Shout Out / Kingdom Rush

Kingdom Rush

• Musketeer towers will mention their boomsticks.
• Artillery dwarves will tell you to "Hail to the king, baby!"
• Some of the barbarians' random names are Erik, Olaf, and Baelog.
• When upgraded, Wizards will sometimes say "Might And Magic".
• Arcane Wizards will shout "Avada Kedavra!" when they receive their death spell, "You shall not pass!" when they receive the teleportation spell, and will sometimes say Klaatu Barada Nikto.
• The dwarves manning the Big Bertha are heard saying "Yippie-ki-yay, mother*BEEP*" and "Say hello to my little friend!"
• The Tesla engineers' taunts and quotes include "Ride the lightning!", "You've been thunderstruck" and "Toasty!"
• Sorcerers are often heard saying "Do or do not, there is no try." They also polymorph people into sheep.
• Rangers will say "Born to be wild."
• The bonus levels also include references to Ice Age, Plants vs. Zombies and Swamp Thing.
• The trolls look identical to Warcraft trolls, and like them also enjoy throwing axes. There's also an elven archer hero named Alleria.
• Vez'nan's taunts reference The Dark Knight, Portal and Ghostbusters.
• Hacksaw bears a startling resemblance to a Goblin Shredder.
• A few achievements contain references in their names, such as Beam Me Up Scotty and Are You Not Entertained?
• The Premium Content (for Flash version only) allows the player to choose three additional skin sets for reinforcements:
  • Luke Skywalker, Yoda, Chewbacca and Darth Vader.
  • Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang and Goro.
  • Ryu, Ken, Guile and Blanka.

Kingdom Rush: Frontiers

• Some of the assassins' random names are 47, Altair, Desmond, Ezio, Lucien, Leon, Havelock, and Bain.
  • The assassin outfits, the alternate specialization being templars, and the desert area make the soldiers a reference to the first Assassin's Creed.
• You see Indiana Jones in the final level of the jungle area.
• The Rising Tides mini-campaign features the Deep Devils, who are pretty much Deep Ones trying to awaken their leader Cthu... erm, Leviathan.
• The first level has a boy with a shadow of Darth Vader.
  • Star Wars references continue in Sape Oasis level. You can see two members of Duskar (basically Tusken Raider lookalikes) sniping enemies from afar.
• In the second level of the Desert area, you can see a Stargate. It doesn't turn on, though.
• The singing & dancing frog from One Froggy Evening can be found in the level Sape Oasis. Finding him is actually an achievement.
• The Parasyte and Reaper are obvious ones to Alien, in terms of how they breed. The Reaper's description also makes a reference to Alien vs. Predator.
  • They also look very similar to a headcrab.
• Reading the Savage Zombie's encyclopedia page mentions that they crave brains... and plants.
• The Lycan enemies (before transformation) look very similar to Wolverine.
• Quincon (the second boss, a huge gorilla) throws barrels at the player's forces.
• One boss is named Xyzzy, and looks like Godzilla.
• One of the achievements are Twist and Shout^note This achievement requires Spear Maiden from Level 7 to use their spin attack 50 times.
• Similar to the Forgotten Treasures mini campaign in Origins (see the below folder), there are the Guest-Star Party Member dwarven units in The Dark Descent, where the leader is a Composite Character of Durin Longbeard and Gimli, speak dwarvish, have Mithril-based gear, are named after several dwarven characters from Lord of the Rings, and of course, quote lines from the Franchise.
• The Flesh Golem that's an ability you can get via The Dark Forge in Bonesburg is named Frankie.
  • It also "possess" Hulk Speak, and has Jaxx v2 arms when fully upgraded.
• The "God King" in the endless mode Ruins of Nas'de is an obvious homage to Xerxes.
• The level Dunes of Despair, features an enormous Sand Worm in a clear reference to Dune.
• When attaining or upgrading the Falconer ability, the Crossbow Fort shouts "Blackbird, fly!"

