Guest Fighter - TV Tropes

Spawn: You've been to other dimensions?
Scorpion: Each has had its own Injustices.
Spawn: Maybe that's why my Soul still burns.

• Zone of the Enders: the 2nd Runner features a guest appearance of Gradius's Vic Viper as a Transforming Mecha.
• The promotional sample disk version of NiGHTS into Dreams…, Christmas NiGHTS, had a mode where you could play through Spring Valley as Sonic. Dr. Eggman is also a boss in this version of the game, though he's just a reskinned version of the boss Puffy.
• Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] had Neku, Shiki, Joshua, Beat, and Rhyme from The World Ends with You show up as plot-relevant NPCs in Traverse Town, accompanied by brand-new remixes of songs from their game of origin (though they only play in a few cutscenes). This made them the first non-Final Fantasy Square Enix characters to appear in the series.
  • Kingdom Hearts III featured another non-Final Fantasy character in the form of the Schwarzgeist from Einhänder, who appears as a hidden Gummi Ship boss. You can also unlock a Gummi Ship blueprint modeled after the Einhänder itself.
• Super Bomberman R has a load of DLC characters from Konami and Hudson's libraries: Vic Viper, an Option, Simon Belmont, Dracula, Alucard, Pyramid Head, a Bubble Head Nurse, Jehuty, Anubis, Vic Viper Zero, Reiko, Goemon, Ebisumaru, Shiori Fujisaki, Ayako Katagiri, Princess Tomato, Solid Snake, Naked Snake, Raiden, Bill, Lance, Mimi, Nyami, Upa, Caesar, and Xavier Woods. Additionally, the Switch version includes Tako as a pre-order exclusive, the PlayStation 4 version includes Ratchet & Clank, an Ape Escape monkey, and Toro Inoue, the Xbox One version includes Master Chief, a Grunt, and the Arbiter, and the Steam version includes P-Body and Atlas. Finally, a 2021 update included Richter Belmont, Soma Cruz, Suikoden 2 Hero, Robbie the Rabbit, Old Snake and a Bean.
  • Super Bomberman R 2 continues having guest characters with the return of Simon Belmont. Pyramid Head, Raiden, Soma Cruz, Suikoden 2 Hero, Goemon, Alucard, Vic Viper, Bill, Lance, Naked Snake, Richter, Old Snake Vic Viper Zero, Bubble Head, Princess Tomato, Mimi, Nyami, Robbie the Rabbit, and Bean, with the sole newcomer Bomber being Luca Blight.
• Similar to Super Bomberman R, a few members of Bombergirl's roster includes guest characters from other Konami franchises, including Shiori Fujisaki, Pastel, Tsugaru, Grim Aloe, and Chiamo from Chase Chase Jokers.
  • Downplayed with some of the other characters. While they are original to and have debuted in Bombergirl, they are based on other Konami franchises, and they usually are related to characters and organizations from the games they are based on: Sepia Belmont is a descendant of the Belmont Clan; Tekka is the daughter of Kotetsu and Anne from Monster Maulers; Olive is a member of Contra; Melon is the daughter of Princess Melora, and Hiiro Karasuba is said to be from the same family as Tsugumi from Dragoon Might. Each of these characters' special attacks also references attacks and abilities from the series they are based on.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters In Space on the PlayStation 2 focused solely on the earlier Universal Century (in other words, the original anime as well as Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory and the side story video game Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: The Blue Destiny) but nonetheless features six Alternate Universe machines: the God and Master Gundams, Wing Zero Custom and Tallgeese III and the Aile Strike and Aegis Gundams, all complete with appropriate pilots. The Japanese version also featured two suits that, while Universal Century, were not strictly canon to the anime: Char's Rick Dom and Casval's Gundam. As it happens, all of these suits were Downloadable Content in the Japanese version but since the Western PlayStation 2 didn't have that, almost all except Shar's Dom and Gundam were made available in-game.
• The T-800 Endoskeleton appears as a downloadable skin in Deathgarden: Bloodharvest.

• In The Cat Lady, you actually get to meet Joe and Ivy from Downfall (2009). Similar to the Street Fighter-Final Fight example, both Downfall and The Cat Lady share the same universe.
• Deadly Premonition has Forrest Kaysen from another Swery65 game appear in it.
• In the alien invasion game Under the Skin, one of the areas your alien prankster attacks is Raccoon City and your antagonists in that area include Jill Valentine (specifically, the Resident Evil 3: Nemesis version of her).
• The Wonderful 101 has Bayonetta, Jeanne, and Rodin as hidden playable characters.
• Rumble Roses's Reiko was^note  a multiplayer skin on Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.
• In the Nintendo Switch version of Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Fox McCloud from Star Fox is a playable character along with his Arwing.
• ASDAD: All-Stars Dungeons and Diamonds is a maze-based diamond collection game. Fittingly, Shovel Knight is a playable character. Ittle Dew and Winti - the mascot for Grupo Wintek - are also playable.
• Uncharted:
  • Zeke, Cole McGrath (in both good and evil variations), Nathan Hale, a Chimera Hybrid, Sev and a Helghast Soldier are all available as DLC characters for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves' multiplayer mode.
  • Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception has a Capture Trooper from Killzone 3 as a DLC multiplayer villain.

• In an ironic twist, Ryu is a guest fighter for Asura's Wrath, but he also comes with a complete change in gameplay from the main game to be like Street Fighter IV, Gauges and Life bars included.
  • Akuma/Oni and Evil Ryu are also Guest Fighters.
• Bayonetta is a Guest Fighter in Anarchy Reigns if you preordered the game or bought the DLC.
• In the battle against Matt Groening in The Simpsons Game, Groening will summon Zoidberg and Bender as mooks. Before that, The Simpsons Arcade had the Life in Hell bunnies gang up on you in Krustyland if you weren't careful.
• Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law from Tekken appear in Urban Reign as playable characters.
• River City Ransom: Underground has Abobo and Me from Dad 'n Me as secret bosses and playable characters. Me was included because his creator, Dan Paladin, was a backer for the game's Kickstarter.
  • In River City Girls 2, Double Dragon's Marian is promoted from an NPC shopkeeper to a playable character, sporting the previous game's athletic physique. Her original rescuers, Billy and Jimmy Lee, would also be added as DLC characters. Over the course of the game, you can summon an Assist Character, each with own health bar and attacks, some of which are from different games. While some are enemies that can be recruited after they beg for mercy while having a sliver of health left, others are hidden characters and can be hired for a fee. The assists that are common enemies comprise of Chin and Linda from Double Dragon, Waver from Sugoro Quest: Dice No Senshi Tachi, and Trash and Martha from The Combatribes. The special Hired Heavies include Abobo, Berserker, Kebako, Sol, and Jam.
• Streets of Fury Ex has streamers Benzaie, Bob Lennon, Yamato, and Mr. Quaraté as Guest Fighters. Later on, The Nostalgia Critic was added as well.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge: The Dimension Shellshock DLC makes Usagi of Usagi Yojimbo (despite its frequent crossovers with TMNT, the property is wholly owned by creator Stan Sakai) into a fully playable character.
• Tunche features special guest Hat Kid as a playable character, slightly clashing with the "Amazon Jungle" theme.
• The 2024 remake of Data East's Night Slashers delved into their game library and brought in Fighter's History's Chinese opera singer Liu Feilin to help the heroes pulverize some zombies into a bloody mess.
• The exA-Arcadia arcade port of Jitsu Squad features the Samurai Pizza Cats as special guest characters, complete Speedy's original seiyuu, Kappei Yamaguchi, returning to voice him and Pizza Cats' character designer Noritaka Suzuki prociding artwork for the group. The player controls Speedy, while Polly and Guido appear as assist characters.

• Dragon City has released different dragons based on other brands through official collabs:
  • Since 2018, there's 'been 'over 50'' dragons based on different YouTubers. The ones that at least have a page on this wiki include KallMeKris, MrBeast, VanossGaming, H₂ODelirious, Dhar Mann, Dream, Dude Perfect, Fundy, GeorgeNotFound, Sam and Colby, Moriah Elizabeth, Muselk, and Sidemen. This was continued in 2025 with the release of the SML Dragon, based on Jeffy.
  • The Walking Dead collection features dragons based on Rick, Daryl, Michonne, Maggie, Carol and Negan.
  • The Monstrous Dragon is based on Musu from the another Socialpoint game, Monster Legends. This specific dragon was briefly offered to Dragon City players to try out its source game.

• A few Soul Calibur character cards were available for a limited time in Outcast Odyssey.

• While they're not technically fighters due to the game being a Dating Sim, Namco High includes three characters from Homestuck (Jane Crocker, Terezi Pyrope, and Davesprite) due to the author being a major part of the development. All three are referred to as "weird exchange students" in the character info.
• Crush Crush developers Sad Panda Studio got permission from YandereDev to include Yandere-Chan as a girl you can date in their game. You even fill the role as her Senpai. She was later replaced by a recolor named Ayaka after an update, with all references to Yandere Simulator removed.
  • Later updates added Internet Explorer ^Note from I Made A Comic About Internet Explorer and Mallory from another Sad Panda Studios game Cabin Fever as dateable girls.
• Modeus from Helltaker was added as a playable character to Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp in the Halloween 2021 update.

