Compared to a couple of decades ago, crossovers between video games and other assorted media properties have become a lot more commonplace. There’s always some degree of overlap between the audiences of two properties, and if everyone can get a slice of the pie, all the better.
10 Coolest Indie Game Crossovers
Every game needs to feature Shovel Knight, right?
That said, the greater proliferation of crossovers and collabs has led to a spot of… overzealousness, let’s call it. Games and series that, in most circumstances, would have absolutely nothing to do with one another inexplicably end up crossing over with very strange results.
To clarify, we’re not saying any of these crossovers are objectively good or bad. They’re just the kind of crossovers that make you say, “Well, that’s certainly a choice.”
10Horizon’s Aloy In Genshin Impact
From Realistic To Anime
Genshin Impact
One of the biggest selling points of theHorizonseries of video games is their incredibly detailed, realistic graphics, particularly onits many characters. That’s what makes it kind of funny that someone decided to transplant one of those usually-realistic characters into the anime-aesthetic world ofGenshin Impact.
As part of a 2021 collaboration between HoYoVerse and Guerilla Games, Horizon protagonist Aloy was added to Genshin Impact as a playable character with her design tweaked a bit to match the art style. She’s a Cryo element bow-wielder, chucking freeze bombs and power cells around to ice over enemies.
Aloy was only available for about a year, given for free to any players of sufficient Adventure Rank. You can still use her if you got her back then, though her kit hasn’t been patched since 2022, so she might not be properly balanced compared to newer characters.
9Monster Hunter’s Monsters In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Not The Biggest Thing Snake Has Fought
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Big Boss fought his fair share of oversized foes during his tenure as “The Greatest Soldier in the World,” with the most prominent example being his battle against the Shagohod in Metal Gear Solid 3. Of course, battling a modified tank is a much different matter from battling literal gigantic monsters.
InMetal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, as part of a crossover withMonster HunterPortable 3rd, Boss can take on several monsters from the Monster Hunter series, all true to size. There are two familiar beasts from the series, Rathalos and Tigrex, both of which can be defeated either lethally or non-lethally in true Metal Gear fashion. Obviously, the latter option is a challenge, to say the least.
In addition to those monsters, you can also battle with an original monster named Gear REX. As the name implies, it’s supposed to be Metal Gear REX if it were a living, breathing creature. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have a nuke strapped to it.
8Street Fighter’s Ryu And Chun-Li In Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid
Crimson Hawk And Blue Phoenix
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
While it’s not technically the first fighting game the Power Rangers franchise has ever had,Power Rangers: Battle for the Gridis definitely the most ambitious, not to mention the most properly-tuned for competitive play. Perhaps in celebration of that, the game had an appearance by two of the most iconic fighting game characters of all time, Street Fighter’s Ryu and Chun-Li.
Not only do Ryu and Chun-Li have all their usual Hadokens and Spinning Bird Kicks, but they’re also outfitted with their very own Power Ranger suits. Ryu morphs into the Crimson Hawk Ranger, while Chun-Li morphs into the Blue Phoenix Ranger, which gives their usual tactics a little extra razzmatazz.
Technically, both of these characters originally appeared in the mobile game Power Rangers: Legacy Wars first, but Battle for the Grid has more fleshed-out gameplay, so it’s more noteworthy. Following this initial crossover, promotional action figures were made of not just Ryu and Chun-Li’s ranger forms, but also new ones for Ken and Cammy.
7Shrek In Tony Hawk’s Underground 2
His Face Pierces Your Soul
Tony Hawk’s Underground 2
Since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, nearly every Pro Skater game has had at least a couple of crossover characters show up to shred,from Spider-Man to Darth Maul. While all of these are pretty weird in their own rights, the weirdest it ever got was definitely their choice of guest skater in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2.
Apparently, as a means of promoting both his second movie and its tie-in game, Activision selected Shrek for Underground 2’s guest skater. The ol’ ogre is a bit of an odd call, as his body proportions are drastically different from pretty much every other playable character, leading to some mildly unsettling trick animations.
He’s got some unique moves, as well. For instance, where other skaters would pull out a spray can to tag graffiti, Shrek just belches, leaving his logo on a wall. He’s also got a unique grind, the Waxslide, in which he yanks a lump of wax out of his ear and grinds on that instead of his board.
6Yoda, Darth Vader, And Starkiller In Soulcalibur 4
A Lightsaber Is A Sword, Technically
Soulcalibur IV
TheSoulcaliburseries has dabbled with crossover guest characters since Soulcalibur 2, when you got Link, Heihachi, or Spawn depending on your platform. While distinctive, these guests all fought with their hands and weapons, so they were… mostly thematically consistent.
