I've played about maybe half the series and just used wikipedia to find the important characters of the others. Sonic and Sega All Star Racing was a great help.
So I've played Sonic, Vectorman, Gunstar Heroes, Virtua Fighter, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, Skies of Arcadia, as well as Mario and Mega Man. I know about Nintendo exclusive characters like the guy for Madworld, Bayonetta, and Billy Hatcher. In this scenario, Super Mario Sunshine was released for the Dreamcast. Mega Man appeared on a Sega Console with Mega Man 8 on the Saturn.
If any hardcore Sega fans out there (I expect a lot on basically Nintendo fan forum) think any changes are needed, or any franchises aren't represented, please let me know.
After making this, I realized, man, Sega has a lot of great and diverse franchises. Sonic stands clear above the other franchises. None of them even come close. While Nintendo has had the trio of Mario, Pokemon, and Zelda that are at least the level of Sonic, with other franchises like DK and Metroid as well. But their characters have a lot more genre and tone diversity than Nintendo. Imagine Isaac Washington shooting Amy Rose with a gun.
I really want this game to be made. It's a shame so many of these franchises are inactive at the moment due to Sega's poor financial status.
My problem with this roster (no offense intended) is that there are too many reps per series. Unlike Nintendo, I'd argue that Sega's
franchises are more recognized and beloved than their actual
characters are. Thus, if I designed the roster, I'd limit the reps to 1 per series (except for Sonic and Virtua Fighter) so I could maximize resources to include as many IPs as possible.
As for characters that I feel are missing/franchises that should be represented, I'd suggest adding a puzzle game rep from either
Chu Chu Rocket! or
Puyo Pop (preferably Arle Nadja for the latter). The former title is notable for being Sega's first serious foray into online gaming, and came bundled with the Dreamcast in Europe. The latter franchise is rather successful for Sega, especially in Japan. I'd also suggest more "retro reps" from Genesis titles. Opa Opa from
Fantasy Zone is a must. He'd be odd to design in a fighting environment, but he was Sega's original mascot alongside Alex Kidd. Other good choices would be Ristar or the protagonist from
Altered Beast, or for more "WTF" status/cult classic characters, Sketch Turner from
Comix Zone and/or
Kid Chameleon. I'd recommend another Saturn-era character as well, such as Sir Tongara de Pepperouchau III from
Clockwork Knight and/or a
Burning Rangers character. Finally, Segata Sanshiro is basically a must-have.
I agree that this is a game that would be really fun to see come to fruition, but I also agree that it's definitely something that Sega is in no financial or critical position to tackle. They have a vast stable of beloved franchises and characters ranging a wide variety of genres, but very few of them have had releases in recent years, and lack mass commercial appeal. Realistically, I wouldn't expect a roster determined by Sega itself to be half as good as yours; they'd rely on an inordinate amount of Sonic characters and guest characters that have nothing to do with their history just to pull in as many sales as they could.
