Shout Out / Glitch Techs

With its very nature as a video game inspired series, Glitch Techs is filled to the brim with video game and computer references, internet memes, as well as other pop culture references, whether it be through catchphrases, similarities, or outright parodies of all sorts of video games.

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Opening Credits

• When Five and Miko are swarmed by glitches, in order to summon her sword, Miko strikes a pose reminiscent of the one Mega Man had on the Mega Man 10 box art◊, which itself was a reference to the promotional poster◊ for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, though Luke holds his lightsaber with both hands while Miko and Mega Man hold up only one.
  • Five on the other hand seems to be just straight up channeling the MCU version of Doctor Strange.

Season 1

Age of Hinobi

• Mitch uses the term "flawless victory" when describing his streak of defeating various glitches.
• We get a quick Pokémon reference with Five uttering the phrase "I choose you!" while cooking in the food truck.
• While working, Five is watching a video game news stream on Twooch.
• The gameplay of Chomp Kitty (eating pellets for points and food for power-ups) is a direct reference to Pac-Man.
• Chomp Kitty being gigantified by a powerup and defeated by an alternate version of the same powerup is a reference to the Super Mushroom and Poison Mushroom items from the Super Mario Bros. franchise.
• The leaderboard seen during the tournament is filled with usernames that are references to other Nicktoons, including Eric Robles' previous show Fanboy and Chum Chum.
• Continuing the references to Fanboy, we also have:
  • A girl that looks and sounds like Lupe can be seen in the crowd when Five shows how to get to the secret level of Chomp Kitty.
  • A sign for Frosty Mart can be seen at the location for the Hinobi tournament.
• When the audience has its memory reset, we briefly see two familiar-looking (former) super best friends (Matt and Pat, to be exact). They are also accompanied by a child while Pat is holding onto a bunch of balloons; one can only guess if the child's name is "JASON!"
  • A tweet from one of that episode's storyboarders reveals that Woolie and a very well-hidden Liam were also meant to cameo in that scene as well.
• Mitch’s restaurant of choice, Mama Miyamoto’s, is a double reference to Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Super Mario Bros. as well as to Mario’s catchphrase.
• The way Five pulls out a the hammer and poses, along swinging it around is an almost Shot-for-Shot Remake of the way Ramona Flowers pulled out her hammer◊.

Tutorial Mode

• The tutorial character, Helpie, is a parody of Microsoft Windows "helper" characters from the late 1990s and early 2000s; namely the infamous and oft-hated Clippy. As an annoying tutorial NPC, he also has quite a bit in common with the infamous Omochao.
• Alongside the other businesses on the sign for Hinobi Technology's strip mall is "The Groovy Smoothie".
• The game consoles Five and Miko scroll through on the computer directory include the Hinobi Entertainment System, Hinobi Two, Hinobi CD, Hinobi TurboTech 2K, and Hinobi Com.
• Garbile looks and acts a lot like Hulk Hogan. He even uses "brother" like people use oxygen.
• When pulling Five out from under Garbile, Miko yells "Maximum Effort", the Catchphrase from the first Deadpool movie.
• Sanitron is one really obvious shout out to Voltron down to even using the iconic sound effects.
• At the end of the episode, it's revealed that Hinobi Games corporate is monitoring Miko and Five, believing them to be the individuals capable of finding and containing Bolypius, which is an obvious reference to the arcade urban legend Polybius.

Going, Going, Gauntlet!

• Miko references the Triple Mushroom powerup from the Mario Kart series.
• This episode's Glitch of the Week originates from a Pokémon expy called Flunky Quest. It resembles Gengar, and is initially seen fighting against another Phonýmon resembling Skitty, which it later mistakes a real cat for.
• Ally serves as a Chocobo expy, straight from a Final Fantasy parody called Bravestone XII.

Smashozaurs

• The opening sequence for Smashozaurs, as well as the logo for the series, is a play on the ThunderCats emblem, with the lion switched out for a triceratops.
  • The Smashozaurs themselves appear to be a combination of Dinobots and Battle Beasts.

