The screen that appears during Jackson Storm's ability shows a set of numbers in the bottom-left corner in the order of "4-8-15-16-23-42". This is a reference to the TV series "Lost", where the set of numbers are associated with the overall mystery of the show.
In an intro with Shang Tsung and Johnny Cage, after the former mentions how his plan was foiled, the latter will comment: "Just like a bunch of meddling kids." This is a reference to Scooby-Doo, where antagonists will commonly refer to Mystery Inc. as "meddling kids".
The original concept for Pajama Sam was a character known as "Pumpkin Head Boy" who, fittingly, had a pumpkin for a head. This was scrapped as it was believed that Pumpkin Head Boy games would only be able to move units during Halloween, despite the game not being envisioned as a seasonal title. This is referenced in No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside, with Sam reading a book titled Pumpkinhead Boy: A Brief Tragedy about a boy with a pumpkin on his head removing his pumpkin due to concerns of seasonality. Notably, the story in the game alludes to a "lawsuit by that big guy in Atlanta". It is unknown if that is a non-sequitur or another part of the real-world Pumpkin Head Boy story that has not yet surfaced. Later, in You Are What You Eat From Your Head to Your Feet, Sam would wear a pumpkin on his head as a disguise
The print advertisement for Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures features the typical 90s commercial trash-talking against other popular video game characters of the time, claiming that they are unable to do things that Pac-Man can do in the game, such as "Dirty worms can't whistle", referring to Earthworm Jim, or "Big hairy apes can't think for themselves", referring to Donkey Kong. However, one of these allegations is the claim that "Overgrown housecats can't hang glide", seemingly referring to Bubsy the Bobcat, who's signature power is the ability to glide, and therefore would not need a hang glider.
The O-Town Highway track in Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix composites elements of the 1993 Rocko's Modern Life series and the 2019 Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling movie - featuring the original fat Chokey Chicken logo instead of the skinny chicken logo introduced in Static Cling and having Rocko's house lack the Conglom-O rocket impaling it or the damage it received while in space, but also featuring the Buzzbucks coffee shop, Clonglom-O Dome, and a billboard for the Schlam-O Radioactive Power Drink, all of which were established while Rocko was away in space.
It has been implied that Garfield's neutral special in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (where he transforms into the original, fatter 1970s version of the character) was originally going to feature him smoking a pipe, in reference to an internet meme based on a 1978 Garfield comic, where the last panel of a different Garfield comic is replaced with a panel of Garfield smoking a pipe with the same design. It is unknown if this was removed by the developers' choice, at the request of Nickelodeon, or at the request of the ratings board, but either way was likely to make the game more appropriate for its age demographic.
The Yo-Kai Deadcool is a parody of the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. Not only are their names, designs, and personalities similar, but three of Deadcool's preset nicknames are direct references to Deadpool. The three identifiable references being "Wade", a reference to Deadpool's real name Wade Wilson, "Ryan", a reference to Ryan Reynolds who portrays Wade Wilson/Deadpool in the live-action films, and "Mr. Cool", which appears to be a reference to a scene from the 2016 film in which the taxi driver Dopinder refers to Deadpool as "Mr. Pool". The last nickname "Rhys" is more ambiguous and does not appear to have a clear origin related to Deadpool.
Additionally, Deadcool's Japanese voice actor, Takehito Koyasu, has voiced Deadpool in other pieces of media.
The US version of Drill Dozer modifies some of the unlockable generic costumes to reference (or further emphasize existing references to) different Game Freak and Nintendo games - a schoolgirl outfit being swapped for an outfit of Leaf from Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, a nurse outfit being given extra details to reference Click Medic, a futuristic outfit being replaced with a Pulseman outfit, and costumes already based on Mario and Mendel Palace being given extra details from their source material.
Despite references to Click Medic and Pulseman being added in the US version, those games had not received US releases at that point.
These changes were reverted for the European version of the game
In issue 48 of the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, pages four and five depict several Central City citizens with designs that reference characters from other franchises, such as:
• Wally from Where's Wally? • Reigen from Mob Psycho 100 • Conan and Ran from Case Closed • Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph • Crinkly Wrinkly from OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
Incidentally, the Sonic series has crossed over with both Wreck-It Ralph and OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes in the past.
