Shout Out / A Hat in Time

Being heavily based on Nintendo games from the Fifth and Sixth Generations of Console Video Games, it should be no surprise that A Hat in Time is chock full of references to games from those eras, as well as a few others.

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• Some of the graffiti in Mafia Town reads: "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!" While this is a well-known chant associated with Football Hooligans, it also doubles as a shoutout to one of Hat in Times' inspirations, Banjo-Kazooie (as this phrase was the basis for Mumbo Jumbo's voice, as revealed by Grant Kirkhope in his guest appearance on Game Grumps) and Banjo-Tooie (where Mayahem Temple's music uses this chant). The fact that the Banjo-Kazooie series and A Hat in Time share a composer (Grant Kirkhope) also helps with the connection.
• The announcer for the balloon race in Mafia Town (and also for announcing the start of the parade you take part in during Chapter 2) is doing his best T.T. impression.
• Another example in Mafia Town is the Bell Tower that Mustache Girl goes up to in the first act. If the player looks to their right while up there, they'll see a wooden board that seagulls are on. In other words, they're on a tall tower overlooking the land with a perch that has birds on it.
• One of the acts in Mafia Town called "Heating Up Mafia Town" was inspired by "The Goopy Inferno" from Super Mario Sunshine, where a large portion of the level gets covered in lava, which was later confirmed by Gears for Breakfast.
  • The giant taps also look very similar to the giant faucets in "Turn off the giant faucet" and "Move through the water" in Wario Land II, and are turned off in the same way.
• Using the Dweller Mask in one area of Queen Vanessa's mansion reveals a hidden drawing of Raz.
  • Some missions are in Time Rifts mixed with someone's memories, and optional collectibles create a picture book of past events, very similar to Memory Vaults in Psychonauts.
• The secret areas that you can find are clearly a reference to the ones in Super Mario Sunshine, due to them being obstacle courses where you jump across blocks over lots of (literal) empty space. Several secret stages even use a long rectangular block with one protrusion on each of the long faces, identical to the ones that appear in "The Secret of Ricco Tower" in Ricco Harbor.
• The pre-release builds of the game are subtitled "Far From Finished". Probably not a coincidence, considering that the group was known for playing the game's original alpha release.
• Hat Kid's computer allows you to play a simple text adventure. Near the end of the game, you have the option to Go Dennis.
• Inspecting the radio in the Engine Room reveals that Hat Kid uses it to listen to her favorite broadcasts, Acquaintances At The Table, Goodbye From Sunshine Town, and Two Brothers And Then Also A Third Additional Brother, Myself.
  • Related to the latter, there's a platform in the Windmill high above a pair of grain carts with buttons on them. The platform above them has a sign from the Owl Express, with alphabet magnets altering the words to say "Pipis Room". A sign reading the same was encountered by one of the McElroy brothers, Griffin, who showed in a Vine clip, turning it into a meme.
• One of her idle animations has her jumping up and down enthusiastically, very much like how Toon Link cheers when he defeats a boss in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
• Outfit references include:
  • Freedom: Gives her Sash Lilac's primary colors, such as her purple hair and light-blue color-coding.
  • Forest Critter: Gives Hat Kid blonde hair, green hat and coat, white pants, and brown boots colored just like Toon Link
  • Margin of the Night: Dyes Hat Kid's clothes dark red and her hair blue just like Niko from OneShot. The title of the palette references the game's artist, NightMargin.
  • The Blood Moon: gives her a red and black palette with white hair which is the same as Dante and Ragna the Bloodedge.
  • Cute 'n Dangerous: changes her outfit to entirely pink with blond hair and a blue zipper clasp, giving her a Princess Peach appearance.
  • Cookie Dough: Not a very obvious example, but Jonas has said it was inspired by Remix 3 of Rhythm Heaven Fever.
  • The Big Appetite: Gives Hat Kid green shoes, purple clothes, a yellow cape, and a purple hat with yellow on it, causing a strong resemblance to Wario. The name itself calls attention to his Big Eater tendencies.
  • Pizza Time: Seems to be named after a memorable line from Spider-Man 2.
  • Too Hot To Handle: Gives Hat Kid's clothes a flame pattern that resembles one of Guy Fieri's more well-known looks.
  • Fortress and Battlements: These two dyes reference Team Fortress 2 and its associated color palettes, with "Fortress" having RED's red and orange color scheme, and "Battlements" having BLU's blue and yellow color scheme respectively.
  • Bleeding Edge, from the Nyakuza Metro expansion, features a very similar black dress/red cape color scheme as Ruby Rose.

• There are plenty of references to the Paper Mario series.
  • The Brewing Hat has a flair that gives it pink and white stripes just like Vivian's.
  • The Snatcher is an Expy of the black chest demons from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Not only does he resemble the demons by design, but he also shouts "FOOOOOOOOOOOOL!" constantly as his Catchphrase.
