10 Potential Fortnite Crossovers
Epic Games loves taking its pop culture permeating battle royale Fortnite and splicing its DNA with a number of different franchises, whether that’s other legendary video games, familiar faces from the silver screen, or even putting celebrities, music artists, or special events into its makeup.
Today we’re going to indulge in some theory crafting and ruminate on what other intellectual properties might find themselves in Snobby Shores or Retail Row. We’re taking some educated guesses based on who the developers have worked with previously, the timing that they’ve executed certain partnerships, and what releases and/or real-world events are upcoming in the next year or so.
10 – Nike/UEFA Fortnite
This may seem like something that comes slightly out of the left field, but Epic Games’ timing for launching certain promotions has been acutely precise in the past, to say the least.
With the global pandemic affecting so many scheduled events and businesses around the world and pushing so many events into 2021 (with the UEFA European Soccer Championships included in this), we could see some kind of collaboration in this vein.
Fortnite has been privy to different forms of media in exclusive in the past with Travis Scott’s concert, pieces of Christopher Nolan’s work being played, and the showing of one of the Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker trailers, so it’s completely plausible that we could see some of the upcoming international soccer games shown at the Risky Reels drive-in.
Along with that, we could see some Nike associated athletes from various sports show up (particularly from the world of soccer) or more clothing featured as skins, as they did before when they crossed over with their Air Jordan line.
9 – Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Fortnite is no stranger to putting superheroes into the game, and after working with a number of properties from Marvel and Star Wars, we could see the Falcon soaring in the skies of the battle royale and Bucky Barnes roaming the streets of Tomato Town and Salty Springs.
You could just have elements of each character be put into the game as purchasable skins, but where’s the fun in that? I think it would work much better if (like they did with Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet) and have Falcon’s iconic wings as an item that can be picked up, sending you shooting into the air and giving you his abilities and the power of gliding.
Bucky could function in the same manner but the collectible item could be either his cyborg arm or his unique firearm. Speaking of his weapon of choice, while the Winter Soldier can’t roam the airways like Sam Wilson can, he could have a lot more health, be faster on his feet, and be packing his special SIG-Sauer P226 SCT assault rifle to achieve the coveted victory Royale in Fortnite.
8 – Crackdown
It’s not insanely relevant at the present time or in the mainstream “public eye” that some other video games are, but Crackdown’s super soldier Agents and their mighty feats of endurance and combat certainly lend themselves to being thrown into the mix of the immensely popular battle royale.
Grabbing one of the Agency symbols could infuse your character with a limited burst of one of the Agent’s superhuman traits like the ability to jump to great heights or granting a dramatic boost in health. There could also be the caveat of needing to get kills to keep your powers topped up or they’ll just slowly fizzle out.
If you wanted to be even more engrossing in the Crackdown lore, you could have Agency vehicles available for use like the Chopper and Buggy, or have the “Freaks” from Crackdown 2 inhabiting certain areas, much like the Zombies have done in fellow BR, Call of Duty Warzone.
Agent themed skins could also pop up in the store.
7 – Black Adam
Another superhero themed crossover that we might not see for a little while to make it coincide with the theatrical release of Dwayne Johnson’s DC anti-hero movie, I think it’s very probable we could see a Fortnite x Black Adam event. For those not that well acquainted with the god-like being, Adam is just that, a god. According to the rewritten canon, Teth/Theo Adam is the son of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II, and was the original bearer of the powers of Shazam the wizard.
In line with the Shazam acronym, Adam (and by proxy the player that becomes him) would be granted the stamina of Shu giving them ridiculous health, the swiftness of Horus granting double movement speed, the strength of Amon allowing them to destroy structures (a la Thanos) the wisdom of Zehuti that could double their map size, the power of Aten where you could fly/glide around and throw bolts of lightning, and the courage of Mehen giving the player immense armour.
This sounds incredibly powerful and would verge on the border of being broken, but Thanos was implemented in a similar way and while he was incredibly difficult to defeat, Epic made no apologies for the villain’s powers and most players enjoyed the exclusive addition.
6 – BioShock
Another series that’s been away from the video game limelight for some time, this doesn’t seem to have too much of a bearing on the partners Epic Games works with as we’ve seen the likes of Ellen Ripley from Alien and Ghostbusters venture over into the battle royale which can hardly be described as “recent” or “active” franchises.
BioShock has a few elements that you could transplant into the frantic shooter. An obvious inclusion could be to have the ability to become a Big Daddy like the process the player took in the first BioShock that involved collecting different pieces of the deep-sea diving suit (in the case coming from loot boxes).
Alternatively, it could be like in the multiplayer of BioShock 2 where players could simply acquire a ground pick-up and become the mechanical monster.
