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Skullgirls has a ton of shout-outs as most, if not all of the people who worked on it are fans of a lot of things.

Each of the folders for the playable cast start with a list of any references found in their Palette Swaps; if a color is featured in Skullgirls Mobile, its (usually incredibly punny) alternative name from there is listed alongside its number from the console version.


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    Filia 
  • Palette Swaps:
  • Filia's Hairball move is a shout-out to Felicia's Rolling Buckler, which may in itself be a reference to Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Phonetically, the name Filia sounds very similar to Millia, another hair-based fighter.
    • Not to mention some similarities to Zato-1/Eddie from the same game (and the character most connected to Millia).
  • The super in which Samson turns them into a flying cockroach is called Gregor Samson.
    • Filia also sometimes says "HENSHIIIIN!" when using the attack.
  • Her aerial heavy punch, Salon Treatment, involves tossing her hair forward in an array of sharp instruments like forks, knives and spikes. One of these sharp instruments is the Lance of Longinus.
  • Her Updo special and Fenrir Drive super, in which Samson turns into a giant hair maw, happens to be a shout out to one of the Dustloop forum members, who suggested no game with any hair-fighters would be complete without at least one reference to the Pokémon Mawile.
  • The win pose where Samson stands fierce with arms folded is most likely a reference to Ryu's early-yet-iconic win pose in Street Fighter II. He just has Filia substitute for Ryu's headband blowing in the wind.
  • The combination of her eating habits and Samson's appearance on her head bears a similarity to the futakuchi-onna, who in Japanese Mythology is a woman with a mouth on the back of her head that's driven to eat and eat.
  • The bar in the opening of her story mode is a parody of the famous Nighthawks painting, and is named after Madman's Cafe.
  • Mike Z has described Filia as the game's Ryu-clone. She has Hadoken-motion "projectile" (actually a drill that comes out of the ground some distance away from her, as determined by the strength of the button pressed, similar to Street Fighter EX's Kairi in later games), Tatsumaki Senpukyaku-motion spinning extended attack that works in air, and Shoryuken-motion uppercut.
    • One of her attacks involves Samson turning into a donkey and pushing Filia as if he's bucking the opponent, causing a wall bounce in the corner. This may or may not be a reference to Ryu's Jodan Sokuto Geri, commonly known as the Donkey Kick, which also causes a wall bounce in certain situations.
    • A patch gave Filia the ability to fake her Ringlet Spike (with a faster animation than if the projectile actually came out), which is something that Ryu could do with his Hadoukens back in the Street Fighter Alpha series.
  • Samson's name comes from the story of Samson, who had superhuman strength so long as he kept certain vows, one of which was to neither cut his hair nor shave his beard.
    • One of his previous hosts referred to was called Delilah, which was the name of the Biblical Samson's (villainous) wife.
  • A lot of her attacks are named after various types of hairstyles, such as the Ringlet Spike special move and her Widow's Peak air throw.

