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.

(Image credit: ShiftUp)

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.