We live in the age of the metaverse — try not to puke—now, when every pop culture franchise you like is flowing into another. This is the era of tonal dissonance: Fortnite opposes the Xenomorph Goku from Dragon Ball Z, and Dead By Daylight allows Ash Williams to try to escape and hide from the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 or even from the version of the killer Ghostface from Scream.
I like it, despite how pointless these things can be, because if you’re a fan of something that doesn’t currently get AAA video game processing, seeing it pop up in other games is a nice treat.
However, the king of the crossover is undoubtedly Dead Cells, an indie metroidvania that, after launch, has turned other games into thin puzzle pieces that fit neatly into its roguelike structure. Games like Hotline Miami come down to a baseball bat and a suit. Shovel Knight adds a bow and Half Life gear to the game? Well, there is equipment, and there is a crowbar.
Several Steam games have a Half-Life crossover. I think if you are releasing a game on Valve’s Steam platform, it would be polite to refer to the game that started it all. Very few of these crossovers allow players to sneak in with a crowbar and start swinging like you’re a Joker rushing into a crowd of teenage buddies.
And not only in these games. The recent Dead Cells Castlevania game is a balm for people expecting Konami to pull out a finger and release another 2D game-explore them. It has everything that Castlevania fans can wish for: Richter Belmont, Alucard and several notable Castlevania locations, weapons and enemies, as well as a lot of small details. This is true even if you, like me, are not the biggest Castlevania fan in the world, but just spent a whole summer playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as a teenager.
No matter how strong your personal feelings towards Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are, there’s no denying that Motion Twin, the developer of Dead Cells, is exceptionally talented at making every other universe he puts into the game feel like part of Dead Cell’s own mess. The world, including what the fans want to see.
Despite the fact that Dead Cells was launched back in 2018, it is still one of the best Metroidvania games ever created, and because of the branched structure, it is easy to include new items and rooms in the game, and the repetitive roguelike mechanics mean that it is easy for long-time players or even converts. to try out all the content.
So I hope Dead Cells will add even more crossovers to other games, but I’d even like them to release more of these big DLCs, adding meaningful pieces of content adapted from other games to the creepy horrors already included in the game.
I also hope that you will go and play Dead Cells. This is really very good.
Honestly, Dead Cells came out for everything. Check the store of your gaming device. It is even available on iOS and Android.