    Cerebella 

    Peacock 

    Parasoul 

    Ms. Fortune 

    Painwheel 

    Valentine 

    Double 

    Squigly 
  • Palette Swaps:
  • One of Squigly's special moves is a reference to Millia's "Lust Shaker". Charging it up to level 2 causes a slide similar to Millia's "Longinus".
  • Another one of her special moves is the One Inch Punch. The developers even call it that informally.
  • She also has a move called Draugen Punch, a rather literal version of the Shoryuken. Its level 1 version is a single-hit uppercut that is more similar to Dan's Koryuken than anything else, but its level 2 version is a powerful 3-hit flaming uppercut that is similar to Ken's more powerful Shoryukens.
  • Another one of her moves has her send out Leviathan's tail a long way to bring the opponent to her for a combo setup. Sound familiar? In addition, when using the move, she or Leviathan might say "GET OVER HERE!" or "C'MERE!"
  • Old concept art of her planned Super Mode make Leviathan's head look like Unit-01's.
  • One of the flowers that can bloom over her foe's grave during the Daisy Pusher Blockbuster attack appears to come from the Little Planet.
  • When using Daisy Pusher, Leviathan may say "For I beheld Satan as he fell from Heaven, like lightning!" or "A forest of thorns shall be their tomb!" He can also say "Time's dead flowers bereft in deadly bloom!" which seems to be a reference to "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus.
  • When using her standing heavy punch, she and Leviathan can yell "Double!" "Dragon!"
  • During a fight, Squigly might ask Leviathan "Would you kindly?"
  • Sometimes when performing a snapback, Leviathan will shout "I said good day!" Don't blink though; you can catch Leviathan doing the 'Dat Ass' face.
  • Her singing super "Squigly Battle Opera" is based on "Super Battle Opera", a famous fighting game tournament in Japan.
  • Her tag-in attack, which involves her coffin shooting up from the ground and her bursting out of it has some similarities to how Rayne enters stages in BloodRayne: Betrayal (Though there the coffin usually lands from above, not bursting out of the ground). Specifically, the second part where she launches the top half of the coffin at the opponent has similarities to how Rayne can kick the top half of her coffin at opponents at the beginning of a level. The fact that Alex worked as a character designer on that game makes it likely this was intentional.
  • One of Leviathan's quotes during their taunt is "Don't Tread On Us!", a corruption of the motto used on the Gadsden flag during the American Revolution.
  • They have a super that was previously not on the command list that is a difficult to pull off, but powerful nod to Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu, perhaps better known outside Japan as the Raging Demon.
  • One intro has Leviathan requesting the opponent to stay awhile and listen.

