The game's story set-up in the Nintendo 64 and PC versions is that the wizard's accident is caused due to him mixing the wrong potions causing him to turn to stone, however in the PlayStation intro the incident is instead depicted as being deliberately brought about by the glove that becomes the game's villain, Cross-Stitch. The manual for the PlayStation release retains the incident as being an accident and not deliberate as seen in the other versions.

The Hasta La Vista Station title, tagline and mission text are all references to the Terminator franchise: The title is a phrase from the original 1984 film, the tagline "I know now why you ink..." is a reference to the line "I know now why you cry" from the 1991 sequel, the use of the word "terminate" for the mission description is unique to this mission (normally it is "defeat").

In the Octo Expansion, Stations Maverick, Goose, and Iceman are named after the nicknames of the characters from the film Top Gun. The taglines for these stations "Revvin' up your Inkjet...," "Listen to its howlin' roar...," and "Jet into the danger zone..." are references to the song "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins, which was used in the film.

The idea of not having "item boxes" in the game was based on "Sweet Home". The team wanted to remove it, so that it would feel a lot harder to play.

In the Octo Expansion, the many titles and taglines of stations contain references to music from the 80s-90s:
• Roll Out Station - "Rollout" by Ludacris.
• Fake Plastic Station - "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead.
• Bounce with Me Station - "Can I Get A..." by Jay-Z.
• "Just go ahead now..." Spin Docto Station - "Two Princes" by Spin Doctors.
• "Just cruisin'..." Rad Ride Station - "Just Cruisin'" by Will Smith.
• "Blowin' up like it's all good." Notorious Station - "Juicy" by The Notorious B.I.G.
• "Bring da ruckus!" Phat Splatz Station - DJ Phat Beatz and "Bring da Ruckus" by the Wu-Tang Clan.
• " Step it up!" Breakdance Station - "Step It Up" by Stereo MC.
• "As 50 yellow balloons go by..." Pop Rock Station - "99 Red Balloons" by Nena.
• "Ya like to..." Move It Move It Station - "I Like to Move It" by the Outhere Brothers.
• "Stamp-collaborate and glisten!" Stamped-Up Station - "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice.
• "Don't just stand there..." Bust 'n' Move Station - "Bust a Move" by Young MC
• "Round round round round..." Right Round Station - "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive.
• "Splat magic splat!" Labyrinth Station - "Magic Dance" by David Bowie.
• "Watch out now!" Ink & Watch Station - "Watch Out Now" by The Beatnuts.
• "Gettin' dizzy with it..." Don't Ralph Station - "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" by Will Smith.
• Swass 8-Ball Station - Sir Mix-a-Lot album, Swass.
• "Inkulators, mount up!" Squee-G Funk Station - "Regulate" by Warren G and his record label "G-Funk"
• "Take it easy..." Slow Ride Station - "Slow Ride" by Foghat.
• "Don't stop 'til you pop enough!" Pop Star Station - "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson, who was known as "The King of Pop."
• "Who let the pods out?" Duh-Oh Station - "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by Baha Men.
• "Might as well..." Jump Station - "Jump" by Van Halen.
• "What's the dealio?" Cubular Station - "What the Dealio" by Missy Elliot.
• "Y'all bready for this?" Toastmaster Station - "Get Ready For This" by 2 Unlimited
• Ride with Me Station - "Ride wit Me" by Nelly.
• "Ink it real good!" Ink It Station - "Push It" by Salt-N-Pepa.
• "My my my my..." Can't Touch This Station - "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer.
• "Can't c me..." All Eyez Station - "Can't C Me" by Tupac Shakur from his album All Eyez on Me.
• "Ink-a-zig-ah..." Girl Power Station - "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls.
• "Do not miss your chance..." One-Shot Station - "Lose Yourself" by Eminem.
• "Watch your step!" Footloose Station - "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" by Will Smith.

The reason the Alien AI in the game is broken is due to a one letter spelling error in the game's .ini file. The line is written as

"ClassRemapping=PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachXenoToTether -> PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachPawnToTeather"

when it should read;

"ClassRemapping=PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachXenoToTether -> PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachPawnToTether"

Removing the letter A from this line fixes many of the issues with the game's AI.

At one point in development, it was planned for the Working Joe enemy to quote lines from William Shakespeare in a malevolent manner. However, it was ultimately decided it didn't fit with the tone of the game and the few recorded lines were cut from the game.

In an interview, game's art director Hidenobu Takahashi stated that the title of the game came from a Formula One race car.

"To us it means a variety of specialists coming together to challenge themselves with a new design. How can we create something amazing? That’s the single question we ask when we’re developing a game, and we’ll work ourselves to the bone to answer it. It’s the same as an F1 team, where they get specialists from all different fields together to build the fastest car. We’re in the final stages of our work here, so please look forward to Grandia soon!."

In an interview with Weekly Famitsu, when asked about the name of the game, it was explained that Bandai Namco, Capcom, and SEGA considered using one with all three companies names, but it was felt this would make the title too long. Producer Kensuke Tsukanaka stated that using the company names probably would have been possible if the game was a direct sequel to Namco x Capcom.

Concept art shows that Mii Kouryuji had a different hairstyle, which was changed one month after the character designs were completed.

Computer Artworks, the developer of the game, were in the process of developing a sequel, The Thing 2. However, the conception was cut short due to the company shutting down.

By playing as Peachette in the final level of Peach's Castle, the real Peach will act confused before the fight plays as normal.

A port of the game for the Nintendo 64 was in development, however it was eventually canceled. It was shown off at E3 98 and would've featured split-screen multiplayer and closely resembled the PC version.

One of the title's mini-games is called "Dodge Fuzzy, Get Dizzy," a reference to the title of level 1-7 "Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy" in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

The Lucky Hit minigame is affected by both weather and temperature which affects the physical behavior of the ball.

In 2011, Nintendo of Europe approached developer Criterion to create a pitch demo for a new F-Zero game to be shown at E3 2011 alongside the unveiling of the Wii U. However, due to the studio at the time busy with development on Need for Speed: Most Wanted for multiple platforms, they couldn't spare any resources to create it in time so they turned down the offer.

There are unused voice files in the game for Part 6 Jotaro, who isn't present in the final game aside from an image in the game's credits.

Unlike other boss characters, Spoiler:Giga Bowser is classified as a fighter in the game's files, even having placeholder slots for alternate costumes.

These are likely leftovers from the previous game, Spoiler:where Giga Bowser appeared as a playable transformation.

In June 2018, Bethesda Softworks filed a lawsuit against the game's developer and publisher; Behavior Interactive and Warner Bros. Entertainment, claiming that Westworld was a ripoff of its own game Fallout Shelter, released in 2015 and also developed by Behavior Interactive. Bethesda had claimed that copyrighted code had been reused and even a bug which was present in an early version of Fallout Shelter could also be found.

On December 12th, 2018, a notice had been filed in federal court that both sides had reached an "amicable" resolution and would bear their own attorney's fees and costs.

The cover of the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" featured in the game received a vinyl release exclusively in Australia. The vinyl was included with the December 2018 issue of STACK magazine available from retailer JB Hi-Fi.