Ah, the Intercontinuity Crossover fight. Everyone wonders once in a while "If X and Y met, who would win in a fight?" And whether you come up with incredibly thorough theories of your own, argue it with others, write a fanfic, or just resort to name-calling, everyone has their own opinion.
Such bouts between characters from different works will often involve one or more of the fighters being pulled into a different continuity, the strangers fighting for no logical reason and handicaps or caveats being introduced to make the fights more interesting. Also usually ends with the most popular of the combatants winning frequently due to the opponent conveniently not using his powers or resources to the fullest. Far more often, however, no one will actually win at all in order to avoid ticking off the loser's fanbase; this is typically accomplished either by a common enemy appearing and thus allowing both characters to save face or, more humorously, a Memetic Badass of the ironic kind arriving to curb-stomp everyone involved.
Characters commonly subjected to this include those who are identical or at least the same kind of character when compared to someone else, and prominent characters in franchises or works with heavy amounts of Fandom Rivalry between them.
As for the location, fanfic writers often write it as taking place in either Tokyo, New York City, or the occasional rural town.
Overlaps with Massive Multiplayer Crossover when more than two works are involved. Can also overlap with Behemoth Battle if the two combatants are both giants. If the characters end up in a relationship instead of fighting, it's a Crossover Ship. Characters discussing other characters having one of these battles is a Hypothetical Fight Debate. Compare to Character Tiers and Guest Fighter. See also Cool Versus Awesome. Contrast with Story-Breaker Team-Up.
If you were looking for the song, go here.
ATTENTION: The examples list is for matchups actually portrayed in media. Matchups that you or the fandom would like to see? There's a forum for that!
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- My-Otome: Put the Otome against the HiME, or, more specifically, their resurrected My-HiME counterparts.
- Gundam Build Fighters features several models from different series, many of which are modified, fighting it out. So you have situations like the Build Strike vs. the GX Maoh. Heck, the initial episode where these two "fight" has the builders dressed up as Kira and Garrod respectively. The Build Fighters Battlogue series has an even more blatant example in its first episode. The Gunpla Battle system has been upgraded with an AI component to act as support for newbies and can imitate famous characters from the Gundam franchise. Tatsuya Yuki and Alan Adams, both humongous Gundam Otaku, decide to test the system out by having AI copies of Char Aznable and Ribbons Almack fight each other. At the end of the short, they're excitedly talking about having Emma Sheen face off against Seabook Arno.
- Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Here's a fight that the fans of Dragon Ball have been thinking about for a long time since Frieza's resurrection: Super Saiyan 4 vs. Super Saiyan Blue! In addition, the combatants of this fight are both Goku; one being the Goku that we know of in the present timeline using Super Saiyan Blue, and the other Goku hailing from another dimension and working for the Time Patrol who uses Super Saiyan 4.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: The entire premise of the series includes dimension-hopping between worlds that are all Alternate Universe counterparts of past Yu-Gi-Oh! series, and features several epic battles between opponents whose decks are based on the special summoning methods featured in each past series, along with several Freeze-Frame Bonus shots of minor characters from past series making minor appearances, along with two major characters from 5D's, one from Zexal, and two from GX returning in full. This gets much more complex than most viewers were expecting.
Arts
- This image,◊ called War of the Worlds (Война миров), painted by the Russian contemporary artist Nikolai Kopeikin, depicts an epic but gruesome battle between cartoon characters of mostly Western Animation and Russian Animation. Not only this picture is an example of the trope but it also stresses the rivalry between domestic and foreign animation in Russia.
Card Games
- Anachronism: A card game that lets you pit various historical (or somewhat historical, like Robin Hood) characters against each other. For more fun, trade the character's goodies around — give Achilles Beowulf's chain mail and Miyamoto's katana.
- Superfight! is another card game in this vein, where each player plays a character card and two power/problem cards (one on their own character, another on an opponent's character), then debates over which creation would beat the character of that round's judge in a fight, resulting in match-ups like Mr. T with an assault rifle and riding a unicorn vs. 3 Stephen Hawkings with the Force.
Comic Books
- New Teen Titans/Uncanny X-Men crossover goes out of its way to avert this, as Professor X and Robin confer immediately, and the two teams join forces. The crossover instead focuses on how the personalities of the members of both teams would interact, both smoothly and with friction.
- Batman Vampire put to rest an age-old debate: The Dark Knight or the Prince of Darkness? Dracula and Batman fight over Gotham City to find out who the true master of fear and deception is. They both lose. Dracula is killed and Batman becomes an irredeemable vampire.
- In Supergirl one-shot Supergirl Special it is discussed by a news site's article titled "Battle of the Blondes", referring to Supergirl and Power Girl. Likewise, a social media user states he would pay good money to see them fighting each other.
- Superman:
- Dracula vs. Superman: By hypnotizing Lois, Dracula actually gained the upper hand and succeeded in drinking Superman's blood. However, Superman is solar powered, and seconds after drinking his blood, well... imagine eating a grenade.
- Superman vs. Muhammad Ali: When The Man of Steel is pitted against The Greatest in an intergalactic boxing match.
- Superman/Batman: In issue #78, a fight between Superman and Batman happens, but suddenly you see a narration, or rather, two narrations arguing against each other. Eventually, it is shown that two kids, one a fan of Superman and the other a fan of Batman, are arguing who wins. After much Ass Pulls done with each argument, the two kids agree that the two are friends and would not fight each other. Towards the end, we see Superman and Batman observing the kids. Superman wonders who would win and asks Batman what he thinks, but Batman just flies away. Batman believes Superman will win.
- Crossover "From Eternia— With Death!", pits the Man of Steel versus He-Man the Champion of Eterny, their respective dimensions' strongest men.
- Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash is a comic run about a three-way battle between them.
- Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1977): Though technically not a true inter-continuity crossover, being planted firmly in the main 616 continuity throughout, the Marvel Comics take on Godzilla nonetheless features the Big G throwing down with some of their most (as of the 1970s) famous faces. To whit:
- The very first issue has the King of Monsters crossing swords with Marvel's premiere super-spy, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Once it's clear that the standard SHIELD armaments are not going to do much more than annoy Godzilla, he assigns his old friends Dum Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones to the case. The following series is essentially one long Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny pitting Godzilla against the entire Marvel Universe.
- Issue 3 sees Godzilla visiting San Francisco, at the time under the aegis of the original Champions team: Angel and Iceman of the X-Men, Black Widow of... many things, and The Incredible Hercules. Other members Ghost Rider and Darkstar are not present- fortunately for them, because even combining their forces with SHIELD is not nearly enough to stop Godzilla's rampage.
- Issue 20: Godzilla is wandering New York after being shrunken by Hank Pym two issues previous. His height returning in fits and spurts, soon he finds himself facing down the Fantastic Four at a "mere" 20 feet. Even when no bigger than your average T. Rex, Godzilla still gives them a run for their money, and they are forced to use Dr. Doom's time machine to send him back to the prehistoric past, leading to:
- Issues 21 and 22 where the King faces the Devil, Devil Dinosaur that is. Despite the inevitable Let's You and Him Fight situation, the two prehistoric mutants eventually sense a kinship with one another and become Fire-Forged Friends. Unfortunately, Godzilla's radiation causes Doom's machine to malfunction, so he's pulled from his new ally and deposited in the middle of Times Square- now at his full size and very, very pissed off.
- Issues 23 and 24: Well, even in the New York City of the Marvel Universe, a fire-breathing lizard the size of a building doesn't go unnoticed for long. In what probably ranks among the single greatest cases of Cool vs. Awesome in comic book history, Godzilla squares up against both the Fantastic Four (again) and Marvel's premiere super hero team- The Avengers. As the narrator says:
"THE FEVER REACHES CRITICAL PEAK... AS EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES LAUNCH A LAST-DITCH ONSLAUGHT... AGAINST THE KING OF ALL MONSTERS.
- JLA/Avengers, has the Justice League of America vs. The Avengers, the highlight one-on-one fight being Superman vs. Thor. Superman wins, but with great difficulty.
- Moon 2012 had a special tilted Moon vs the Ghost of Lee Van Cleef, which literally had the Moon itself have a Showdown at High Noon against the actual ghost of Lee Van Cleef. It seemingly ended with a draw where Moon won the showdown, but Van Cleef escaped custody and bragged about it in a note.
- The October 2002 issue of Wizard Magazine included an "East vs. West" feature pitting American superheroes against Japanese manga and anime stars: the Bat Family vs. the G-Force, Phoenix vs. Tetsuo, Spider-Man vs. Vash the Stampede, Superman vs. Goku, and Wolverine vs. Manji.