• A stylistic reimagining of Team Fortress 2's Pyro was added to the retail version of Killing Floor for those who had both the game and Team Fortress 2 during the Twisted Christmas event. What a 1960s mercenary is doing in a second millennium Zombie-clone outbreak in London is anyone's guess.
• Due to being released by LucasArts, Han Solo and Indiana Jones skins are available to any character (even the girl) in the first Mercenaries game.
• Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict has Raiden as a playable character and Shao Kahn as an announcer.
  • Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Noob Saibot are also playable in the arcade shooter The Grid.
• Scorpion’s definitely Mortal Kombat's version of Wolverine - he’s playable in Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy as well.
• A fair amount of DLC characters in PAYDAY 2 are characters from films or games added in as part of a cross-promotional campaign. So far, there's John Wick, "Jacket" of Hotline Miami, Bodhi of Point Break (2015), Jimmy from Hardcore Henry, Tony Montana from Scarface and Ethan and Hila Klein of h3h3 Productions.
• Michael Myers and Predator are special items known as Field Orders in Call of Duty: Ghosts. They can only be played as in the Fog and Ruins maps, respectively.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) doesn't include guest characters in a traditional sense, but by including outfits based on Leatherface and Billy the Puppet, it opened the door for later games to include guests of their own:
  • Black Ops Cold War added John Rambo and John McClane as part of its 80's Action Heroes event, alongside Ghostface for the Halloween event, and skins inspired by Judge Dredd and Donnie Darko.
  • Vanguard added skins inspired by Attack on Titan, Godzilla vs. Kong and The Umbrella Academy, as well as the T-800, T-1000 and Snoop Dogg. Don't ask.
  • And then Modern Warfare II went ballistic with the collaborations. In order of appearance, and take a deep breath: Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba, Neymar Jr, the Shredder, Kevin Durant, pro COD players Nickmercs and TimtheTatman, Homelander, Starlight, Black Noir, Snoop Dogg again, Nicki Minaj, 21 Savage, Lara Croft, Spawn, Alucard, Ash Williams, Skeletor, Lilith, Inarius, and a Sardaukar trooper from Dune (2021).
    • All of these carry over to Modern Warfare III, with new additions including Paul Atredies, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, A-Train, Firecracker, Rick Grimes, Michonne Hawthorne, Cheech & Chong, Devin Booker, Rhea Ripley, Cody Rhodes, Rey Mysterio, The Crow, Michael Myers, Sam, Art the Clown and Daryl Dixon, plus operator skins inspired by Warhammer 40,000, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Mobile Suit Gundam, Fallout and Smile (2022).
• Cannon Spike is a game that had more Guests than original characters. Cammy, Charlie, Baby Bonnie Hood, Mega Man and Arthur basically band together with some Original Generation characters and shoot shit up.
• Quake III Arena features Doomguy as a selectable player model, complete with sounds. Its sequel Quake Champions not only features the Doom Slayer, Doomguy's modern counterpart, but also features B.J. Blazkowicz as a playable character.
• In May 2018, Fortnite had the 'Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup'. The Infinity Gauntlet would spawn on the map randomly and allow the player to play as Thanos to completely destroy their rivals. Similarly, other crossovers also happened as well.
  • To advertise Avengers: Endgame, Fortnite added Captain America's shield, Thor's ax, and Iron Man's gauntlets as weapons.
• Gears 5 features a playable guest appearance of the T-800 and Sarah Connor.
• Lost Planet 2 has Albert Wesker and Frank West playable in all versions of the game, plus Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago in the Xbox 360 version. If you have Resident Evil 5 or Dead Rising save data, you can unlock Wesker and Frank right away.

• The How to Train Your Dragon game Dragons Rise Of Berk features Dragon and the Dronkeys as bonus obtainable dragons.
• Hurdle Turtle Forever features three playable guest characters, those being Kratos, Kebako, and Sergeant John Captain.
• Mine Turtle from the asdfmovie series was featured in Monster Legends for a limited time.
• State of Survival had Daryl Dixon and the Joker join the heroes of the settlement in this zombie city builder game.
• Johnny Cage of Mortal Kombat fame made a guest appearance in the NetherRealm Studios-produced WWE Immortals mobile game. A halfway example of this could also be seen with Xavier Woods assuming the persona of Raiden.
• WWE Champions features a load of non-wrestlers in its cast: Rocky Balboa from the first and fourth movies, Apollo Creed from the fourth movie, Clubber Lang, standard Mr. T, two versions of Muhammad Ali and Ozzy Osbourne, three versions of Snoop Dogg, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Johnny Knoxville, and Chuck Norris; as well as alts for existing wrestlers based on Ghostbusters, Masters of the Universe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

• AFK Arena has a faction dedicated to these: the Dimensionals, who wound up stuck in Esperia due to Annih messing with the fabric of the universe, and have a canonical common goal in finding a way to get home. So far, these include: Arthur, Merlin, Nakoruru, Ukyo, Ezio Auditore, Ainz Ooal Gown, Albedo, Joker, Makoto, the Prince of Persia, Leonardo da Vinci, and Wu Kong^note . Markiplier and Chica were also spotted in Esperia for a while, though they stayed in the Noble Tavern as Non Player Characters, and the Nian^note  from Chinese mythology is a non-playable boss.
• Dragalia Lost had a few guest fighters attainable through limited banners or as welfare units.
  • The first instance of guest fighters occurred with a crossover event with Fire Emblem Heroes which added Alfonse, Marth, Veronica, and Fjorm. A year later, more Fire Emblem characters were added as part of a second crossover event with the game. Said characters being Sharena, Peony, Tiki, and Chrom. Alfonse and Sharena could be acquired for free in their respective events while the rest had to be summoned.
  • Mega Man was added as a welfare unit for the crossover event "Mega Man: Chaos Protocol".
  • When an event for Monster Hunter happened three existing adventurers got special Monster Hunter themed alts. Not only that, but Fatalis and two versions of Rathalos were added as playable dragons.
  • Pecorine from Princess Connect! Re:Dive was added to the game as permanent addition to the summon pool, making her the first of any guest in the game to game such a treatment.
  • The Caged Desire event brought the Phantom Thieves Joker, Mona, Panther and Sophie with it and tweaked the UI elements to go with it; Sophie was a welfare unit while the others had to be summoned.
• Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle has Doflamingo as a special card.
• Fist of the North Star: Legends Revive had characters from Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter and Baki the Grappler in addition to Sonic himself, of all people, altogether appear as part of crossover events.
• Honkai Impact 3rd added Asuka Shikinami Langley from Neon Genesis Evangelion as a limited-time recruitable character during the "New Century" event in Version 4.5.
  • Version 4.9, titled "Outworld Quest", featured a crossover with sister game Genshin Impact and added Fischl as a permanently obtainable unit, while Keqing was playable in certain event missions.
• Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story had a crossover event with Lyrical Nanoha, where players could unlock Nanoha, Hayate, and Fate. Another event allowed players to collect the cast of Bakemonogatari, reimagined as Puella Magi.
• Punishing: Gray Raven had 2B, 9S, and A2 from NieR: Automata be recruitable for a limited window during the Untold Naraka event.

• Warriors Orochi 3 has five guest fighters: Joan of Arc, Achilles, Nemea, Ryu Hayabusa, and Ayane. The Ultimate version introduces Rachel, Momiji, Kasumi, Sophitia and Sterkenburg Cranach.
• Downplayed with Bayonetta 2 and the Nintendo ports of Bayonetta. The games have special costumes based on Nintendo franchises that have unique weapons and play sound effects from their original games:
  • The Mushroom Kingdom Princess and Sarasaland Princess costumes replace Halos with Gold Coins, and Bayonetta can summon Bowser instead of Madama Butterfly to attack when using Wicked Weaves. She'll even have a cute Mario or Luigi plush doll attached to her hip. Bayonetta can also use the Chain Chomp as a weapon, while donning a Mario Costume.
  • The Hero of Hyrule costume replaces Halos with Rupees and the sounds effects with SFX from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Hideki Kamiya's favorite Legend of Zelda game. The Shuraba will be replaced with the Master Sword, and can allow her to damage flaming enemies without taking damage. The Hylian Shield on her wrist will also allow her to parry attacks.
  • The Galactic Bounty Hunter costume will have Bayonetta use the Arm Cannon for gun attacks. When she uses Panther Within, she uses Samus's Morph Ball mode, and double jumping makes her use the Screw Attack.
  • Finally, only in Bayonetta 2 the Star Mercenary gives off Star Fox 64 sound effects, and replaces Love is Blue with mini Arwings that shoot lasers. If you wear this costume in Chapter 16: Sovereign Power, you'll control an Arwing instead of a jet, and can fire Smart Bombs.
  • If Jeanne wears these costumes, her sound effects will be from the game's first entries: The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Star Fox.
• Befitting of a fanservicy series, Ayane, Sousaku, Kan-u and Ryofu appear in Senran Kagura: Estival Versus. Peach Beach Splash ups the ante by adding Marie Rose, Honoka, Ryomo, Sonico, Rinka, Ranka, and Neptune.
• Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars is a game that brings the Senran Kagura and Neptunia franchises together. However, it also features Goh from the Shinobido series, albeit a gender-swapped version of him.
• Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is a Dynasty Warriors style game featuring characters and settings from Berserk. It does deviate a bit with the game's warhorses DLC pack, as Guts and his allies can ride Dynasty Warriors' Red Hare and Matsukaze from its sister series Samurai Warriors into battle.

