Crossover Battles: Mega Man/Sonic the Hedgehog: World's Collide

Hello all, welcome to a brand new segment here on the sight, one that I have decided to entitle Crossover battles. Between reviewing both the Green Lantern/Star Trek crossover and the Justice League/Power Rangers crossover, it’s got me thinking about what it is that makes a legitimately good crossover. So, in this series, we’ll be taking a look at the many team ups and crossovers we’ve seen over the years in comic books, television, movies and other forms of media, discussing the various elements of the work that pertain to its nature as a crossover and grading it accordingly. And boy howdy, have we picked a good one for our first outing with this series. This is Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide.

Mega Man and Sonic are two of the most iconic video game characters of all time and actually have a great deal in common. They’re both blue, their respective franchises are fondly remembered for challenging yet fun platforming, and they both regularly battle the evil robots made by mustachioed mad scientists. By 2013 Archie comics had possessed the comic rights for both Mega Man and Sonic for some time and as such a crossover was inevitable. As an aside, while I’m not particularly familiar with the still ongoing Sonic title from Archie, I highly recommend tracking down the trades for their now sadly canceled Mega Man book as while it was still going, it was the comic I looked forward to the most every month. So, was this epic crossover everything it was promised to be, well let’s find out by first diving into our first category:

The Plot: While I’ll freely admit that most crossovers only serve as an excuse to see these iconic characters interact and often times fight, but I do not believe that to be an excuse for sub-par storytelling. Just having these characters together isn’t enough. Take Star Trek: Generations for example. In that film, Captain Kirk and Captain Picard meet for the first time, a momentous occasion that many Star Trek fans were excited to see, and what do they do? They make toast. I believe my point has been made.

So, our story here involves Drs. Wily and Robotnik, the main villains of the Mega Man and Sonic universes respectively, inadvertently contacting one another through means of the chaos emeralds, magical crystals of undefined and unlimited power from the Sonic Universe. They quickly come to see each other as kindred spirits and forge an alliance with the goal of ridding themselves of their respective enemies and conquering the world. To accomplish this goal, they pit Mega Man and Sonic against one another, Transform Sonic’s allies into brainwashed robot slaves called Roboticized Masters, and use the chaos emeralds to warp reality to their design. Mega Man and Sonic are the only ones that can stop them, but to do that, they need to wander the warped plane of reality that Wily and Robotnik have created.

The story is actually a lot of fun, contains a lot of great character moments, allows us to see a lot of interesting settings and alternate versions of characters, and ultimately gives us something that fans of both sides of the crossover can enjoy, which is exactly how a crossover should be. There is however one big sticking point for me. When Eggman and Dr. Robotnik warp reality initially, it only slightly alters the two Universes. See, here’s the thing. The Mega Man comic series was a retelling of the games with several elements added to make the story more interesting. By the time this crossover hit, the storyline hadn’t even reached the events of Mega Man three yet. However, for this crossover, reality was altered so the events were seemingly set just after the events of Mega Man ten. I get why this was done, so they could include things like Proto Man being a good guy or the epic climax that pits our heroes against every Robot Master from every Mega Man game, but the execution seems a bit forced. It doesn’t ruin the story, I just think it could have been handled better.

Score: 4/5

Character Interactions: For this category, we look at how our two lead characters interact with each other and how that helps, or hinders, the overall story.

Despite an initial misunderstanding, which we’ll discuss in a different category, Mega Man and Sonic play off one another quite well. Sure, Sonic’s cocky attitude can often seem irksome to the more polite Mega Man, but they both recognize one another allies in the fight against evil and when the time comes to get serious, they’re on the same page. They fight well together too, the part where they fight Bass and Metal Sonic being one of the Highlights of the Crossover. However, I do have to take major points away for one reason. Early on, Mega Man and Sonic realize that the combination of Mega Man’s fully charged buster shot and Sonic’s spin-dash can turn the Roboticized Masters back into their original selves. Not quite sure why this is the case, but I don’t mind because it gives our heroes greater need to work together beyond simply beating the bad guys. However, at one point, Tails modifies Mega Man’s buster to replicate Sonic’s spin dash, making Sonic nearly superfluous. I simply don’t understand why we could just have Mega Man and Sonic continue to work together. Instead, Sonic seems to just sit on the sidelines during a lot of the Roboticized master fights, which just seems off.