Castle Crawl

• The entire episode serves as a full-blown Parody Episode of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night through a game called Castlestein: from weapons and food being stashed in torches, to the infamously cheesy Purple Prose of the English translation, to even having Five and Miko turn the castle upside down to reach the True Final Boss of the game.
  • And yes, this includes a variation of the classic "What is a man?" scene. No shattered wine glass, though.
  • Nogrog is a mashup of Draclua, Dimitri and Medusa, including having a Sdrawkcab Name like Alucard (for gorgon).
  • The true final boss has a weakness to Five's Mirror Shield straight out of The Legend of Zelda but used in a manner more similar to how Perseus defeated Medusa. The Spword of Gygaggen is basically just straight up the Master Sword though.
• The Hinobee game Miko and Five were playing was a reference to Ni GHTS Into Dreams, though the back camera was more reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon and Space Harrier.
• At one point, Miko is going over what poses she'd want to be frozen in. Said poses include those of Josuke Higashikata and Kamen Rider Ichigo.

Alpha Leader

• As a Freeze-Frame Bonus during the Cold Open, two of the movies listed on the marquis are Math Janitor and Action Skyscraper.
• The glitches for this episode are based heavily on those seen in Hero Shooters like Overwatch, featuring 4 man teams battling it out for control points and with unlimited respawns.
  • The glitches are referred to by their classes instead of their names like in Team Fortress 2 and Monday Night Combat.
  • Mecha constantly complains about hating things.
• Zahra says she can give back-up "in 31 different flavors", like Baskin Robbins.
• Zahra calls the spaceship a real "Big Daddy"

Collection Quest

• Miko distracted Five's pre-order with an old man that looks like a Gandalf expy.
• Mitch claims to take down bosses "like a boss".
• When Five goes to check a tank of turtles for a glitch, Bergie advises him to "look for martial arts weapons and bandanas."
  • And of course, how do you defeat a turtle glitch? You jump on it.
  • Five subverts a reference to Indiana Jones's distaste for snakes as he actually likes turtles, though Bergy does the reference straightforward later.
• Later on in the episode, we get Bergie shouting out some of Mario's iconic noises when collecting gems.
• While under attack, Five is trying to dig up a big gem he found. When Miko asks him to forget it, as Miko puts it Five goes "full Gollum"
• The game that the glitches are from are a clear reference to Candy Crush.
• A store named "Nolan's Ark" can be seen, which is likely a reference to Dolan Dark.

Adventures in Pet Training

• The glitch that the duo fights in the Cold Open is a reference to Sonic the Hedgehog (a Totally Radical cartoon animal with Super-Speed), with a dash of MegaMan's weaponry and armor thrown in, also it's a rabbit with a gun, like Jazz Jackrabbit.
  • It only seems to be able to say its own name, like a Pokémon.
• When Ally is rebooted, it does a parody of the old Macintosh boot chime.
• Alpha's body seems to be a cross between Bastion's and Winston's with a head that looks like a cross between a SPARTAN II helmet and a Personality Core.
• The paddle that contained Alpha's missing bolt had some distinctly Hylian markings on it.
• Miko mentions a certain Nintendo series by name when Ally transforms.
  Miko: Heavens to Metroid…
  • This is also a variation of Snagglepuss's iconic Catchphrase "Heavens to Murgatroyd!"
• The boss monster is what a Gigantamax Muk would likely look like.

Karate Trainer

• The game Five is playing in the episode is an homage to Metal Gear Solid, including a cover and a main character similar to the series, down to the player's capacity to hide in a box, which inspired Five to bring one to the dojo and Miko's house, to little success.
  • Miko's response to Five's plan of playing the game was "Right on, Ghost Recon", a reference to another stealth-oriented special ops themed shooter game.
  • When Miko tells Five her plan to sneak Lexi in to work, the visuals switch to something resembling the Codec calls from Metal Gear Solid. As the plan is carried out, several more MGS references are made.
• Miko's dad mentions a movie where a kid learns karate by painting fences and sanding floors.
• After Miko tells Five her plan, Five says "This message will self destruct".
• After Lexi loses in the karate bout, Mayumi tries to cheer her up by going to get some Frosty Freezy-Freeze, the Trademark Favorite Drink of Fanboy and Chum Chum.
• The game Miko uses to train Lexi is basically an E10-rated version of Mortal Kombat, complete with Fatalities, with of course a few Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom references sprinkled in. Lexi's finishing combo even incorporates a Maximum Spider style attack.
  • Lexi's moves after channeling her chi includes a spin jump.

Season 2

The Glitch Modder

• Fire Age 4 appears to be a reference to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which notoriously has several mods for the dragons such as replacing the model and sound effects with those of Thomas the Tank Engine or mashing them together with Randy "The Macho Man" Savage. However the game's number suggests it's instead a reference to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which while having a healthy modding community itself, isn't quite as infamous for such mods. The game's name on the other hand could be referencing Dragon Age and Fire Emblem or Breath of Fire.

