Recently I had a wiki submission approved for 'Cross Genre Games', something I thought was valuable, but also a tad obscure. Here's what I defined it as in the submission:

Cross Genre Games take completely different gaming genres and place them together in a single game in an attempt to innovate beyond traditional gaming practices.

What I Think Belongs Here

• So my gut reaction is that something like Puzzle Quest or the already added Castlevania Puzzle belongs here because they both combine the puzzle genre with another genre - the RPG in the case of Puzzle Quest, and Action Adventure in the case of Castlevania Puzzle. This combination was first coined by Puzzle Quest in 2007; before then we hadn't seen this combination fully fleshed out before, and not many games from this genre combination have come out since.
  
• I also thought about FPS-RTS combination games when I created the concept; the combination looks so weird that the acronym doesn't look right unless I hyphenate it. Titles like Raven Squad tried to do this but failed since the two types of games are so hard to combine. While it could be debated as to whether Raven Squad belongs here (I think the RTS mechanics are too watered down), it does illustrate that any game which does pull this off belongs in the 'Cross Genre Games' concept.
  

What I Think Doesn't Belong Here

• Anything with MMO before the genre doesn't belong here. I know interacting with hundreds or thousands of real people instead of AI is certainly a noteworthy achievement in gaming history, but I think this seems more like an evolution of a genre-type than something particually revolutionary. This is particular true since we've seen a million WoW clones since they came out; even if you thought that MMO type games belonged here, there's been so many of them since that MMORPGs and even MMOFPS' are pretty much genres in themselves.
  

•  There was a time that the Action Role-Playing genre probably looked quite new. In fact, there's an entire Wikipedia entry summising the history of this sub-genre. I have to admit, it would be foolish of me to try to pretend as if I knew the entire backhistory of ARPGs, but this combination has been around for such a long time that I don't think it belongs under the 'Cross Genre Game' category.

• Should the page exist at all?
  
• Acknowledging that the term 'Cross Genre Games' is a little obscure, is my definition appropriate?
• Are my examples correct?
• What games would you add to the 'Cross Genre Game' page, and if it eventuates, the 'Legacy Cross Genre Games' page?
• What do we do with MMORPGs - are they a sub-genre by themselves such that they don't belong on both the 'Cross Genre Games' and the 'Legacy Cross Genre Games' pages, or since there was a time when they were popular, do we just include those groundbreaking games on the 'Legacy Cross Genre Games' page
  (if its approved)?
  
• If a set of games becomes stereotypical (eg. there are a million WoW clones suddenly released), should we remove all those clones and/or the original innovative games from the 'Legacy Cross Genre Games" page (if its approved).

It's a game that's obviously two genres. Not merely borrowing mechanics, but the gameplay itself revolves around mulit-genre aspects. For example, Mass Effect is n RPG and a shooter. However, the answer isn't that easy. I wouldn't consider Fallout 3 a shooter, just an RPG.

Borderlands would fall under this since the devs themselves called it a "Role-Playing Shooter".

At this point, everything is kind of an RPG so one wonders where the line is. Entirely subjective, people seem to base it on what the devs call it because I guess their own fucking eyes don't work.

" At this point, everything is kind of an RPG so one wonders where the line is. Entirely subjective, people seem to base it on what the devs call it because I guess their own fucking eyes don't work. "

" It's a game that's obviously two genres. Not merely borrowing mechanics, but the gameplay itself revolves around mulit-genre aspects. For example, Mass Effect is n RPG and a shooter. However, the answer isn't that easy. I wouldn't consider Fallout 3 a shooter, just an RPG. "

"Borderlands would fall under this since the devs themselves called it a "Role-Playing Shooter". "

I'm wondering if you really need the wiki page simply because there's that wee info thing at the side that puts games into genre. That said, I just tried to find a way to search by genre(s) and couldn't seem to locate that search function.

" I'm wondering if you really need the wiki page simply because there's that wee info thing at the side that puts games into genre. That said, I just tried to find a way to search by genre(s) and couldn't seem to locate that search function. "

" @zonerover: Gotcha. Oh, and thanks for giving me my 25th wiki page edit for the Mowing Them Down quest! Henry Hatsworth is a platformer and a puzzler (a platfuzzler, if you will) and you've also reminded me I need to finish that game at some stage. "

Genres are hard enough to define by themselves anyway, in fact, most games aren't really clear cut one genre. If we qualify puzzle platformers as a cross-genre thing, then to what extent do we use this definition? Henry Hatworth very conspicuously has 'puzzle' elements and 'platforming' elements, but what about something like Lemmings? Does that really count as platforming, or is it just a sideview puzzle game? So, what would be the minimum requirement of puzzles for a game to be considered a puzzle platformer? What is the minimum requirement for it to be considered a platformer etc...? These are questions that everyone will have different answers to. My concern is that this will just become a haphazard collection of anything.
 
And like you say, at what point is something a legacy cross genre? For example, I wouldn't consider action-adventure a cross genre. Anyway, I think Buzz_clik is right, it's pretty much possible to already see this info.

while in Fallout 3, playing as a shooter is a recipe for disaster. 

" @zonerover:  I guess the Spore thing is interesting, since it leads to questions about game compilations/minigame colelctions.   Another thought, what about Professor Layton; Adventure + Puzzle. They are definitely presented as separate parts of the game - you walk around and explore, but then you talk to someone and they give you a puzzle to solve. But, since adventure games almost always have some form of puzzles, would this count as a "non-traditional innovative combination" of different genres? Or would this just be a different way of presenting puzzles to the player within an adventure context? "

" @zonerover: Awesome icon "

" @zonerover  siad: 

while in Fallout 3, playing as a shooter is a recipe for disaster. 

blatant lies I played all of fallout 3  only  using vats for nades every now and not getting any perks related to vats, I guess if you were using a controller you may not be able to do this but meh you choose to play that way.  Anywho RPG really isn't a genre any more tbh since any game that you play as the main character is a roll playing game, we need a need name for the genre of loot horeing and character building/leveling/upgrading and the whole conversing with dudes genre both of which seam to have camps saying they are the true RPGs "

Well if you just go off the title role playing game (as you do for fps) then any game in which you play the role of a character the only reason the other elements have been included is cus of the early P&P rpgs which then got adapted in thing like ultima etc (not sure but I would think final fantasy etc would have spawn from D&D also), maybe we just need a new name for it or more likely I'm just being pedantic =P