The strangest crossover events mobile games have held over the years

Undeniably, the wicked underworld of hitmen often projects a sinister connotation in the minds of many, as this trade deals with death and damnation. Gamevil, the brains behind Heir of Light - a criminally underrated turn-based RPG emblazoned with Gothic aesthetics and Dark Souls personality - decided to take it a notch further by dropping a collaboration featuring John Wick.

Heir of Light has seen some intriguing selections of collaborations, such as the serialised Korean thriller Sweet Home. While the mutants’ superhuman finesse fits like a cog in the wheel, John Wick is an outlier as he's a mortal relying on quick wits and an arsenal of martial arts instead of demonic powers. However, if anything, Keanu's coolness was cranked up to eleven and props to the art team for faithfully replicating a 3D avatar of him.

Square Enix has always been the house of innovation in concocting collaboration events for their mobile games, integrating it as a key part of their marketing ploy. Its mainstay, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, is a receptacle for collaboration with high-profile titles that are not a far cry from the genre of the household Final Fantasy series, such as Octopath Traveler and Valkyrie Profile. Its Fullmetal Alchemist crossover likewise batted no eyelids as the techno-magic world Amestris blended in well.

But it came as a jaw-dropping bombshell to virtually everyone when an unexpected collaboration event featured real-life singer/songwriter Katy Perry and Ariana Grande, names that evoke memories of Bart Baker's series of satirical parodies of their music videos. It doesn't help that a much-needed plot to clarify the circumstances that led the celebs astray in the first place is nowhere to be seen.

While fans may grieve over the departure of Dragalia Lost, a title renowned for its boundless generosity, fair mechanics and adorable art style, flicking the pages of the game's collab archive, fans would instinctively gloss over the Monster Hunter team-up. However, scrubbed off from the annals of time is that moment when Dragalia Lost meets the Blue Bomber.

For context, the world of Dragalia Lost is a classic fantasy world where mythical dragons coexist with human beings. Monster Hunter became an instant hit as it played to the core selling point of morphing into beasts for a limited amount of time. But Rockman existing in the same realm as wyverns seems a tad ridiculous. Plus, the collab brought no other gimmicks other than Blue Bomber himself and his array of specialised weapons plus equipment cards called "wyrmprints". But hey, on the bright side, at least there's a silly short story and a custom main menu interface to celebrate the occasion.

In a parallel universe somewhere, Kobayashi Maid, a slice-of-life fluffy anime all about having a maid at your beck and call that’s capable of morphing into a dragon would rightfully host a collaboration with Dragalia Lost. However, in reality, Tohru became a playable character in the polychromic world of Astra besieged by monochromatic Eclipsites.

Jarring mismatch aside, the collab isn’t anywhere near stellar from the lack of story and Tohru's subpar prowess as a fire unit that's easily forgettable. With that said, this is Tourdog's first ever rodeo and their subsequent Persona 5 redeemed them.

Known for pulling dark twists on classic fairy tales because nothing deserves a happy ending according to Yoko Taro, one can argue the choice to collaborate with Batman has a lick of sense behind it. This collab sees various DC superheroes and supervillains joining the fray, including Batman, Catwoman and the psychotic Joker.

For the otherworld visitors, they are short of amazing with Batman, the main star being the worst of the bunch. Due to my inherent soft spot for Joker's unstable personality and maniacal antics, this collab gradually wormed its way to the top of my list. Sadly, with Global Server getting the axe, we will never see this collaboration come to fruition anytime soon.

Now, the intersection of various multimedia musical theatres with either their own or gacha games is commonplace and often celebrated, from the hackneyed Hatsune Miku to rhythm games such as DEEMO and Arcaea having plenty of cross-overs. Unlike Love Live or Bandoori, which follow the struggles of upstart idol bands, Symphogear's premise revolves around girls utilising the power of music, materialised as super exosuits, to ward off extraterrestrial invaders.

In short, this collab sees Godzilla and his fellow kaiju brethren joining forces with the girls of Symphogear in their effort to secure everlasting peace. Godzilla, the ally of humanity, lends his power via a shiny and convoluted armor set. In particular, one can never get enough of Godzilla's signature Atomic Breath
through Kanade Amou.

Rounding off the list is the obligatory mention of the asinine collaboration event that couldn’t get any weirder - Seven Deadly Sins and Stranger Things. The former is a shounen anime that personifies the biblical taboos on a grand adventure while the latter is a television series dealing with paranormal activities, conspiracies and espers.

Four characters - Eleven, Will Byers, Mike Wheeler and Jim Hopper are playable. While I can't comment much since my knowledge and exposure to Stranger Things doesn’t go beyond the occasional memes. But we can all unanimously agree that soul and passion are palpable as evidenced by the eye candy that's the character models and their unique skill animations.