I think a much better addition however would be to include BioShock’s trademark arsenal of Plasmids and Vigors, both of which could be powered with ADAM, EVE, and/or Salts.
These organic powers would essentially give players special weapons like Shock Jockey/Electro Bolt, Incinerate! Bucking Bronco, etc. The EVE and Salts would then be the unique ammunition used for these powers, just as they are in the actual series.
5 – Cuphead
One of my personal favourite games in the last few years, Cuphead and Mugman have both been included in the all-star brawler Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and their art style could easily merge into the cartoonish animation and tone of Epic Games behemoth of a game. The fact that you can dress up as a banana in the Fortnite, donning a piece of crockery on your head is considered fairly normal among the things you can place on your character’s head. You could also have skins inspired by other characters like King Dice, the Devil, and the Elder Kettle.
Some of the game’s signature weapons like the Peashooter, Chaser, and Lobber could pop up as a potential pick-up, and there could be special power-ups that would give you both the EX attacks and the Super Arts that the titular hero and his buddy can make use of.
With Cuphead’s DLC, cleverly titled “Delicious Last Course” arriving sometime in the near future (supposedly), this crossover could be coming sooner than we think.
4 – Monster Hunter
With the latest entry of Monster Hunter Rise having been recently released and the spin-off series getting another installment in the form of Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin at some point this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw gargantuan beasts roaming the map of Fortnite at some point. While it wouldn’t offer too much for the player, taking on such epic beasts from one of Nintendo’s main RPG series could offer up some serious loot if you managed to take out one of the mighty monsters. It could function as the concept of Public Events does in games like Destiny and other MMORPGs titles.
This could also potentially lead to some temporary (and very fragile) alliances where players have to team up to take out the massive immediate threats to ensure they both survive.
Imagine being in an intense firefight with a handful of other players, and suddenly Rathalos crashes the party and starts launching fireballs at buildings. It’d make for a memorable game that’s for sure.
3 – Dead Rising
You probably wouldn’t see Chuck Greene or Frank West wandering around Tilted Towers, but I think a really interesting mechanic that could come across from Capcom’s zombie-infested open-world series would be the ability to create weird and wonderful weapons by crafting two standard weapons together. Dead Rising’s goofy but effective system of combining already powerful weapons fits in quite nicely with Fortnite’s already established casual tone compared to its contemporaries like Call of Duty Warzone, RUST, and Escape From Tarkov. Fortnite’s basic crafting ability also lends itself to the same sort of idea from Capcom’s series.
You could comfortably insert some trademark Dead Rising weapons like the Boom Cannon, Shockblaster, Hail Mary, or the Z.A.R into the battle royale and they wouldn’t look out of place by any means.
You could even include limited additions to the map from the games like the Willamette Parkview Mall and Fortune City Casino as extra places for players to duke it out.
2 – The Bad Batch (Star Wars)
The Mandalorian (and the adorable Baby Yoda) have already been a part of Fortnite as well as the aforementioned Star Wars trailer being shown, so I fully expect there to be more Star Wars related events over the coming months, especially since Disney have a slew of new shows set in the sci-fi universe lined up for the next year. The most recent of which is the animated series, The Bad Batch. Following the exploits of a rogue group of elite troopers from Clone Force 99, The Bad Batch consists of Hunter, Crosshair, Wrecker, Tech, and Echo, all of whom excel in their own line of combat prowess from sniping to explosives.
While again you could have various skins or battle pass items that correspond to each of the unique members, you could slot in some Star Wars weaponry to give people a real sense of how these clone troopers get the job done. Crosshair’s 773 Fire puncher Sniper could be found as a legendary drop, or Wrecker’s DC-17m ICWS could be an equally rare find.
You could also include the team’s special Fortnite armour as a new item that boosts the player’s armour to a higher level and becomes incredibly durable, much like the clones themselves.
1 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
One of my favourite cartoons from my childhood, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been an icon of the 1990s ever since they burst out of the New York City sewers around three decades ago. Their team dynamic and gung-ho attitude make them a perfect franchise to crossover over with Fortnite.
Much like some others I’ve suggested, having an easily identifiable pick-up like each one of the turtle’s uniquely coloured eye masks that transformed you into the corresponding hero (and thus getting access to their specific weapon), I think would be the best way to go about incorporating the shell-wearing vigilantes.
As the reptilian martial artists all have weapons that are only useful in close combat situations, it might be more beneficial to have their weapons/power-ups available in a separate mode where the map size is reduced in some way to make them a more viable selection. Getting hold of Donatello’s staff would be great, but not if someone can pick you off with a Heavy Sniper Rifle from the other side of the Fortnite map.
With the release of TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge for the Nintendo Switch coming this year, it makes total sense to join up with the ooze infused quartet.
Cowabunga!