Like the first game, Guacamelee! 2 contains a ton of references to video games, movies, luchadores and the like. Grab a seat, these will take a while...
- The very first scene of the game is a remake of the original game's final boss, which doesn't seem like much of a reference until the characters start openly quoting the infamous "miserable pile of secrets" exchange.
- The Goat Hermit gets lost taking Juan to the Darkest Timeline, first they end up in Pueblimbo, a gloomy world of mist and silhouettes (complete with a Giant Spider hanging off the wall above the exit, trying to spear you with one of its legs just as you escape), and then to Riviera City, a Beat 'em Up kind of town with advertisements for Triple Dragon, and a man asking if you're a bad enough hombre to rescue El Presidente.
- Before the boss fight Salvador says if you want to be the Luchador you have to beat the Luchador.
- The Three Relics, each of them looking like pixelated triangles, combine into an object that looks extraordinarily close to the 8-bit Triforce. The negative space between the triangles forms the golden nacho that serves as the key to El Otromundo.
- When Juan meets Jaguar Javier in the Darkest Timeline, it briefly shows the two engaging in the Epic Handshake from Predator.
- The Fight Streeter "bonus timeline", wherein you fight and demolish a car at the dockyard (specifically, a Volkswagen Beetle
). Completing both stages nets you a "Perfect!" trophy. Also, both times, the owner of the car will lament his loss.- The second Fight Streeter stage pits you against a lime-green "volchito" with a white roof. These are the colors of the infamous "eco-taxis" seen everywhere in Mexico City during the 80s and 90s, and memetic in their own right.
- When the deadly time rifts start appearing, a villager acknowledges their unique shape and wonders if they would disappear if they could get a whole row of them lined up. Meanwhile, another villager laments not getting the chance to complete her Luchadex, especially since they add 150 new luchadores to the roster every time.
- In the town of Isla Bonita, you meet "Inatawi Urot", who gives you free access to his coin collection if you can retrieve them all from his maze in under two minutes.
- I Am Error returns, but this time he bars your way if you try to advance to an area you're not supposed to go to yet.
- Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot show up as a piñata in a piñata afficionado's house, and as golden idol in the Chicken Illuminati temple, respectively. The former also has a piñata of Unikitty.
- The Mimic in El Infierno asks if someone has rang the Bell of Awakening and refers to you as a Chosen Undead.
- A chicken named after Chris Houlihan shows up in a hidden underground room.
- The Temple of the Snake has not only a giant, one-hit kill snake, but also large and spike-filled open sections that you must traverse by climbing onto smaller, but still huge, snakes that twist and turn around obstacles. It also has a lava-filled room that must be crossed by riding on a platform made of blocks that twists and turns like a snake as it moves.
- The room where you collect the Eagle Boost technique (which allows you to latch on to "grapple points" to sling yourself through the air) has statues of Link wielding the Hookshot, the titular character of Flinthook, and Rad Spencer.
- Upon completing your first Pollo Challenge dungeon, the chicken form being equivalent to the Morph Ball required to slip into narrow tunnels, you earn the "y cant guacamelee crawl" trophy.
- The "Luchonarrative Resonance" trophy, named after a certain critique of BioShock, is awarded to you by "Killing 1000 mean, nasty skeletons without families."
- The "Juan Punch Man" trophy comes from defeating an enemy in one hit using a special move.
- The "Temple Raider" trophy is earned by obtaining 100% of chests in a temple.
- The trophy obtained for defeating the final boss, "Nacho Libre", should be self-explanatory.
- One of the Goat Hermits has, among others, Rafiki's staff and Master Roshi's cane hanging from his wall.
- The Goat Hermit that teaches you Double Jump greets you by orating the first couple of paragraphs of Octavio Paz's poem, "Viento".
- The Pico de Gallo bonus timeline, wherein you fight your enemies in JRPG battles, is called "The Grindiest Timeline".
- A chicken captive in the "El Corazón" prison has a poster of Rita Henworth in its cell.
- A girl named Daniela is constantly calling out "Camarón! Cielo! AHORA!" ("Shrimp! Heaven! NOW!") to the frustration of her father.