• Pac-Man
  • While Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness primarily features different Pac-Man characters in its multiplayer mode, Pooka from the Dig Dug series can be unlocked as a secret character.
  • Pac-Man 256 features an unlockable skin based on Crossy Road, and if the game is played using the skin, the player controls a chicken instead of Pac-Man himself. The multiplayer mode in the game's console versions also features the chicken as one of the playable character options.

• WarioWare: D.I.Y. used to have microgames based on Shantae, World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, BIT.TRIP, Swim, Ikachan!, Max And The Magic Marker, Toki Tori, Jett Rocket, And Yet It Moves, and Chronos Twin that could be downloaded through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but they are now unobtainable due to the servers being shut down.

• The Cartoon Network MMORPG FusionFall has representation from almost every major Cartoon Network show from the 90s until 2009. There's also appearances from Johnny Test and Dukey from Johnny Test, which was a Canadian show created for Teletoon, Agent K9 from the movie Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore^note , and TOM, the host of Toonami, which was canceled at the time. Costumes based on Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole were also featured when the movie was released.
• In Granblue Fantasy, you can recruit many from other franchises to fight alongside you. Such as:
  • Ryu, Chun-Li, Rashid, Karin,
  • Lina, Naga,
  • Amira, Cerberus, Albert, Vania, Forte,
  • Sakura, Erica, Gemini,
  • Rin, Uzuki, Mio, Kirari, Brynhildr/Ranko,
  • Cure Black and Cure White,
  • Stahn Aileron, Tear Grants, Milla Maxwell and Elize Lutus...
  • Haohmaru and Nakoruru, with Shiro Tokisada Amakusa as an NPC.
• Lost Saga has a boatload of guest characters: Ragna, Jin/Noel, Rachael, Hakumen, Platinum, and Hazama from BlazBlue, Sol and May/Johnny from Guilty Gear, Haohmaru, Nakoruru, and Galford from Samurai Shodown, and Kyo, Iori, and Mai from The King of Fighters. The can only be bought with in-game currency, and typically have stronger equipment.
• Final Fantasy XIV has Rathalos as a special Superboss, introduced in Stormblood. Shadowbringers also has players square off against characters from NieR: Automata and by the end of the campaign, a monster created by a Seed of Destruction from Drakengard.
• Onmyoji had a few guests from Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Mononoke, Hozuki's Coolheadedness, and Inuyasha. However, these characters were available for a limited time.

• MOBA Legends has Chucky, Kong, and RoboCop as playable characters.
• Smite:
  • Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long are skins for Thanatos, Freya, Amaterasu, and Terra, respectively, all in their outfits introduced in Volume Seven of the show, with Ruby having her classic Volumes 1-3 attire as a Prestige Track.
  • Aang, Zuko, and Korra are skins for Merlin, Susano, and Skadi, with Aang and Korra's Prestige Tracks being their Avatar States and Zuko's being his Blue Spirit outfit. Azula and Iroh were later added as skins for Pele and Bacchus.
  • Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo are skins for Osiris, Sun Wukong, Loki, and Mercury, with Prestige Tracks based on their 1987 designs. Splinter, Shredder, and Krang were later added as skins for Haichiman, Ravana, and Xiang Tian.
  • Eleven, Chief Hopper, the Demogorgon, and the Mind Flayer are skins for Scylla, Apollo, Bakasura, and Sylvanus. Eleven and Hopper have Prestige Tracks based on Season Three of the show.
  • Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream are skins for Geb, Ra, and Jing Wei, with Prestige Tracks based on the G1 cartoon.
  • Rocko, Danny Phantom, Invader Zim, Jenny Wakeman and Powdered Toast Man are skins for Danzaburou, Janus, Cupid, Freya and Gilgamesh.
• In Honor of Kings, way before Gongsun Li guested in Samurai Shodown above, the MOBA roster has already received SNK guests in form of Mai Shiranui, Haohmaru (only as a skin for Miyamoto Musashi), Ukyo Tachibana, Nakoruru and Charlotte Christine Colde.
  • In the internationalized version, Arena of Valor, the guests instead come from DC Comics, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and The Joker. There's also one more guest from an Indonesian franchise: Wiro Sableng. Those are the playable heroes, there are also guest skins on existing heroes, featuring Harley Quinn, Kirito, Asuna, Ichigo Kurosaki, Byakuya Kuchiki, Toshiro Hitsugaya, Shinjiro Hayata/Ultraman, Dan Moroboshi/Seven, Tanjiro Kamado, Nezuko Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma, and Inosuke Hashibira.

• Move or Die added characters from Rick and Morty as free DLC characters.
• Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has a few outfits based on characters from different franchises, which include: Alyx Vance, Gordon Freeman, Jacket, The Scout, Bulletkin, Chell, P-Body, Gato Roboto, GRIS, My Friend Pedro, The Messenger, Crow, Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles, Super Sonic, Tails, Dr. Eggman, Godzilla, Godzilla 1995, Mechagodzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra, The Goose, The Groundskeeper, The Wimp, Cyberdemon, Cacodemon, Doom Slayer, Doomicorn, Cuphead, Mugman, Ms. Chalice, Eggscellent, Young Sprout, Bein Cheesy, Shovel Knight, Sark, Tron, Quorra, Rinzler, Bomberman, 2B, Guy Spelunky, Ana Spelunky, Ratchet & Clank, Baloo, King Louie, Mowgli, Shere Khan, Kena, Rot, AiAI, The Prisoner, Jin Sakai, Sackboy, Aloy, Jack Skellington, Sally, Santa Jack, The Mayor, Filbo Fiddlepie, Astro, ASTRO BOT T-Rex, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Odin the All-Father, Eivor the Wolf-Kissed, Master Chief, Grunt, Brute Chieftain, El Chapulín Colorado, Pusheen, Super Pusheenicorn, Sloth, Pusheenosaurus, Asuka, Xavier Woods, Undertaker, Mai Shiranui, Terry Bogard, Xenomorph, Ellen Ripley, Spock, Hugh's Borg Mask, Worf, Uhura, Hunter, Titan, Warlock, Ghost Shell, Hatsune Miku, ToeJam & Earl, Ghostbuster, Gozer, Slimer, Dalek, Fourth Doctor, Thirteenth Doctor, Fourteenth Doctor, Cyberman, Tenth Doctor, He-Man, Battlecat, Orko, Skeletor, Teela, Dovah-bean, Alduin, Ultraman, SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs, Patrick, Sandy, Squidward, Ryu, Akuma, Cammy, Chun Li, Guile, Marcus Fenix, Kait Diaz, General RAAM, The Grinch, Mirabel Madrigal, Luisa Madrigal, Bruno Madrigal, Invincible, Atom Eve, Omni-Man, Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Lara Croft, Sam Porter Bridges, Pac-Man, Inky, Yooka, Laylee, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, April O'Neil, Splinter, Superfly, Fat Chocobo, Goobbue, Alisaie, Alphinaud, Namazu, White Mage, Dragoon, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal.

