Giant friendly dinosaurs, wolverine, and that other guy from Silk Sonic. What do all these have in common? Well, you can shoot each with a shotgun that has a recoil so stiff you fly high enough in the sky and sprain your ankle on the way back down. This is all in Fortnite, of course.
Epic Games’ battle royale has become the ultimate machine for in-game advertising, achieving a feat most online games only flirt with on launch day. It’s the perfect advertising strategy — put aspects from some of the biggest franchises all over the media landscape into your game, and players line up at whatever company gets tossed onto the island next.
While this happens through immediately identifiable avenues like skins or extravagant virtual concerts, Epic goes beyond the surface and experiments with mechanics too. For example, at one point you could swing between treetops and buildings as if you were playing Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man. Here are some examples of franchises and mechanics that we’d love to see in Fortnite.
Lightyear
Oh shit! Invader Zerg has invaded the island and we’ve got to stop him! Buzz Lightyear, who’s now cool and not voiced by Tim Allen, is here to save the day and promote his new movie where he’s a real boy. Now, this isn’t Toy Story, so we won’t see any of Buzz’s friends alongside this lovable hunk of plastic. Those could be way more valuable as part of the crossover for the Toy Story 5 premiere. This season’s battle pass features Buzz Lightyear, complete with a dark Buzz style and a Spanish style complete with a Sombrero back bling.
Gliding? Gone. We’re falling with style on the island now. If you want to survive once you hit the ground, aim for the bushes.
Even though Buzz Lightyear’s new movie is about space exploration, he’s still a toy at heart. Toy’s can’t fly, after all. Gliding is far less essential in Fortnite than it is in Call of Duty: Warzone. At the start of a new Fortnite match, the glider automatically deploys once you get close enough to the ground. It’s time to shake that up.
The numbers in most lobbies will dwindle in the opening seconds of the game as players learn that they must land in water, bushes, or a really soft bed to safely start. We’ll add some more movement mechanics – like bouncy balls, toy planes, and race car tracks in order to help players reach the ground safely, with style.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic and his good friend (and current voice actor) James Marsden should one day make their way to the island. You’d have to collect all the rings floating in the sky to unlock the special “Gotta Go Fast” emote and the James Marsden 27 Dresses variant skin.
Everyone loves rolling. You love rolling, the sheep in Elden Ring’s Limgrave love rolling, and it’s no secret Sonic the blue hedgehog loves rolling. You can shoot yourself out of the cannons all over Fortnite’s island, and with this crossover, there’d be an actual reason to do it as you aim for the shiny gold coins in the sky and find all the chaos emeralds.
Nintendo Switch Sports
Everyone wants Nintendo in Fortnite. Link’s shield as a back bling or Mario as a skin? Yes, please. You know that’s not what you’re going to get once a crossover finally comes, though. So what if Miis came to the battle royale instead?
The Mii Fighter, Mii Brawler and Mii Swordfighter skins would come to the shop for 2000 V-Bucks each. New temporary weapons, including the golf club and bowling ball, will require a skill you’ve rarely used in Fortnite before: motion controls.
With gyro controls, everyone can flail across the island as they try to get 25 kills with each weapon in order to unlock a stupid little Nintendo All-Star Holographic back bling. We were never going to get a Samus skin, so we’ll have to settle for this.
Epic knows how much we love signing up for and tracking in-game challenges on separate websites. So don’t forget to head over to the Nintendo Trials website just to have access to these special trials.
The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead has been in Fortnite before. We’ve seen Michonee, Darryl, and Rick Grimes take on shadows in multiple Halloween events. But it’s time for something new now that one of the most poorly-run blockbuster TV shows is ending.
Morality systems have been in games like Infamous, Mass Effect, and even Telltale’s own The Walking Dead, but rarely do mechanics that provide consequences for your emotional choices come to multiplayer games. Fortnite will do what few other online games have done before, and provide consequences for your actions.
A zombie plague has come to the island. NPC zombies roam the map. They’re weak, but their bite will have long-lasting effects. You’ll slowly turn into a zombie, but not before the very end of the match. The main goal of this battle royale is still the same: survive until the end of the match. It only changes a little once you get bit.
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Once bitten, you’ll need to conceal your infectious injury. Make it to the end and you’ll gain a whole level while the rest of your team gets absolutely nothing from all their hard work. That’s the type of reward selfish players get! What’s more selfish than hiding the fact that you’re a walking time bomb?
Everyone on your squad will need to pay special attention. Players will decide if they want to put their friends in the ground if they get infected. They’ll lose a level if you do so, but what’s more important: Your battle pass level or your friendship? We’re about to find out.
Jurassic World Dominion
Jurassic World Dominion asks whether humans could survive if the planet were to be overrun by prehistoric beasts. We won’t know the answer until the movie releases on June 10, but this new Fortnite crossover suggests we can flourish.
Dinosaurs — well, Raptors to be specific — have been in Fortnite’s battle royale mode off-and-on for some time. This cross, however, will happen with a special mode created in Fortnite Creative, Fortnite‘s Minecraft-like workshop mode. Players will get the full experience of being just like Chris Pratt and taming fierce Raptors before building a ranch of their own to take care of them. Farm to table? More like wild to ranch.
Everything Epic Games has done within their battle royale mode has led to this. They’ve continued to build on NPC and AI design systems, implemented wild animal taming systems, and have continued to evolve Fortnite Creative. This will feel completely new, even though it’s within the same game you’ve played for years.
Drop into a special Isle Nublar-themed island with 12 other players. Work to tame enough Raptors to populate your ranch faster than they can. Build your ranch by constructing fencing, feeding troughs, and security measures for when your Raptors get antsy. Then, once you’ve made your dinosaurs happy, ride them into battle against other players.
Jurassic Park and Jurassic World aren’t just one of the biggest blockbuster movie franchises on the planet. They are a fantastic franchise to help Fortnite display how much it’s changed since starting out as a PvE survival game in 2017.
