Spoilers for all preceding Kamen Rider entries, including Kamen Rider Ghost, will be left unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!
The eighth annual winter team-up movie between Kamen Rider series, featuring not only Kamen Rider Ghost & Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, but also Wizard, Gaim, and Drive in a battle to the death against Dr. Pacman. No, seriously. It premiered on December 10, 2016.
Tropes exclusive to this movie:
- Disc-One Final Boss: The real Pac-Man.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Mighty Brothers XX makes an appearance prior to its official debut in #13/14. This time however, Ex-Aid's next rider does not get a cameo like usual though Kuroto was gathering data on puzzle games throughout the movie and is shown completing Perfect Puzzle in the final scene, strongly hinting at Kamen Rider Para-DX's upcoming appearance.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: During the final battle, Takeru gets pulled into the Nobunaga Eyecon, where Nobunaga's spirit says that his resolve managed to impress not only him, but his fellows Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu; the three loan him their combined powers, resulting in the creation of the Tenkatoitsu Eyecon. Likewise, the film treats Ex-Aid's Mighty Brothers XX Gashat as this.
- The Faceless: Kamen Rider Gaim, as Gaku Sano could not be secured.
- Fake Defector: Haruto uses his magic to deal with the police in order to convince the Next Genome Institute to let him be their watch guard, but it's a ruse to help the heroes get past any frontal defenses they would have had in place otherwise.
- Fake Shemp: Since Gaku Sano didn't return for this movie, Kouta spends 99% of his appearance as Gaimnote and all his dialog is recycled audio from other appearances (Sano still gets credited for this).
- Failed a Spot Check: Neither Zaizen nor his troops realize that Haruto is a Kamen Rider upon encountering him. They get only a bit suspicious when he lies to their faces about joining their cause.
- Good All Along: Pac-Man, who was going on a rampage because of the virus infecting him into chasing down a particular person with a Bugstar virus. After it's defeated, it automatically heals those infected by his virus before disappearing.
- Hand Wave: Kamen Rider Drive ended with Krim deciding The World Is Not Ready for his tech and sealing it away. So how does Drive return to action? When Gaim arrives, he hands Mr. Belt to Shinnosuke, the latter saying that Gaim simply broke into the Drive Pit and retrieved him. Shinnosuke can only remark, "Wouldn't expect anything less from a god."
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Zaizen's attempt to banish Emu to the Game World by shoving the Mighty Action X Gashat and its Proto Gashat into his Gamer Driver at the same time instead results in the two Gashats temporarily fusing into the first iteration of the Mighty Brothers XX Gashat.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler:
- The film's synopsis spoils Wizard, Gaim, and Drive's endings, mainly the fact that Haruto's currently on a journey (which was resolved in his Movie War with Gaim), Kouta left the planet after becoming a god (then came back in his Movie War with Drive), and Shinnosuke was separated from Mr. Belt.
- The film itself is this for American viewers, especially for those who saw episodes 14 and 15. Takeru learns that Emu is the first person in the world to be infected with the Bugster virus, and Michihiko Zaizen's role in the events is eventually revealed in the series as well.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Looks like this time Pac-Man's gonna be smashing some Kamen Riders. This is thanks to Zaizen infecting it and turning it into a virus. He's defeated at the half way point.
- Man of Kryptonite: The "ghost" in Kamen Rider Ghost makes Takeru this to Pac-Man.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: As noted on the title, this movie features both Kamen Rider Ghost & Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, along with some Legendary Riders.
- Non-Serial Movie: Averted. The epilogue of Kamen Rider Ghost is acknowledged as canon, while Kamen Rider Ex-Aid makes several mentions of the involvement of one Dr. Zaizen Michihiko in Emu's ability to use the Gamer Driver without standard compatibility surgery. Zaizen assuming the alias of Dr. Pac-Man in this movie is also mentioned in the Another Ending trilogy. Any contradictions with Mighty Brothers XX being introduced here are cleaned up by Emu's Laser-Guided Amnesia. The only continuity error is Emu not recognizing the Proto Gashat for Drago Knight Hunter Z despite having seen Graphite use it. In the context of Ex-Aid, the movie takes place between episodes 10 and 11.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: Because the Pac-Man Virus is based off of Pac-Man where the enemy NPCs that can kill on contact are ghosts, the best weapon to combat it is the ghost powers of Kamen Rider Ghost.
- The Reveal: The truth about Emu and the Bugster virus is first revealed here to Emu and Takeru, however the stress of using Mighty Brothers causes him to forget the last few minutes including this, and Takeru decides to keep it to himself afterwards.
- So Last Season: Played straight for once with a returning Rider. None of Ghost's advanced forms can make a dent in the Hatena Bugster not even Mugen Damashii, which instead requires Takeru to instead get an even more powerful Tenkatoitsu Damashii a rarity for a returning Rider to get a new form in a Crossover when they're not the currently airing show anymore. Out of universe this is to make up for the fact that Takeru didn't get a movie exclusive form in Ghost's stand alone film. Averted with Wizard, Gaim and Drive who whip out their various forms and utterly crush their opponents in the finale.
- Theme Song Power Up: "Life is SHOW TIME", "JUST LIVE MORE", and "SURPRISE-DRIVE" play over Wizard, Gaim, and Drive's battles against Dr. Pac-Man's forces. This is followed by the insert song "B.A.T.T.L.E G.A.M.E" (performed by the Kamen Rider Girls and Rider Chips) over Ghost assuming Tenkatōitsu Damashii against Hatena Bugster and the ends of the legend riders' fights.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Strictly speaking, Wizard, Gaim, and Drive don't even need their Super Modes to finish their opponent, just their Mid-Season Upgrade (All Dragon for Wizard, Kachidoki Arms for Gaim, and Type Formula for Drive) looks to be enough to do the job, but they still use their Super Modes rather than save them for the actual final boss alongside Ghost and Ex-Aid. Won't be cool enough if they don't.
- Wham Shot: In the final battle, Takeru has a glimpse of Zaisen's memories of Zero Day, namely the boy he and his fellow doctors are operating on: And it's EMU.
- The Worf Effect: The Eyecon Driver G and Mugen Damashii fail to do any damage against the Hatena Bugster.
- Worf Had the Flu: Poor Shinnosuke really wants to get back into the action and help his Rider kohai, but Takeru and the rest of the Ghost crew don't want him to risk his neck, especially since he can't transform into Drive anymore.