- The house in Isla Bonita that leads you to the Git Gud Treetops has two paintings in the World of the Dead: Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night", and the self-portrait of Frida Kahlo (the latter, being a closeup, crops out the hummingbird seen in the original painting; the World of the Living version is a painting of a hummingbird).
- Speaking of paintings another house in Villachula has World of the Living paintings of Napoleon riding a giant chicken and, once again, the chicken version of the Three Wolves Howling At The Moon t-shirt.
- Another house has a World of the Dead painting of a Marowak.
- Yet another house has the Tall Tall Mountain painting from Super Mario 64. Another portrait, this time of a suspiciously familiar jawless skeleton, can also be found in the world of the Dead.
- Another house in Villachula, the one that leads to the "service-based" timeline, has both Living and Dead versions of a portrait of a long-haired woman wearing rubber gloves and holding scissors.
- Still in Villachula a large mansion has a corridor containing statues based on Tostada's design from the previous game, and some portraits including a luchador with Reaper's mask and the so-called Rainbow Wizard from Katawa Shoujo.
- Wrapping up Villachula, the bottom level of the World of the Dead has a building named "Strange Things Odditorium" with the appropriate neon red billboard.
- A building in Isla Bonita has a billboard for Mystery Luchador's Wrestleground. Its World of the Dead counterpart is for Fightnight Lucha Royale instead. Another billboard advertises a mexican counterpart of Frog Fractions.
- The Mariachi Club in Villachula has a billboard of Pusheen the Cat sitting in a teacup. Just beneath it, the "Generic Store" becomes "Bones & Noble" in the World of the Dead.
- And speaking of cats, the El Corazón prison has grafitti of everyone's favorite glutton, Tubbs, eating a huge bowl of guacamole.
- While we're on the subject of El Corazón and grafitti, the Olmec Head at the gates rests beside a wall painting of skeletal versions of the characters of Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, and nearby is a painting of a winged strawberry straight out of Celeste.
- When wearing the El Portero costume, the body of your chicken form turns into a soccer ball. When it rolls ahead, it becomes a tilted, spinning oval with a blue trail.
- The music for the Temple of the Chicken Illuminati starts with a few bars from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past; Pollo Challenge dungeons have off-key versions of the Deep Norfair theme.
- Like in the first game, towns display a plethora of background posters for upcoming lucha matches and product advertisements:
- "El Hombre" vs "Esqueleto" ("El Hombre" being a deliberately jokey "Blind Idiot" Translation of "He" and "Man" that was a memetic joke in Mexico for a brief while in the 80s.)
- Evento especial, "El Pantera"!
- The mysterious Sasha. Severed is also referenced by the trophies awarded upon each of Uay Pek's defeats.
- El Halcón Luchador.
- A poster with "Papá" and "Chico" (Dad and Boy), tag-team duo.
- "Mito v Mito: Serpiente contra Ocelot".
- El Capitán (masked, natch) vs Reptil.
- El Némesis vs Pirámide Roja. The World of the Dead version of this poster shows a horned skeleton wielding a shovel fighting an insect-like skelton wielding a nail.
- Boba Fight, masked luchador.
- A "missing" poster for Schrödinger's Cat, a black-striped orange cat that appears "alive" in the World of the Living poster, and as a skeleton in the World of the Dead version.
- Another tag-team, the Esqueleto Hermanos (Skeleton Brothers).
- A luchador in a blue, spiny outfit advertised with the tagline "Gotta go fist!"
- "Triple Amenaza: Las Gemas" (Triple Threat: The Gems.)"
- La Gran Cabeza de Copa!
- Optimo VS Mega.
- After you defeat The Crucible, you can find a hidden room which leads to the message "YOU ARE A SUPER PLAYER" to congratulate you for defeating the game's hardest platforming challenges.
- And finally, the prison has another instance of Fez script; once again, your translating efforts are rewarded with a useless Ovaltine reference, only, this time, it must have been written by Kenny Bania: "Why do they call it Ovaltine the mug is round the jar is round they should call it roundtine".
