Code Shifter is a side-scrolling platformer/beat-em-up from publisher Arc System Works that serves as a Massive Multiplayer Crossover between their franchises. Tying them all together is a story about Stella, a programmer working at the Awesome Rainbow Corp (ARC) that's developed a debugging program (the titular Code Shifter) to get rid of bugs affecting her co-workers' computers before their big crossover game, Colorful Fighters, goes out to print. To accomplish this, you guide Stella's avatar, Sera, through their computer files, change into the forms of Colorful Fighters characters (aka the Arc System Works characters), defeat malicious bugs, and try to find out who put them there in the first place.
Compare to BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, another ASW crossover game, although one involving only a single ASW IP and a bunch of characters owned by other companies.
Playable Characters:
- Guilty Gear: Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, Dizzy, Elphelt, Faust, Jam, Potemkin
- BlazBlue: Ragna the Bloodedge, Jin Kisaragi, Noel Vermilion, Rachel Alucard, Hazama, Kokonoe, Jubei
- Kunio-kun: Kunio, Riki, Kobayashi, Mizoguchi, Kyoko and Misako
- Double Dragon: Billy Lee, Jimmy Lee, Abobo, Willy
- Jake Hunter: Jake Hunter
- Of Mice and Sand: Desert Ship
- Damascus Gear: Gear
- Inferno Climber: Explorer
- Birthdays the Beginning: Avatar
- Wizard's Symphony: Alto Travers, Spica Celest
Assist Characters:
- Guilty Gear: Chip Zanuff, Jack O, Johnny, I-No, May, Milia Rage, Raven,
- BlazBlue: Arakune, Bang Shishigami, Carl Clover, Iron Tager, Hakumen, Litchi Feiling, Nine, Platinum the Trinity, Taokaka, Valkenheim,
- Double Dragon: Chin Taimei, Yagyu Ranzou, Burnov, Marian
This game provides examples of:
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Completing chapters/folders will award you with new outfits for Sera that change her Special Move
- Boring, but Practical: Sera's attack output is far weaker than any of the playable heroes, doesn't have any of the special abilities necessary to clear certain obstacles, and she's obviously not as fun as previously established characters. On the other hand, she's the only one capable of destroying memory nodes (which you need to do in order to get a better ranking), her Special Move can be turned into a temporary status buff depending on her outfit, her handling when walking is far less slippery, and she's much better at jumping than nearly half of the heroes.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: This is one of those rare Switch games where the B button is used for confirmation and A is used for cancel in the menus. Also, despite the entire game being 2D, the option to control your movement with the d-pad/directional buttons is strangely absent.
- Interface Spoiler: Minor example, but when the level-select screen shows locked folders featuring the names of Stella's co-workers and even Stella herself, it's safe to assume that you'll be debugging their folders at some point. note
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: Despite Billy being the Lee brother that's almost always Player 1 in his home series (or the only playable character, in some cases), it's Jimmy that's unlocked by default. This is most likely due to the fact that the other default characters include Sol and Ragna, who also wear red (Kunio gets a free pass due to his franchise being named after him, and he at least has some red in his outfit).
- Retraux: Colorful Fighters (and by extension the ASW characters) are all represented in an 8-bit art style and their theme tunes are similarly done as 8-bit renditions. The Kunio-kun and DD characters and songs are all also redone compared to how they originally were on the NES in order to match better with those from GG and BB.