- The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl:
- The first issue has a faked fanmail column consisting almost entirely of "Who would win in a fight, Squirrel Girl or [insert character here]?"
- Galactus is heading toward Earth, cloaked in a stealth field ("...but he forgot to make it work on squirrels!",) so fans will finally see that match-up. Squirrel Girl wins by talking Galactus into changing his diet.
- Pretty much the entire point of Squirrel Girl is that she is unbeatable, because she always manages to talk her opponents down. She does have to fight occasionally, but she still wins. A Running Gag consists of her defeating Doctor Doom, who has pretty much just accepted it at this point.
- "Marvel What-The", as a parody mag, of course takes the trope to hell and back. "Fight", though, is interpreted very liberally. And who dies? The comic writer, from a heart attack.
- Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong: Despite the title, the actual ultimate showdown is more between the King of the Monsters and the Man of Steel. Godzilla wins and Superman is almost killed by Godzilla's atomic breath.
Eastern Animation
Fan Works
- The Alterverse War: Kristofer Straub, the author of Starslip Crisis, put together Fuseli vs. the Touch and Go the Fuseli won, but only due to some clever maneuvering.
- The Brave and the Bold: The Lost Issues often sets Batman or The Thing against various characters.
- The Bridge: Bagan, resident Big Bad and a kaiju easily titled a deity; versus Harmony, living incarnation of the Tree of Harmony and source of Equestrian magic. Marginal victory to Bagan, Harmony couldn't stop Bagan and Bagan couldn't kill Harmony. Though Bagan did succeed in cutting her off from helping the heroes due to their battle's collateral damage, a secondary goal.
- Civilization V: Peace Walker is more or less about Snake and his Militaires Sans Frontiers faction being dropped into a game of Civilization V, facing off against some of history's greatest conquerors. In other words, Big Boss vs Attila the Hun, Shaka Zulu, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoléon Bonaparte, Oda Nobunaga, Caesar Augustus, George Washington, Vlad the Impaler...
- The Comic Book Universe Battles, which started in 1997 as a sub-section of a Xena: Warrior Princess fan's Callisto fansite and eventually grew into something all its own. Seen as a friendly rival by the above Grudge match, it later stopped proposing scenarios and let users submit, debate and vote on them. This user section has been shutdown and reopened several times over the decades but a small sample of the scores from match ups have been preserved and usually remain viewable in the database even when the site is "closed". It has a sister section called the "Fantasy Powers League" for user created characters. FLP players are less patient with the website's dormant periods than CBUB's, resulting in FPL having a few spiritual successors, the most relevant usually being linked in the forums.
- The Series Finale of The Conversion Bureau: Worlds Where It Wouldn't Work, pits Fanon character Tyrantlestia, against Canon Celestia in Screw Attack's Death Battle style fight. A decently written character, beats a God-Mode Sue.
- Coreline name-drops this Trope on its Opening Narration and delivers big-time: a post-apocalyptic world where superheroes that are fusions with other franchises and canonical supers beat the hell out of each other, Naruto-verse Ninja and One Piece Pirates try to kill each other in earnest on the high seas (with the occasional additional gunfire from Pirates of the Caribbean pirates and other types of ninja), Gundams face off against Battlemechs, MannCo. fights Torgue-Urdnot in a Corporate Warfare race to out-badass each other... and the more-than-occasional Badass Bystander that is sick of all the shit will try to bring the fight to a stop via gunfire (and maybe they will be packing something like a Mass Effect weapon or a Torgue gyro-jet rifle or a BFG designed by Brianna Diggers or being juiced out of their minds on Slaught... or all of the above).
- Dead or Alive 4: The Devil Factor is a crossover between the Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises. During the raid on DOATEC Paris, Dante ends up fighting none other than Ryu Hayabusa. The former is a half-demon mercenary while the latter is a super ninja with mystical elemental abilities and it is every bit as awesome as one would expect such a battle to be.
- Dream Tournament, a popular series of vote-driven fanfics on the Usenet group rec.games.video.arcade from the mid-'90s, pitted Fighting Game characters from different games against each other. The Tournament gave rise to several spinoffs, as well as many Fanon personality traits for the characters.
- Earth's Alien History: One of the glimpses of the Bad Future that Katie Marek comes from depicts her mother Vin (who has had Force training in addition to her canon Allomancy) going up against Darth Vader (who is augmenting his power with a Red Lantern Ring). It ultimately ends with a Mutual Kill, as Vin fatally electrocutes Vader, and he in turn uses the last of his strength to Neck Snap her.
- Fantasy of Utter Ridiculousness asks the question: "Who would win in a fight between Megas and Suika Ibuki?" The answer: Marisa Kirisame. The Extra Stage asks the same question with Yuuka Kazami taking Suika's place.
- Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne organized a Round Robin tournament featuring characters from all over anime (and sometimes, beyond) called Magical Troubleshooting Crossover Fighting Federation ULTRA. The various writers used and abused pretty much the entire Professional Wrestling trope list, with backstage plots ranging from mere personal power grabs and Mind Control to Third Impact and wresting Godhood from Kasumi Tendō Herself. The golden rule staving off the inevitable Fan Boy flame wars was understood to read, "Anyone, under the right circumstances, can defeat anyone else in a fight." The only systemic exceptions to this idea were made to account for anime-style "weight restrictions." It's worth noting that the story of how Kasumi became God and several other plot points such as Dark Sakura originated from MTCFF Beta which was a single-elimination tournament decided by votes rather than by individual authors, with such oddities as Fusion character "Nario" resulting from Naru of Battle Arena Toshinden and Mario of Super Mario Bros. tying in votes.
- Make Your Move applies this to Super Smash Bros. with movesets for everything from King K. Rool to Socrates.
- This is the entire premise of My Little Pony vs....
- The Outskirts Battledome exists for people to speculate who would win in a fight between two fictional characters or real-world people.
- Rich's ComixBlog has a story that pits LaCroix against the Master. Another story pits the Daleks against some Xenomorphs.
- The RPG Duelling League is a site dedicating to deciding which Video Game RPG characters would win in a fight. The site is organized into 6 week long elimination tournaments (refered to as seasons) with four different Character Tiers (Light, Middle, Heavy, and Godlike). The voters who decide who wins are also strongly encouraged NOT to vote according to popularity or plot powers, but rather comparative in-battle capabilities and performance.
- Discussed and Exploited in This Bites!. Even in One Piece, "who would win in a fight" is Serious Business. In a bid to escape Mr. 13 trying to kill him, Cross lies to the gathered crowd by saying they were fighting over who is the strongest of the Four Emperors (and that Mr. 13 said Kaido). This gets the local pirates arguing and snowballs into a street brawl among the onlookers that ends up setting half of Mock Town on fire.
- There was an old fanfiction Dream Tournament called the Ultimate Video Rumble, where some truly memorable fights happened both within and without the arena. Highlights include Haohmaru and Genjuro of Samurai Shodown fame clashing swords furiously, while everyone who attempts to break their battle gets tossed aside, and dysfunctional organizers and security staff who make Eddy Gordo of Tekken fame suffer after he got eliminated from the ring. The UVR was a deliberate spiritual successor to the first three Dream Tournaments, continuing many of the fanon events and characterizations from the DT.
- "Valve World", showing Team Fortress 2 Then Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, Half-Life 2, Deathmatch Classic, Day Of Defeat, Alien Swarm, Portal and then ending on Half-Life.
- Weiss Reacts has the Gurren Lagann against the Nirvash. The Gurren Lagann wins, barely, through Blake being a Determinator of the highest order.
- Later, Weiss against Glynda. Weiss wins by using an antic, ironically.
- Even later still, the Gurren Lagann, the Nirvash and the Shinkiro against the Voxes. Nobody wins: the Jersey Club and the Beacon gang team together to beat Tukson up for daring to intervene.
- Hokuago Tea-Time vs Team RWBY. The former win by being better musicians and being adorable. Blake is not happy. And the convention chapter has Adam and Raven, which nobody wins, although both are forced to retreat due to outside circumstances.
- Sites like Comic Book Resources and Hero Chat have their own (Comic Book Rumbles and It's Clobberin' Time!, respectively), among many, many other websites. They often don't like each other. Most infamous incident was a flame war and board raid between Rumbles and Star Destroyer, after Rumbles determined Borg Cubes can destroy the Death Star. Cue Fan Wank and board raid.