In an intro Dialogue with Ashrah and Johnny Cage, the latter will say, "You are truly a wonder, woman." Susan Eisenberg, Ashrah's voice actress, is best known for voicing Wonder Woman in various DC Comics media including the Injustice series.
In "The Powerpuff Girls" episode titled "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!", the Mario Kart series is referenced during a scene that has the titular girls and Professor Utonium race against the villains in go karts, where he presses a button that fires a green turtle shell at Mojo-Jojo in a similar fashion to the shell items.
Contrary to popular belief, the Mushroom Kingdom stage in Super Smash Bros. does not use sprites or music from Super Mario Bros. - this can be noticed both in obvious ways, such as enemy sprites having complex shading that would be impossible in any NES game, let alone a title as early in the hardware's lifespan as Super Mario Bros., and multiple sprites being miscolored; and in more subtle ways, such as the ground blocks being one pixel too tall on the bottom and the outlines on the goal stair blocks being too thick. The background music, while an impressively close replica, uses subtly different instruments and is slightly slower in tempo.
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the stage's graphics would be revised to more closely resemble Super Mario Bros., using graphics from Super Mario Maker, and the faux-8-bit Super Smash Bros. rendition of the overworld theme would be the sole battle song from 64 to be absent, in favor of the original NES rendition of the song.
Grand Chef, the Ratatouille keyblade in Kingdom Hearts III, has two bottles of champagne attached to its handles - the artwork on these bottles originates from a poster briefly seen in the movie, but is more commonly associated with a controversial cancelled Ratatouille-branded wine that was intended to be sold in Costco in 2007, but pulled before it could hit shelves due to concerns relating to underaged drinking. While the iteration in the movie shows red wine, the iteration on the wine bottle shows an olive tone of wine - the Grand Chef keyblade features both colors for the wine.
For Echo Pine's design, Mythridate took inspiration from the design of Junpei, the protagonist of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Specifically, she was inspired by Junpei wearing three layers of clothing: this lead to her giving Echo "a blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a grey sweater vest atop that, and a tri-color windbreaker above it all".
All of the competitive stages in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl are - with one exception - inspired by stages from the Super Smash Bros. series:
•Jellyfish Fields, from SpongeBob SquarePants, is based on Smashville, introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
•Harmonic Convergence, from The Legend of Korra, and the post-update version of Royal Woods Cemetery, from The Loud House, are based on Final Destination, introduced to the multiplayer stage lineup in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
•Sweet Dreams, from Garfield, is based on the frozen version of Super Smash Bros. Melee's Pokémon Stadium, introduced officially in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but popularized by fan projects such as the Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project M prior.
•Irken Armada Invasion, from Invader Zim, is based on Battlefield, introduced to the multiplayer stage lineup in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
•Rooftop Rumble and Sewers Slam, both from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, are based on the hazards-off version of Smashville introduced in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Sewers Slam - originally intended as a casual stage but adopted into the competitive stage lineup - containing a goop hazard somewhat resembling the wind from Smash 64's Dream Land.
•Duck, Duck, Pie!, based on The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is based on the hazards-off version of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U's Kalos Pokémon League, introduced in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
The exception to this pattern is Tremorton Joyride from My Life as a Teenage Robot, which is based loosely on Delfino's Secret from the Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project M.
In 2016, a post was uploaded to Tumblr responding to a post claiming that "there is nothing wrong with Yoshi" by jokingly accusing Yoshi of committing tax fraud, which would become a running gag within Nintendo fan circles, and eventually a meme in 2018 with the bait-and-switch YouTube account SiIvaGunner posting soundtracks from a fake Yoshi Commits Tax Fraud game.
It would be discovered after the meme's peak of popularity that in 2011's Fortune Street, Yoshi is the only character in the game who asks to be exempt from paying taxes when a tax office is built. This means that while Yoshi is not guilty of committing tax fraud, he does attempt to commit tax evasion.
In October 2019, the Nintendo Versus eSports account posted a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate highlight tournament featuring Yoshi, and titled it "This Yoshi is no fraud", seemingly in reference to the meme.
