consisting of mechanical weapons and biological monsters powered by Mandler's Power of Void. After Mandler's defeat, the Mandler Army retreated.
    • Cosmic Year 0092 came the events of Terra Cresta II, in which Mandler returned with an even powerful military force called Zofer. Despite the sheer number of forces Mandler's Zofer army had, they were eventually defeated and driven off the solar system by Terra Cresta. However, Mandler was never truly defeated.
  • Although they may not share the exact universe, the Red Dead Redemption series and the HD universe of the Grand Theft Auto series have been made connected to each other via the Epsilon cult. A time-traveling member of the cult, Francis Sinclair, appears in Red Dead Redemption 2 and his appearance matches the description of Kraff from Grand Theft Auto V perfectly.
  • The Ultor Corporation, from Red Faction, a science-fiction series about Martian rebels, makes an appearance in Saints Row, a series about gang warfare in a contemporary American city. Red Faction: Guerilla references this with "Mount Vogel", named after the CEO of Ultor in Saints Row 2. This started off as a Shout-Out in the original Saints Row, with a few references to Ultor here and there. Then Saints Row 2 ran with it, and made Ultor a major faction that is clearly the same one as in Red Faction. However, Saints Row IV separates the canon, to say the least. Maybe. The ending implies a certain amount of Time Travel, so who can say?
  • The Resident Evil Fan Game Resident Evil: REVisited combines aspects of the novels by making Trent the Player Character, and despite using the original version of the Spencer Mansion for its setting, features several rooms in the mansion's layout that only existed in Resident Evil (Remake).
  • Season of the Sakura and Runaway City both feature Rin Watanabe and the Virtual Ninja arcade game series, and share similar backgrounds and character designs, along with Three Sisters' Story.
  • Easter Eggs in Sierra's adventure games point to a shared continuity:
    • In Leisure Suit Larry, Rosella appears as a hairdresser in the second game and an actress re-enacting her game in the third game.
    • In Police Quest, it is possible to stop at the disco from Leisure Suit Larry, find a character from Leisure Suit Larry in jail, find Larry at the airport, and read news in the Lytton Tribune about dragons and gnomes in Daventry.
    • In Quest for Glory, The Adventurer's Guild Hall has a mounted Antwerp head: "The plaque reads: 'Antwerp – slain by Two Guys from Andromeda.'" In the SCI version, Erasmus' house has an artifact called "The Rosella Stone."
    • In Quest for Glory IV, the mad scientist Dr. Cranium is the great-great grandson of Dr. Thaddeus Egghead Brain from The Castle of Dr. Brain and The Island of Dr. Brain.
    • In Space Quest (EGA), pushing the Arcada escape pod's "Don't Touch" button sends the escape pod to The Daventry Zone, landing in Daventry Castle's moat, where Ken and Roberta Williams are having a conversation, mentioned by King Graham, Princess Rosella and Roger Wilco in Hoyle Book of Card Games, Volume I. In the VGA remake, the escape pod lands in Conquests of the Longbow's Nottingham Castle. In the VGA version, the Federation president strongly resembles King Graham.
    • In Space Quest IV, the helpless stranger, identified as Maharg in the game's files, is carried away by a Pterodactyl, much like the Roc carries away King Graham in King's Quest V. In the Galaxy Galleria, plants come from Shapeir florists.
    • In the Space Quest V copy protection, the Galactic Inquirer article "Gir Draxon's predictions for 3010" features Gir Draxon. Gir Draxon is the Supreme Overlord of the Arcturus system and Big Bad of Dynamix's Stellar 7, Nova 9 and Stellar-Fire series of futuristic tank games, though Gir Draxon is not in Stellar 7's spiritual sequel Arctic Fox. The StarCon Academy orbits planet Nova 9. In Nova 9, Nova 9 is the name of a star system.
    • In Space Quest VI, prisoners are sent to labor camps on the planet Daventry VIII.