    Big Band 

    Fukua 

    Eliza 

    Beowulf 

    Robo-Fortune 

    Annie 
  • Palette Swaps, most of which pair Annie's palette with a Sagan palette referencing a close companion of whomever Annie's referencing:
    • 7: What Annie looked like before her mother's wish on the Skull Heart, as seen in her Story Mode
    • 8/"Solar Flair": Sol Badguy; Sagan as Sinnote 
    • 9/"Galactic Glamour": Gamora as she appears in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite; Sagan as "Baby" Groot
    • 10/"Ninja Star": Shinobu
    • 11/"Triple Threat": Platinum the Trinity
    • 12/"Timeless Hero": Link as he appears in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; Sagan as Navi
    • 13/"Ageless Wonder": Wonder Woman
    • 14/"Materia Girl": Cloud Strife; Sagan as a Moogle
    • 15/"Moonstruck": Sailor Moon; Sagan as Luna
    • 16/"Model Leader": Nessa; Sagan as her Milotic from Twilight Wings
    • 17/"Fire Branded": Byleth; Sagan as Sothis
    • 18/"Star Shine": Star Butterfly; Sagan as Pony Head
    • 19/"Cosmic Rebel": Ahsoka Tano; Sagan as Morai
    • 20: Dante from the Devil May Cry series; Sagan as Neronote 
    • 21: Sayaka Miki; Sagan as Kyubeynote 
    • 22: She-Ra; Sagan as Swift Windnote 
    • 23: Wednesday Addams; Sagan as Cousin Itt
    • 24: Cream the Rabbit; Sagan as Cheese the Chao
    • 25: Meta Knight; Sagan as Kirby
    • 26: Erza Scarlet; Sagan as Happy
    • 27: GLaDOS; Sagan as either The Cake or PotatOSnote 
    • 28: Zagreus; Sagan as Thanatos
    • 29: Lio Fotia; Sagan as Galo Thymos
    • 30: Arle Nadja; Sagan as Carbunclenote 
    • 31: Black-and-white anime/cartoons
    • "Starlight Rose" (Mobile Exclusive): Rose Quartz; Sagan as Lion
  • Sagan, Annie's remote parasite, is named after noted astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan, perhaps better known as the creator of Contact and the host of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Annie may also shout "Millions and billions!" whenever she uses her Sagan Beam Blockbuster.
  • Annie's dislike of brown M&Ms references the (rather infamous) riders of Van Halen's concert contracts, which specified that a bowl of the M&M candies was to be placed in their assigned dressing room, with a completely separate section of said contract (which was always deep in the documents) making specific note that brown-colored M&Ms were to be removed from said bowl. If the promoter didn't comply with this, the band could cancel the concert as per the contract's stipulations and the costs would fall squarely on the promoter. According to members of the band and their staff, this specificity was not meant to be overly capricious or an ego trip as popularly believed, but rather as a check to see if the promoters receiving the contract had actually read the whole thing- if there were any brown M&Ms present in the dressing room, it would be a potential tip-off that the promoters had not read at least some of the more important partsnote .
  • Annie originally had a palette referencing Annie & Tibbers in her initial release in Skullgirls Mobile, but it was removed for potential legal issues and replaced with the palette referencing Byleth.
  • Being a space-themed Magical Girl, much of Annie's attack names and voice lines reference planets, stars, space travel, and other various bits of stellar phenomena, such as the names of her standing kicksnote , her crouching light kick being named after the Boötes Void, and her non-Star Power Level 3 Blockbuster being named after a spacecraft maneuver sometimes called the gravity slingshot.
  • The initial attack of her North Knuckle special move is lifted near-directly from Terry Bogard's Burn Knuckle, down to borrowing half of the name.
    • Also, since the move is named after the North Star and shows the Ursa constellation during the HP version, it means that this is a slightly more literal Fist of the North Star
  • She may shout "Spiral arm!" when using her Meteor Strike Blockbuster, which functions similarly to both Spencer's Bionic Lancer and fellow showman Beowulf's Gigantic Arm Blockbuster, which also references the move.
  • Her Star Power Blockbuster is based on typical Magical Girl transformation sequences, although it generally resembles transformations more akin to Sailor Moon.
  • There's a couple of references in her tag-out lines, too:
    Tagging out to Peacock: Afterschool Special!
    Tagging out to Valentine: Is there a doc in the house?
    Tagging out to Squigly: Evil undead!
    Tagging out to Robo-Fortune: She-3PO!
  • Many of her animations are inspired by Guilty Gear. In particular, she shares a lot of attacks with Sol Badguy, including her standing and walking animations, and most of her sword attacks. Gameplay-wise she has many similar tools like a ground projectile, divekick, advancing punch, and a multi-hit uppercut. As an added shout-out when she uses her Solar Flair palette on Mobile, the Star Power mechanic is renamed to Dragon Install