- Deadliest Fiction Wiki: using the formula from Deadliest Warrior, but for warriors of any media and franchise, with the warriors chosen by logical debates from the members of the site. It's essentially a wiki for Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny.
- Ultimate Showdown tournaments are a common occurrence on GameFAQs' "Board 8", allowing users to debate to the most extremely geekish limits possible about who'd win. The arguing can lead to some, hmmmm, very curious victories (Apparently, The Mask can just barely beat Broly with cartoon physics, the most powerful Darkstalkers can win left and right merely based on their vague backstories alone, Voldemort can upset Nanoha's constant nuking of areas and people and the Doctor can defeat The Flash with, uhhh, timey wimey stuff. Or prep time. Or whatever).
- Numerous websites dedicated solely to what faction from Star Wars and Star Trek would lay the ultimate smackdown upon all the others. StarDestroyer.net is a particularly (in)famous one, and SpaceBattles.com caters to all kinds of sci-fi matchups but is invariably dominated by Trek vs. Wars as well as the occasional just-for-fun curbstomp (the Orcs from The Lord of the Rings vs. modern machine guns, carpet bombing from B-52s, an orbiting Imperial Star Destroyer, and finally, the real kicker, doze udda Orkz). Both of these websites more or less grew out of the Usenet newsgroup alt.startrek.vs.starwars.
- Tor.com: Tor Books' website holds yearly "cage matches" pitting various fantasy characters against each other in a single-elimination tournament, with the characters' creators invited to write how they think each of their characters' battles would go.
- A now-gone discussion on the World of Warcraft forums about which of the capital cities in the game would be most defensible against attack. One side said the Undercity (the underground sewers and basements of the destroyed city Lordaeron, the Forsaken capital) would be the hardest to assault, and someone said they'd just put poison gas into the surface vents.
"What kind of gas would work against the undead?"
"Febreeze."
"...well played, sir." - "Hitler continued laughing, then finally said 'Goku! You came here expecting to find a madman, but instead, you found a GOD!' Hitler had become a Super Saiyan." How's that for a Crack Fic-style showdown? See it right here in all its Not Safe For Sanity glory. By the way, it also ships Goku x Anne Frank.
- The What If Raditz Turned Good? series by MasakoX has an epic one for DBZ fans, with a battle between Vegeta's Super Sayian 4 and Raditz's Super Sayian Blue ending in a mutual KO. The level of destruction beforehand is a testament to the power the two have at their disposal.
Films — Live-Action
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- The Avengers:
- Thor vs. Iron Man, with Captain America joining in at the end, and we get to see Mjölnir vs. Captain America's shield.
- Later, Thor vs. The Hulk.
- Captain America: Civil War is a massive extravaganza of this, starting off with Winter Soldier vs. Black Panther vs. Captain America, leading into a re-brainwashed Winter Soldier fighting through several Avengers before Cap stops him, leading into the titular all-character melee featuring pretty much every possible combat matchup between any two characters on opposite sides and culminating in super-sized Ant-Man vs. all of Team Iron Man, leading into Cap and Winter Soldier vs. Iron Man after Tony sees that one video.
- Thor: Ragnarok: Thor and The Hulk fight in the Grandmaster's arena. Thor seems to be winning, only for the Grandmaster to abruptly knock him out.
- Deadpool & Wolverine features a giant brawl between Deadpool and his posse, including Logan and a few friends they picked up, against Cassandra Nova's army of underlings. Deadpool's party includes Logan, Blade, Elektra, Laura, and Gambitnote , while Cassandra's army consisted of various villains and other characters from previous X-Men movies and other Marvel films considered seperate from the MCU.
- The Avengers:
- Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus: Exactly What It Says On The Tin, and Vs. R. Lee Ermey, with a cameo from Billy Mays.
- The Forbidden Kingdom: Jet Li vs. Jackie Chan. It was a draw, though Jet Li has gone on record as saying that in a no holds barred fight, Jackie would wipe the floor with him.
- Freddy vs. Jason. Two popular eighties Slasher Movie icons duke it out for the right to slaughter teens.
- Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, the very first Famous Monster vs Famous Monster movie. Universal then did two more (House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula), adding Dracula to make it a Triple Threat.
- Fast Five: Vin Diesel vs. Dwayne Johnson. Yes, it's as awesome as it sounds.
- Furious 7 seeks to up the ante by adding Jason Statham and Tony Jaa to the mix as villains.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit features a piano duel between Donald Duck and Daffy Duck, which quickly escalates into an actual duel.
- King Kong vs. Godzilla, in which the two greatest movie monsters of all time, one from the East and one from the West, beat the tar out of each other. The victor is ambiguous in the film, but Toho went on record giving the win to King Kong. Godzilla vs. Kong will see the two throw down again after fifty-nine years. This time Godzilla wins decisively.
- The Black Cat: Bela Lugosi vs. Boris Karloff. And it is awesome.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Where Superman and Batman throw down on the big screen.
- Sadako vs. Kayako: Cinematography's two most famous onryō throw it down in The Grudge match of 2016.
- Way of the Dragon features Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris. Lee wins by snapping Norris's neck.
- Rocky Balboa centers around an in-universe example, as a simulation between Rocky and current heavyweight champion Mason Dixon prompts enough media buzz to lead to a real exhibition bout between them.
- Ip Man 3 has the main conflict boil down to a sparring match between the Chinese martial artist Donnie Yen and American boxer Mike Tyson. Donnie fights Mike to a standstill.
Literature
- "Shark vs. Train": Parodied in the children's book which takes the more common sense approach, with hilarious results (it matters, for instance, whether the competition is under water, or involves trying to sell lemonade).
- 1906: Arsène Lupin vs. Sherlock Holmes, by Lupin's author Maurice Leblanc, as an Affectionate Parody. Soon afterwards, Arthur Conan Doyle complained and, from the following edition onwards, the story became Arsène Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes (or, in some versions, "Holmlock Shears").
- The battles in Escapist Dream fit this trope, since they're basically about fights between fandoms. There's literally a fight between an American geek with a lightsaber vs a Japanese otaku dressed as a ninja. And there's even a fight between two gamers using video game powers but one was a retro gamer while the other was a modern FPS player.
- In the sequel Otaku Girl various internet memes join combat.
- Animorphs: Huge fanboys Jake and Marco from like to argue about whether Batman could beat Spider-Man.
- Older Than Dirt: The Iliad is this to a significant portion of Greek mythology, including the gods themselves. It also makes clear that Zeus would win with one arm behind the back if he decided to join the frame (so he claims, and the gods, speaking from experience, don't dare to contradict him)... And that's why he stays out of it.
- David Weber's Out of the Dark and vampires versus aliens. And that's just the first part of the trilogy!
- The climax of Ready Player One becomes this due to the major players all piloting simulations of Humongous Mecha from 1980s pop culture, culminating in a showdown between the protagonist's Ultraman and the Big Bad's Mechagodzilla.
- "Bear v. Shark" by Chris Bachelder could be termed the discussed version of this trope.
- The Circumstances Leading to a Certain Magical Heavy Zashiki Warashi’s Simple Killer Queen's Marriage crosses over a whole bunch of different series by Kazuma Kamachi. This results in (and this isn't an exhaustive list) espers vs Badass Normals vs Humongous Mecha vs Youkai vs Norse gods vs an Eldritch Abomination stronger than everyone else combined.
- Discussed in The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963. Kenny sees his Big Brother Bully Byron meeting their cantankerous Grandma Sands for the first time in years as this, anticipating a massive fight between them (and even likening it to Godzilla versus King Kong). Needless to say, he's disappointed when Byron immediately submits to Grandma Sands and obeys her.
Live-Action TV
- Arrowverse
- In The Flash (2014), the first ever crossover with Arrow in 2014 is titled "The Flash vs. Arrow", where Oliver Queen has to take on a Brainwashed and Crazy Barry Allen.
- In Legends of Tomorrow, the episode "The Justice Society of America", has the Legends take on said titular team, and losing spectacularly.
- Once again in The Flash, the 2016 "Invasion!" crossover had Team Arrow (Spartan, Speedy), the Legends (White Canary, Atom, Firestorm, and Heat Wave), and Supergirl get mind controlled by the Dominators, forcing Green Arrow and the Flash to fight their friends. Oliver takes on the Badass Normals while Barry fights the ones with superpowers. Oliver manages to fight off most of the heroes before Wally West/Kid Flash comes in and assists. Barry takes out most of the heroes with lightning throws before he's left in a one on one fight against Supergirl. Barry wins by tricking Supergirl into destroying the mind control device.