Ping

• The episode pays homage to the very origins of gaming. The glitch of the episode comes from Pong, but Space Invaders is also referenced by an in-universe game about Unicorns.
• Portal:
  • To the "The Cake is a Lie" line: With LuC++ talking to BITT when Miko calls for backup:
    And then just to mess with them, I said, "The cake is a pie," Ha, ha, ha, ha.
  • LuC++ herself appears to be an expy of GLaDOS, at least in terms of design.
  • Thinking Up Portals is used to create an infinite loop of travel, like is possible in the games.
    • The way this backfires with infinite velocity is mentioned by GLaDOS: The law of conservation of mass. Ironically, this is sometimes actually used to solve puzzles in the actual games.
      GLaDOS: "You appear to understand how a portal affects forward momentum, or to be more precise, how it does not. Momentum, a function of mass and velocity, is conserved between portals. In layman's terms: speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out."
• Miko's quick exclamation of "Mmm, toasty" while chasing down the pixel, odd inflection and all, is a reference to this recurring joke in the Mortal Kombat series .

Ralphie Bear is Back

• The setting about a strange pizza place with a creepy animatronic, and a mysterious past accident that closed the place down, is a reference to indie horror game Five Nights at Freddy's. One scene even mimics the gameplay of the game when he connects to the cameras of the building to see where one of the animatronics is, only for it to jump-scare them, as well as Miko having to don the animatronic's costume.
• Miko quotes from The Addams Family theme song:
  Miko: Now we've gone from creepy and kooky to mysterious and spooky.
• After finding a secret pathway, Miko says "Jinkies!"

The Real Glitch Techs

• The title is one to The Real Ghostbusters and how they had to distinguish it from Filmation's Ghostbusters.
• Itty Bitty Kitty Collector and Litter Glitter Kitty Sitter are based on cat collection mobile games such as Neko Atsume and Cat Game - The Cats Collector. It even has pun names for some of the rare cats similar to the English version of Neko Atsume.
  • Pancake McGuffin has pancakes on its head like Oolong the rabbit.
  • Miko mentions capturing Buckaroo Catseye and Doctor Mew. For the last one, she briefly gets a hat and long scarf and sonic screwdriver.
• The Dabney techs' Super Sentai style posing is strongly reminiscent of the Ginyu Force while the music that plays when they first arrive is somewhat reminiscent of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers theme song.
• During the race sequence, the pixel art segments reference Mario Kart.
  Mitch: Hold on to your mushrooms.
• Lampshaded when Nameless shamelessly rips off the Avengers' and Autobots' battlecries.
  Nameless: Okay techs, assemble and roll out!
  Miko: Pick one battlecry to rip off, dude!

Settling the Score

• Sock-Em Rockers appears to be a Serial Numbers Filed Off version of DanceDanceRevolution crossed with a Serial Numbers Filed Off version of Killer Instinct, though the name is a clear reference to Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots.
• Mario Kart gets referenced again when Five mentions a "Hinobi Kart" glitch.
• When her high score is beat, Miko declares global thermonuclear thumb war.
• Ryu buys a Freezy-Freeze at the Frosty Mart.
• When Miko NeckLifts Nix, Five says "Uh, Miko, you're bat-handling Nix."
  • Miko exclaims "To the Mikomobile!" followed by a scene transition straight out of the Adam West Batman TV show.
• Miko fittingly exclaims "What in the Twin Galaxies?", a reference to the arcade world record scorekeeping organization.
• Miko says "Listen little man, can you be a big helper and tell your brother that winter has come?"
• Colossosaurus is a clear "Godzilla" pastiche due to its design of a giant plated theropod, though its general aesthetic and Five climbing up its body are referencing Shadow of the Colossus. It even gives a roar similar to Godzilla's.
• The giant robot Mike plays as is named Jaguar Jetson, referencing Jet Jaguar from the Godzilla franchise
• Miko exclaims "Like Yar, I shall have revenge!" a reference to Yars' Revenge.
• Five complains that "when he wanted a mission, he didn't expect it to be this impossible"

I'm Mitch Williams

• The episode's location is 1984 Spengler Street.
  • Among the things Five plans to use to spy on Mitch is [[Comic Book/Batman Batarangs]].

BITT Prime

• Phil calls BITT R2-Do Nothing.
  • Five prepares to use the EMP on BITT.
  Five: You're making me use force here, buddy!
  Miko: Use the force already!

Other

• Among the stores surrounding the Hinobi store are the Frosty Mart from sister series Fanboy and Chum Chum and the Groovy Smoothie from iCarly.

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