Villain Team Up / Video Games

• Batman: Arkham Knight deals with an alliance of Batman's rogue gallery led by Scarecrow to deal with Batman once and for all. Specifically they all chipped in to pay the cost of the army, the mysterious Arkham Knight led it, Deathstroke was the secondary commander, Simon Stagg helped develop the Cloudburst, and the Penguin supplied weapons. Otherwise, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Penguin, Riddler, and Firefly all made a point to to cause as much chaos as possible in the hope of spreading Batman too thin. The Riddler however is quite insistent that he isn't working with them. He just so happened to pick the same night. It's a total coincidence. Man-Bat, Professor Pyg, Hush, and Deacon Blackfire on the other hand didn't seem to be involved, and their operating on the same night may have actually been a coincidence.
  • Supervillians outside of the normal Batman continuity also contributed. It's hinted that a lot of the financing of the $3 billion army came from Lex Luthor. Luthor himself also leaves Bruce Wayne a voicemail all but demanding he sell the Waynetech applied science division to him for $1 billion.
• There are varying degrees of cooperation between the villains in Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, but the amount they can said to be working together is debatable:
  • In Asylum: While The Riddler is implied to be giving technical support to the Joker and Quinn, Sacrecrow and Zasz seem to have simply been released to make things difficult for Batman and aren't really working with he Joker. Bane is an unwilling accomplice to Joker and Croc tries to eat Scarecrow so they aren't working together. Joker also refuses to release Poison Ivy, and once Harley does anyway, both swear to kill each other after Batman has been dealt with.
  • In City, things get even more complex: Strange turns out to be working for Ra's, the Mad Hatter was manipulated into helping them control the TYGER guards and Sharp (and he was thrown into Arkham City once that was done), and they hire Deadshot to kill people with important information. The Joker is forcing Mister Freeze to work for him (who turns on him the moment he can), and has Clayface as a willing accomplice. The Penguin has Solomon Grundy as a secret weapon, but given that its Grundy the cooperation is probably minimal.
• Being a Crisis Crossover title, Dissidia Final Fantasy features one of these involving every main villain from the first ten games of the main series (plus Gabranth), in direct opposition to the heroes from their respective games (plus Shantotto). However, the Warriors of Chaos are not as united as those of Cosmos; some of them seek to overthrow Chaos, others want to destroy everything, and the rest either don't care about the conflict or have agendas of their own. Golbez, in particular, is actively working against them from the inside to help the Cosmos Warriors.
• Villains Unite!, a Flash Game for Disney XD saw a team up between Lil’ Gideon, Lord Hater, Hannibal McFist, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz, with their respective heroes teaming up to stop them. It turns out at the end they were trying to keep Bill Cipher in check.
• Doodle World: Mr. Riffraff and Zavier team up to get the keys in a cutscene that shows the latter has been watching you the entire time. It does involve a bit of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork, though, as the latter threatens to disintegrate the former if they are lying about their side of the deal.
  Mr. Riffraff: Help them obtain the keys, and they will be yours in the end. Fate wills it.
• In The Elder Scrolls series, Iachesis was the Ritemaster of the Psijic Order, the olderst and most powerful Magical Society in Tamriel. After leading them for over 3,500 years, in order to keep it from being stolen by the Sea Sload K'Tora and the Abyssal Cabal, he hid the Heart of the Transparent Law, the "stone" of Crystal Tower, within himself. During The Elder Scrolls Online's Summerset chapter, a trio of Daedric Princes (Nocturnal, Mephala, and Clavicus Vile) calling themselves "The Triad" team up in an attempt to take it from him. Nocturnal betrays the others, killing Iachesis, but is thwarted from using the heart by the Vestige with assistance of the other vengeful Triad members and Meridia.
• Hearthstone's Year of the Dragon block was based on this, with five villains from previous years - Dr. Boom, Hagatha, King Togwaggle, Madame Lazul, and Rafaam - all teaming up to get revenge on the good guys who mucked up their plans. Rise of Shadows was their Villain Episode, Saviors of Uldum gave us the League of Explorers to oppose them, and Descent of Dragons was the final showdown.
• Kingdom Hearts is not a straight example, since they teamed up to Take Over the World(s) rather than to beat up the hero, but Maleficent teams up with Captain Hook, Oogie Boogie, Jafar, Ursula, Hades, and, later on, Pete, Captain Barbossa and Scar. One of the few villain alliances that actually managed to keep itself united without any form of internal struggles or betrayals entering the picture (the same can't be said about Organization XIII).
• Last Cloudia: Tsukasa teams up with Lily in the Dr. STONE crossover campaign Tsukasa Shishio's Challenge to take out several monsters in hopes of getting back to his home world. He doesn't trust her however which is something she picks up. The distrust comes to a head when she unleashes monsters on two children.
• In Mass Effect 2, the vigilante Archangel was such a royal pain in the ass that Omega's major mercenary groups put their differences aside to hunt just ONE guy.
