Follow TV Tropes

Following

Massive Multiplayer Crossover
aka: Massively Multiplayer Crossover

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supersmashbros.png

"So many heroes from so many dimensions! This is pretty cool!"

A crossover that involves characters from more than two works of fiction. More often than not, this is a mash up of series which do not have a strict sense of continuity or a clear Universe Bible. To lessen canon-faulting, especially with series that do have strict continuity, a new 'neutral' setting is made that offers equal footing for all the characters. Sometimes characters are anthropomorphise in various ways so that they can interact better. It also becomes more viable the farther you get from canon, such as one-time TV specials and especially video games. As Story Arcs have become more prevalent, this practice has somewhat lessened, with shifts to strict Verse building and explicit references.

This rarely occurs in live action shows, unless a production company can be formed that holds copyrights to everything, or where Public Domain Characters and/or Product Placement from different companies are involved. Thus, this is much more common in animated works — although you can generally expect The BBC to pull one out of somewhere when Children in Need or Comic Relief rolls around.

This trope has become increasingly common in video games, especially those involving both licensed and original properties. These games, depending on how far or how deep they mine, can have interesting effects on the fiction chosen. Many long-gone and/or forgotten Humongous Mecha shows, for example, often get a new lease on life, or even a brand-new sequel or remake, after making an appearance or two in a Super Robot Wars game. Similarly, the Fire Emblem series was finally brought over to the US to great success after two of its characters made an appearance as unlockable fighters in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Crossing over with Real Life, Racing Games with licensed vehicles (such as Forza, Gran Turismo or Need for Speed) are always this trope, due to the fact multiples of vehicles are licensed from wildly different manufacturers for use in-game.

And it should be clear that this trope is trivially easy to pull off in Fan Fic, since fan-fiction is almost always unlicensed and unofficial, meaning the creators are free to put whatever characters they want, from as many (often wildly) different universes as they want, and however they want into their stories without worrying about those pesky trademarks and character licensing issues getting in the way. That said, it's much rarer to pull off this trope well in fan-fiction.

The name is a pun on the video game genre of "massive(ly) multiplayer online game".

This trope is Older Than Feudalism. The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius (3rd century BCE) features nearly every ancient Greek mythical hero all going on a quest to find the Golden Fleece.

Sub Tropes:

See also Power Creep, Power Seep and Story-Breaker Team-Up. All Stories Are Real Somewhere is related.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 

    Anime and Manga 

    Audio Plays 

    Comedy 
  • There's a Star Trek-related comedy routine in which Mr. Spock, HAL 9000, and Obi-Wan Kenobi all appear on Jeopardy, in a mental variant of an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. Kenobi is declared the winner, but only because he uses the Jedi Mind Trick on Alex Trebek.
  • Stand-up comedy troupes sometimes feature a series of comedians who usually headline their own shows:
    • The Original Kings of Comedy
    • The Blue Collar Comedy Tour
    • The Comedians of Comedy

    Comic Books 

    Comic Strips 
  • Blondie and Dagwood celebrated their 75th anniversary with a who's who of other comic book characters, far too many to list here.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Myths and Religion 
  • The Argonautica (more commonly known by the adaptation Jason and the Argonauts) by Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BCE) is one of the very first Massive Multiplayer Crossovers, arranged in what would become a fairly classic method — basically throwing one or two dozen heroes from various separate Greek myth cycles together on a boat with a common mission. This of course makes the Massive Multiplayer Crossover Older Than Feudalism.
  • Many of the same characters also appear in the story of the Kalydonian Boar Hunt — which, Depending on the Author, may occur before or after The Argonautica.
  • According to some religious studies texts, this has also gone on in many, many other myths: the most notable involve various saints meeting each other. This goes on even today.
  • Arthurian Legend incorporates characters from various mythical cycles, which has also made it something of an Anachronism Stew. Gawain, Tristan, and Merlin, nowadays permanent fixtures in the mythos, were originally folk heroes in their own right, and for centuries, writers have added new characters relevant to their own contemporary times or Creator Provincialism (Lancelot from the French, for instance).

