As the gaming industry has evolved and changed, it has become apparent that one of the best ways to keep players engaged is to make sure they have a constant stream of content to enjoy. This can be done through consistent free updates like the ones seen in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, DLC, or even through working with other IPs or brands. Crossovers and collaborations have grown in frequency over the last few years, and 2021 was no exception.

Companies teaming up to allow fans to enjoy both IPs at once has become almost commonplace. Some games, such as Fortnite, almost make a market off of collaborations with just about anything it can crossover with feasibly. While other games may not use these special events to make a name for themselves, even the most unlikely of games and brands can shake hands and provide something unique to their supporters together. There were plenty of titles that worked together this year to bring a unique experience to new and mutual fans, and looking back at them paints an exciting future for what might come next year. Here are the best collaborations and crossover of the year, in no particular order.

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Kingdom Hearts x Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

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For many years, tons of gamers were split on the idea of Sora from Kingdom Hearts ever making his way into Super Smash Bros. Where some fans held onto hope, others were certain that copyright and legality restraints would make this a crossover that would never come to pass. Against all of the odds, however, Sora was confirmed to be the last DLC fighter for Smash Bros. Ultimate.

This crossover lets so many incredible fighters from Super Smash Bros. interact with Sora, something that may feel like a dream as fans watch Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, and Sora all duke it out when playing with their friends. With a stage, plenty of great music, and spirits added to the game alongside the Keyblade wielder, the DLC is perfect for almost every Kingdom Hearts fan. How Sora got into Smash is almost just as incredible as the crossover itself, as it only happened due to a chance meeting at an industry event.

Monster Hunter Rise x Mega Man

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Monster Hunter is a series that has kept fans engaged by including other IPs for years, such as the limited-time Monster Hunter World Assassin's Creed collaboration quests and more. Monster Hunter Rise continues this tradition, and one collab mission made a dream for many Mega Man fans come true. The special event mission featuring the 33-year-old franchise starred Rush, Mega Man's faithful companion as unique layered Palamute armor.

This allowed those willing to kill a few Zinogre to get the reward of having Rush in place of their Palamute companion. He comes complete with Rush Coil, a special bark, and more unique animations to make it, so Mega Man fans can finally take Rush with them on all sorts of adventures. This collaboration marked the very first time Rush had ever been a companion to players in such a way, and in that sense, it sits at a very special place in many fans' hearts.

Dead Cells' "Everyone is Here" Update

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Even though the climate of the gaming industry has changed somewhat, indie games sometimes still find it difficult to reach the same success as their AAA counterparts. While Sans from Undertale may have made it to Super Smash Bros., the opportunities for indie titles to have crossovers to that degree are few and far between. However, no one said that these games couldn't take matters into their own hands, and that was exactly what Dead Cells decided to do with a special update.

The developer recently teamed up with six other games it shares a certain kinship with, letting other games such as Hollow Knight and Blasphemous gather in Dead Cells to offer new skills, weapons, and costumes for players to find. Each one brings something unique to the game and is perfect for showing love to titles who have seen the same struggles Dead Cells has in trying to stand out amongst the many other games out there. When it comes to indie game collaborations, this one will be a shining example for years to come.

Fortnite x Almost Everything

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Fortnite is indubitably the king of crossovers, coming out with so many great ones this year. Sora in Super Smash Bros. was incredible, but the same can be said for a battle royale game with Naruto, Spider-Man, Rick, Morty, and so many countless others in one big entertainment free-for-all. The sheer number of franchises Fortnite has managed to crossover with is nothing short of impressive, and definitely deserves a mention.

In 2021, Naruto helped close out Fortnite's second chapter. Spider-Man helped jumpstart Chapter 3. The Naruto collaboration saw the titular character, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi all get skins in their image complete with emotes, then Spider-man gave players the opportunity to web-sling across the island. These new additions have wowed many players across the globe and brings further hype for just who will join the battle royale next year in further unbelievable crossovers.

Pokemon and Oreos

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While Pokemon has teamed up with food companies for years, the Oreos collab was something special. The collaboration saw Nabisco releasing special Oreos with Pokemon on them, but the unique thing was that the cookies featured 16 different Pokemon from the series' eight generations with some supposedly being rarer than others. Anyone who got a pack of cookies was guaranteed to get a Pikachu or Piplup, but only a few would get an Oreo with a Mew on it.