- Arrow's season 5 finale has this with heroes and villains pulled from throughout Arrow's history in one giant showdown. The contenders include Oliver Queen, Malcolm Merlyn, Nyssa Al-Ghul, and Slade Wilson, facing off against Adrian Chase, Talia Al-Ghul, Evelyn Sharp, and Captain Boomerang. The stakes being Oliver's legacy and the fate of his family. As a bonus, Dinah Drake and Black Siren pit their Canary Cries against each other.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe's Netflix shows.
- Jessica Jones (2015) has Jessica Jones fighting a Brainwashed and Crazy Luke Cage after he falls under Kilgrave's Mind Manipulation.
- The Defenders (2017) pits Luke Cage against Danny Rand, including a scene of Danny using the Iron Fist to deliver a right hook to Luke's face.
- In How I Met Your Mother, Barney, Marshall and Lily go to the event "Wrestlers Vs. Robots" where Mexican-style wrestlers battle a variety of robots.
- Deadliest Warrior: A Spike TV show which explores "history's greatest killing machines", looks at their historic backgrounds and the science behind their equipment and fighting styles, and pairs them off in a one-on-one computer simulated fight. Showdowns include "Gladiator vs. Apache", "Ninja vs. Spartan", "Taliban vs. IRA", "Yakuza vs. Mafia", and "William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu".
- Jurassic Fight Club: A History Channel show, similar to Deadliest Warrior in that it uses best available knowledge to establish the abilities, strengths, and weaknesses of the animals, then CGIs the actual fights. Match-ups include Allosaurus vs. Ceratosaurus; Mega-Lion vs. the Short-Faced Bear; and Megalodon vs. Brygmophyseter, the "biting sperm whale".
- Animal Planet had a short lived series called Animal Face Off, which was basically Jurassic Fight Club done with living species that plausibly might confront one another in the wild.
- Harry Hill's TV Burp: "Well, I like X, but then I also like Y. But which is better?" [Costumed/made-up/bewigged representations/impersonators of X and Y crash into studio from opposite directions and make a beeline for each other] "FIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!"
- Doctor Who:
- The original series episode "The Mind Robber" eventually, through convoluted means, features a sword fight that involves Cyrano de Bergerac, D'Artagnan, Blackbeard, and Sir Lancelot.
- And "Doomsday" brings the fight people had been wanting for decades: Daleks vs. Cybermen.
- The novel "All-Consuming Fire" had Sherlock Holmes and the seventh Doctor square off with the Cthulhu Mythos.
- "Let's Kill Hitler" has the showdown we never knew we desperately wanted: Adolf Hitler v. The Eternal Legionary, Rory Williams. Rory takes down Hitler without breaking a sweat.
- Saturday Night Live: Spoofed in a recurring sketch in which George Wendt leads a cadre of football fans who speculate on the scores of hypothetical games pitting the Chicago Bears against other teams, with the Bears facing increasingly unlikely handicaps, such as being shrunk to the size of midgets. (Hint: Da Bears win.)
Wendt: Who would win, the Death Star or the Enterprise?
Others: Ditka! - Star Trek: The Original Series: In the episode "The Savage Curtain", aliens set up a "good vs. evil" battle in an attempt to understand what "good" and "evil" are. On the "good" side are Kirk and Spock, along with alien-created simulations of Kirk's personal hero Abraham Lincoln and Spock's idol Surak, the Vulcan philosopher. On the "evil" side are simulacra of Genghis Khan, the greatest conqueror in Earth history; Colonel Green, a vicious and amoral militia leader who liked to strike at his enemies while negotiating with them; Kahless the Unforgettable, the founder of the Klingon Empire; and Zora of Tiburon, a Mad Scientist who liked to experiment on live, intelligent beings.
- Super Sentai do this about once a year as a movie, usually by having the current Super Sentai meet up with the previous year's Super Sentai in a Let's You and Him Fight scene before teaming up to take on the Big Bad of the film.
- Samurai Sentai Shinkenger met up with Tensou Sentai Goseiger for a movie in 2011.
- Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger then met up with Tensou Sentai Goseiger before taking on Space Sheriff Gavan and going on to fight Kamen Rider Decade, the last done two months after their own series ended.
- Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen pits the Kamen Riders (led by Decade) against the Sentai warriors (led by GokaiRed). Kamen Rider Fourze and the Tokumei Sentai Go Busters eventually pop up and ask why they're even fighting in the first place.
- Kamen Rider Decade: For the Kamen Rider series. Decade can take on the form and powers of the last nine hero Riders, allowing match-ups like Kuuga vs. Kiva, Kiva vs. Knight and so on.
- Angel: In one episode, Angel and Spike argue vehemently over who would win if astronauts and cavemen got into a fight. Even better, they somehow manage to get all of the other main characters at the time to argue over this. Through the entire episode.
Wesley: Ah. You've been yelling at each other for 40 minutes about this? ...do the astronauts have weapons?
Angel & Spike: [in unision] NO! - One episode of Game of Thrones opens with two Lannister soldiers discussing who's the best fighter in Westeros. They've narrowed it down to Ser Jaime "Kingslayer" Lannister, Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane, and Ser Loras "The Knight of Flowers" Tyrell. Their discussion is cut short by the Stark army.
Soldier #1: What about Loras Tyrell?
Soldier #2: He's been stabbing Renly Baratheon for years, and Renly ain't dead! - Buffy the Vampire Slayer has an episode called "Buffy vs. Dracula". The titular fight ends inconclusively, with Buffy killing the Count, but with him clearly able to come Back from the Dead at will.note The show also had to break many of its own rules about how its vampires work * in order to pit Buffy against a recognizable version of Dracula; the whole episode relied heavily on Rule of Cool.
- Discussed in The Big Bang Theory when the guys argue over which fictional characters, mostly superheroes, would best who in a fight.
- Jeopardy!: After Ken Jennings' 75 wins in 2004, the producers held the "Ultimate Tournament of Champions", which ran from February to May 2005, inviting 145 previous tournament winners and 5-time champions who competed against one another. The tournament was littered with upsets and dark horse victories in the early rounds. Of the "Nifty Nine" champions that were byed to the second round following their record setting and accomplished prior runs on the show, seven of them lost their opening game, with only Brad Rutter and Frank Spangenberg advancing to the quarterfinals. Of the thirteen previous Tournament of Champions winners who started in Round 1, only four made it to Round 2 (Ryan Holznagel, Michael Dupee, Dan Melia, Mark Dawson), with only Melia making it to Round 3.
- Stargate Atlantis: In the Season Four episode "Midway", Teal'c visits Atlantis. Naturally, he ends up in a sparring match with Ronan, Atlantis' resident Big Guy. The fight was still even when Carter broke it up. As a bonus, we also get Ronan AND Teal'c versus a large number of Wraith. The Wraith lose.
- Midsomer Murders: Implied in "Blood on the Saddle". At the climax, despite now believing he’s Billy the Kid, Adam hallucinates that Tom Barnaby is Marshal Wyatt Earp. As it's established early on his persona is drawn from his love of Westerns, it is implied that his delusions are manifesting as an epic climax between the greatest Western outlaw and the greatest Western lawman.
Music
- The trope is named for the song and flash animation "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" by Lemon Demon, in which many famous fictional characters, pop culture icons and historical persons come together for the sole purpose of knocking the living crap out of each other. (The last one standing is Mister Rogers in a bloodstained sweater.)
This is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
Good guys, bad guys and explosions, as far as the eye can see
And only one will survive, I wonder who it will be
This is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. - Defied in Ookla the Mok's "Stop Talking About Comic Books or I'll Kill You":
I don't care if the Hulk could defeat the Man of Steel
I'm gonna rearrange your face if you continue to debate
Whether Logan's claws could pierce Steve Rogers' shield - "Dreadnought" by Sabaton is about the battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of World War I:
The North Sea has drawn them here
The fleets of the high seas approach
A contest of titans commence
These days will dictate their fate
The Grand Fleet prepares their guns
Unleashed as the dreanoughts clash at last!
The fleets of the high seas approach
A contest of titans commence
These days will dictate their fate
The Grand Fleet prepares their guns
Unleashed as the dreanoughts clash at last!
Podcasts
- Episode 286 of Every Frame a Pause, named "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" as a Shout-Out to the original music video, involved the hosts gathering a bunch of fictional characters (sorted into three weight classes depending on their level of power), putting them in a tournament and debating who would win each match.