  • All of Subcon Forest's denizens speak with a purple speech bubble, which is eerily reminiscent of the rare purple speech bubbles spoken by the Shadow Queen and Mimi respectively. Overall, the speech bubbles have wobbly text, and their opening and closing sounds are similar to the ones spoken by characters like the black chest demons.
  • Subcon Forest in-general seems to be inspired from Forever Forest in Paper Mario 64, with some influences from the Twilight Town area in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
  • The way the game is structured is similar to that of the Paper Mario games. Each of the main levels are labeled as "chapters", with each having their own sub-plots that tie into the main narrative and an Arc Villain to defeat.
  • The level "Murder on the Owl Express" seems to take inspiration from both the penguin murder mystery in Paper Mario 64, and the detective mysteries on the Excess Express in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The latter of which is even confirmed by Gears for Breakfast themselves.
  • One particular Express Owl in Murder on the Owl Express blocks the way into the VIP room because he lost his contact lens after someone bumped into him, and doesn't want to move out of fear that he or Hat Kid may step on it. This is a subtle nod to Zess T. from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which is confirmed by Word of God.
  • One of the Mafia Boss' attacks is called Mafia Ball, where he stands atop a giant ball made of Mafia goons and rolls it towards Hat Kid. This is similar to Lord Crump's X-Naut ball attack in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
  • While not obvious at first, "Chapter 2: Battle of the Birds" is a very clever shout out to "Chapter 3: Of Glitz and Glory" from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The plots of both revolve around the main character becoming a star of some kind in order to get to the MacGuffin they want, only to find out via calls from an anonymous source that there's a much bigger conspiracy at play here, and that the instigator, which turns out to be the person who hired them, is using said MacGuffin for his own nefarious personal goals behind the scenes. The only difference that sets these two apart are that Battle of the Birds features becoming a movie star, while Of Glitz and Glory features becoming a wrestling champion.
  • One of the achievements you can get in Nyakuza Metro is called "Stickin' Star".
  • You can access a secret area containing Hat Kid's diary by ground-pounding a suspicious spot in her bedroom, in Paper Mario 64 you can access a secret area containing Luigi's diary by ground-pounding a suspicious spot in his bedroom.
• The Snatcher's design may be a reference to an obscure early PS2 RPG called Okage: Shadow King, which also had a very animated shadow demon with yellow eyes and an Affably Evil disposition as its Deuteragonist.
  • The Snatcher also looks like a Heartless, which is very fitting once you learn what his backstory is...
• The title and meta plot of "Murder on the Owl Express," is a blatant shout-out to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, especially considering you can pin the murder on practically anyone, much like how in the actual book, it turned out everyone did it!
• Subcon Forest isn't the first platformer world with the name "Subcon".
• The most obvious shout out yet... the title! 'A Hat in Time' sounds a lot like A Wrinkle in Time, doesn't it? It also sounds like A Crack in Time; much like how many locales had time stopped in that game, there's a location in Subcon Forest where a water spout seems to be frozen in stasis.
• An achievement/trophy you can get for chaining five homing attacks in a row is called "Personally I Prefer the Air".
• The movie poster for Train Rush found in the last act of Chapter 2 uses a similar title font to Blade Runner.
• According to their clapperboards, the Conductor is filming Twelve Angry Conductors, while DJ Grooves is filming Panic at the Space Disco.
• The VIP Lounge TV in "Murder on the Owl Express" shows a game with a similar title screen to Metal Gear Solid; a tongue-in-cheek reference to that segment being a stealth mission.
• A TV in the first room of "Train Rush" shows a brief video that references the "how to draw Kirby" opening of Kirby's Adventure, even borrowing some of the lines from the original's opening song.
  First you draw a circle
  Then you add some fluff
  That will make him ruff
  Add a great big smile
  And presto, it's Porgy!
• One of Mustache Girl's attacks during the final battle is similar to an attack of Marx's, one that was retroactively named "Marx Flip Ultima" in Star Allies.
  • The arena you fight Mustache Girl's second and third phases in is called the Hyper Zone.
• Hat Kid's outfit looks very similar to Prince Dreambert's, particularly the cape with the large zipper on the front.
• The Express Owls' attack patterns are identical to the Hammer Bros from the 3D Mario games, throwing clipboards at Hat Kid before jumping from one area to another and repeating.
  • The Shock Squids' energy ring attack is identical to the one the Beamers use in Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, as well as the Pulse Beams from Super Mario Odyssey.
  • The Express Band function just like the Cosmic Clones from Galaxy 2, following Hat Kid in groups throughout the acts they appear in while copying her every move, being invincible and damaging her on contact.
• Mustache Girl's castle heavily resembles Bowser's Castle from the Super Mario Bros. series. Not only is it full of lava, but it also features fire bars as hazards, acting much like they do in the 3D Mario games.
• The menu for enabling Mercy Mode in the Death Wish DLC is a direct copy of the small-time "No one's around to help." meme from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, even quoting it word for word the first time you use it (give or take an apostrophe).
  • One of the quotes asking if you want to enable Peace and Tranquility if you die several times after the first prompt?