    Umbrella 

    Black Dahlia 
  • Palette Swaps:
    • 4: Parasoul
    • 7/"Dame Slayer": Doomguy, aka The Doom Slayer, with Buttercup as a Blaster Soldier, Bonnie as a Revenant, Killer as a Marauder, and Bookie as Isabelle
    • 8/"Psycommander": M. Bison, with Buttercup as Juni, Bonnie as Juli, and Killer as Decapre
    • 9/"Unholy Host": Lady Dimitrescu, with the Bunny Girls as her daughters. As a further nod, the card for this palette in Skullgirls Mobile only shows Dahlia from the chest down, hilariously referencing Dimitrescu's Statuesque Stunner height.
    • 10/"Lethal Weapon": V1, with Buttercup, Bonnie, and Killer as Mindflayers and Bookie as V2
    • 11/"Soul Crusher": Ivy Valentine, with the Bunny Girls' palettes drawing from her alternate outfits
    • 12/"Unfazed": Dark Samus, with Buttercup, Bonnie, and Killer as Metroids
    • 13/"Fur Monger": Cruella de Vil
    • 14/"Martial Outlaw": Barret Wallace, with Buttercup as Aerith, Bonnie as Tifa, and Killer as Cloud (in his lady disguise from the Wall Market part of FFVII, no doubt)
    • 15/"Corrosive Agent": Queen, with Buttercup as Ralsei (with his hat on), Bonnie as Susie, Killer as Kris, and Bookie as Lancer
    • 16: Faye Valentine, with Buttercup as Spike Spiegel, Bonnie as Jet Black, Killer as Ein, and Bookie as "Radical" Ed
    • 17: Elphelt Valentine, with Buttercup as Jack-O', Bonnie as Valentine, Killer as Ramlethal, and Bookie as Ariels
    • 18: Emperor Belos, with Buttercup as Hunter, Bonnie as Luz, Killer as Amity, and Bookie as Kikimora. Buttercup, Bonnie, and Killer's masks are all also colored gray, giving the impression that they're wearing Coven masks.
    • 19: Opal
    • 20: Jun the Swan, with Buttercup as Joe, Bonnie as Ken, Killer as Ryu, and Bookie as Jinpei
    • 21 and 22: The Demoman; 21 is him on the BLU team, 22 is the RED team. Bookie's palette, based on Miss Pauling, is identical for both variants.
    • 23: Ramlethal Valentine. In keeping with the aforementioned Elphelt palette, Bookie's colors are again based on Ariels.
    • 24: Ada Wong, with Buttercup as Luis, Bonnie as Leon, Killer as Ashley, and Bookie as Hunnigan
    • 25: Lord Dominator, with the Bunny Girls as her Dominator-Bots
    • 26/"Red Rider": B.B. Hood/Bulleta, with Buttercup, Bonnie, and Killer's palettes being based on John and Arthur and Bookie as Mr. K
    • 27: Surge the Tenrec, with Buttercup as Mimic, Killer as Rough, Bonnie as Tumble, and Bookie as Kitsunami the Fennec
    • 28: Spamton NEO, with Buttercup, Bonnie, and Killer as Swatchlings and Bookie as regular Spamton
    • 29: Venom, with the Bunny Girls as Robo-Ky units
    • 30: Vile, with Buttercup as Axl, Bonnie as Zero, and Killer as X
    • 31: Utsuho Reiuji, with Buttercup as Marisa Kirisame, Bonnie as Reimu Hakurei, Killer as Sakuya Izayoi, and Bookie as Rin Kaenbyou
  • Dahlia is named after Elizabeth Short, who was nicknamed "The Black Dahlia" by the press after her gruesomely-mutilated body was found in a Los Angeles park in 1947, a crime that recieved notable nation-wide attention and remains one of the most (in)famous unsolved murder cases in American history.
  • Her counter move is named Counter, Strike! Unrelatedly, if it counters something, she may say "Nothing personnel, kid."
  • Upon beating Painwheel, she might say "Sound, fury, and nothing," a truncated version of a line from Act 5 of Macbeth.
  • Her taunt (in which she throws her "juice glass" at her opponent) has a chance of Dahlia saying "Enough talk...Have at you!"
  • One of her win quotes from her Good Granny voicepack is "I love the young people!".