It's a cute way to capture Pokemon's "gotta catch 'em all" mantra to having to collect all of the Pokemon, but this led to something almost no one expected: the Pokemon Oreos themselves were scalped. People bought them in bulk to mark up the cookies and sell them online, even selling certain specific Pokemon cookies separately. The surprise of people treating Oreos the same as Pokemon cards will be something people will remember way beyond 2021.

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Sea of Thieves x Pirates of the Caribbean

In recent years, Rare has seen incredible support and success for Sea of Thieves, its first-person action-adventure game letting players hunt for treasure and captain their own ship across endless, vast seas. The game had been through many concept phases for years, drawing inspiration from The Pirates of the Caribbean movies as well as The Goonies during development. Little did Rare know then that in the future, Sea of Thieves would launch its own Pirates of the Caribbean crossover expansion.

Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life gave players its own story celebrating the two IPs with features built-in so players won't have to worry about losing their progress to rival pirates. The best part about Disney and Rare working together for this great collaboration is that it was also free to all Sea of Thieves players. That meant that any Pirates of the Caribbean fan that wanted to join in the fun due to the perfect collab could do so with ease, which most definitely helps it stand out from the crowd.

Dead by Daylight x Resident Evil

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In a unique multiplayer horror game like Dead by Daylight, updates and content roadmaps of upcoming skins and maps make sense. The way Behaviour Interactive has kept the game fresh has been welcome and kept many players coming back for more, and how it shook hands with Capcom to unite two beloved horror titles in one game was the icing on the cake for many players.

The Resident Evil update to Dead by Daylight saw the addition of Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine as Survivors, with new legendary skins in the form of RE favorites Claire and Chris Redfield. One of Resident Evil's monsters, Nemesis, was added as a new Killer, and while some fans questioned by Nemesis was chosen, the way his abilities seamlessly meshed with Dead by Daylight's playstyle to bring something new to the table entirely showed just why he was picked out of RE. It isn't every day where a simple collaboration elevates gameplay, but Nemesis' inclusion has done just that.

No Man's Sky x Mass Effect

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In the same vein as Dead by Daylight and Resident Evil being a great collaboration between two fan-favorite horror games, No Man's Sky and Mass Effect crossing paths across their respective galaxies is just as good on the Sci-Fi side of things. The Normandy became a ship players could obtain for themselves in the procedurally generated adventure, and so many fans liked it that the event is currently being rerun as of this writing.

The event definitely brought something unique to No Man's Sky, and it serves as one of the many updates to the title that have helped improve the game's reputation. After years of negative reviews, it seems No Man's Sky is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the help of the Normandy making Mass Effect players feel a little more at home in their sci-fi explorations.

Destiny 2 x Halo

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Bungie celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, and it sought to celebrate it with a bang in Destiny 2. Since Halo is an important piece of the company's history, the developer did its best to pay homage to its roots and brought back iconic weapons, cosmetic features, and Easter eggs from Halo as part of its own 30th Anniversary event.

Fans who played the event could get weapons such as the BXR-55 Battler, Half-Truths, and Retraced Path, which are references to the Halo Battle Rifle, Energy Sword, and Halo: Reach Focus Rifle weapons. While there weren't any fully Halo-themed armor sets, some referenced the Arbiter's scales, and one skin even featured the iconic Halo ring. Other fan-favorite features and Easter eggs such as "Grunt Birthday Party" and the skulls make a return as well. With everything the Bungie 30th Anniversary pack offered, many of the company's loyal fans from even back in its Halo days are sure to be satisfied.

Call of Duty: Warzone x Die Hard

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Video games and movies tend to go hand-in-hand. As video games adaptions of movies aren't as commonplace as they used to be, it seems films like to lend their hands to games instead to lead into some wonderful crossovers, such as the 80s Action Heroes event for Call of Duty: Warzone which brought two famous movies into Warzone's line-up of operators, including John McClain of Die Hard fame.

Die Hard had plenty of love and was arguably one of the best things about the collaboration. John McClain may have been an extremely limited-time offer, but those who purchased him were given the chance to play as him and hear him shout "Yippie Ki Yay" and other iconic lines pulled straight from the movie while visiting Nakatomi Plaza, replicated in Warzone's map with incredible, intricate detail. The love given to Die Hard, regardless of how much focus the film got during the event, made many fans of both it and CoD very happy for the time it was present in the game.

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