• Mega Man Universe would have had Ryu as one of the playable characters. Arthur also shows up in the cinematic teaser trailer.
• LEGO Adaptation Game:
  • Indiana Jones can be unlocked in LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga by viewing a trailer for LEGO Indiana Jones. Likewise, Han Solo is unlockable in LEGO Indiana Jones (both cases doubling as an Actor Allusion).
  • Adam West, Kevin Smith, and Green Loontern are unlockable characters in LEGO Batman 3, with Adam West doubling as the "In Peril" character for the game and the narrator of the bonus mission.
  • In LEGO The Incredibles, several characters from other Pixar movies are playable, which include Woody, Flik, Sulley, Dory, Lightning McQueen, Linguini, WALL•E, Russell, Merida, Bing Bong, Spot, Miguel, and even Junior the Lamp.
  • In LEGO Dimensions, alongside characters from franchises owned by LEGO and Warner Bros, characters from third-party franchises are featured, such as Marty McFly, Doc Brown, Homer, Bart, Krusty the Clown, Chell, Owen Grady, ACU Trooper, The Doctor, Cyberman, Peter Venkman, Slimer, Stay Puft, Abby Yates, Ethan Hunt, B.A. Baracus, Sonic the Hedgehog, E.T., and Michael Knight.
• Dante pops up as an unlockable player character in the PS2 version of Viewtiful Joe.
• The Baz from Two Best Friends Play appears as a fighter in Divekick and an optional boss in Shovel Knight. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game features Kratos and the Battletoads as bosses.
• Skylanders:
  • Donkey Kong and Bowser are playable in the Wii U version of Skylanders: SuperChargers and the Wii and Nintendo 3DS-exclusive spin-off Skylanders: SuperChargers Racing. Their figures function as Skylander figures in the games and can also double as amiibo.
  • Skylanders: Imaginators introduces the ability to play as Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Neo Cortex. Unlike Donkey Kong and Bowser, their figures are compatible with all versions of the game.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario Maker:
    • Nearly every character with an amiibo figure is playable in the game as a Mystery Mushroom costume (only available in the original Super Mario Bros. style). This means the entire vanilla roster of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U^note , the squid kids and a squid from Splatoon, the titular character from Chibi-Robo!, and almost every major NPC from the Animal Crossing series. Additionally, Nikki, Slippy, Peppy, an Arwing, Dr. Lobe, Tingle, the Wii Balance Board from Wii Fit, Ashley, and Totem Link are unlockable costumes despite not having amiibo.
    • Shinya Arino is also a Mystery Mushroom costume, unlocked by clearing a course made by him.
    • Necky, the mascot of the Japanese website Famitsu and a GLA Mercedes Benz are unlocked by completing the "Yoshi is Awesome" and the "Mercedes-Benz Jump'n'Drive" events.
    • Later updates and events would add obscure Nintendo characters like Master Belch, Barbara the Bat, Yu Ayasaki, Ayumi Tachibana, Donbe and Hikari from Shin Onigashima, Iris Archwell, Mallo, Bubbles, and Dr. Kawashima, along with completely left-field characters like Chitoge Kirisaki, the members of BABYMETAL, Kitty White, My Melody, and Shaun the Sheep.
  • Super Mario Maker 2: The 2.0 update adds a power-up exclusive to the SMB1 style that turns the player into Link (with a slightly modified version of his appearance from his first game). And unlike the first SMM, where transforming into any character through the Mystery Mushroom didn't give the player abilities related to that character, turning into Link in this game gives the player his abilities such as using the Master Sword, his bow and arrow, etc.
• Toonami's TOM made an appearance in Sly 2: Band of Thieves, basically acting like a reskinned Alarm Clock.
• One of the playable characters in The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures is the Bullshit Man, the star of a different webshow made by James Rolfe called You Know What's Bullshit?
• They Bleed Pixels' bonus worlds are based on Seraph, exp. magazine, and Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure. They were actually made by the original creators themselves.
• The Kirby series' reoccurring bosses Lololo & Lalala were actually stars of their own series before they fought against the pink puffball.
• Runbow has 19 playable characters from other franchises: Shovel Knight, Rusty, Swift from Sportsball, Juan, Tostada, Scram Kitty, CommanderVideo, Commandergirl Video, Xeodrifter Max, Princess from Chariot, Drifter, Teslamancer, A.R.I.D., Gunvolt, and even Unity-Chan! Downloadable Content later added Lilac from Freedom Planet and Shantae from the series of the same name.
• Guppy's Quest has many guest characters from indie games, including Pico, Root & Digby, Salad Fingers, Shady, The Kid, Captain Viridian, Woodle Tree, and Zee Tee.
• While you have to beat them in their secret boss fight first, Plague Knight, Chica, Dr. Fetus, Aban Hawkins, and Balrog appear as playable characters in Free Mode of Creepy Castle.
• Joggernauts' guest joggers are Cowpokes and Commander Video
• Super Monkey Ball:
  • The HD remake of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz includes Sonic the Hedgehog (in his classic design) as an unlockable character.
  • Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania includes Sonic once again, but it also includes Tails (in his classic design as well), Beat from Jet Set Radio, and Kiryu from Like a Dragon. Later DLC for the game includes Morgana from Persona 5, Hello Kitty, Suezo from Monster Rancher, and three Sega consoles (the Game Gear, the Sega Saturn, and the Sega Dreamcast).
  • Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble has Sonic, Tails and Beat returns from the previous game, this time with Amy, Knuckles and Axel joining them. Later DLC for the game includes Hatsune Miku, Godzilla, and a Crewmate as guest playable characters.
• If you collect all 30 Golden Skulls, you can unlock Curly Brace in 1001 Spikes.
• Umihara Kawase Fresh! has two of these, each with their own story: Cotton (wearing an outfit similar to Kawase's) and Curly Brace.
• Ape Escape 2: The Space Can, Submarine Lookalike, and AAA Jellyfish from the Japan-only PlayStation 2 game Space Fishermen appear as rare enemies, with the Enemy Album phrases for the first two noting that they came to the wrong game.
• 88 Heroes has a DLC pack that adds more playable characters, all of whom come from other games by the same publisher^note :
  • Dex from A Pixel Story
  • Eyas from The Land Of Eyas
  • Gunborg from Zombie Vikings
  • The Mage from Brutal
  • Rusty from SteamWorld Dig
  • Vamp Girl from I Want To Be Human
  • A ninja from Ninja Shodown
  • A line of dancers from Conga Master

• In the Mobile Phone Game Game of Dice, guests have included The King of Fighters characters Athena Asamiya, Iori Yagami, Kyo Kusanagi, and Mai Shiranui, South Korean actor Lee Kwang-Soo, Gangnam Style PSY, and Sanrio characters Cinnamoroll, Hello Kitty, Kero Kero Keroppi, My Melody, and Pom Pom Purin.
• KASIORI, a sweets-themed puzzle game by Success, has Cotton as a playable character.
• Puzzle & Dragons has featured characters from Angry Birds, Batman, The DCU, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon's Dogma, Clash of Clans, Crystal Defenders, Final Fantasy, Emil Chronicle Online, Fist of the North Star, GROOVE COASTER, Gunma no Yabou, Hello Kitty, Hunter × Hunter, Monster Hunter, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Princess Punt, Ragnarok Odyssey ACE, Ragnarok Online, Saint Seiya, Taiko no Tatsujin, and many, many more and counting.
• In the Wii U Scribblenauts Unlimited you could summon characters and items from the Mario and Zelda series. They have their own voices and have special reactions to certain items. (For example, if you summon a go-kart, Toad will run towards it and hop on!)
  • The Japanese release of the original Scribblenauts featured various Konami characters for the player to summon, these being Old Snake, Solid Snake, Big Boss, Alucard, Goemon, Ebisumaru, Power Pro-kun, Mimi, Nyami, Vic Viper, Shiori Fujisaki and Manaka Takane. These were also kept on the Japanese version of Super, with the exception of the Metal Gear characters (likely because their names contain adjectives) and, strangely, Ebisumaru.
  • Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat were also characters you could summon in Unlimited. However, Warner Bros was sued because both cats' use were unauthorized. The lawsuit was later worked out. Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat will make future appearances in the series, but the creators will be paid.
• Oh...Sir!! The Insult Simulator features Lo Wang of Shadow Warrior, Serious Sam, and The Postal Dude.
• Nicalis Super Gem Fighter clone Crystal Crisis featured characters from non-Nicalis works such as Astro Boy, Black Jack, President Thompson and a Zombie from 8bits Fanatics' The Tempura of the Dead, Akuji from Akuji the Demon, and, perhaps most unexpected, Johnny Turbo, the mascot for the TurboDuo.
• Project QT has White Horn Unicorn Attack on Moe available for a limited time. Likewise, Erica from Project QT also appeared in Attack on Moe during said period of time.
  • Another Project QT collab had Yandere-Chan and Info-Chan available for a limited time.
• Puyo Puyo:
  • The mobile game Puyo Puyo!! Quest has had many, many crossover characters over its lifetime, both with other Sega properties and completely unrelated ones. Some of the featured series include Sonic the Hedgehog (including the movie), Sakura Wars (both the original and Sakura Wars (2019)), Shenmue, Space Channel 5, Persona, Vocaloid, Chain Chronicle, Live Powerful Pro Baseball, Bleach, Cardcaptor Sakura, Case Closed, Doctor Slump, GeGeGe no Kitarō, Gintama, Haikyuu!!, Lupin III, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ojamajo Doremi, Osomatsu-san, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya, Sanrio, and Yes! Pretty Cure 5.
  • Doubles as a Company Cross Reference, given that both series are made by the same company, but the first post-release update for Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 added in Sonic the Hedgehog as a playable character, complete with new artwork and voice clips.
• Petal Crash has quite a good few of them, half of them being Kickstarter backer contributions. They are The Baz (courtesy of the people behind Two Best Friends Play), Libbie the Cyber Oryx (originally intended to be the mascot of the open-source LibreOffice as part of a contest before being released into the public domain), Mimi (specifically made for the game), Arlet (from Grapple Force Rena and unlike the others has his own character slot when unlocked), Nova the Squirrel (from the homebrew NES title of the same name) and Milla Basset (from Freedom Planet).

• Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie for the Xbox 360. The other versions of the game are merely Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing; Mario was considered for the Wii version, but alas existed the Olympic Games, uhhh, games... The sequel has Danica Patrick, a real-life NASCAR and ex-IndyCar driver, and Ralph from Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, along with members of the RED team from Team Fortress 2 exclusive to the Steam version of the game. Other Steam-exclusive characters include a Football Manager, General Winter from Company of Heroes 2, Willemus from Total War: Rome II, and one of the members of the Yogscast (the last one is DLC, released for charity).
• Miis and Xbox Live Avatars have been playable in the Sonic and All-Stars racing games since the start.
• Test Drive 5 for the PlayStation had the Fear Factory (one of the bands who supplied the music) wagon.
• Klonoa is an unlockable character in Moto GP for the PlayStation 2.
• Mario Kart:
  • The arcade Mario Kart games (by Bandai Namco Entertainment) have Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Blinky, Mametchi (a Tamagotchi), and Don (from Taiko no Tatsujin); this is notable for being the first crossover between the Namco and Bandai halves of the merged Bandai Namco Entertainment company.
  • Meanwhile, Mario Kart DS offers R.O.B. and beginning in Mario Kart Wii, you can play as your Mii. DLC for 8 adds more crossover characters; Link of The Legend of Zelda fame and the Villager (both male and female, given their separate slots in Deluxe) and Isabelle from Animal Crossing. Its Updated Re-release Deluxe also added Inkling Boy and Girl.
  • The Blue Falcon from F-Zero made its Mario Kart debut in Mario Kart Wii, and was a DLC kart in Mario Kart 8.
  • The Mii is a secret character in Mario Kart Wii, 7, and 8. Wuhu Loop and Maka Wuhu from Wii Sports Resort are also tracks in the game.
  • A Mercedes-Benz GLA was actually DLC in MK8, making it the first time a real car is in the Mario Kart series.
  • Mario Kart 8's DLC stages include Mute City, Big Blue, Animal Crossing, Hyrule Circuit, and Excitebike Arena, each with little references to their original series.
  • The notoriously difficult Rainbow Road race track makes an appearance in F-Zero X.
• Pac-Man World Rally has the Prince of All Cosmos, a Pooka and a Fygar; the PSP version also has the exclusive characters of Mappy and Mr. Driller.
• In the Excite series, Boulder from Excite Truck was a guest racer in Excitebots.
• The fan-favorite Hornet car re-appears in Daytona USA 2, alongside USA 2's new cars. It's identical to the way it performed in the first game: same build, same speed, same camera angles, and it can pull off 4-1-4 shifting! Hornet is also available as DLC for the PlayStation Vita version of Ridge Racer, '94 blocky look and all.
• The Virtua Formula in the Sega Genesis port of OutRunners, only accessible through a code but is the fastest and grippiest of all the selectable cars in the game.
• Chocobo Racing had Aya Brea from Parasite Eve (1998) and Jack from The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner appear as secret characters.
• Diddy Kong Racing's case is actually a subversion. It's the first time Banjo or Conker made an appearance in a video game^note . However, they were owned by Rare, which was later bought by Microsoft. Banjo and Conker did not appear in the Updated Re-release Diddy Kong Racing DS, but Tiptup did. He also made his first appearance in Diddy Kong Racing but became a minor character in the Banjo series. His status as a minor character is probably the reason he stayed on the roster.
• Atari Karts' entire roster is original - except Bentley Bear who was from Crystal Castles.
• Power Drift has hidden bonus tracks in which the player controls guest vehicles from Sega's previous deluxe arcade racers: the Hang-On bike and the After Burner jet.
• The Sonic the Hedgehog spinoff series Sonic Riders had guest characters in the first two games. NiGHTS was in both games, along with Ulala and Aiai in Riders and Amigo and Billy Hatcher in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. All three installments of the series feature Extreme Gears based on Crazy Taxi and Hang-On, and the first game features an Extreme Gear modeled after Opa-Opa.
• The Game Boy Advance version of Crash Nitro Kart had Spyro appear as a secret character.
• Likewise, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled not only brings Spyro back, but also adds in Hunter and Gnasty Gnorc as well.
• The arcade racer Super Bikes 2 features the Terminator bike and TRON Light-cycle among its bikes. Not only that, the T-800 and a Tron character are among the riders.
• In addition to the Madagascar characters you'd expect, Madagascar Kartz also features fellow Dreamworks Animation characters Shrek and B.O.B. as unlockable racers.
• As the name suggests, Super Indie Karts is a crossover racing game focused on characters from indie games. However, ToeJam & Earl were included as special guests.
• Jack Frost and Black Frost of Shin Megami Tensei appears as hidden boarders in SBK: Snowboard Kids.
• Forza Horizon 3 and 4 include fictional vehicles from other video games. These include the Warthog, Quartz Regalia, and Quadra V-Tech^note .
• A variation for a Defictionalized car: GT by Citröen from Gran Turismo series appeared in Asphalt games (since 8), The Crew 2 and Motorfest.
  • Two Vision GT cars from Infiniti and Bugatti also followed suit in Asphalt 8.
• KartRider: Drift features Lucid and Pink Bean from MapleStory as playable drivers.

• In a Rhythm Game example example: the song "Just Mario", by "Ubisoft meets Nintendo", in the Wii version of Just Dance 3. The in-game dancer is even dressed in a Mario costume.
  • Just Dance 2015 has Let It Go from Frozen and Tetris appear as songs. Let It Go has Elsa and Anna appear as the dancers, while the Tetris dancers are dressed up as Tetriminos. ("Tetris Blocks")
• Vocaloid GUMI appears in Popn Music as an opponent character in the songs that she sings, but unlike 99% of other characters, she is not playable.
• Persona 4: Dancing All Night had Hatsune Miku. Project Diva was developed by Dingo, who assisted in Dancing All Night's development.
• Taiko no Tatsujin: Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken features a number of unlikely guest characters in Adventure Mode, including Kirby and King Dedede, Jibanyan, the Felynes, Phoenix Wright, Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya, Rakitama, Tamazo and even Koro-sensei. Kusuo Saiki appears as a DLC character.
• The second Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan game features the Elite Beat Agents as unlockable characters.
• In Rhythm Heaven Megamix, your reward for clearing all the challenge levels is a pair of extra challenges featuring characters from the WarioWare series.
• Meat Boy is a recurring character in the BIT.TRIP series, appearing as a background character in RUNNER, Runner2, and FLUX, and as a powerup in FATE.
  • The "Good Friends" DLC pack for Runner2 adds Dr. Fetus, Josef, Quote, Raz, and Spelunky Guy as playable characters. The Steam version includes ATLAS as well.
  • Runner3 lets you play as Dave, Shovel Knight, and Eddie Riggs.
• Cytus II has Hatsune Miku (who was Temporary Online Content, and no longer available) and Kizuna Ai as purchasable characters, each adding some of their songs as well as a story that integrates them into the world of Cytus.
• Friday Night Funkin' features a few guest fighters, usually well-known characters hailing from Newgrounds. Skid and Pump were introduced for the Week 2 Halloween update, Pico was put in the game for the Week 3 update and Tankman, Newgrounds' mascot, appears in Week 7.

• Abomi Nation features Mons from other DANGEN Entertainment games:
  • The Seedling, Psicorp, Abomihoney, and Belestoss enemies from Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling were added to the game as free DLC in June 2022, including a few new variants designed just for this game.
  • Quaverpole, Tomatee, Aubergee, Zasp, and Melog from Disc Creatures were added to the game in its final content update (May 2023).
• Absented Age: Squarebound:
  • Astrake (in Silvana's body) from RealityMinds and Iris from Soaring Machinariae can be used in Arcade mode.
  • In the postgame infinite dungeon, Parking Lot Depths, the player can summon an ally, Scale, who comes from Craft the Mapcrafter: Gathering Magic Words.
• Crypt of the NecroDancer has skins of characters from Shiren the Wanderer and Danganronpa.

