For many gamers, there's nothing better than a beloved indie game getting the recognition it deserves. In the past few years, an interesting trend of collaboration and cooperation has developed in the indie gaming scene, where smaller developers have celebrated their peers by creating a wealth of surprising crossovers. What began as Super Meat Boy adding playable characters like Steve from Minecraft evolved into Shovel Knight guest-starring in over a dozen other titles. Indie developers have wholeheartedly leaned into celebrating other great games by surprising fans with a fun crossover. Now, Dead Cells has joined the fray with possibly one of the most exciting crossover events yet.
With its recent announcement of the appropriately titled "Everyone Is Here" update (a reference to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's famous announcement), the long-supported action game adds not one but six new crossovers with some of the most popular indie games of the past several years. Although the Motion Twin-developed action roguelike has already crossed over into other games (most recently with the Beheaded character appearing in Skul: The Hero Slayer and Curse of the Dead Gods), this new event is on another level. The new update is not just a celebration of some of the best sidescrolling indie games of the last few years, but a real treat to fans who have continued to support this great game over the years.
The new update brings a diverse group of heroes from Hyper Light Drifter, Curse of the Dead Gods, Hollow Knight, Guacamelee, Skul: The Hero Slayer and Blasphemous together into the challenging world of Dead Cells. Each of the games featured brings new weapons to the already extensive arsenal, as well as a skin players can use to turn Dead Cells' Beheaded into a new hero from one of the other games. The skins themselves look great and all manage to work within Dead Cells' aesthetic despite their varying art styles. Some of the standouts are the Hollow Knight character complete with his Pure Nail sword and Blasphemous' Penitent One with his thorned sword and Spanish Catholic-inspired spiked helmet.
In a tantalizingly short trailer Motion Twin not only showed off its new costumes, but how well the new weapons work inside of the much-celebrated buttery smooth Dead Cells gameplay. For instance, the Skul: The Hero Slayer skin comes equipped with his signature bone weapon, which allows players to swing this oversized club throughout Dead Cells dungeons just like it's used in Skul's furious combat scenarios. This attention to detail shows how much thought and work went into the collaboration, which really does celebrate the great games involved.
On top of all this, each new crossover also features its own items and secrets that can be found throughout runs, including Blasphemous' Mea Culpa Shrines and the Guacamelee's skin ability to transform into a chicken just like in the original game. Dead Cells has continued to receive amazing post-launch support with its excellent free and paid DLC expansions, and this free update only serves to reinforce just how much Motion Twin believes in its vision.
The "Everyone Is Here" update brilliantly continues the wonderful collaboration trend that indie developers have embraced and serves as a celebration of some of the best action-focused indie games that have come before and after Dead Cells. In a video game world that is often full of calculating business decisions and soulless cash grabs, the cooperation of the independent scene is genuinely wholesome and encouraging. The update is available now on Steam, and it will release on Mac and console in the near future.
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