    Pro Wrestling 
  • During the 1990s, Weekly Pro Wrestling in the Tokyo Dome would feature "Offer Matches", pro wrestling, shoot fighting and mixed martial arts from All Japan, the other All Japan, FMW, IWA Japan, JWP, LLPW, Michinoku, New Japan, Pancrase, UWF, RINGS as well as finding time for two other indie promotions in addition to these(such as PWFG and Go Gundan) on the same card(they even had some bouts with "UFC rules"). It didn't last, getting all those promoters together is hard, but these were very successful as far as filling the building with fans went.
  • Dramatic Dream Team (basically a parody of American wrestling), Pro Wrestling NOAH (American style matches only with a more realistic take and a more formal presentation), Pro Wrestling ZERO1 (even more emphasis on technical matches than NOAH but have tendencies toward exaggerated gimmicks and bizarre angles), Michinoku Pro Wrestling (largely based on Mexican Lucha Libre though there are some "Japanese strong style" staples) and IWA Japan (features "hardcore" wrestlers and has strong Puerto Rican influences) all got together to do a Differ Cup, which was as odd and entertaining as that many collaborating together sounds could be.
  • In its early years, Ring of Honor was involved in a three way cross promotional rivalry between itself, IWA Mid-South and NWA Wildside. DO OR DIE II had the additions of NWA Midwest, NWA Florida, PCW, So Cal Pro and Pro Wrestling Guerilla.
  • Sumie Sakai's We Love Sabu benefit show on April 17, 2005 at the Tokyo Differ Ariake had former FMW wrestlers Masato Tanaka, Mr. Gannosuke, Megumi Kudo, Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mammoth Sasaki, GOEMON, Onryo, Hido, Shark Tsuchiya, Hisakatsu Oya, Ricky Fuji, Miss Mongol, Gosaku Goshogawara, Kaori Nakayama and Hayabusa to represent the then dormant promotion, Ryuji Ito, Necro Butcher and Daisuke Sekimoto from Big Japan, Crazy SKB and Shinobu from 666, The Apache Army's Akrangers Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO, Asian Cougar, Asian Condor, Asian Monkey, Lingerie Muto, GAMI, Fang Suzuki, Seiji Ikeda, Eddie Edwards and The Sandman.
  • In 2007, Alex Shane and Doug Williams called sixteen promotions to Liverpool England for a "King Of Europe Cup". Jody Fleisch represented 1PW, Claudio Castagnoli represented Chikara, Chris Hero represented CZW, Ryo Saito represented Dragon Gate, El Generico represented the International Wrestling Syndicate, Matt Sydal represented IWA Mid-South, PAC represented IPW:UK, Davey Richards represented Pro Wrestling Guerilla, Go Shiozaki represented Pro Wrestling NOAH, Trent Acid represented Pro Wrestling Unplugged, Martin Stone represented Real Quality Wrestling, Nigel McGuinness represented Ring of Honor, Rhino represented TNA, Ares represented westside Xtreme wrestling, Zebra Kid represented World Association of Wrestling and Williams himself represented Premier Promotions. In addition, there were two "Taste Of IPW:UK" pre shows.
  • Vendetta Pro started hosting Casino Royale crossovers in conjunction with the Cauliflower Alley Club in 2011, which also saw the involvement of Adrenaline Unleashed Wrestling. 2014 saw collaboration between Dropkick Depression, Gold Rush Pro Wrestling, the NWA, All Pro Wrestling and ChickFight for a two night Casino Royal event.
  • Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling hosted the Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament in November 2011. Teams from JWP, Diana, REINA, WAVE, Ice Ribbon and Wonder Ring STARDOM entered it.
  • The World Wrestling League has been on a mission to facilitate them since 2012. In Bolivia, it pitted wrestlers from multiple associates such as Dominican Wrestling Entertainment and Peru's Leader Wrestling Association against locals from La Paz based New Xtreme Order at the Campeones Del Ring: Hacedores de Proezas event on June 25th, 2013. It even got representation from a non associate, Ring Warriors.
  • nCw Femme Fatales XI boasted a "Triple Main Event" featuring championships of three different women's promotions from three different countries all on the line. The Bellatrix World Title(UK), SHIMMER Title(USA) and nCw FF International Title(Canada).
  • At CHIKARA JoshiMania, women from JWP, Pro Wrestling WAVE, Osaka Joshi, Union Pro Wrestling and Oz Academy were all featured.
  • Argentina in the 90's had a Rambo-themed wrestling show entitled Rambo y sus Titanes, which featured matches between Rambo characters. The show was actually a Spin-Off of the action figures for Rambo: The Force of Freedom (which were extremely popular in South America), and produced by Jocsa — the manufacturer of said toys. The wrestlers' costumes were modeled upon the toys, even going as far as giving Rambo a mask to give his face a more toy-like physique. Sometimes, it also turned into a Product-Promotion Parade for other toylines produced by Jocsa by featuring non-Rambo characters (such as Police Academy).