    Game: Do you want to turn on EZ Modo??
• The harder Death Wish versions of the bosses are called EX bosses.
• The song for Ship Shape in the Arctic Cruise sounds very similar to the Game Pizza Theme from Spider-Man 2.
• The title for the Act 3 is called "She Came From Outer Space", a reference to the 1953 film called It Came from Outer Space. Additionally, Hat Kid's pose in the level art has a strong resemblance to the movie poster of The Thing (1982).
• If you talk to the Fish Dude at the beginning of Rock the Boat, he'll comment about the icebergs and that the SS Literally Can't Sink "really can't sink", and then compares it to that one movie he watched that featured another "unsinkable ship" in a similar setting. He admits that he hasn't seen the ending of that movie.
• The Death Wish Time Rift Collapses have a very similar tone and aesthetic to the escape sequences from Wario Land 4, right down to the music sounding similar.
• The blocks that disappear and reappear with the rhythm of the music in "Rhythm Jump Studios" are based on the Beep Blocks from Super Mario Galaxy 2, 3D Land, 3D World and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.
• One of The Snatcher's quotes in Death Wish references some similar quotes spoken by GLaDOS in Portal 2.
  Snatcher: Hey kid, I found your parents. They just came by to say hi. Oh, but you missed them. They left already. What a shame.
• Another one of his lines references the "L is real 2401" rumor from Super Mario 64.
  Snatcher: Did you know you could unlock a 'Luigi' by completing every Death Wish on the first attempt? I don’t even know what that is, but that has to be genuine. I read it online.
• A third quote from Snatcher is a direct one to Queen. Fittingly, he's talking about the Shadow Queen when she killed him.
  Snatcher: Ah, you should have seen her back in the day. Like dynamite with a laser beam, you know.
• In one area of Subcon Forest, a Subconite is confused as to why nobody lives in any of the houses there. It's free real estate!
• The level music for the Windmill in Alpine Skyline sounds very similar to a certain song associated with a windmill from another well-known game.
• One of the seals by the pool of the S.S. Literally Can't Sink is laying on its back holding an egg, and when approached, simply says, "Egg!" This is a likely reference to the memetic Captioned Seal video on Youtube.
• The Nyakuza Metro has a secret miniboss fight with a cat wearing an eyepatch with a serpent pattern on it who ambushes you with a cry of "HAT KID-CHAN!" Investigating the manhole you use to enter the arena gives you the message "Kiwami means Extreme", referencing the subtitle used for the remakes of the first and second games in the series and the memetic line from the tutorial teaching the Kiwami mechanic.
• One of the faces Hat Kid can make is simply called Angery.
• The Empress is very reminiscent of Sly Cooper villains in her design and personality, and she has a money printing press in her storeroom.
• The Energy Pons in the Pink Paw Manhole in Nyakuza Metro look just like the Fuel Cells from Star Fox Adventures.
• In Nyakuza Metro, there's a movie poster that advertises The Conductor's newest movie titled "Peck Neck", and it references John Wick: Chapter 2.
• Another Nyakuza Metro poster shows a "virtual catuber" named kizunyan mewku.
• The hub of the game is a spaceship, and each themed room functions as an observatory that lets you travel to levels, very much like the Comet Observatory from Super Mario Galaxy.
• Queen Vanessa's Manor seems to take inspiration from Luigi's Mansion in its fixed-camera floor layouts, and the animation where Hat Kid stumbles and crawls backward in fear after being scared by Vanessa is a reference to a scrapped animation for Luigi in that game's development. Additionally, the music track "Oh It's You", heard when speaking to the Snatcher, sounds directly influenced by the jazzy electronic soundtrack of Luigi's Mansion; the Luigi's Mansion "Talking With Ghosts" theme was even used as a temp track for Snatcher conversations in early builds.
• In Snatcher's introduction of Death Wish mode, he references the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Rock Bottom":
  Snatcher: These aren't your everyday contracts, these are... ADVANCED Contracts.
• One of the badges Hat Kid is able to equip lets her charge up a laser to attack enemies, with an indicator of how charged the attack is appearing in three stars that spawn over her head one-by-one, like Geno's special moves in Super Mario RPG. Fittingly, one of Geno's specials is Geno Beam, a similar charged laser attack.
• The Twilight Bell is most likely named after The Twilight Zone, and its otherworldly layout, starry skybox, and eerie background music likely reference the original show's iconic opening.
• The computer in the Arctic Cruise's restaurant displays the Windows 10 Blue Screen Of Death with the text "Oopsie Woopsie", a reference to a meme making fun of "cutesy" but uninformative error messages. It's a good thing the rest of the text is unreadable, because it would be quite obscene.
• The poster for the GameDodecahedron is a parody of a 1996-era poster for the Nintendo 64.
• The Creator DLC menu is themed after the Wii Homebrew Channel, right down to using the exact same theme song.
• The achievement/trophy for getting 50 stamps in Death Wish is "Punished Kid", referencing Punished Snake from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

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