• The story in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 revolves around Doctor Doom and Albert Wesker leading a villain team up, which includes Magneto, Super-Skrull, Dormammu and M.O.D.O.K.. They also hired Taskmaster according to the promotional comic, but he seems to remain neutral to maximize his own personal gain.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance has, well, the Deadly Alliance, consisting of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, who form an alliance to kill the two people who possess the biggest threats to them (Liu Kang and Shao Kahn) and conquer the realms using the lost army of the Dragon King.
  • In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon's Konquest mode, Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, Shao Kahn, and Onaga form an "alliance of traitors", as Onaga refers to it.
• Mario Power Tennis has, in its intro video, Bowser teaming up with Wario and Waluigi to get back at Mario and Luigi, with Wario and Waluigi specifically wanting revenge for beating them in the first match of a tennis tournament. The three of them crash the championship match of the tournament with a Bob-omb-launching mobile turret and a hot air balloon loaded with more Bob-ombs and a Bill Blaster, lobbing Bob-ombs and Bullet Bills at the brothers.
• Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games has Bowser and Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik scheme to melt all the snow in the world by capturing the Snow Spirits. They got at it again in the London 2012 sequel, this time creating an artificial thick fog to ruin the London games.
• Skully revolves around a set of feuding elemental siblings, with two of them, Fiona the Fire Elemental and Brent the Air Elemental deciding to put their differences for once to eliminate you. It just happens you have an imprisoned elemental yourself, Wanda the Water Elemental who's an earlier boss, and you immediately release her to form an Enemy Mine.
• In the Ozzy & Drix Licensed Game for the Game Boy Advance, Strepfinger teams up with Stickity Lipid, General Malaise, Nick O'Teen, PB, and Trickynosis to destroy the two titular heroes and take over the City of Hector, since their individual efforts to do so have failed.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • The Subspace Emissary mode of Brawl starts out with one of these, involving Ganondorf, Bowser, Wario, King Dedede, Master Hand, and with special guest appearances by Petey Piranha, Rayquaza, Ridley, and Porky Minch. It quickly unravels though when Ganondorf attempts to backstab everyone, Dedede turns out to be a good guy, and then turns into a full-blown Enemy Mine when the real Big Bad is revealed.
  • There are some lesser versions in event matches and what not. The showdown of Melee has Giga Bowser, Ganondorf and Mewtwo as a team vs whatever character you chose. Brawl has the Final Battle (Bowser, Ganondorf and Dedede team up), Two Trouble Kings (Bowser and King Dedede against Mario or Mario and Kirby), and the Final Battle for Two (two chararacters of player choice against Bowser, Ganondorf, King Dedede, Meta Knight, Wolf and Wario).
  • The endgame of World of Light in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has Galeem and Dharkon teaming up against the fighters... and we're using the words "team up" very loosely. It's more along the lines of dumping spare Spirits and their remaining caged fighters against you while they continue their personal vendetta with each other, and even when you get in their faces, they simply will not pass up a single opportunity to backstab each other while trying to dispose of you, and could care less if their attacks hurt the other in the way of killing you.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic Generations has Dr. Eggman team up with his past self, Dr. Robotnik. ("Nobody calls me that anymore.")
  • Sonic Lost World subverts this by having Dr. Eggman "team up" with the Deadly Six by controlling them with a pain-inducing horn. The alliance lasts until Sonic knocks the horn away and frees the Deadly Six from his control. Oops!
  • Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric has Dr. Eggman and Lyric team up very briefly, before Lyric decides Eggman isn't very useful to him. This ultimately bites Lyric in the bum hard because Eggman shows up for revenge just in time to soften him up before Sonic's final battle with him, as well as take him down when Sonic's on the ropes.
  • Pre-release footage of Sonic Forces has shown Shadow the Hedgehog, Chaos, Zavok, and Metal Sonic (from Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Lost World, and Sonic the Hedgehog CD respectively) standing together in opposition of the two Sonics and the custom hero character, apparently having aligned with Eggman in this reality (this despite the fact that Shadow and Chaos have never been seen as strictly evil up to this point). Also joining them is a new antagonist by the name of "Infinite". However, it's eventually revealed that they're in fact just replicas of the originals created by the Phantom Ruby, thus subverting this trope.
• Because of the nature of the game, this happens in Super Robot Wars frequently and in nearly every game. Who teams up with who and for what reasons often vary, depending on the game. The first game has the Principality of Zeon, Doctor Hell and the Dinosaur Empire being mind controlled by ancient evil mecha. The second game has the villains united into Divine Crusaders by Brian Zoldak, an alliance that has fallen apart only in the sequel, when the Zabi familly took over after Zoldak's death and soon they started fighting each other. In Super Robot Wars Judgment ZAFT can be found helping the Jovian army. Dr. Hell (see the Anime section) hires Gauron in Super Robot Wars Judgment, works with Zeon in Super Robot Wars Alpha and works with the Galra Empire in Super Robot Wars W.
  • Super Robot Wars BX
    • The Jovians and the Vagans.