    • The Hoyle games featured King Graham, Rosella, Roger Wilco, Sonny Bonds, Larry Laffer, and Sierra staff and relatives.
    • The extra-canonical hintbooks The King's Quest Companion, Leisure Suit Larry's Bedside Companion and The Space Quest Companion give the characters a Direct Line to the Author.
  • SNK:
    • When SNK made Art of Fighting 2, they decided to officially make the Art of Fighting series part of the same continuity as the Fatal Fury series. To explain why the Art of Fighting cast were not around during the events of the Fatal Fury games, they made the Art of Fighting series a prequel to the Fatal Fury series by setting it ten years before and putting a young Geese Howard as the True Final Boss in Art of Fighting 2 (back when he was still the police commissioner of South Town). When SNK later wanted to cross the Fatal Fury cast with the Art of Fighting cast in The King of Fighters games, they had to place the third series in a separate continuity. And from there, it starts getting really weird, with Ralf and Clark from Ikari Warriors and Athena from Psycho Soldier (who is the descendant/ambiguously-the-reincarnation of the Athena from Athena) appearing in The King of Fighters — despite Psycho Soldier involving an invasion of monsters from beneath the earth that you'd kind of think would get mentioned at some point in KOF canonicity if it happened — and then both Ralf and Clark and KOF original Leona appearing in Metal Slug 6 and Metal Slug 7. At this point, the only sane response to the SNK canon is to throw up your hands and shout "I don't know!"
    • Other SNK titles, from Samurai Shodown to The Last Blade to Savage Reign/Kizuna Encounter, have been alluded to in varying extents throughout KOF's run. The latter, in particular, is also part of the Fatal Fury/Art of Fighting timeline in its original form (albeit set several decades in the future), while Buriki One presumably exists in yet another offshoot of this timeline. note  Both the Fu'un duology and Buriki One have had two Guest Fighter entrants each in XI.
    • The King of Fighters XIV goes a step further by introducing the Another World Team, consisting of Nakoruru (of Samurai Shodown fame, last seen as a non-canon fighter in the Game Boy port of '95), Mui Mui (from the pachinko game Dragon Gal), and Love Heart (from the pachinko game Sky Love), who are drawn into the KOF world due to a dimensional rift. In short, the implication is that any of the SNK games that don't fit neatly into the KOF timeline, and even some of the ones that could, all exist as part of a greater cosmology.
    • There's also NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, which adds some of the properties SNK acquired from buying Alpha Denshi (namely Aggressors of Dark Kombat and World Heroes) into the mix.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • The unofficial expansion mod for Stardew Valley, Ridgeside Village, is connected to the mod creator's previous mini-expansion mod Lunna Astray in Stardew Valley, in that the former has a few references to the place and the characters of the latter.
  • Street Fighter:
    • Street Fighter Alpha effectively combined the Street Fighter and Final Fight franchises into one shared continuity by featuring Guy and Sodom from the first Final Fight as playable characters, followed by Rolento in Alpha 2 and Cody in Alpha 3. Final Fight was originally intended to be a sequel to the first Street Fighter, and, most importantly, the two franchises had been already officially part of the same continuity since the console version of Street Fighter II first came out (proof of this was in the instruction booklet). Since then, more and more members of the FF cast would be transplanted over to its sister series, such as Hugo (Andore) in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact (see his mention below), Poison in Street Fighter X Tekken and Ultra Street Fighter IV, and Abigail and Lucia in Street Fighter V. Street Fighter 6 further solidifies the Final Fight connection, being set in Metro City and featuring Mad Gear members like Damnd as NPCs.
    • By extension, this also puts Street Fighter in the same universe as Saturday Night Slam Masters, since both that series and Final Fight feature the character of Mike Haggar. This is confirmed in Street Fighter III, where Hugo's ending has him about to enter into a tag-team match against two Slam Masters characters, who will vary depending on who his partner is (for instance, if Elena is chosen, she and Hugo will face off against Haggar and Black Widow). Haggar himself also makes several cameo appearances in the Street Fighter series, such as in the background of Guy's stages in Alpha 2 and Alpha 3, as well as in Lucia's character story for Street Fighter V. Ancillary material released for SFV also mentions that Rainbow Mika's coach, Yoko, was forced to retire from wrestling after Black Widow injured her during a match.