The meme of Yoshi evading his taxes would also inspire the Turnip Boy series of games.
This game is intended to be an homage to Italian zombie horror movies such as "The Beyond", "House by the Cemetery", and "Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror". Similarly, the gameplay was inspired by the 2002 Resident Evil remake and Rule of Rose.
Puschel the Squirrel is named after Puschel, das Eichhorn, the German title for the anime Bannertail: The Story of Gray Squirrel, and her character design resembles a squirrel character from the series named Sue.
There is a special gauntlet in the game called "The Shattered Gauntlet of Ages" which can be equipped with 6 different stone runes. This is a reference to the Infinity Gauntlet, an item used by Thanos in the Marvel Comics universe which can be equipped with 6 Infinity Stones.
The treasure map titled "The Boat Captain's Key" is a reference to a boat captain in the original God of War. Instead of saving him from getting eaten by the Hydra, Kratos stole a key from around his neck and let him die.
The print advertisement for Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures features the typical 90s commercial trash-talking against other popular video game characters of the time, claiming that they are unable to do things that Pac-Man can do in the game, such as "Dirty worms can't whistle", referring to Earthworm Jim, or "Big hairy apes can't think for themselves", referring to Donkey Kong. However, one of these allegations is the claim that "Overgrown housecats can't hang glide", seemingly referring to Bubsy the Bobcat, who's signature power is the ability to glide, and therefore would not need a hang glider.
It has been implied that Garfield's neutral special in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (where he transforms into the original, fatter 1970s version of the character) was originally going to feature him smoking a pipe, in reference to an internet meme based on a 1978 Garfield comic, where the last panel of a different Garfield comic is replaced with a panel of Garfield smoking a pipe with the same design. It is unknown if this was removed by the developers' choice, at the request of Nickelodeon, or at the request of the ratings board, but either way was likely to make the game more appropriate for its age demographic.
The US version of Drill Dozer modifies some of the unlockable generic costumes to reference (or further emphasize existing references to) different Game Freak and Nintendo games - a schoolgirl outfit being swapped for an outfit of Leaf from Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, a nurse outfit being given extra details to reference Click Medic, a futuristic outfit being replaced with a Pulseman outfit, and costumes already based on Mario and Mendel Palace being given extra details from their source material.
In issue 48 of the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, pages four and five depict several Central City citizens with designs that reference characters from other franchises, such as:
In "The Powerpuff Girls" episode titled "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!", the Mario Kart series is referenced during a scene that has the titular girls and Professor Utonium race against the villains in go karts, where he presses a button that fires a green turtle shell at Mojo-Jojo in a similar fashion to the shell items.
Contrary to popular belief, the Mushroom Kingdom stage in Super Smash Bros. does not use sprites or music from Super Mario Bros. - this can be noticed both in obvious ways, such as enemy sprites having complex shading that would be impossible in any NES game, let alone a title as early in the hardware's lifespan as Super Mario Bros., and multiple sprites being miscolored; and in more subtle ways, such as the ground blocks being one pixel too tall on the bottom and the outlines on the goal stair blocks being too thick. The background music, while an impressively close replica, uses subtly different instruments and is slightly slower in tempo.
Grand Chef, the Ratatouille keyblade in Kingdom Hearts III, has two bottles of champagne attached to its handles - the artwork on these bottles originates from a poster briefly seen in the movie, but is more commonly associated with a controversial cancelled Ratatouille-branded wine that was intended to be sold in Costco in 2007, but pulled before it could hit shelves due to concerns relating to underaged drinking. While the iteration in the movie shows red wine, the iteration on the wine bottle shows an olive tone of wine - the Grand Chef keyblade features both colors for the wine.
In 2016, a post was uploaded to Tumblr responding to a post claiming that "there is nothing wrong with Yoshi" by jokingly accusing Yoshi of committing tax fraud, which would become a running gag within Nintendo fan circles, and eventually a meme in 2018 with the bait-and-switch YouTube account SiIvaGunner posting soundtracks from a fake Yoshi Commits Tax Fraud game.