    Radio 
  • The BBC Radio 4 series The Rivals is a series of adaptations of various Victorian detective stories by people who weren't Arthur Conan Doyle, based on the short story collections The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes edited by Hugh Green. What makes the radio series a Massive Multiplayer Crossover rather than a sequence of unrelated dramas is that Inspector Lestrade is added to every story as The Watson, placing them all in the same Verse.

    Roleplay 

    Sports 
  • Vehicular motorsports, especially auto racing, motorcycle racing and rallying, are the Real Life examples of this trope. When you have car/bike manufacturers bring their works teams into the racing series, which are also joined by privateer teams in different locales respectively. Formula One, World Rally Championship, MotoGP, NASCAR, Formula E, Isle of Man TT, Dakar Rally and 24 Hours of Le Mans are some of the famous examples.

    Tabletop Games 

    Theatre 
  • The works of Dr. Seuss were combined into a Broadway musical called Seussical, which mainly takes its story from Horton Hears a Who!, Horton Hatches the Egg, and The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz, but contains elements and characters from I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, The Butter Battle Book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and more. And of course, they have The Cat in the Hat to move the plot around.
    • Jim Henson's The Wubbulous World of Dr Seuss did something similar, with Yertle the Turtle as a recurring villain.
  • Into the Woods, a multiplayer crossover borrowing from some Grimms' fairy tales.
  • The Tony Awards, especially more contemporary ceremonies, often will lean into the territory of this trope with the cast of nominated shows (as well as anything currently running) appearing in skits and the opening number, or at least a group of reference to Broadway classics. However, the 67th Tony Awards does something interesting: the opening production number, a dedication to taking it up to eleven called "Bigger", began with host Neil Patrick Harris performing among the Broadway casts of Once. As the performance goes on, he ends up dancing with the casts of Kinky Boots, Motown, the circusey Pippin revival, Bring It On, Matilda, A Christmas Story, the Annie revival, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and Mike Tyson (apparently he had a one-man show), climaxing with the casts of currently-running Broadway shows running up and down the aisles.
  • Any revue based around a composer's work is going to be one of sorts. Prince of Broadway is notable for (a) being a revue dedicated to a Broadway director, Hal Prince, and (b) recreating scenes from some of his most famous productions. The end result is a set list made up of excerpts from Sweeney Todd, Phantom of the Opera, Cabaret, and Superman.

    Theme Parks 

    Toys 

    Web Animation 

    Web Original 

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Alternative Title(s): Massively Multiplayer Crossover, Mega Crossover

Top

Animation vs. Arcade Games

In order to confront Q*bert who's messing with the arcade games, the main characters have to face Q*bert's mind-controlled game protagonists: Pac-Man, Frogger, Mario, Jumpman, and Pauline; as well as to fight off enemies and overcome obstacles such as the aliens from Space Invaders and the tetrominos from Tetris.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (6 votes)

Example of:

Main / MassiveMultiplayerCrossover

Media sources:

Report