Score: 3/5

Villains: A good crossover is only as good as its villain or villains. Often times it’s two villains from both sides of the crossover teaming up, other times it’s a villain from one side augmenting themselves with an element from the other, sometimes it’s an entirely new threat. Whatever the case may be, our heroes need a good villain to fight.

Fortunately, World’s Collide has excellent villains in the form of Drs. Wily and Robotnik. And yes, I’m well aware he’s called “Eggman” in this comic, but Robotnik is what I’ve always called him and that is what I shall continue to call him. Anywho, these two are fantastic together, forming what can only be described as an evil science bromance. I daresay they have better chemistry with one another than Mega Man and Sonic. And together, the two Mad Scientists create their own pocket dimension and warp reality to their will, though unaware that doing so will eventually cause their worlds to collapse. The climax is also pretty cool with Mega Man and Sonic empowered by the Chaos Emeralds, Wily and Robotnik bring out a powerful giant robot that they pilot together, bickering the whole time to hilarious effect.

Score: 5/5

The Fight: Most crossovers tend to be born from a “who would win in a fight between X & Y” debate, so it’s only natural that the two characters fight. Ironically, a well-handled cross over fight isn’t really supposed to answer the question “who would win” but rather, make both characters look strong and so that fans of both sides are satisfied. That said, a crossover can also earn points by avoided a fight altogether if the circumstances are right.

In this case though, Mega Man and Sonic do indeed have a battle and it’s an epic one at that. The evil Doctors send Copy Robot and Metal Sonic, evil duplicates of Mega Man and Sonic respectively, to attack our heroes with the intent of making them believe that the other is their enemy, in the hopes that they’ll destroy one another in the ensuing battle. Wily and Robotnik even have a little side bet about who gets taken out first. Their clash is nothing short of a blast. It starts in Sonics world. Sonic knows the terrain of Green Hill Zone so well that he is easily able to elude Mega Man, who has no hope of keeping up with Sonic’s superior speed. It’s only by Mega Man’s quick thinking that he manages to trick Sonic into following him into a portal to his world. Once in Mega Man’s world, Sonic still has the speed advantage, but he’s disoriented by this new reality and Mega Man now has access to Rush, Beat and the other robotic buddies that he’d regularly utilize as weapons and power-ups in the game. Eventually, they both realize they’ve been manipulated and call a truce, but their fight was easily one of the major highlights of the crossover. Score: 5/5

Use of Elements from Both Series:

For our final category, we take a look at how well the work took advantage of what it had. How well elements from both series came together and meshed with one another.

For this crossover, I think they did exceptionally well with blending the two series, things like the Roboticized Masters and the landscape of the Skull-Egg Zone (Wily and Robotnik’s Pocket Dimension) are proof of that. I think I’ve covered most of this in the rest of the review, but there is one small issue that I need to address. The finaly battle pits Mega man, Sonic, the Robots from Doctor Light’s lab and freed allies of Sonic against every Robot Master from every game, and it is a joy to behold. The one problem, there are no sonic villains in this fight. I’ll be the first to agree that the Robot Masters are interesting and diverse, certainly moreso than most Sonic villains, but it still would have been nice to see some representation of Sonic’s enemies in this clash. Score: 4.5/5

Final Thoughts: Mega Man and Sonic crossing over was everything I expected it to be and more. It is a great showcase of these two iconic characters and I recommend it highly for fans from both sides. Despite a few nitpicks here and there, it is the gold standard to which I hold all other crossovers, hence why I chose it for the first in this series.

Final Score: 4.3/5

And that’ll be it for our first installment of Crossover Battles. Be sure to like the sight on Facebook and follow me on Twitter to let me know what you think or if you have any other crossovers you’d like me to tackle.