New Dead Cells crossover gives it fresh life in an underrated action roguelike

Developer Motion Twin supported its hit roguelike Dead Cells for years before moving on to Windblown. The metroidvania grew exponentially through updates and successive pieces of DLC, but fans were still aggrieved when Motion Twin announced that it was focusing its efforts elsewhere. That's mostly because of the quality of the updates, each recontextualizing the game you thought you knew. However, the spirit of Dead Cells lives on through spiritual successors and now a crossover with its genre partner, BlazBlue Entropy Effect.

Dead Cells is widely known as one of the best roguelike games of the past decade, and it's in with a shout to be considered for the best metroidvania, too - although a certain Hornet may have something to say about that this week.

It's no surprise then, that fans are ravenous for any Dead Cells-related news. Whether it's manifesting Dead Cells 2 into existence or finding new challenges to apply to your replays of the original game, roguelike fans can't get enough of Motion Twin's action-packed title.

And now you finally have something new to chew on. Developer 91Act has added an official Dead Cells crossover mode to its game, BlazBlue Entropy Effect. BBEE, as it's known, is an action roguelike with plenty of Dead Cells DNA already, but the new mode feels just like a new brand new biome of the classic roguevania. And it's completely free.

The BBEE biome has been designed in a metroidvania style, unlike the main game, to pay tribute to Dead Cells. The Prisoner, who is the playable character of this new update, equips 27 weapons, skills, and mutations from the game, as well as over 20 combo variants that honor other pieces of iconic Dead Cells gear through their effects.

Once you've completed this biome, accessed separately to the main game from the menu, you unlock the Prisoner as a playable character in the main BBEE game.

If that wasn't enough to tempt you, BlazBlue Entropy Effect is 35% off until Monday, September 15. You can buy it on Steam for $12.99 / £10.88, or in a bundle with Dead Cells for $34.18 / £29.98. Find both games here.

If this crossover isn't enough for you, try out some of our picks of the best indie games for a good time. If you're into that hard-as-nails combat, the best soulslikes will also treat you well.

What do you make of the new crossover? Let us know in our community Discord server, where staff and readers hang out.