• Brave Frontier features characters from The King of Fighters, Phantom of the Kill, and Tales of Link.
• In Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, in addition to characters from throughout the Final Fantasy games, characters appear from Brave Frontier, Dragon Quest Monsters, Imperial Saga, Monster Hunter Explore, NieR: Automata, and Romancing SaGa 3. Randi, Primm, and Popoi from Secret of Mana and pop singer Ariana Grande are also playable.
• Genshin Impact added Aloy from Horizon as a playable character in update 2.1 for owners of the PS4/PS5 version of the game, then for other systems in 2.2.
• Infinity Dungeon Evolution has cameos from Buff Knight, Dungeon999F, and other Mobile Phone Games.
• Lord of Vermilion features characters from Drakengard and Valkyrie Profile. Lord of Vermilion II features characters from Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XIV, Lord of Arcana, Magic: The Gathering, Romancing SaGa 2, Romancing SaGa 3, Secret of Mana, and Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. Lord of Vermilion Re:2 features characters from Black★Rock Shooter, BlazBlue, Final Fantasy IX, The King of Fighters, Persona 3, Persona 4 and Touhou Project.
• Lost Crusade has the appearance of characters from Lord of Vermillion III.
• Phantom of the Kill features the appearance of characters from Brave Frontier.
• Soul Hunters has the appearance of Ezio from Assassin's Creed, Rayman from Rayman, The Prince from The Prince of Persia and Batman.
• A rare Massive Multiplayer Crossover version: Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 (by Banpresto) featured Temjin, Fei-Yen the Knight, and Apharmd the Hatter, three mechs from Sega's Virtual-ON series.
  • Super Robot Wars K has brought them back again, this time incorporating the Virtual-ON storyline into the game. Which essentially makes them canon immigrants.
• Rondo of Swords features other Success characters: Izuna and Shino from Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja and Cotton from Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton. They are ridiculously broken.
• While not unique characters, Haseo and Ovan have costumes in .hack Link belonging to characters from Tales of Graces. They are the only characters in the game to do so.
• What Could Have Been example: the developers of the Wii port of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance considered putting Link and Samus as characters.
• Dante of Devil May Cry fame appears as a boss in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. And with a little effort, he can be added to your party's ranks. Later versions would replace him with Raidou Kuzunoha.
• Cloud is a secret character in Final Fantasy Tactics. Aerith makes a cameo appearance, but isn't playable. The PSP version adds Balthier and Luso, who are technically from the same universe as Tactics, but from a different time period.
• Code Name: S.T.E.A.M lets you play as characters from Fire Emblem if you scan their respective amiibo on the 3DS's touch screen.
• Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII had made an appearance in Final Fantasy XIV through random events and she would help players fight Final Fantasy XIII themed monsters. Completing the event would earn players gear and hairstyles based on Lightning's game.
• Project X Zone 2, being a Massive Multiplayer Crossover of Capcom, Namco Bandai, and Sega franchises, has a couple guest characters from Nintendo: Fiora from Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and Chrom and Lucina from Fire Emblem: Awakening. Also, Metal Face appears as a boss and Risen are enemies.
• In Digimon World Re:Digitize, you can battle against Lili and Sebastian from Tekken. Her Digimon is a slug-like Numemon named Catherine, who's evolution line is a total Ugly Duckling story. It transforms from a slug, to a literal piece of crap, to a giant teddy bear, until it finally evolves into Lilithmon. Sebastian on the other hand has a Seraphimon, who frequently butts heads with Catherine when she's fully evolved. And then there's the fact that you can fight Lili when she's in a pink Monzaemon costume...
• Yo-kai Watch has Don-Chan as a befriendable Yo-kai in the second and third games. In the third game, there are a Moogle variant of Jibanyan and Jibanyan riding a Chocobo as befriendable Yo-kai as well.
• Indivisible includes appearances from Lab Zero Games's own Annie from the Skullgirls universe as well as Shantae, Shovel Knight, Juan from Guacamelee!, and Transistor. Or rather, it was going to, until issues within Lab Zero cut those plans short.
• One of Five Nights at Freddy's World's secret bosses is none other than "Chipper's Revenge", an evil robot version of the protagonist of Scott Cawthon's Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. series. These kid-friendly games were heavily criticized, and that criticism influenced Cawthon to create Five Nights at Freddy's. Chipper's lines after defeating him references this.

  Chipper's Revenge: "My world was lush and beautiful, full of strange and colorful creatures! But no, that wasn't enough for you. You wanted to be scared. You wanted to feel dread. And what happened to me? What happened to us? Obscurity..."

  • A later update to the game also added Coffee from The Desolate Hope as a secret party member.
• In Megadimension Neptunia VII, God Eater-chan is a personification of God Eater, Nitroplus-chan is a personification of nitro+, and Million Arthur-chan is a personification of Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur.
• 16-bit versions of Cloud and Tifa replace Locke and Celes in Return of the Dark Sorcerer.
• Monster Hunter: Stories includes Epona as a recruitable Monstie.
• Monster Hunter: World:
  • The v.5 update introduced the Behemoth in its Final Fantasy XIV incarnation as a huntable monster, a first for the franchise.
  • Armor sets of Ryu and Sakura, Aloy, Bayek, and Mega Man (for the Palico) are available as DLC. Unlike the Dante armor set, these change your character's appearance and voice to match that of the character.
  • Geralt appears as a playable character in a DLC quest line, bringing The Witcher mechanics with him. A Leshen appears as a huntable monster in the same quest, and by completing his hunt (and the much harder Ancient Leshen hunt) the player can unlock armor that turns their character into Geralt or Ciri.
  • Iceborne, the expansion for World, adds in an event for Resident Evil 2 (Remake) that gives the player layered armor to turn them into Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield — and turns the Handler into Mr. X.
• Monster Hunter Frontier G has costumes of Saber, Archer and Rin Tohsaka that come with their own unique weapons.
  • Kaiji Itō and Mikoko Sakazaki from Kaiji were playable in a promotional event, with events and minigames inspired by the series included.
• New Horizons, offers mod features with high-quality ships from Pirates of the Burning Sea, developped by their modelers.
• Vyse, Aika, and Fina appear as two playable soldiers and a medic in Valkyria Chronicles.
  • Like the original, Valkyria Chronicles II has Emilia Percival from Phantasy Star Portable 2 as a bonus Armored Tech unit.
  • Like the previous two, Valkyria Chronicles III has Vyse, Aika, and Fina from the first game, and Nagisa from Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity.
• Queen's Gate has a truckload of Guest Characters, including a girl from pretty much every major fighting game featured as a playable character. The original combat books include SNK's Mai, Mina, Cham Cham, and Iroha; Arc System Works' Dizzy and Noel; Koei Tecmo's Kasumi, and Namco's Ivy, Taki, Phyrra and Lili. Outside of fighting games, there's Jubei and Yukimura from Samurai Girls, Ink from Moetan, Junko from Demon King Daimao, Kan'u from Koihime†Musou, Katja from Seikon no Qwaser, and Suchie-Pai from Idol Janshi Suchi-Pai.
  • In Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos, everyone except Kasumi, Taki, Phyrra, Kan'u, Yukimura, and Suchie-Pai return. In their place there's classic Namco heroine Wonder Momo and Hyper Nurse's Painkiller Kotone, a character from a hentai doujin, of all things.
  • In the HTML-based Queen's Gate: Limit Break, Jubei and Yukimura return, bringing along Hattori Hanzo and Tokugawa Sen. It also has a batch of new female guests: Asuka, Ikaruga, and Yumi from Senran Kagura, Felicia, Morrigan, and Hsien-Ko from Darkstalkers, and Rei, Saeko and Saya from Highschool of the Dead.
• There's a special dungeon in Diablo III where you can fight Clickers, Stalkers and Bloaters.
• Within Girls' Frontline, you can get special "T-Dolls" to join your party: Noel Vermillion, Elphelt Valentine, and a large assortment of girls from Collapse Acadamy 2^note , VA-11 HALL-A and DJMAX.
• Epic Seven
  • For a limited time, Sol Badguy, Baiken, Dizzy and I-no were playable characters.
• Taiko No Tatsujin V Version guests appear to help deliver "death blows": Reiko Nagase, Kamata SYNCI, Saul, Gordon, Propa, the Propaganda Girls, GUMI, IA, ASF-X Shinden II, Adol Christin, Rean Schwarzer, Kazuya, Lili, Mormin, Koro-sensei, Uzuki Shimamura, Rin Shibuya, Mio Honda, 765Pro Allstars, Julius, Ciel, and even the Wagakki Band, Kazuchika Okada, and Sachiko Kobayashi. Kobayashi herself also appears as a boss.
• Dengeki Bunko: Crossing Void had Hatsune Miku, Kagimin Rin and Len, and Megurine Luka as both playable and assist characters.
• Grand Summoners, as a Gatcha game, has had many crossovers that had units playable for a limited time, including Kill la Kill, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Goblin Slayer, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and YuYu Hakusho.
• Union League is another mobile RPG that has has collabs with KonoSuba, The Seven Deadly Sins, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Vocaloid, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, YuYu Hakusho, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works].
• Attack on Titan characters were unlockable during the summer of 2020 in The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross.
• Each game in the Venus Blood series is usually standalone, but fundraising for the International editions let contributors nominate and vote on which characters from other entries get to appear as recruitable characters, such as Freyja from -Frontier- appearing in -Gaia-.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2:
  • KOS-MOS appears as an optional recruitable rare blade. Prepare to spend hundreds of core crystals trying to get her.
  • As of 1.4.0 update, T-elos appears as a recruitable blade. She can be obtained in New Game Plus.
  • Shulk and Fiora from the first game, and Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X also appear as recruitable blades.

• Retro City Rampage features CommanderVideo, Meat Boy, Mr. Destructoid and Minecraft's Steve as secret characters.