- The Galactic Watercooler podcast has a recurring feature called Fantasy Sci-Fi League in which participants choose teams based on specific roles (warrior, pilot, reconnaissance, etc) and place them in a scenario such as the rescue of one of the podcasters from a Klingon prison planet, and give them some basic equipment (such as Carl Sagan's Starship of the Imagination). The winner is chosen based on the most entertaining way of completing a mission.
- The PAX Prime 2015 Acquisitions Incorporated game is called "Darkmagic vs. Do'Urden", Jim Darkmagic being the (self-proclaimed) greatest wizard of the Forgotten Realms.
Pro Wrestling
- The promotional war and invasion angles can end up like this trope, in theory. In practice, they tend to be disappointments. One owner often refuses to acknowledge another organization as worth comparing to their own, and as such they usually end up being fake crossovers. The most famous flop among fans in the USA was WCW invades the WWE, an invasion angle In Name Only. Vince's kids just aligned a bunch of WWF wrestlers, some of whom happened to have gained some prior fame elsewhere. Some of whom. The prior NWA invades WWF was a truer example of this trope. New Japan's invasion with Universal Wrestling Federation did actually involve both companies but was so one sided it actually contributed to the latter's death.
- Among some other examples truer to the spirit of this trope were AJW vs LLPW, WWF vs SMW, Ring of Honor vs Dragon Gate, ROH vs IWA Puerto Rico, ROH vs CZW, CZW vs IWA Mid-South, New Japan Pro-Wrestling vs Pro Wrestling Noah, All Japan Pro Wrestling vs Pro Wrestling ZERO1, NJPW vs ROH, WSU vs Beyond.
- Subverted with Perros Del Mal Producciones, a company based around CMLL's main rudo faction that was planned to be used for these purposes but broke away to make a deal with AAA. When PDM "invaded" AAA, the established rudo stables welcomed them into their Sociedad.
- This is the purpose of the World Wrestling League's Dream Match Tours. It gets together wrestlers working in different promotions and countries who may otherwise never fight or team up, or at least may not do so anywhere where the target audience can see it.
Roleplay
- A key draw of the Destroy the Godmodder series. Literally any fictional character can be summoned as an entity or appear as an NPC and fight other fictional characters on the Battlefield.
Sports
- Don Bradman and Babe Ruth, widely recognized as the greatest ever players in cricket and baseball, respectively, met each other in 1932. While they didn't play against each other, certainly not in any formal capacity, Bradman offered Ruth the chance to try his hand at cricket. Ruth started by trying to bat cricket-style, and struggling to lay bat on ball, before switching to his baseball stance and hitting the Australian bowlers around the park. Ruth also took Bradman to watch a Yankees game, where Bradman surprised his host by spotting a double-play.
- Boxing had three of them, all of them featuring Muhammad Ali:
- The Fight of the Century, the 1971 fight between WBA/WBC heavyweight champion Joe Frazier and lineal champion Muhammad Ali. It was the first time two undefeated heavyweight champions had met in the ring. Frazier won by decision in 15 rounds.
- The Rumble in the Jungle, the 1974 bout with heavyweight champion George Foreman. Ali, having come off his suspension from boxing for draft evasion, had successfully battled his way back to the top of the boxing world to take back the title from Foreman. Ali won the fight by knockout in eight rounds.
- The Thrilla in Manila, the 1975 rematch between Ali and Frazier, in which Ali won by TKO in 14 rounds to become undisputed heavyweight champion and taking a 2-1 career lead over Frazier.note
- The Fight of the Century
- Then in 2017 the "showdown" many people had speculated on over the years between pro boxing and Mixed Martial Arts happened, when champion boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. met MMA champion Conor McGregor for a one-off fight using boxing rules. The referee stopped the fight after ten of a maximum twelve rounds when McGregor failed to defend himself, giving Mayweather victory. However, many observers who had expected the fight to be one-sided were surprised by how well McGregor performed under boxing constraints.
- College football runs on this trope, though they call it The Game Of The Century. note Historically, the best teams in college football often didn't get to play against each other. So when they did, it earned this title, and the accompanying hype. Now that the post-season is designed to create such matchups, the trope still applies in seasons where two elite teams exist, and everyone wants to see them both make it to the final game. In recent years, this has been Alabama versus Clemson.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Reputedly, the design teams at TSR used to argue about which setting's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition baddies would trounce the other: Dark Sun or Ravenloft. The usual conclusion was that the outcome would depend on whose turf the baddies fought on, and/or whether Vecna and Gwydion were allowed to participate.
- Dragon #200 had a debate on who was The Multiverse's greatest wizard: Elminster (argued for by Ed Greenwood) or Raistlin (argued for by Tracy Hickman). At the end of the article, it's revealed that the battle was being set up by Mordenkainen.
- Monsterpocalypse has basically two lines: one based on its own Fantasy Kitchen Sink setting, and one based on Voltron. Two compatible lines. Meaning you can end up with Drule Empire vs. Not Zilla Terra Khan or even Voltron vs. Cthugrosh.
- Weiss Schwarz is a Collectible Card Game that revolves around pitting cast members of numerous Japanese video game, manga, anime, and light novel series against one another, allowing such scenarios as sword duels between Saber from Fate/stay night and Nanao Hibiya from Reign of the Seven Spellblades.
- Who Would Win?: Exactly What It Says On The Tin. Two players each get a random character, and then an event. Argue why your character would win. Santa Claus vs. Genghis Khan in synchronized swimming? Babar vs. Einstein in ping pong?
Video Games
- The Alien vs. Predator franchise is entirely devoted to this trope.
- Asura's Wrath: Lost Episodes 1 and 2 pits Asura against Street Fighter IV's (Evil) Ryu and Akuma/Oni. The latter had to be buffed up to Asura's level to stand a chance, of course.
- In-universe example in Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30: Allen and Garnett start two missions by having an argument regarding who would win a fight between Batman and Superman.
- Capcom vs.: The Intercontinuity Massive Multiplayer Crossover Fighting Game series where a bunch of unconnected Capcom properties and unconnected properties from another company come together to see who's the best.
- Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion and its updated version basically answers the questions of: what would happen if Ben 10 and Samurai Jack met in a dark alley, Father and Aku had a little fiery feud, and Blossom and Dexter teamed up to fight Vilgax and Grim in Stormalong Harbor. The game answers these questions, and a whole lot more.
- EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Attack of Darkforce serves as this for the EXTRAPOWER series. Want to see Zophy throw a punch against Big Bad Dark Force? Ever wondered if Sharkungo or Forcestar can go toe to toe against the remodelers of Tarantula? Or if Guren Tiger and Gecko Wolf can take on Yoberiade and the Yami Clan themselves? The game unites heroes and villainous factions from across the EXTRAPOWER universe, with about two dozen playable characters to swap in and out of the party, giving ample room to explore matchups.
- The Family Guy vs. American Dad! web fighting game in promotion of the series' DVD releases; Ryu is the game's boss.
- Dissidia Final Fantasy: The game and its prequel 012 pit the lead characters from the first ten Final Fantasy titles (first thirteen as of 012, with both games also featuring the likes of Shantotto, Gabranth, Kain, Tifa, Gilgamesh, and Prishe) against each of their respective arch-foes from their respective worlds with the fate of The Multiverse at stake. The 2015 sequel-slash-reboot extends not only as far as the then-most recent numbered entry, Final Fantasy XV, but also includes the protagonists from spin-off titles like Tactics and Type-0.
- Dynasty Warriors: Gundam: And when they didn't stop with Warriors, they decided to do the same thing to Gundam. But there are few things more awesome than watching completely unrelated Gundams ripping suits by the hundreds.
- Gundam Vs Series: While on the topic of Gundam, there is also the Vs. Series that brings A LOT of the Gundam series ranging from the very first Gundam to the recent Gundam series in one huge 3D Arena Fighting Game. Characters from the Universal Century can fight the above mentioned Build Fighters characters in 1v1 or team battles (which implies that the Gunplas from the show are actually converted into real sized Gundams and Mobile Suits and that the fighters are actual pilots now).
- In the Half-Life mod The Specialists, most character models are from some action movie (and two from video games): Smith Agents and Morpheus, from The Matrix; Castor, from Face/Off; Agent 47, from the Hitman series; and Gordon Freeman wearing a black trench coat. This means that it is impossible to play the game without an epic battle between action icons, unless everyone is using the generic Mercenary and Seal skins.
- The Jackbox Party Pack: "Champ'd Up" from Party Pack 7 is a drawing game where each player is tasked to draw the "Champion" of a category like "Immaturity" or "Being Majestic". Then each player creates an "underdog" to face another player's Champion, having to guess the category from the Champion's design, and the other players vote to see who wins.