    • Additionally, Rival Schools featured Sakura Kasugano as a participant (and establishes her as good friends with Hinata Wakaba and Natsu Ayuhara; there's even art of all three hanging out together). In return, Hinata and Tiffany Lords made cameos in V, with Akira Kazama later joining the playable roster as DLC.
    • And if that wasn't enough, Captain Commando exists 20 Minutes into the Future of this Shared Universe, as one of the playable characters, Sho (Ginzu), is the successor of the Bushinryu ninjutsu utilized by Guy, a connection that is reiterated when they team up in Namco × Capcom. The very first level happens to be a future (but still crime-ridden) Metro City, and players can find a bust of Haggar that awards 5000 points at certain points throughout the game.
    • A localized example of this comes in the form of the aforementioned Hugo, who was added to the cast of Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact. His appearance is unmistakably that of Andore from Final Fight, who previously made a cameo appearance in Guy's Street Fighter Alpha 2 stage, and he even has Poison acting as his manager. For some odd reason, Capcom did not make any mention of the Andore family in Hugo's bio, instead stating his parents were farmers from Germany and bringing up how Hugo had two younger sisters. It wouldn't be until several years later that Capcom would acknowledge Hugo and Andore as one and the same, effectively fusing together his two backstories. A Mirror Match in Street Fighter X Tekken will result in the victor mistaking the loser for Andore Jr. while his intro sequence in Ultra Street Fighter IV features Hugo reminiscing about his mother and his life back home in Germany.
    • With Zeku's playable appearance in Season 2 of Street Fighter V comes heavy implications that he goes on to found the Striders, thus making the Strider series also part of the SF canon.
    • In the Capcom World games, and the mobile game Minna to Capcom All Stars/Street Fighter x All Capcom, Capcom World is the place where all Capcom heroes reside. Capcom World features Pure the Mage, who appears with several Capcom characters in Ken's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2.
    • The Shadaloo Combat Research Institute profiles on the Street Fighter V Character Encyclopedia website has entries for characters from Capcom Fighting All-Stars, Capcom Fighting Evolution, Cannon Spike, Final Fight and Final Fight: Streetwise, Marvel vs. Capcom, Pirate Ship Higemaru, Saturday Night Slam Masters, Street Fighter EX and Fighting EX Layer, Street Fighter II: The Interactive Movie, the Street Fighter: The Movie game, the Street Fighter animated series, Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation, and Street Fighter 2010. A handful of these profiles are stated to be non-canonical, however, including one (Ingrid) who had indeed appeared in a Street Fighter entry (the PSP port of SFA3, Alpha 3 MAX).
    • As of Tekken 7, with the existence of Akuma, being relatively plot-relevant in comparison to other characters, and an implied connection between the Satsui no Hadou and Devil Gene, Street Fighter (or at least a version of it) is also canon to the Tekken universe (and, by extension, the Soul Series, which is a distant — albeit largely disconnected — prequel to Tekken).
  • Again, par for the course regarding Super Robot Wars, due to their Massive Multiplayer Crossover nature, but the specific example goes to Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, having the unenviable task of integrating the countless Original Generation stories from previous Super Robot Wars installments into a cohesive Ultimate Universe, often filling in the blanks left by licensed characters with its Original Generation. For example, the "Choukijin" from the Super Robot Wars Alpha saga were originally connected to the Mazinger Z mythos; in Original Generation, they were created to combat the Einsts from Super Robot Wars Compact 2. A later Original Generation installment, including at least one licensed saga, places more emphasis on space-time dimensional elements, a handy way of working in anything that can't be shoehorned in thoroughly into main continuity, but also working around obstacles that might violate pre-established canon. From there, the Endless Frontier games tie into Namco × Capcom and the Xenosaga series, all of whom preceed Project × Zone; sequels the Second Original Generation and The Moon Dwellers even made preceding Crossovers (Another Century's Episode R and Project X Zone, respectively) explicitly canon.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
    • The fourth game seems to pick up where both The Subspace Emissary (Brawl's Story Mode) and Kid Icarus: Uprising left off, as the various Palutena's Guidance conversations make reference to both games. Dark Pit's conversation in particular shows that, following the events of Uprising, he's decided to side with Viridi for reasons unknown.
