I was not expecting Dave the Diver to join forces with a sexy anime gacha game but here we are and I gotta tell ya, it actually kind of makes sense

Last month saw the announcement of one of the most bizarre gaming mash-ups since Cheech & Chong in Call of Duty: Cosy 2D pixel adventure Dave the Diver, and sultry anime waifu shooter Nikke: Goddess of Victory.

Nikke, from the developers who made Stellar Blade, originated on mobile before making its way over to PC last year. It's sort of got the Nier: Automata affect going on, with some rather eye-catching character designs (think more 2B fanart than in-game 2B, though) set against a surprisingly gripping post-apocalyptic narrative. Considering Nikke has previously collaborated with Nier: Automata alongside Chainsaw Man and Re:Zero, Dave the Diver wasn't even on my list for potential crossover candidates.

Nikke's been getting into the habit of knocking together some pretty robust minigames over the last few months. Last year saw a surprisingly good Vampire Survivors-like release during its one year anniversary event, before returning a couple of months ago as a permanent game mode. This time developer ShiftUp has essentially managed to squeeze a diet version of Dave the Diver into Nikke as its own playable thing, and you know what? It's actually kinda good.

I played a handful of hours of Dave the Diver earlier this year but ended up falling off it. The diving sections were struggling to hold my attention—especially since you usually have to do 'em twice a day—and the sushi bar wasn't quite hands-on enough for my liking. I know, I'm sorry! I really wanted to be hooked, but the line snapped for me after about six hours.

I am even more ashamed to admit that I've now spent significantly more time with the pared-down version of our 2023 Best Design award winner in Nikke, which swaps out lovable chubby bloke Dave for the Aegis squad, a trio who essentially act as the Nikke navy. They'd be super useful if it weren't for the fact that the story's war takes place almost entirely on land. Poor girls.

Fish out of water

But how the hell are Dave and sushi chef Bancho even alive when the world of Nikke is a wartorn hellscape where humans have fled underground? Conveniently, an enemy Rapture (basically a big ol' robot) who has the ability to manipulate reality and transport people to different worlds is currently slumbering in the ocean. It ends up whisking the Aegis squad away into whatever world Dave and co. hail from, and somehow the whole damn thing just makes sense.

Bizarre lore aside, it really has surprised me just how much of Dave the Diver ShiftUp managed to squeeze into this minigame. Both the diving and sushi bar segments are present though stripped down compared to the real thing. There are two maps to dive in, both of which are pretty small but still good enough for a minigame. There are still plenty of sushi dishes to find and upgrade to sell to hungry patrons too, along with four big angry sharks to tackle and make yummy treats out of. 

I played a handful of the mode on both mobile and PC. The latter plays identically to the original. I'll admit I was expecting it to feel a little clunkier, but no!. A pleasant surprise. 

It was a little unruly to navigate on mobile at times, especially when trying to snag those teeny-tiny fishes, but aside from that DavexNikke actually played pretty darn great. I reckon a mobile Dave the Diver could pop off in a similar manner to mobile Stardew Valley. It's got those same laid-back vibes and the controls were intuitive enough that I found it easy to navigate my clashes with the hostile sea life. Despite being a Steam Deck owner, I'm a real lover of games that I can easily pick up on the go on my mobile phone—it's probably one of the reasons I steer towards gacha games these days. Doing something similar for Dave the Diver is a net win in my opinion, and something I really hope Mintrocket takes advantage of after experimenting with it in this minigame.

The Nikke minigame is completable in a handful of hours, and I gotta say it has encouraged me to go back and try the real thing very soon. Eyeing up my fellow Nikke friends, guildmates and the game's Discord I noticed how many people ended up picking up Dave the Diver as a result of the collaboration. A neat victory for such a left-field crossover.

If you fancy trying it for yourself—even as a way to demo Dave the Diver for free—there's still a few days left of the event to try it out. I would love if ShiftUp brought it back in a more permanent capacity similar to the Vampire Survivors mode, but since this is an official collaboration rather than an inspired interpretation of a genre, my hopes aren't high. At the very least, they gotta put the Aegis Squad in Dave the Diver so that I can continue to experience one of the strangest colliding of worlds I've seen in videogames.