- Jump Force is the latest game to pit Shonen Jump characters against each other. The first was 1989's Famicom Jump: History of Heroes, followed by several games including Jump Super Stars.
- Kamen Rider Climax Heroes is the Kamen Rider Crossover Fighting Game that includes all of the main Heisei Riders as well as some Showa veterans as playable characters. The original Kamen Rider Kuuga can fight alongside with the original Kamen Rider Kiva against Kamen Rider Decade for example. Or you can even have a battle between Kamen Rider Build vs Kamen Rider Zi-O vs Kamen Rider Ex-Aid vs Kamen Rider Drive. Is it awesome? HECK YEAH IT IS!
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II has the two protagonists, Rean Schwarzer and Lloyd Bannings meeting and fighting against each other during the Divertissment Chapter. Although players are controlling Lloyd and Rixia for this fight, the end result was that both had a stalemate, right before Rean brings out his big guns.
- Mortal Kombat:
- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe: The final epic battle ends in a draw with only Superman and Raiden left standing, but the storyline does feature DC characters winning more fights than MK characters, due to their side of the story being a chapter longer. Perhaps most notable is a scene where a weakened Captain Marvel is able to defeat Scorpion, Baraka, and Shang Tsung in quick succession.
- Mortal Kombat X has become this through DLC Guest Fighters including Jason Voorhees, Predator, Leatherface, and a Xenomorph-Tarkatan hybrid.
- Mortal Kombat 11 keeps up with its predecessors by including the Terminator, the Joker, Spawn, RoboCop and John Rambo.
- Mortal Kombat 1 ups the ante by including Omni-Man, Homelander, Peacemaker, Ghostface, Conan the Barbarian, and the T-1000.
- M.U.G.E.N: A custom Fighting Game system which allows anyone to create any character from any franchise and pit them against each other.
- MultiVersus is a platform Mascot Fighter that brings all sorts of iconic characters across the vast Warner Bros.' library. You'll likely not find another fighting game where DC superheros such as Batman or Superman can fight classic cartoon icons such as Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry, alongside many others such as Arya Stark, Steven Universe, The Iron Giant, Rick Sanchez, a superpowered Shaggy Rogers, or even freaking LeBron James.
- Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl lives up to its title, with characters from Nickelodeon-owned series fighting each other. What's particularly noteworthy is that this is the first time where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Garfield would both be featured in an official fighting game, a few months after it launched.
- PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: It's right there in the title.
- Project × Zone gives us Yuri (with Estelle), considered as the biggest badass protagonist of the Tales Series versus Sanger, Banpresto's biggest walking badass for one fight. This game also gives us Dante (with Demitri) versus Jedah, a fight we wanted to see back in Capcom Fighting Evolution.
- Thanks to the Puzzle & Dragons collaboration series, players can send a team consisting of Goku, Cloud, Red, Shinji (and Unit 001), and Hello Kitty off to fight Darkseid. Unfortunately, while both Goku and Superman are in the game, neither appear in the dungeons for the collaborations (most of them are villains only). So that showdown is avoided.
- Quake III: Arena: pits Doom, Quake, Quake II, Wolfenstein 3-D and Original Generation characters against each other in a fight for supremacy. The PlayStation 2 port Quake III: Revolution also adds the Reaper and the Mistress.
- Quake Champions, the continuation of III, also adds Wolfenstein characters into the mix.
- Samsara, a mod for Doom Source ports, allows you to play as Doomguy, Chex Warrior, Corvus, B.J. Blazkowicz, Parias, Duke, Security Officer, and Ranger. And in any game outside their own, their characters even have respective Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels depending on which one you chose. They're also balanced for class based gameplay in deathmatches, capture the flag, etc.
- Doomguy: Damage (His weapons pack a heavy punch, particularly the Super Shotgun).
- Chex Warrior: Defense (Fred Chexter comes from a kid friendly game that contained Non-Lethal KOs, thus he takes the least amount of damage from attacks).
- Corvus: Utility (Heretic's inventory system allows Corvus to deploy a variety of items).
- B.J. Blazkowicz: Marksman (Wolfenstein 3-D didn't have any shotgun type weapons and the weapons were pinpoint accurate).
- Parias: Brawler (He moves the fastest and takes reduced explosion damage, allowing him to get up close).
- Duke: Crowd Control (Duke uses a jet pack and weapons with wide spread but can't take a lot of damage).
- Security Officer: Suppression (Despite having a reload system and bullets not being hitscan, the Security Guard's weapons have Secondary Fire and can saturate the area with weapons fire).
- Ranger: Artillery (Ranger works the best using the rocket launcher, not only for raining hell but also for performing a Rocket Jump for mobility, it gets even worse for his enemies should he find Quad Damage.)
- This is also the whole point of the Game Mod Quake Champions: Doom Edition.
- Scribblenauts: allows for a nearly infinite number of these. Bigfoot versus Longcat, God + Shotgun + Skateboard versus Cthulhu, T. Rex versus Robot Zombies... The fourth video found here takes this to absurd lengths.
- Sherlock Holmes versus Arsène Lupin: The Frogware 2007 game, known in some countries as Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis.
- Soulcalibur III, IV, V, and VI all have the Create-A-Soul mode, which lets you build completely original characters. The games provide armor and equipment that lets you create characters from pretty much any franchise (within reason) and pit them against each other to see who's best. III even has a set of female-only parts that make your CAS look exactly like KOS-MOS, and certain other characters can be recreated with a striking degree of accuracy. You want one of the Doctors? You can do it. Batman? Harley Quinn? The Joker? No problem. Zoidberg? WHY NOT ZOIDBERG? The Undertaker? Absolutely. Bad Box Art Mega Man? Paunchy stomach included. Phoenix Wright? No objections here. Want to make the Power Rangers? Just pick a color. Cyclops? Jean Grey? Them and other mutants too. Pikachu? I CHOOSE YOU! MissingNo? Somehow... yes. Doctor Doom? Heck yeah! Austin Powers? YEAH, BABY! Chuck Norris? Do you even need to ask? Finn, Jake, the Ice King, the Flame Princess, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum? MATHEMATICAL! Jamie Hyneman? Myth Busted. Queen Amidala? The Force is strong with this one. Motoko Kusanagi? V lets you recreate her right from the moment you first pop in the game. The characters are nearly endless, and all yours to pit against each other as you wish. Just check out this Tumblr for hundreds of recreations from V alone.
- And after the release of VI, many more characters across the Entertainment Omniverse are being created and appearing in the Create-A-Soul's new gallery mode daily, which allows you to view the created characters of other players who uploaded them and you can download and customize them as your own. You saw your favorite Kamen Rider Character or wanna make your own? Definitely download them for even more RIDER KICKING BATTLES IN TIME!!!! Wanna prove who's the best in Never Land between Captain Hook and Captain Jake? YO HO AND LET'S GO!!!! A challenge between Danny Phantom against Kyo Kusanagi? OKAY!!!! Wanna play as Bob Ross? You better be ready to paint some combos! Spider-Man vs Thanos Rematch? ULTIMATE YES.
- Star Wars: Battlefront II has two instances:
- This is the main point of the "Hero Assault" mode on Mos Eisley. In normal gameplay, a lucky player can become a Hero Unit such as Obi-Wan or Darth Vader. Mos Eisley offers an Assault mode, which is usually only seen in Space battles. This version has every single Hero Unit duking it out on one map. Every. Single. One. Yoda, General Grievous, Ki-Adi Mundi, Boba Fett, if he or she appeared on another map, he or she'll appear here. DLC for the Xbox verison of the game later added the mode to other maps, while also adding Kit Fisto and Asajj Ventress.
- About halfway through the campaign mode, shortly after the Grand Army of the Republic turns into the Imperial Army, there's a sequence over a few missions where the player takes on a group of hiding Jedi, a reactivated army of battle droids on Mustafar and then another army of clone troopers on Kamino before the Rebellion gets off the ground.
- Super Robot Wars Z has one battle where half of the cast filled with famous Humongous Mecha anime fight with another half the cast filled with famous Humongous Mecha anime. Who wins? The side you control has to win, so you can progress through the game.
- Super Robot Wars: Original Generation The Moon Dwellers delivers one hell of a showdown between Sanger Zonvolt, a German samurai fresh from his Project × Zone adventures (see above), and Al-Van Lunks who is an alien knight. And both men use a BFS as their primary weapon. To explain further: In Al-Van's debut game, a lot of his sword skills were very similar to Sanger's (who has debuted long before Al-Van), so fans have been clamoring for their showdown long before J gets included into the OG-verse. The fans got their wish.