    • The Primevals seem to have an alliance with the Jaaku Empire.
    • The forces of Drake and Marder.
    • Kiba is now working for Dr. Hell.
  • Super Robot Wars V:
    • The Jupiter Empire ally themselves with Gamilas. They are later joined by the alliance of Neo-Zeon and Amalgam.
    • The World of Mana has formed alliances with Amalgam, the Earth Alliance, Logos, and supports the Martian Successors.
    • Leonard and Amalgam, as well as the remnants of the Martian Successors, later decide to join up with Embryo and his Diamond Rose Knights. Stage 35 even has this alliance support that of Gamilas, the Jupiter Empire, and Neo-Zeon, making for a stage where you have to fight all of the non-Federation human enemy groups (with about 10 bosses).
    • Nobuyuki Hiyama confirmed via Bandai's product launch eve event Team Wolfgang, The Asian Mafia, Shadow Army, and The Pink Cats never once worked together in their series. SRW-V marks their first ever team-up to take on The Brave Express Team.
  • Super Robot Wars X:
    • On the one hand, Zogilia and the Captial Army end up cooperating with each other soon after both land in Al Warth, with remnants of the Mariemaia army being added in. They all end up joining under the Misurugi Empire, and then Neo Atlantis decides to join up.
    • On the other, Todd and a bunch of Byston Well soldiers (presumably survivors of Drake and Bishot's armies), Viral and his Beastman subordinates, Dr. Hell's forces, and all of the Nouvelle Tokyo criminals, who calls themselves the "BD (Black Diamond) Alliance"^note Using the 2nd ending theme title from Might Gaine. this time around, joins under Doakudar's army. Jeremiah and Anya also cooperate with them against their former allies Kallen and Suzaku, but quickly join back up with them once Lelouch comes back.
    • Outside of those 2, Char has become part of Towasanga.
    • Yazan, Rakan and Glemmy join up with the G-IT Corps. Eventually, both Towasanga and the G-IT Corps join under Misurugi.
    • The Holy Britannian Empire and Drake's army did this prior to the game's events. However, as both stories are finished by the time of the plot starts, that's all done with.
    • Olympus, aka the Mycenae Empire, are allied with Doakudar, as part of their "Ancient Contract."
    • Lady Marianne and Shot Weapon are working alongside Embryo, who also has a long-standing alliance with Gargoyle.
• Mega Man X5 does this by way of implication. He never shows up on screen, but given all the callbacks, and the overall plan Sigma has, it's obvious that Dr. Wily is somehow teaming up with him. Word of God later confirmed he was brought back to life by the Maverick Virus somehow.
• While the original version of Tales of Vesperia has them fight you separately, the PS3 version gets Dhaos, Shizel, Barbatos Goetia... and Kratos Aurion together for an epic four vs. four battle in the Merciless rank of the team arena.
• This is actually a very common strategy in online games where multiple human players fight, most commonly in team-based games. While this is a Justified Trope in team-based games, it can sometimes go into Enemy Mine or Kick the Dog territory when the game doesn't have any teams.
• In Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Team Rainbow Rocket is led by Alternate Universe versions of the team leaders from all the previous generations: Giovanni from the original Team Rocket, Archie and Maxie from Team Magma and Team Aqua, Cyrus from Team Galactic, Ghetsis from Team Plasma, and Lysandre from Team Flare, all of who succeeded in their plans as no main characters existed to oppose them. The main exception is Guzma of Team Skull, who at this point performed a Heel–Face Turn and Lusamine of Aether Foundation, with their representative being Faba.
• In the final act of South Park: The Fractured but Whole, several of the enemy factions (Sixth Graders, Rednecks, Raisin Girls, Ninjas, Crab People) join forces against you simply because they really hate you. From that point on they'll fight you in regular overworld battles in a group rather than as different factions.
• Spider-Man (2000) sees this as its plot, with Doctor Octopus and Carnage as the Big Bad Duumvirate, and Mysterio, the Rhino, and the Jade Syndicate working with them. The only two villains who were not part of this team-up were Scorpion, who just decided to seek revenge on Jameson at the same time, and Venom, who mistook the disguised Mysterio for the real Spider-Man.
• On the topic of Spider-Man, the PS4 game has Spidey take on a new incarnation of the Sinister Six, united and led by Dr. Octavius and comprised of Mr. Negative, Electro, the Vulture, Rhino and Scorpion. The mastermind, sharing similar grievances to Mr. Negative with regards to Norman Osborn, brought the rest of them together with promises that aligned with their respective agendas. Scorpion has debts he needs repaid, Vulture seeks a cure for his spinal cancer, Rhino wants help with removing his Clingy Costume, and Electro... wants to be converted into pure living energy.
• Namco × Capcom has a big one between villains from pretty much every franchise on the roster, but aside from original villain Saya and her boss, the ringleaders consist of M. Bison, Druaga, Asteroth, Nebiros, Grandmaster Meio, Yoritomo, and Zouna.

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