Kingdom Rush: Origins

• The entire Forgotten Treasures campaign is a shout out to the fall of Moria in The Lord of the Rings. The Dwarves had Dug Too Deep and uncovered the Balrog Godieth, which easily exterminated them. Godieth's Flavor Text even implies that Durin's Bane is his " 'more famous' big brother".
• In the Royal Gardens, there are hedges trimmed to look like Pipboy and a Piranha Plant
• The Arch-Druid's Runed Bears have the names Fozzy, Yogi and Booboo
• Arcane Archers have the "RAMBO STYLE" achievement for killing things with explosive arrows.
• High Elven Mages have an achievement called "PHANTOM ZONED."
• The Forest Keepers upgrade for the barracks are a direct reference to the Keeper of the Forest hero unit from Warcraft III with their armour-bypassing attack is taken from Enchantress.
• There are even more music references in the quotes than the previous installments.
  • Wild Maguses say "Explode into space!" and "Smokin'!"
    • Not actually said out loud, but an achievement for using one of the Wild Magus' abilities enough is "IT'S A KIND OF MAGIC!"
  • Golden Longbows say "Shoot to thrill, ready to kill."
  • Arcane Archers with sleep arrows say "Sweet dreams are made of this."
  • The stone druid artillery can say "Like a rolling stone!"
  • Weirdwoods say "Beat it!"
• Non-musical quotes include...
  • Wild Magus parodying one of the Arcane Wizard's references by instead saying "You shall not cast!"
  • Arcane Archers saying "Hado i philinn" and "Natha daged dhaer" which are elvish from The Lord of the Rings movies.
  • Bladesingers say "A red sun rises."
  • Weirdwoods that hurl Fiery Nuts say "Need a light?"
• Also with the Weirdwoods, their name and appearance are very similar to Weirwoods.
• Malicia, the Queen of the twilight elves, is an Expy of Maleficient.
• A surprisingly well-researched one that borders on Genius Bonus: the achievement for defeating Baj'nimen the Hateful, who rides on an oversized centipede monster, is "My Lord Bag of Rice",
• In the level Beheader's Seat, if you click on the bush in the middle of the level, Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote would appear to do their gag. The tunnel and a set of TNT are also seen on the left side of the level. Also, one of the [[{Sculptures}} statue]] showing a female plump ogre is based on the Venus of Willendorf figures. The level has digsites that wouldn't look out of place in Jurassic Park.

Kingdom Rush: Vengeance

• Main Game:
  • One of the Rocket Rider's quotes are "To infinity and beyond!", "Prepare for trouble!", and "Witness me!"
  • At the Dwarven Gates, you may find a strange keyhole. If you tap it while it glows, Baldo comes out holding a key and opens it. He then enters, only to be burnt by an unseen creature, likely a dragon.
  • Corridors of the Old City have runes of fictional Cirth language, created by J. R. R. Tolkien.
  • In Kazan Mines, a daring explorer and King Kong with his nemesis can be seen riding minecarts during parts of the level. An achievement for stopping a number of these minecarts is called "Final Destination". The same map allows you to play a game of Whack A Mole.
  • Golden Brewery has Borney and the bartender appear among the drunk dwarves. You may click the bartender to have him serve more drinks to Borney until he falls asleep.
  • Chomp Bots look very similar to Mousers from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, the achievement for beating enough of them is even called Mouserthon.
  • The names for the Dark Knights are based on actors who have played or voiced Batman in various media before.
  • The Northern Tribe are essentially vikings with trained dragons, with Jokull being a massive dragon similar to the Red Death or Bewilderbeast. You even get an achievement called "How to tame your dragon" when beating Jokull. The Leap Dragons also resemble something that wouldn't be out of place in How To Train Your Dragon.
  • Repeatedly tapping on the war horn in Northerners' Outpost level forces the watcher to play a little snippet of "Careless Whisper".
  • Bone Flingers' quotes reference various skeleton-related memes, such as "Doot Doot!" or The Skeleton Dance.
  • One of the tower types appears to be a crypt that can "charge" up to three souls as projectiles, similar to the crypts from Cursed Treasure.
  • The Doom Tank SG-11 Hero Unit is a direst reference to the Mark X from Ironhide's other game, Iron Marines. It's a huge tank that's capable of summoning soldiers as temporary reinforcements, and also has an attack which covers an area in hazardous stuff that deals Damage Over Time.
• Additional mini-campaigns:
  • Kermit the Frog, the Hypnotoad, and Frogger appear in the frog-themed Subaquatic Menace mini-campaign.
  • Captain America's frozen shield can be found in Breaking the Ice, the first level of Frozen Nightmare mini-campaign.
  • The Mogwai enemies from Rise of the Dragon mini-campaign are basically the namesake creatures from Gremlins, being small gremlins that multiply on contact with water.
  • Back in the Rotten Forest, the first level of The Cursed Bargain mini-campaign, has 3 pieces of paper on certain trees. Clicking on them summons Slenderman - who is described as "an old-fashioned horror creature".
  • A Night in the Swamp has a good-looking girl enjoying her drink. Clicking on the bubbling fumes near her summons an aquatic creature which drags her underwater.
  • The Underminer can be found in Excavation Gateway, the first level of Primal Ravage mini-campaign.
  • The Lost Passage has Demogorgon flowers that can be clicked on. In this same stage, you can find a Dilophosaurus egg: breaking it open frees that dinosaur.
• Hammerhold DLC:
  • Wizard's Landing has a blacksmith that can make a helmet of a certain great warrior who knows the way. The achievement for forging it name drops his catchphrase.
  • The same level has a coyote trying to catch an elusive burd with a carrot and tnt. You can help the bird by bombarding the coyote with the ship, allowing the bird to take the carrot and safely escape.
  • At Sape Oasis, you can find a magic carpet from ''Aladdin". He's trapped under the stone and you can free him, prompting him to dance and fly off. The achievement for doing so is called "Off to see the world", referencing the song from the cartoon.
  • At the beginning of his boss fight, Alric says:" This is Hammerhold! "
  • The achievement for killing 17 War Elephants is called "Counts only as one", referring to the phrase of Gimli, son of Gloin.