- Super Smash Bros. is the Nintendo example of this trope, as it pits the Nintendo characters against each other outside their respective worlds. Then the third game began adding third-party characters, so as of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, you can set up matches like Mario vs. Sonic, Link vs. Cloud, Kirby vs. Pac-Man, Fox vs. Snake, Samus vs. Classic Mega Man, Little Mac vs. Ryu, Pit vs. Bayonetta, Pikachu vs. Simon, Robin vs. Joker, Marth vs. Hero, Duck Hunt vs. Banjo-Kazooie, Ken vs. Terry, Villager and Isabelle plus the Mii(s) vs. Steve and Alex (albeit this one is Played for Laughs, but still), Bowser vs. Sephiroth, Min Min vs. Kazuya, or even Sora vs. a Piranha Plant.
- Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator is designed with this trope in mind, allowing players to pit a wide variety of fighters and armies against each other. As of the time of writing it allows historical factions such as World War II-era US Marines and Roman legionnaires, fictional units such as zombies and orcs, wildlife such as chickens and penguins, normally inanimate furniture such as cupboards, dinosaurs and Chuck Norris. Later updates would add armies such as ogres, Jedi and Stormtroopers (albeit not named that for copyright reasons) and mechs from RoboCop.
- Warriors Orochi: Koei's video game crossover between their Three Kingdoms China Dynasty Warriors and their Sengoku Japan Samurai Warriors franchises. By Warriors Orochi 3, they also tossed in Guest Fighters Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa, and The Trojan War's Achilles.
- Speaking of which it was about the time that one of the default create options was Chun-Li that the WWE Video Games and others like them showed they were serious about this trope, going as far as having actual wrestlers where this could be invoked. Could Hulk Hogan beat "Stone Cold" Steve Austin or John Cena? Please, why stop there? Ever wondered who the best fighter in Star Trek is? You can get your answer here. Think this is way to show it's better than Star Wars? Which obscure characters do you want to make up to prove it? Want another Final Fantasy fighter? Just pick the costumes you want them to wear. Could Kasumi or Ryu beat Tina or Bass in their natural environment? Why not? What about if a fighter from Soulcalibur could hang without weapons? Could you, yourself, win NXT? Try it. Is Kim Possible really a better fighter than Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Or Buffy better than Faith? Or Commander Shepard? Heck you could recreate a fight in Arrow or have them fight someone from Archer if you wanted.
Visual Novels
- Nasuverse:
- Fate/stay night revolves around King Arthur, Gilgamesh, Heracles, Medea, Medusa, Cu Chulainn, Sasaki Kojiro, one Hassan-i Sabbah, and Angra Mainyu being summoned into the modern day for a fight to the death.
- Fate/Zero follows King Arthur, Gilgamesh, Lancelot, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, Alexander the Great, Gilles de Rais, one Hassan-i Sabbah, and Angra Mainyu in a similar war.
- Fate/EXTRA changes it to Nero, Tamamo-no-Mae, Cu Chulainn, Lu Bu Fengxian, Francis Drake, Gawain, Robin Hood, Li Shuwen, Alice, Vlad III, and Vairocana, along with the creators' own Arcueid Brunestud and Shiki Ryougi.
- Fate/Prototype has King Arthur, Gilgamesh, Perseus, Heracles, Cu Chulainn and The Beast in a fight to the death instead.
- The prequel Fragments of Sky Sliver has King Arthur, Brynhild, Arash, Ramses II, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, one Hassan-i Sabbah, and Paracelsus von Hohenheim.
- Fate/Apocrypha has Siegfried, Chiron, Vlad III, Astolfo, Avicebron/Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Frankenstein's Monster, and Jack the Ripper working together as the Servants of Black to fight the Servants of Red, consisting of Mordred, Atalanta, Karna, Achilles, William Shakespeare, Spartacus, and Semiramis. Did we mention that they're headed by Joan of Arc and Shiro Tokisada Amakusa?
- Fate/strange Fake has Gilgamesh, Enkidu, The Horseman of Pestilence, Alexandre Dumas, Jack the Ripper, two members of The Hashshashin, Richard the Lionheart, Alcides, Queen Hippolyta, Francois Prelati, some kind of Spider Tank with lion motifs that was heavily implied to be Thomas Edison, but eventually revealed to be Humbaba, a monster defeated by Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and a mysterious being who can shapeshift into various characters like Captain Ahab, Icarus, and Asclepius.
- Of course, all of them pale in comparison to the Crisis Crossover of the franchise, Fate/Grand Order, which has pretty much all of those characters, on top of having Xuanzang, Oda Nobunaga, Nikola Tesla, Edmond Dantes, and Arjuna, just to name a few.
Web Animation
- Dead Fantasy shows what happens when a bunch of girls from the Final Fantasy series go up against a bunch of girls from the Dead or Alive series. In case you didn't figure it out by yourself, it's fanservice.
- Rooster Teeth's DEATH BATTLE!: sets characters up against each other as well, from Boba Fett vs. Samus Aran to Mike Haggar vs. Zangief to Starscream vs. Rainbow Dash. Notably not decided by votes, but by a look at each side's actual capabilities and extrapolating based on that.
- And for the 25th match they've did one for Goku and Superman. Superman won. Boomstick, one of the show's hosts, was utterly euphoric when the fight finished because it meant everybody would finally stop asking them to do it. Of course, lots of people were unhappy with the result, so Death Battle did their first and at-the-time only re-match for the 50th match. Same result. They then laid down very clearly why they were convinced that the fight would never turn out any other way, to curtail this happening again. Of course, that didn't stop them from eventually going in for their third match for Season 10's penultimate match-up, another first-time for the series, this time using every canon and related material just to give them their best possible odds. Once again, the same result.
- As of 2023, there's been only three ties in the show's history: Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro, which ended in them destroying the universe, Pinkie Pie vs. Deadpool, which ended with Pinkie throwing Deadpool the birthday party that Chad and Ben had neglected, and Scooby Doo vs. Courage the Cowardly Dog, which was more like a spat between invincible friends and actually ends with Courage's abusive owner Eustace dying instead.
- There's also the unique case of Dr. Eggman vs. Dr. Wily, in which neither combatant wins, and a crazed Metal Sonic takes them both out.
- For the season finale of the show's 8th season, two of animation's heaviest hitters were put against each other to end the season with a bang, Saitama vs. Popeye the Sailor Man. Popeye wins.
- The ninth season finale pitted Gogeta against Vegito in a battle of Potara Earrings versus Fusion Dance. Vegito wins.
- Season 10 notably features two match-ups that were voted to happen by fans, that being Bill Cipher versus Discord, and Cole MacGrath versus Alex Mercer. While Bill ultimately wins the former match, Discord gets the last laugh by trapping Bill in the Nightmare Realm and saving Equestria from Weirdmageddon at the cost of his life.
- Season 10s finale also ends it with a bang, being a galaxy-sized slugfest between fictions first two Planet Eater's, Galactus vs. Unicron. Galactus wins, though not before Unicron manages to steal his Ultimate Nullifier and resets the universe to try and kill Galactus.
- Machinima.com has Fallout: New Vegas Wasteland Battles, pitting characters and enemies from Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas against each other, and with the help of mods, even characters like Darth Vader. Not that it matters, because Liberty Prime beats everything.
- Super-Hero-Bowl! sees a ton of live-action heroes fighting it out in an alien arena. The second one features villains, while the third sees the heroes and villains team up to fight for their freedom.
- Toys vs Toys is a stop-motion time travel story involving Link, Goku, Jean-Luc Picard, and various good guys from several franchises teaming up to stop Darth Vader and numerous bad guys from obtaining a time-traveling machine to take over the universe.
- Video Game Championship Wrestling is an ongoing web series that uses recreations of both famous and relatively obscure video game characters (as well as some from non-game-based franchises and even a few people from real life) in the ever-glitchy WWE Video Games in AI versus AI matches. It maintains a regular roster of wrestlers, so rematches where a previous winner lost and a previous loser won have happened before, such as Charles Barkley versus Vegeta, and Nappa versus Gabe Newell.
- While this is still upcoming, When Heroes Meet Champions is hyped to be an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny featuring characters from the two Multiplayer Online Battle Arena juggernauts, as the title suggested: Dota 2 and League of Legends. Already in the teaser we've seen possible battles of Axe vs Darius, Juggernaut vs Master Yi, Legion Commander vs Katarina, Treant Protector vs Maokai and Tusk vs Vi.