• Armed Police Batrider has guest appearances from what the Attract Mode calls "Raizing All-Stars"—five Mahou Daisakusen charactes and two Battle Garegga characters (each with two ships to their name).
• Gunbird 2 featured Aine and Morrigan as hidden characters (the latter being only in the Sega Dreamcast version, which was published by Capcom).
• In Blue Wish Resurrection Plus, Eden's Edge/Eve is available for play. In the creator, X.X's next game, Eden's Aegis, Eve and Ridmie from Eden's Edge and Green Wind respectively are available for play if certain conditions are met.
• In the Mobile Phone Game Galaga Wars, ships from Galaxian, StarBlade, and Xevious are available.
• Dangun Feveron has the cat from Cave's Puzzle Game Uo Poko as a hidden ship.
• In all the Raiden Fighters games, the ship roster includes several guest fighters, including the player ships from Raiden II (Homing Lasers included) and Viper Phase 1 and Miclus, Seibu Kaihatsu's infrequently-seen mascot character.
• Tyrian 2000 has the Pretzel Pete Truck from the unreleased game Pretzel Pete as a secret ship used in Super Arcade Mode.
• DariusBurst: Chronicle Saviours adds several ships from other shmup titles as DLC:
  • The Taito pack adds the Inter Gray from Night Striker, the Black Fly from Metal Black and the X-LAY from RayForce.
  • The Sega pack adds the TRY-Z from Galaxy Force, the Harrier from Space Harrier and the Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone.
  • The CAVE pack adds the Delta Sword from DoDonPachi Resurrection, Windia from Deathsmiles and the Tiger Schwert from Ketsui
  • The Eighting pack adds the Wild Snail from Battle Garegga, the Swordfish from Soukyugurentai and Miyamoto the Samurai Dragon from Sorcer Striker.
  • The Capcom pack adds the Tanikura Saber from Varth: Operation Thunderstorm, the Mobilesuit from Hyper Dyne Side Arms and the Gambler from Progear.
• The unfunded indie game ''Komodo Crunchtime'' was going to have Skullomania from Street Fighter EX as a playable character.
• Acceleration of Suguri features QP from QP Shooting, another Shoot 'em Up series made by the same developer, and Sora from the then-upcoming game sora as Guest Fighters. In QP's case however, her game never made it to the west, making her into another trope.
• The Steam version of Trouble Witches has Natta de Cotton from Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton as a DLC character. Notably, selecting her will carry over certain mechanics from her own game, such as replacing the game's soundtrack with that of Cotton's, and going through a bonus "Tea Time" round after every stage.
• Superlative Night Dreams: Cotton Rock 'n' Roll has four of these to choose from: Saiva Ria from Psyvariar, Fine from Starfighter Sanvein, Luffie from Doki Doki Poyacchio and Kawase from Umihara Kawase.
• Senko no Ronde 2 features the Valken from Assault Suits Valken and Temjin from Virtual-ON as DLC guest fighters.
• Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation had DLC planes based on the girls from The Idolmaster. The trend was continued in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon and Ace Combat Infinity.
• Alice Gear Aegis had Kasumi and Marie Rose as playable for a limited time. The event also came with Dead or Alive costumes the other characters could wear.
• Xevious 3D/G featured a cheat code that would replace the players' ships with Heihachi Mishima and Paul Phoenix.

• The Sims 4: The Snowy Escape expansion introduced Kaori Nishidake, the teenage Japanese Genki Girl from the SSX series of snowboarding games, as a resident of the new town of Mt. Komorebi, in keeping with the pack's focus on winter activities (including a ski resort) and Japanese aesthetics.

• New International Track & Field is a sports game for the Nintendo DS. The characters are big-headed and Super-Deformed, and overall it has a kiddie aesthetic. It was also published by Konami, who thought it a good idea to put a bunch of their characters in it. These vary from the fitting, such as the mascot of their Pro Baseball series with similar styling, to the somewhat out there but not terrible weird, like Simon Belmont and Sparkster, to completely family-unfriendly characters like Pyramid Head and Evil Rose.
• The GameCube version of NBA Street 3 has Mario, Luigi and Peach as playable characters to make up for the console's lack of online play. Plus, all versions of the game have Beastie Boys as a secret team.
  • SSX on Tour also had the trio (Cube only, obviously.)
  • SSX 3 also had Stretch, one of the characters from NBA Street, as a secret character, as well as all the characters from the previous games.
    • And in that same game, the secret character Churchill debuted as a Quake III Arena custom skin. Yes, it's true!
    • Stretch's inclusion in SSX 3 mirrors SSX riders Zoe and Moby's status as unlockable characters in the original NBA Street, along with Tracey from Sled Storm. Also in that game? R&B group 3LW.
    • Also Zoe and Psymon were playable in Sled Storm.
• The Tony Hawk's series had some weird guest skaters. Some are from Activision's game catalog (the Doom guy, Guitar Hero characters), others licensed by the company (Spider-Man, Wolverine, Shrek), and musicians as well (Billie Joe Armstrong, Travis Barker, MCA). The rest are there just for fun, fictional (Darth Maul and Jango Fett; Eddie; Bigfoot) or not (Benjamin Franklin?!).
  • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 featured the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the IDW comic series and Tyler, the Creator as DLC characters.
• Kelly Slaters Pro Surfer had Tony Hawk as a bonus surfer. Kelly Slater was previously a bonus skater in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.
• Mario Hoops 3-on-3 featured a White Mage, Black Mage, Ninja, Moogle, and Cactuar from Final Fantasy, due to Square Enix being the developer. Mario Sports Mix featured the same guest characters, plus Slime from Dragon Quest, and added Behemoth as a boss.
• NBA Jam featured anyone and everyone from the designers to President Bill Clinton as hidden characters.
  • Of particular note is that the NBA asked Midway to remove Raiden, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Reptile of Mortal Kombat fame from later revisions of NBA Jam Tournament Edition because they were not at ease with MK being Rated M for Money. You read that right.
  • Then again, a notable guest in Electronic Arts' installment is Isaac Clarke from Dead Space. Apparently, either NBA has issues with characters from fighting games and yet has no problem featuring a character who gets graphically chopped up by necromorphs or the times have changed on the subject of video game violence since the Mortal Kombat controversy.
  • They seemed to change their minds on this early, as Raiden and Shinnok are playable in NFL Blitz. Scorpion and Sub-Zero also made appearances in MLB Sluggers, but that was made by a different company.
• Virtua Striker 3 and 2002 has a Sonic team consisting of the hedgehog and his friends. Yuji Naka is also an announcer and coach of Sonic's team.
• NHL 12 features an All-Legend Team, made up of NHL greats like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Ray Bourque, among others. You can even put them on your favourite teams, presenting interesting situations all around.
• Jak, Daxter, Ratchet, Clank, Kratos, Sackboy, Kat, and Toro have all made appearances in some of the later Hot Shots Golf games.
  • Needles "Sweet Tooth" Kane, Sir Daniel Fortesque, and Gex appear as unlockable characters in the American and European releases of Hot Shots Golf 2.
  • In Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip, you can play as one of the Helghast from Killzone (and recruit another as an umpire), but you have to beat them first.
• The Surf's Up video game featured Elliot from Open Season as a Secret Character.
• EA Sports UFC had Bruce Lee as a Secret Character. The sequel, EA Sports UFC 2, made Joe Rogan a hidden character (unlockable by using the Konami Code on the title screen) while bumping Bruce Lee to Downloadable Content status in addition to offering Mike Tyson as DLC as well.
  • Back in THQ's days, they put Shaquille O'Neal in as a fighter in UFC Undisputed 2010. We must assume his fighting style was listed as Shaq Fu.
• Pro Baseball Famista 2011 for the Nintendo 3DS includes various Namco characters as guest players, including Siegfried from the Soul Series, Nina and Heihachi from Tekken, Haruka, Miki, and Chihaya from The Idolmaster, the title character of Klonoa, and - perhaps the strangest of all - the XFA-27 fighter jet from Ace Combat.
• In the GameCube version of Fight Night Round 2, Little Mac, as he appears in Super Punch-Out!! is a playable character, allowing him to go up against real life boxing greats like Muhammad Ali.
• The Slash and Bust versions of Haohmaru and Nakoruru are playable in Freestyle 2: Street Basketball.
• Shironeko Tennis has had characters from Re:Zero, A Certain Magical Index, YuYu Hakusho, Gintama, The Prince of Tennis, Sgt. Frog, Yo-kai Watch, Vocaloid, Kizuna AI, Pop Team Epic, K-On!, and Attack on Titan - but only for a limited time. It is a gacha game, after all.
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour features several: 2003 featured Saliva frontman Josey Scott, 2004 had Cedric the Entertainer, and 2005 featured Justin Timberlake both As Himself and as "The Hustler".
  • Rory McIlroy PGA Tour had a US Recon.
• 100ft Robot Golf had Pierce Washington as a playable character, complete with him piloting a mecha-sized version of Saints Row IV's Mech Suit.
• World Kicks, a soccer arcade game by Namco, had two different secret soccer teams featuring characters originating from Namco's games (and beyond) from The '80s and The '90s. The Namco All-Stars '90 team had Heihachi, Ivy, Klonoa, Don, and Najavu, the mascot of their NamjaTown theme park. The Namco Alll-Stars '80 team had Mappy, Pac-Man, Pooka, Valkyrie, and robot toy Wagan.

• Among the original students that wander the school in Yandere Simulator, there's Pippi, the mascot of the rhythm game osu!. She even plays osu! in the game. However, just because she's from another series doesn't mean she's immune to the wrath of the school's local Yandere (i.e. you)...

• The Battle Cats has featured characters from Annihilation City, Dragon League A/Dragon League X, Dragon Poker, Merc Storia, Princess Punt Sweets/Princess Punt 2, Survive! Mola Mola!, Monster Hunter, Million Arthur, Mr.Ninja!! Fever, Metal Slug Defense, and Yakuza Apocalypse.
• Evil Genius 2: The Pyro from Team Fortress 2 is a free DLC Henchman with the "Pyro Pack" DLC. You can decide whether to recruit a RED Pyro or BLU Pyro, with the one you don't recruit becoming an enemy.
• Plague Inc., a game about killing humanity with diseases, got its first official Guest Fighter in the form of the Simian Flu from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as a result of a partnership with 20th Century Fox.
• Toy Soldiers: War Chest features Duke and Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe, Ezio Auditore da Firenze from Assassin's Creed and He-Man from Masters of the Universe.
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos: One mission has a Hydralisk that you can add to your forces. The character models for Terran Marines and Zerglings are also available.

