Have you ever noticed how quickly the dash / loading segment of an older console goes out of date once the new one arrives?

I booted up my original Xbox for the first time in a few months today, and that 'alien green' dashboard theme has never looked so out of date. What's more, I also loaded up a PSone a short while back, and...

...well, you know. It's just MIND WARPINGLY ODD.

I can just see it now. Fresh off those annoying and completely inane topics in certain internet forums, someone, somewhere thought that it might actually be a good idea to put the Master Chief up against Ryu Hayabusa.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we bring you Dead or Alive 4. With added Halo-ness.

Of course, it's already been confirmed that the Master Chief himself won't be stepping into the arena with our boy Hayabusa, but the basic idea remains. Someone from the Halo Universe is going to hop in and get their ass kicked by a bunch of ninjas, and that someone is most likely Cortana.

It's not something that's going to drive me nuts, but I do find it odd that a developer like Team Ninja, well noted for their excellent character designs, felt the need to throw in a guest appearance from Halo when they've got other material such as the wonderful Rachel from Ninja Gaiden languishing on the sidelines. Tomonobu Itagaki once said that he wanted to keep the Doa and Ninja Gaiden worlds as diverse as possible, though I find it remarkably strange that he felt different about the Dead or Alive and Halo universes.

Guest appearances rarely work in fighting games, even when the guest character is from a fighting game as well - just look at Heihachi in Soul Calibur 2. Or indeed Spawn, or Link.

Characters from completely seperate universes, completely different gameplay systems... and characters that were banned from tournaments and rarely chosen in favour of 'real' Soul Calibur characters. Hence, I can't help but feel a certain apprehension towards this new (utterly random) guest character appearing in one of my favourite fighting games over an established character like Rachel, or Murai.

Okay, he's dead, but you get the point.

It's just weird that they chose Random McHaloCharacter, a series known for incredible gameplay but certainly not for great character designs, when there were so many other sources they could have gone to. King of Fighters, anyone? Street Fighter? Toshinden? Hell, if it was Yuri or Karen from Shadow Hearts 2 I'd be singing a different tune, I can guarantee you that.

Well, that's it, I guess. Confused, jumbled thoughts on a strange, strange topic. I just hope they don't decide that it would be a great idea to have Captain Keyes as one of the bosses in Ninja Gaiden 2...

Oh, and my money's on Hayabusa, by the way.