In the summer of 2019, Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame released to colossal box office success that eventually saw it gross $2.8 billion worldwide. At the time of its release, it was touted by Disney and fans as “the greatest crossover event in history”. 

At the same time, Nintendo was releasing the fifth iteration of its Super Smash Bros. series. Like Avengers, Smash Bros. is a crossover property where characters from a wealth of Nintendo-owned IP do battle, alongside some of the most iconic video game characters of all time from other publishers. As the base game and its additional character packs were releasing during the same period as Avengers, the fanbase often joked that no, this is the greatest crossover event in history.

I have no intention of making such an argument, and, frankly, should never need to. At their core, both properties represent two extremely wealthy corporations using their IP as a bludgeon to beat the money out of their fans, and then use that money to defend their ownership of that IP to the death so they may go out and bludgeon some more. What makes Super Smash Bros special, among any amount of crossover pieces of media, is the breadth of collaboration it has achieved, and how that collaboration puts the series in such precarity.

As a series whose first game had a roster of only 12 fighters, each iteration of Smash Bros. has seen tremendous increases in scope. Super Smash Bros. Melee pulled from more niche areas of the Nintendo canon while filling out the cast with the most important supporting characters from Nintendo’s most popular franchises. The same happened again with Brawl, and a third time with Smash for Wii U and 3DS. The biggest additions to those games, however, weren’t surprising picks from old NES games like Pit and Duck Hunt, fan favorite Nintendo characters like Wario, Meta Knight, and Ridley, or representatives of new Nintendo franchises like Shulk and Inkling. The most exciting addition to Super Smash Bros Brawl was when a blue hedgehog showed up on the Smash Dojo website.

A Nintendo character showing up in a Nintendo game will never be as exciting as one owned by a third party. Surprising, perhaps, if that character seemed too small or unpopular to be included, and assuredly fun for fans of that specific character, but at the end of the day it’s still just a company using an IP it owns in another IP it owns. Why wouldn’t they?

In the decade and a half since the first inclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Smash Bros. has leaned into including 3rd party characters to represent not just the history and breadth of the Nintendo ecosystem, but video gaming as a whole. After adding 2 in both Brawl and Wii U / 3DS, and 3 out of 6 for the latter’s DLC, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate added 3 more, and then tacked on another 8 out of 11 from the pool of DLC fighters. In a series that was only Nintendo characters for its first two iterations, third party characters now make up 21% of the entire roster.

It’s a testament to Masahiro Sakurai’s ability as a game director and producer, and likely a good amount to the legal team at Nintendo (as rightfully disliked as they are for their aggressive IP protection) that so many third party characters have been able to be included. The 18 third party characters in the game represent 15 different franchises owned by 8 different publishers, including some of the most historically strict and uncooperative companies in any industry.

But this explosion of third party characters is also a testament to where the game industry is as a whole. On the media side, the current paradigm for content and growth with YouTubers and streamers is collaboration. Two separate creators with separate audiences work together in order to introduce themselves to each other’s followings, and grow both as a result. 

Likewise, we’ve also seen a significant increase in crossovers between would-be competitors on the development side over the past few years, especially in fighting games. Samurai Shodown included Haohmaru from Samurai Shodown. Samurai Shodown included Baiken from Guilty Gear. Tekken 7 featured Street Fighter’s Akuma and Final Fight’s Geese. Mortal Kombat, between the last two entries, has likely included every hero and monster from any action or horror movie released in either the 80s or 90s.

The most unlikely participant has been Microsoft. Despite the company’s history and general Windows business model, the Xbox team has pivoted in the last few years to be the most open and cooperative of the 3 main platform holders. They’ve allowed several exclusives to come to Switch and PS4, and despite directly competing on the console front, own two of the 18 third-party characters appearing in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, including one of the most shocking reveals the game has produced: the inclusion of the formerly Nintendo-exclusive IP Banjo-Kazooie. Just like content creators, by including their properties in other company’s titles and putting out smaller games in their library on competing consoles, Xbox hopes to garner a following that will make consumers look to their platforms for future purchases. And, like many, they do it for the biggest games in the world.

The epitome of all IP collaboration these last few years has, of course, been Fortnite- a game that, like many media companies these days, is trying to build a metaverse where everyone in the world interacts with their favorite IPs all within a platform they fully control. As a collaborative project, it’s as impressive as it is conceited. Somehow, it has gotten to the point where it’s no longer a surprise when something is added to Fortnite, and as the additions are mostly aesthetic, there’s rarely excitement for what it means to have something join. In that way it acts as an example of why Smash Bros. stands at a precarious crossroads.

The final DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was Sora from Kingdom Hearts, a series that itself was a collaboration between Square Enix, who has been one of the stingiest companies for Smash Bros. crossovers, and Disney, the company that seems hellbent on monopolizing every media industry. Because of the mere nature of its existence, specifically Disney’s involvement, and despite being the most-wanted character by fans, many assumed Sora would never appear in the series. Even after being included, you can tell where the lines were drawn: no wholly-owned Disney characters or music appears in the game, as well as any tracks from singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada, who wrote the main themes for the first two Kingdom Hearts games. Sakurai’s team had to work very closely and in constant communication with Square Enix and Disney to make sure they were always working within the guidelines set forth for them.

With Sora’s inclusion, the roster now sits at 86 characters, half of which would still be an absurd number for any fighting game with concerns for testing and competitive balance. The reason for such a huge roster was a direct result of what I’d describe as Masahiro Sakurai’s “and-the-kitchen-sink” approach to game design that led to his decision to include every single fighter that has ever appeared in the series. Alongside the amount of work needed to get every third party character in the game, that decision has led Sakurai to note multiple times that such a crossover is not likely to happen again. The statement, and the sheer scope of the game, carries with it a precarity that has led many to speculate now whether this “Ultimate” entry could actually be the last Super Smash Bros. game.

Not likely, of course. As one of Nintendo’s most popular and lucrative franchises, there’s little reason to think they won’t greenlight another entry once they need to start selling a new console, but questions remain: Would the next title be able to maintain the massive roster of the last game? Will every company, and perhaps more, be willing to negotiate the inclusion of characters, locations and music from their IP in a future title the same way? Would Sakurai even want to participate in developing a new Smash Bros. game after spending 9 years on two titles, during which he became horribly sick due to exhaustion and was, at times, working, hooked up to an IV drip? Are the first two issues even within the realm of possibilities without him at the helm? Is it even ethically acceptable to let him work when he pushes himself so hard?

The reason Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is such a fascinating crossover isn’t simply because of how many characters it brings together, and the collaboration needed to do so, or the care its creators took in celebrating each inclusion. It is because, due to the effort needed to collaborate, care, and reach the scope they targeted, it was a minor miracle the game even exists, and will be another one if Nintendo is ever able to do it again.