Video Game collaborations

Post by **kinn** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 6:13 pm

After reading Racketboy's great article: ( http://www.racketboy.com/retro/nintendo ... -time.html ) I got me thinking. Well the “When two innovative game-makers get together, good things happen” part did.

Apart from the Sega/Nintendo collaboration for F-Zero what other collaborations have there been?

Some I remember are:

Nintendo/Namco – Starfox game (the name escapes me at the moment)
Capcom/SNK – Capcom VS SNK games
Nintendo/Namco – Arcade Mario Kart and Pac Man VS
Capcom/Nintendo - Handheld Zelda games

Not sure about the following:

Nintendo/Sega – Sonic and Mario Olympic game. Is this just developed by Sega?
Capcom/Namco – Some videogame board game? (Not sure)
MGS Twin Snakes – I heard this involved Kojima, Miyamoto and Silicon Knights developed it. But I do not know if this is true or what their input was for this game
Mario RPG (Snes) – Was this just a Square production or did Nintendo have some hand in development?

And finally for the future what collaborations would like to see? I would say off the top of my head (and wishful thinking):

Sega/Namco – Some kind of Fighter’s Megamix style game.
Sega/Capcom/Nintendo/Namco – Pac Man, Sonic, Mega Man, Mr Driller etc along with Mario and co in a new Mario Kart game.
Miyamoto, Kojima, Naka and Mikami all get together to brain storm and create a game.

What do you think guys?

Post by **racketboy** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 7:06 pm

Great topic!

I'd love to see what else we can dig up

Post by **Perseid** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 7:45 pm

Nintendo/Namco - Donkey Konga, though it might have been developed mostly by Namco using Nintendo's IP. That's likely since it's almost exactly the same as Namco's Taiko Drum Master.

Nintendo/Konami - DDR With Mario. <shudder> Watching Mario get down just hurt my very soul.

Namco/Capcom - Namco x Capcom, that cool-looking RPG they never sent to the west.

Nintendo/Midway - Cruisin' USA. Did Ninty just supply hardware or did they actually do something for the game?

I'll probably think of more when I'm trying to sleep tonight.

Post by **Gamerforlife** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:22 pm

Tough, yet fascinating topic

Wario World was developed by Treasure, produced obviously by Nintendo

Does Shin Megamai Tensei Nocturne count? Not a collaboration, but it did have Capcom's Dante in it despite this not being a Capcom game.

We all know about Nintendo and Rare working together.

Battletoads vs Double Dragon-Tradewest had the Double Dragon license and Rare owned Battletoads. I think Rare developed this without Tecmo Japan's involvement though, but it was cool of Tradewest to let them use Double Dragon characters.

Ergeiz-A tobal-like Dreamworks game, published by Namco, with Final Fantasy characters in it.

Maybe not the best examples, but I thought I'd throw them out there.

I would like to see Konami/Capcom do something some day(rich history of action franchises between these two). Also would like to see something from Treasure/Smilebit(for something truly original), and maybe Insomniac/Sucker Punch(there's already a kinship between these developers), and Michel Ancel/Fumito Ueda(two of my favorite designers), and I would love to see Tim Schaefer's imagination combined with the people who did the Oddworld games before Stranger's Wrath(which was a bit lacking)

Also, if Rare could get back into the mindset they had when they made Conker's Bad Fur Day, and got to work with the guys who did Earthworm Jim, we'd have a wonderfully surreal, weird, wacky and fun game.

Post by **racketboy** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:40 pm

Wow -- awesome ones I forgot about!

The Treasure/Nintendo matchup for Wario World was great -- but Treasure is always kinda floating around. Obviously, most of their most famous work has been with Sega, but they did work on Silpheed: The Lost Planet with Capcom, Gradius V with Konami, and Rakugaki Showtime with Enix

I REALLY think Sega and Nintendo need to work together more often. Sega has so many wonderful properties that they aren't using that Nintendo could really have a field day with.

Post by **kinn** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:45 pm

racketboy wrote: I REALLY think Sega and Nintendo need to work together more often. Sega has so many wonderful properties that they aren't using that Nintendo could really have a field day with.

I would love to see this happening.

Wishful thinking but imagine a Sonic game developed and handled by Nintendo internally.

Post by **racketboy** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:52 pm

kinn wrote:
racketboy wrote: I REALLY think Sega and Nintendo need to work together more often. Sega has so many wonderful properties that they aren't using that Nintendo could really have a field day with.
I would love to see this happening.

Wishful thinking but imagine a Sonic game developed and handled by Nintendo internally.

I'm surprised they didn't have Nintendo do the new NiGHTS game -- especially since it's on the Wii.

Ok, back on topic....
Could Chrono Trigger be considered? While it didn't have full companies working together, it did combine some big names that were members of large organizations.

Post by **marurun** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:27 pm

Keep in mind that these company collaborations aren't really collaborations. They are one company contracting work to another with their IP. Capcom, for example, created the GBC Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, and the GBA Minish Cap Zelda games. It was Nintendo IP but Capcom did all the work. So collaboration in a weak sense, but otherwise quite common an industry practice.

Post by **kinn** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:50 pm

marurun wrote:Keep in mind that these company collaborations aren't really collaborations. They are one company contracting work to another with their IP. Capcom, for example, created the GBC Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, and the GBA Minish Cap Zelda games. It was Nintendo IP but Capcom did all the work. So collaboration in a weak sense, but otherwise quite common an industry practice.

Your right there. But are there any true collaborations?

Post by **racketboy** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:55 pm

marurun wrote:Keep in mind that these company collaborations aren't really collaborations. They are one company contracting work to another with their IP. Capcom, for example, created the GBC Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, and the GBA Minish Cap Zelda games. It was Nintendo IP but Capcom did all the work. So collaboration in a weak sense, but otherwise quite common an industry practice.

While I'm sure the one company does most of the development, I would guess that the IP holder still has some input in terms of design and gameplay. I really doubt that Nintendo, Sega, or Namco would completely hand over an IP with total trust.