About Third-Party Guest Characters
Third-party guest characters in video games can be wonderful opportunity for company to collab with one other. I like KOF AllStars collab with different IPs like Gintama, WWE, Virtual Fighter and Street Fighter. This is also a sub-category of crossovers with other franchises. There are games like Fortnite, Super Smash Bros and many more that features other franchises. Recently, Street Fighter 6 brought in Mai and Terry from Fatal Fury as guest characters. Now, Fatal Fury City of the Wolves has Ken and Chun-Li due to Capcom’s partnership with SNK. I am sensing a Capcom vs SNK 3 coming on the rise. Right now, Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is coming spring 2025 this year. Anyways, my first exposure to thirty-party characters is Soul Calibur 2 on original Xbox with Spawn. I was not expecting to see Spawn of all characters in a fighting game other than Injustice 2.
I remember watching HBO tv show Spawn alongside live action movie with Micheal Jae White. Spawn movesets was robust and fit so well in the game. Nintendo GameCube had Link from The Legend of Zelda, PlayStation 2 has their own character Heihachi using his Mishima Style Fist. Soul Cailbur has a lot of guest characters from Star Wars, Nier Automata, Assassin’s Creed and The Witcher. Fighting games intended to have guest characters to boost sales and player base. I will name some guest characters and video games as well in this article. There is Dead or Alive series, many third-party characters such as Naotora Li (Samurai Warriors), Akira Yuuki (Virtua Fighter) and Spartan 458 (Halo). Mortal Kombat has guest characters like Kratos (God of War), Ghostface (Scream), Predator (Predator) and T-100 (The Terminator). MK 11 just recreated
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Samurai Shodown 2019 reboot has Baiken (Guilty Gear) and Warden (For Honor) along with Hibiki Takane (Last Blade). There are so many games that has third-party characters but all of them are not fighting games. For example, survivor games like Dead by Daylight with Stranger Things, Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Racing games like Mario Kart Arcade GP has Pac-Man (Pac-Man), Mametchi (Tamagotchi) and Don-Chan (Taiko No Tatsujin). Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater is a has an Ape Escape minigame. Sports games like NBA Street V3 has Super Mario characters playing some B Ball. I am forgetting puzzle titles like Puzzle & Dragons features a lot of third-party titles like Hunter X Hunter and many more. I wouldn’t say shooters have crossover because Call of Duty has He-man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Squid Games. Fortnite has crossover skins such as Star Wars, Marvel Comics and Dragon Ball franchises.
Platformers get third-party characters like Super Meat Boy along with role-playing games like Yo-kai Watch Wibble Wobble. Angry Bird has some third-party crossover and guest characters. There is so many of them and can’t name them all. You will have to research them yourselves or tell me in the comments below. Myself, I am happy to see them, and some might think they don’t fit with rest of the cast. Take a look at Tekken 8’s recent guest character Clive Rosfield (Final Fantasy 16). A lot of fans was very upset about Clive but I wasn’t. Some are in-favor of Tifa Lockhart, which was the most requested characters to be in Tekken 8. Harada always said, “don’t ask me for ish”, never know that she will appearance in season two pass. Only time will tell but Geese and Noctis was in Tekken 7.
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Guest characters can be a wonderful idea in gaming. This brings characters from others in into the universe. Is it to bring a character and improve the player base. There are guest characters in Tony Hawk and many more games. In my opinion, I would conisder this a collaboration with another gaming brand. In tv shows, its baselly guest star in a episode or two. Another term is crossover characters that would come as a suprise for fans out there. As a gamer myself, I am used to this crossover but sometimes can be a drag in my opinion. I remember them being in the base roster and sometimes buy them as DLC characters. If some ask what is third party means, it a individual (brand) that outside two parties that provides, goods and services to them. Meaning like Full Metal Alchemist equivalent exchange
“you can’t create something from nothing, something of equal value must be given in return”. If you want to that about that read this article. Third-party guest characters are a gimmick in the gaming industry due to partnership and relationship each different brands and companies. Fans can make videos, podcasts (like Triple KO) and have a discussion on social media. I am open arms with guest characters appearing in other video games. They can come from tv shows, comics and especially anime, not just other video games. It’s a window of opportunity for game developers and multimedia companies. I just want to leave it at that. What are your thoughts on third party guest characters? One more thing before I end this, remember its licensing issues as well and got to have permission to use them. Thank you for reading and have a bless day.