• A few Resident Evil titles have a habit of including playable characters in their minigames that are not involved in the main story.
  • The Extreme Battle mode in Resident Evil 2 features Chris Redfield.
  • The Mercenaries mode in Resident Evil 4 features Hunk.
  • Mercenaries Return in Resident Evil 5 features Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers.
• An update to Zombie Army Trilogy added the 8 characters from Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 as playable characters. This was relatively simple to do, as Zombie Army does not have voice acting, so all they had to do was get the license rights then plug the character models into their engine.
• The specimen in Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion are all Homages and expies of various horror tropes and creatures. With the exception of White Face, the main villain of Imscared and Lisa from P.T..
• Dead by Daylight has had quite a bit, as a lot of famous horror movie slashers and protagonists have been added as Killers and Survivors:
  • In 2016, they added Michael Myers and Laurie Strode.
  • In 2017, Leatherface, Freddy Krueger and Quentin Smith were introduced. Bill Overbeck was also added as free DLC on the Steam version, but wouldn't be added to the console versions of the game until 2019.
  • In 2018, Amanda Young and David Tapp joined the roster.
  • In 2019, Ash Williams, The Demogorgon, Nancy Wheeler and Steve Harrington were all added. An honorable mention goes to The Ghost Face, who is a subversion — from visual design to backstory, he's very clearly meant to be an invocation of the Ghostface Killers from Scream, but thanks to some crafty dodging around copyright^note , he's technically an original Killer that doesn't explicitly need to make a reference to other media.
  • In 2020, Cheryl Mason and Pyramid Head were added too.
  • In 2021, The Nemesis, Jill Valentine, and Leon S. Kennedy are part of the game. Later that year, Pinhead would be added too.
  • In 2022, Yoichi Asakawa and Sadako were added, then Resident Evil became the first franchise to gain additional representatives with Albert Wesker, Ada Wong and Rebecca Chambers.
  • In 2023, Nicolas Cage was announced as a Survivor. No, not a character played by Nicolas Cage; it's Nicolas Cage As Himself pulled into the realm of the Entity. Ellen Ripley and the Xenomorph were added shortly afterwards, and then followed by Chucky, with Tiffany also appearing as a Legendary Outfit.
  • In 2024, Alan Wake was brought into the Fog, and was followed by Vecna, along with two two original characters based on the Bard class, Aestri Yazar and Baermar Uraz. Lara Croft ventured past the grasp of the Entity later that year, followed later still by Trevor Belmont and Count Dracula.
  • In addition, some Legendary and Very Rare Outfits swap the original characters model for another character, like the aforementioned Tiffany. While the majority of them are characters from the same series, some of them are from different franchises altogether. Steve gets swapped with Jonathan Byers; Cheryl gets Lisa Garland, Cybil Bennett, James Sunderland, and Maria; Leon has Chris Redfield and Carlos Oliveira; Jill gets Chris' sister Claire and Sheva Alomar; Renato is swapped with Tubarão; Ripley has her clone, Ripley 8, and Rain Carradine; Alan Wake has Saga Anderson, Rose Marigold, and Mr. Scratch; Trevor has Alucard and Soma Cruz, The Trapper has Naughty Bear; The Hag has The Birch Witch; The Doctor has The Look-See, The Huntress has The Mordeo; The Spirit has the War Hammer Titan and Tomie; The Legion has HUNK; The Oni has the Armored Titan; The Blight has William Berkin; Pinhead can swap with the Chatterer; The Artist has Miss Fuchi; The Twins have Hikizuris' Dark Past, The Dredge has Half Spirits' Torment and the Xenomorph has Grid, The Xenomorph Clone, The Xenomorph Queen. Doctor, Oni, Deathslinger, and Dredge each have a skin based on Iron Maiden mascot Eddie, based on appearances from different Iron Maiden album covers.
• Dying Light introduced Bill Overbeck as a new free DLC outfit in a Left 4 Dead 2 crossover event in October 2020.
• Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water has an unlockable side story starring Ayane from Dead or Alive. As expected of a horror game, Ninja Ayane is Brought Down to Normal when her deadly skills prove ineffective against ghosts that are already dead. Fortunately, she gains a magical set of tattoos and magical flashlight to help her against the ghosts.
• Similar to Dead by Daylight, the Dark Deception multiplayer spin-off game, Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals has characters and levels from other horror games:
  • Prisoner Borisov, The Brute, and The Fiend appear as playable characters, with the Hisa Maru Cargo Ship as its level.
  • Cheryl pops up as a playable character in this game as well, alongside fellow Mortal Cybil Bennett. Robbie the Rabbit and the Nurse appear as Monsters, while Pyramid Head is a Boss Monster. Silent Hill is their home stage.
  • For Yandere Simulator representatives, Ayano Aishi appears as a Monster. At the same time, Info-Chan, Taro Yamada and his sister Hanako appear as Mortals. Fun Girl is this DLC's Boss Monster, Akademi High is the DLC's level, and the Police appear as unplayable hazards. This DLC was eventually removed from both Steam and Epic Games Stores.
  • YouTubers Dawko, SuperHorrorBro, 8-Bit Ryan, and CoryxKenshin appear as DLC characters.
  • The Poppy Playtime DLC pack has Kissy Missy as a playable Monster, the Playtime Factory Co. as a level, and Huggy Wuggy as a Boss Monster.
  • The House of Ashes DLC has Jason and Salem as Mortals, Infected Balathu and Infected Clarice as Monsters, Sumerian Temple as the level, and Vampires as Boss Monsters.
• Alucard and Leon Belmont appear as free DLC characters in OBAKEIDORO.

• Inkulinati: Andreas Mahler, the main character of Pentiment, is one of the available player avatars.

• Turok was meant to be an unlockable character in WWF War Zone, but was Dummied Out for unknown reasons. He's still accessible via cheat device, though.
• Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst is a playable character in both the PS2 WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It! and the Xbox's concurrent WWF RAW. Rumor has it, this was one of the conditions for allowing the developers to use the song "Rollin'", which was The Undertaker's entrance theme at the time, in the game.
  • The later WWE games feature hidden "legends"; in other words, popular wrestlers from WWE's past.
  • WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 also features Rob Van Dam, who hadn't been in WWE for a couple of years prior to the game beginning development and, indeed, signed with TNA shortly after its release. He's listed as a "Free Agent", not as a Legend (the only other characters so designated are the Red and Green demonstration models, Paul Bearer, and the Undertaker's druid). Apparently, the dev team were just really big RVD fans and wanted to use him in the game very badly.
  • WWE '12 featured the returns of Brock Lesnar (a few months shy of his outright return in 2012) and Eddie Guerrero. As an aside, custom wrestlers could also have their listed hometown set as Stilwater.
  • WWE '13 featured Mike Tyson.
  • WWE 2K15 features Sting, the first wrestler to be featured in the game despite never actually having wrestled for WWE until shortly after the game's release.
  • WWE 2K16 features not one, but two versions of the Terminator.
  • WWE 2K22 features Machine Gun Kelly as a DLC character, as he curated the soundtrack for the game.
  • WWE 2K23 features Bad Bunny as the Pre-Order Bonus, and a second version of him as a DLC character later on.
  • Bad Bunny would return for 2K24, joined by Post Malone, as he curated the game's soundtrack, much like MGK before him. 2K24 also features an entire DLC pack themed around The Pat McAfee Show, with Pat and his co-hosts AJ Hawk, Boston Connor, Darius Butler, and Ty Schmitt.
  • WWE 2K25 would see Abyss and New Jack as DLC, who, like Sting before them, never wrestled for WWE, although Abyss does work as a backstage producer. The DLC announcement also stated there would be two TBA celebrity guests, and three TBA NBA players.

• Twisted Metal
  • Rob Zombie shows up as a driver in Twisted Metal 4.
  • A Warhawk from the the game of the same name is the Final Boss in Twisted Metal: Black. Serves also as a Call-Back, as the original Warhawk was developed by the same team that did the first two Twisted Metal games and Black.
• While not "characters" per se, Rocket League features a few "guest cars": first is the PS4-exclusive Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal, and DLC later added the DeLorean from Back to the Future, a handful of Batmobiles, a Jurassic World Jeep, some Fast and Furious cars, some Hot Wheels cars, the Ecto-1, KITT, the Battle Bus from Fortnite, a handful of NASCAR and Formula One cars and several real-life Cool Cars. The Xbox One version has a variation of the Warthog from Halo and the Armadillo from Gears of War join the roster. The Nintendo Switch version meanwhile has cars based on Super Mario Bros. and Metroid.
• Beyond Games' Motor Mayhem included three characters from Ultra Vortek: Volcana, Grok, and Buzzsaw.
• Jak X had Ratchet from Ratchet & Clank as an unlock using an Old Save Bonus from either Ratchet: Deadlocked or Ratchet & Clank (2016) depending on the console^note .

• In VA-11 HALL-A, you can trigger the appearance of three guest characters from Read Only Memories by serving a secret drink to specific characters at certain points of the game.