Any sense of consistency was thrown out the window for Soulcaliber 4, though, which added Star Wars’ Yoda and Darth Vader, as well asStar Wars: The Force Unleashed’s protagonist, Starkiller. As you’d expect, all three of these characters are armed with Lightsabers, which is a bit of a departure from the usual swords and staves.
Yoda was actually somewhat infamous among the game’s competitive scene, as his diminutive height made him virtually impossible to hit with horizontal slashes. They’d all just whiff harmlessly over his little bald head. As for Vader and Starkiller, they had Force projectiles, which kind of speak for themselves.
5DMC’s Dante In Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne
Demon Hunters
Shin Megami Tensei 3
Following the original release ofShin Megami Tensei 3in 2003, an updated version titled “Maniax” was released in 2004. It was this version that would be released in the west as the full game, but it had one major addition that the original release didn’t: Devil May Cry’s Dante.
Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series
Devil May Cry’s Dante will be returning to the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne remaster as a paid DLC pack for the title.
Apparently added on suggestion by an Atlus employee who liked the series, Dante appears as part of the game’s story as a devil hunter contracted to hunt down the marauding demons, including the Demi-Fiend. You have to fight him a couple of times, though you can also recruit him as a temporary party member. He’s rockinghis Devil May Cry 2 outfit, though thankfully he’s a little more verbose than he was in that game.
Fun fact, in subsequent versions of the game, Dante would be replaced by Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, the protagonist of another series of Shin Megami Tensei spin-offs. Raidou would remain the default guest character in the game’s HD remaster, though Dante could be restored with a DLC.
4Danica Patrick In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Real Racer In A Really Strange World
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
As a crossover racing game,Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformedis kind of weird by default, but that weirdness is fairly consistent. All the characters are from video games, including the randomly-added Wreck-It Ralph who is both a video game character in his movie and canonically knows Sonic. Perhaps it could be said, though, that in the land of the weird, it’s the normal that becomes weirdest.
In addition to Wreck-It Ralph, the game also features an appearance by actual real-life NASCAR racer Danica Patrick. In the game, she drives a vehicle aptly named the “Danicar,” which Patrick herself collaborated on the design with alongside Hot Wheels. This is probably why the Hot Wheels logo is front and center on the car, alongside logos from Sega and the now-defunct GoDaddy.
Thanks to this appearance, Patrick also made a cameo in Archie Comics’ Sonic Universe #45, a comic adaptation (and we use that term loosely) of Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed.
3Balatro In Dave The Diver
Jokers At Sea
Dave the Diver
The surprise popularity ofDave the Diverhas made it quite a lucrative little IP, which has attracted quite a few crossover candidates. Through various free updates, the game has had crossovers with the likes of Dredge, Godzilla, Potion Craft, and Like a Dragon. Most of these make a degree of sense, having to do with either fishing or farming. And then, you have a crossover with Balatro.
Obviously, Balatro has no story to speak of, but that proved to be an easy hurdle to clear. In the collab, the Sea People have become enamored with an odd card game called “Jimbo’s Game,” and Dave decides to try it out.
What he finds is… well, Balatro. It’s literally just Balatro in Dave the Diver, albeit a lite version with only a few Jokers and no consumable cards. An odd choice, but hey, who doesn’t want an excuse toplay more Balatro?
2Among Us Crewmates In Vampire Survivors
Somewhat Sus
Vampire Survivors
As another major indie success story,Vampire Survivorshas received several crossover opportunities, most notably with Konami properties Castlevania and Contra. Given the game’s obvious Castlevania inspirations, both of these are more or less suited to the game’s aesthetic. However, the very first crossover Vampire Survivors had was a bit… sus.
At the tail-end of 2023, the Emergency Meeting DLC added characters and locales from Among Us to Vampire Survivors. Bizarre of a choice as it is, it’s actually a pretty substantial content pack, adding nine new characters, 15 new weapons, and 8 passive items.
Those new characters are all variations of the iconic crewmate, including the usual red one, an imposter in a top hat, a floating ghost, a scientist in a lab coat, and… a horse.
Required Some Narrative Fine-Tuning
Dead by Daylight
Dead By Daylighthas become more or less the definitive repository of classic horror icons in the gaming sphere. In addition to Behaviour’s various original Killers and Survivors, there’s a wide variety of characters and skins pulled from movies, games, and anime. In the Killers’ case, all of them are the villains in their respective properties, save for one.
In March 2025, Behaviour announced the game’s newest Killer as Ken Kaneki, protagonist of the action/horror manga and anime series Tokyo Ghoul, inhis full ghoul transformation. While Tokyo Ghoul is a horror story, Ken is the good guy, so it doesn’t really make sense for him to be a Killer.
To address this, Behaviour worked directly with the Tokyo Ghoul Production Committee to concoct an alternate backstory for this version of the character, one making him a little more appropriately bloodthirsty. His white anime dude haircut still makes him stand out a bit compared to the other Killers, but at least he has a reason to be here now.
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