Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono has explained why Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat are unlikely bedfellows.

"I actually get a lot of requests for Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat on my Twitter feed and elsewhere," Ono told the US PlayStation blog.

"I understand why people want it, but it's easier said than done. Having Chun Li getting her spine ripped out, or Ryu's head bouncing off the floor... it doesn't necessarily match."

Fighting game fans have wondered about a Street Fighter Mortal Kombat crossover game for years.

In 2008 Mortal Kombat chief Ed Boon revealed he tried to make Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter happen but "ran into a road block".

Boon contacted Street Fighter publisher Capcom in the past to try and get Sub Zero and co facing off against Ryu and Ken.

"We made phone calls," he said. "But Capcom is in Japan, and with the distance, there's communication gaps and what not. It just never panned out. It would have been very cool. I'm a fan of the other fighting genres and stuff like that. I just thought it would be a cool novelty to have.

"I've always wanted to cross MK over since about MK4, or something like that. I'm a big fan of all of the other fighting games, Street Fighter, Tekken. I always thought, wouldn't it be cool to have MK vs. SF and MK vs. Tekken? We pursued some of those ideas to the extent we could but we always ran into some kind of road block and couldn't do it."

More likely, perhaps, is Marvel vs. DC, which Ono described as a "dream project".

It "would be pretty damned cool if we could ever pull it off," Ono said. "I'm a big comic-book fan. Now if I can get the presidents of those two companies in the same room shaking hands, then we could get something started. I'd love to see that just as a fan!"

Until then, crossover fighting game fans will have to make do with Street Fighter x Tekken, due out next year.