    • The Smashverse versions of Marth, Ike, Lucina and Robin are summonable in Fire Emblem Fates, fittingly, via their amiibo (their real-life Trophies). When talked to, they reflect on their experiences in the Smash universe, but Robin and Lucina also recognize characters from their game of origin that never appeared in Smash, which leads to confusion between the characters due to the whole Alternate Universe thing.
  • Way back in the Amiga days, Super Turrican took place on the planet of Katakis. This was referenced in the Turrican clone Hurrican, which took place on the planet Takatis (which was the name of a clone of Katakis by the same team, Poke53280).
  • Due to being a Soft Reboot, Legend's (and thus the entire LAU trilogy's) continuity is best described as three parts Core-era Tomb Raider games, two parts Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and a generous squeeze of TopCow's comics, garnished with a peel from one of the official novels. Various bits from all over the franchise were mixed and matched together to create a new continuity. Most notable is the drastic change in Lara's relationship with her parents (or the fact they are both dead) and the general redesign of the Croft manor (which is the family estate, rather than private property of Lara). For comparison, the 2013 game went for hard reboot and decided to reinvent Lara from a scratch. Both of those takes on canon and Lara were controversial among players upon premiere.
  • This is one of the main driving points of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, pushing most of the Grasshopper Manufacture games from having vaguely thematic links between them into a full-fledged shared continuity, stuffed with cameos from past games. And No More Heroes III takes it a step further, featuring the appearance of a Fire Pro Wrestling character from a single-player story written by Suda51 himself.
  • Ubisoft:
    • Both Assassin's Creed and Watch_Dogs appear to take place in the same universe. This was first shown in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag having an in-game email from Blume, a security firm from Watch_Dogs, proposing Abstergo Industries make use of their ctOS system. Furthermore, the COO of Abstergo Entertainment from the same game is said to gone missing suddenly after a business meeting in Chicago, the setting of the first Watch_Dogs. In that game, it turns out the Assassins hired Aiden Pierce to take care of the COO for them. While some players of both games originally assumed these to be nothing more than easter eggs, Assassin's Creed Origins makes the connection of their universes 100% certain by confirming that yes the mission where Aiden kills the COO of Abstergo Entertainment is part of the official Assassin's Creed canon.
    • To a lesser degree, Far Cry has a small nod to Abstergo Industries and the Pieces of Eden in the third installment's DLC pack which indicates that it might also be in the same continuity as Assassin's Creed.
  • In the Ultima series, Britannia has featured a few heroes from other worlds, including Seggallion, the hero of Origin's Knights of Legend, set in the world of Ashtalarea, Gorn, the hero of Origin's The Quest and Ring Quest, set in the world of Balema, and the fighter Gertan, hero of the Apple ][ game The Caverns of Freitag. Their adventures are chronicled in books along with Origin's Tangled Tales and Windwalker. The Kilrathi ship in Ultima VII and the Trilkhai in Ultima Underworld II link Ultima to Wing Commander. Serpent Isle would have featured a stranded Kilrathi pilot on the isle of Claw. Ultima Forever would have featured an island with a Kilrathi monument and an island with a crashed Dralthi ship.
  • In the Wing Commander series, Wing Commander Secret Ops and the Wing Commander: Arena manual mentions the WEC, the Corporatocracy of the Crusader series.

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