- "request of F", an Armored Core fan video made through the use of MikuMikuDance, showcases mechs from nearly every continuity of the franchise's 17 or so games and pits them into a 3-minute slugfest that doesn't require you to be an Armored Core fan to enjoy.
- Gaming All-Stars: Due to the nature of this series, expect quite a few of these kinds of battles to ensue. For example, there’s Link and Monkey vs Whomp in The Ultimate Crossover and Remastered, as well as Kratos vs Scorpion in 2.
- Going back to the days of crappy flash animations, we have Lemon Demon's Ultimate Showdown, pitting everyone in every franchise against each other. You'll never guess who wins.
Webcomics
- In Everyone Is Home, the "Ultimate Battle Royale" arc has Tabuu from Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Galeem from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate gather up 5000 characters and put them into one big battle royale to see who is the strongest one. Any challengers trying to fly or swim out of the competition are immediately disqualified.
- Tales from the Pit exposes "Who Would Win" as a favorite conversational topic of the Magic: The Gathering R&D team. Pairings include RoboCop vs. The Terminator and My Little Pony vs. the Transformers.
- Dark Horse Comics once asked who would win; Dr. McNinja, or Saxton Hale? Each character also asked fans to vote for them on their respective websites. (Votes are already done. Winner: Saxton Hale.)
Web Original
- The now-defunct WWWF Grudge Match though the archives are still there, listing the more than 200 fights the site has run. The fights are formatted in that there is a proposed scenario and a very tongue-in-cheek debate, after which there will be a vote. When the loser has fallen, often hilarious comments on the result would be posted.
- The Screamsheet has done weekly fights between a variety of characters since 2000. The fights have a loose continuity and several running jokes, such as Superman always losing and the Earth being destroyed multiple times.
- Most prominent in the Character Scramble, hosted on Who Would Win, which regularly crosses over dozens of franchises per season.
- The Lonely Winds forum has three sub-forums dedicated to various USoUDs in eight different leagues of various power level and compositions.
- History nerds are somewhat fond of debating Alexander the Great vs Genghis Khan. This battle actually happens in Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter's collaborative novel, Time's Eye.
- Whosthebitch.com was the HQ for a fun and easy game; simply match any two given personalities (or even inanimate objects) and answer the question, "Who's the bitch?" Basically pick which one would be the 'bottom' in a relationship between the two, and justify your answer with an explanation.
- What If's Excellent Heavyweight Adventure uses the time machine from Bill & Ted and the World Cup soccer tournament format to create an Alt History Ultimate Showdown of heavyweight boxers from 1910 to 1988.
- It's a frequent enough thread topic on certain imageboards that it's become the subject of parody, such as asking who would win in a fight between a trillion lions and the Sun, or insisting that a stick would be victorious in any matchup you can think of.
Web Videos
- The Annoying Orange: In one episode, Liam the Leprechaun forces the orange to see if he was more annoying than Fred. It appears to end in a stalemate, only for Fred to get the last laugh.
- Will It Blend?: Anything, at all, versus a Blend-Tec blender.
- The Paul Powers Show: Similar to DEATH BATTLE!, Paul's Who Would Win videos are dedicated to determining who would win in a one-on-one fight between two characters from different franchises.
- The Spoony Experiment has Deadliest Character, a direct take-off of the aforementioned Deadliest Warrior, featuring the Megazord vs. MechaGodzilla. Megazord wins by summoning The Sixth Ranger and tearing MechaGodzilla apart. The uncreated second episode promised a showdown between Dalek and Borg.
- TGWTG Year One Brawl brought together dozens of gamers and reviewers from Channel Awesome for an epic throwndown. The winner: It's a huge draw as a truce is declared when they realize that they are all on the same team at the end of the day.
- The entire premise of Epic Rap Battles of History is to pit (at least) 2 people, usually from different timelines or even universes, to do a Battle Rapping against each other.
- batinthesun has Super Power Beat Down, which pits fictional characters against each other in live action with great special effects. Victories are decided by fan votes.
- Minute Match Ups does this with superheroes on both sides of the DC/Marvel divide, using their recent media portrayal, although the first episode actually matched up Deadpool from the upcoming movie and Deadpool as Weapon XI from X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the former won). The other two episodes match up Green Arrow vs. Hawkeye (Green Arrow put two arrows into Hawkeyes head) and the Flash vs. Quicksilver (the Flash vaporized Quicksilver with "supersonic punch, baby, yeah!").
- Rather than a fight, the video Superhero Soccer features characters from DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Star Wars, various video games, Harry Potter and more playing a round of soccer together.
- This video pits various sci-fi ships against one another in a massive battle. Just to name a few: Farscape (Moya and Talyn), Star Trek (Federation, Klingon, Romulan/Reman, and Borg ships from various time periods and timelines), Andromeda (Andromeda Ascendant), Star Wars (a Republic-era star destroyer), Battlestar Galactica (Galactica and an old-style Cylon basestar), and Mass Effect (Systems Alliance ships with the Normandy SR-2 and a Reaper). The video got a few things wrong, like Moya being armed, the Andromeda having a tractor beam, with how slipstream looks, and with the Scimitar needing to decloak to fire, but overall it's an amazing video.
- Parodied in "DARKIPLIER vs ANTISEPTICEYE". While it starts with a hostile confrontation between Darkiplier and Antisepticeye that looks like it will lead to one of these, the fight quickly gets derailed by the random appearances of the evil alter-egos of other popular YouTubers and the realization that Mark forgot to feed Chica before Darkiplier took over, leading to said dog killing and eating everyone there.
Western Animation
- MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch is a claymation version of Exactly What It Says On The Tin. Matches have included David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson vs. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith; Bono vs. Fabio vs. Yoko Ono; Bette Midler vs. Cher; Adam West vs. Christian Bale; and Steve Irwin vs. Medusa.
- Bambi Meets Godzilla is very short and... well, let's just say the verdict isn't exactly surprising.
- The Venture Bros.: 21 and 24 often get into arguments about hypothetical fights such as Champ vs. Nessie or Lizzie Borden vs. Anne Frank.
- Adventure Time:
- A college for worms has a "Theoretical fightonomics" class. According to the professor, the winner is always "Werewolf Queen".
- An episode which is simply titled "Who Would Win" has Finn and Jake getting into a very long all-out fraternal punch-up. It ends in a technical victory for Finn, but really in an exhausted stalemate.
- Invoked and Deconstructed in "Frost & Fire" where Finn tries to get Flame Princess to fight the Ice King in a Fire vs Ice themed battle. It ends catastrophically with the Ice Kingdom getting razed, The Ice King almost getting killed, and Flame Princess breaking up with Finn when she learns of the details, because he hurt her. You blew it, Finn.
- The Family Guy episode "The Simpsons Guy" (crossover with The Simpsons) ends with a long, drawn-out battle between Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin reminiscent of the chicken fights from Family Guy (This is hinted to with Comic Book Guy appearing after the fight stating "Worst chicken fight ever!")
- In Home Movies, Brendon, Jason, and Melissa attend a Renaissance fair and reenact a meeting between King Arthur and Robin Hood. When they first meet, they have a showdown in the woods before Arthur decrees that he and Robin Hood are "best friends forever." When Robin Hood crosses a few lines and keeps robbing his BFF, they prepare to fight to the death before they are interrupted by a dragon. They team up to defeat it, only to wonder if they will continue their duel or not. The play gets interrupted before they can finish.
Real Life
- Yalta, 1942. Winston "Brandy for Breakfast" Churchill and Josef "Steel Liver" Stalin have what is, in effect, a drinking contest. They go at it until three o'clock in the morning, but by one o'clock Churchill, suffering a "slight headache", has switched to wine. At which point Stalin presumably called him a pussy, fist-bumped Molotov, and cracked another bottle of vodka.
- Boxing spar: BRIAN BLESSED!!!!! vs His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They bonded over their love of boxing in their youths.
- Historical matchups such as Genghis Khan vs. Alexander the Great have been discussed among scholars.
Superman: …That was actually pretty fun.
Goku: Hee-hee! Yeah, it sure was. But I'll be stronger next time.
Superman: I look forward to it.
Goku: (holding out his fist) Let's go again.
Superman: (bumping his in turn) You're on.
Goku: Hee-hee! Yeah, it sure was. But I'll be stronger next time.
Superman: I look forward to it.
Goku: (holding out his fist) Let's go again.
Superman: (bumping his in turn) You're on.