    Marie 
  • Palette Swaps:
    • 2: Sakuya Izayoi; Hilgard as Remilia Scarlet
    • 8: Marie 300%note 
    • 9/"Moody Magus": Ashley, with her vacuum and Dust Bunnies as her doll and Hilgard as Red
    • 10/"Snake Charmer": Dusa; Hilgard as Zagreus
    • 11/"Phantom Wrangler": Beatrix LeBeau, with the Dust Bunnies as Lucky Slimes, Hilgard as an Angler Slime, and the giant skeleton as a Pink Slime
    • 12/"Dark Horse": Princess Luna
    • 13/"Gust Buster": Luigi, with her vacuum as the Poltergust 5000, the Dust Bunnies as Gold Ghosts, Hilgard as a Blue Twirler, and the giant skeleton as a Purple Puncher
    • 14/"Maid of Honor": Noelle; Hilgard as a Lawachurl
    • 15/"Gravedigger": Toph Beifong
    • 16/"Heartless": Ansem, with Hilgard as his Dark Figure and the Dust Bunnies and giant skeleton as Heartless
    • 17/"Octoplasm": Marina Ida; Hilgard as Pearl. Also, Marie's vacuum for this palette uses the same shades of green and purple worn by the Squid Sisters.
    • 18: La Chilindrina, with her vacuum as El Chavo and Hilgard as Don Ramón
    • 19: Sweetheart
    • 20: Death Prophet
    • 21: Rachel Alucard, with her vacuum and Hilgard as her cats and the Dust Bunnies as her frogs
    • 22: Curly Sue
    • 23: Jolyne Cujoh, with her vacuum, the Dust Bunnies, and Hilgard as Stone Free
    • 24: The Doll; Hilgard as either The Hunter or Gehrman
    • 25: Son Goku; Hilgard as Piccolo. Her vacuum is evenly split between colors based on Goku's Power Pole and Flying Nimbus.
    • 28: Rose, with Hilgard and her skeletons as the afterimages produced by her Soul Illusion super/V-Trigger
    • 29: Alice, with her vacuum as the Cheshire Cat and the Dust Bunnies as the White Rabbit
    • 30/"Megalomaniac": Sans; Hilgard as Papyrus
    • 31: Peacock, with her vacuum as Avery, the Dust Bunnies as George, and Hilgard as Tommy Ten-Tons
  • Marie will occasionally say "Rise from your graves" when summoning skeletons from the floor.
  • The skulls she shoots at you move just like Medusa Head. And, yes, they're just as annoying.
  • When transforming, Marie will occasionally say "I can't control it!" in reference to Phoenix's transformation into Dark Phoenix in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
    • Another shout-out to Marvel vs. Capcom is her battlecry of "I'm in control!", originally uttered by MvC1's endboss Onslaught.
  • One of her lines is "You are already dead".
  • When performing Carpal Pummel, there's a chance for Marie to say "There comes a giant fist!"
  • When performing Weight of Our Will, which has her throw a giant energy ball, she might say "Everyone, grant me your power!" The reference becomes especially obvious when paired with the aforementioned Goku palette.

    The Announcer 

    Combo Names 

    Other 
  • The stages, too, are packed with cultural in-jokes. One of the main stages, Ms. Fortune's current hangout, is known as Little Innsmouth.
    • It is also populated mostly by Fish People called Dagonians.
  • Two of the achievements for the game are Real Circus Damage and Toil and Trouble, respectively.
    • Another achievement is obtained for KOing two characters in the same combo. Its name, of course, is Happy Birthday.
  • The psychic director of Lab Zero is called Brain Drain.
  • Early on in Parasoul's story mode, Umbrella had apparently expected to see: "Sonic boobs, pool balls, and KFC Combos" when she came along to see her at work. It helps when you know Parasoul plays like a charge character, which is what Guile and Venom are considered to be as well. Parasoul's playstyle is somewhat reminiscent of Venom, as well.
  • One of the background characters is a sleeping man in a familiar outfit leaning against a wall next to a sand bag. Said sandbag looks an awful lot like Bonus-Kun from Waku Waku 7.
  • In the downloadable character movelist, each page says "SHOW ME YOUR MOVES".
  • In Peacock's story mode we meet Hive, a resident of the Anti-Skullgirl Labs, who we can see in the background of the stage as well. Other than her name, her outfit and lavender hair bear a resemblance to Q Bee.
  • In the tutorial screen there is a drawing of Ms. Fortune's head forming the bottom slime in a slime tower from the Dragon Quest series.
  • Killing off 2 characters at the same time or dealing a very large amount of damage in one combo will result in legendary 3rd Strike commentator John Dangerous Rockefeller doing his signature crazy laugh. This itself is also supposedly a shout out to Dan Forden shouting "Toasty!" in Mortal Kombat.
  • The song "Canopy Kingdom News - In Rapid Succession" starts out with a melody similar to the Hyrule Castle theme.
  • One of the members of Cirque des Cartes, Hubrecht "Hertz" Adelhardt, has an appearance similar to Alex Louis Armstrong. His design is heavily influenced by Arcana Heart's Heart Aino, with pink hair in a heart shape, a red ribbon tied in a bow around the wrist, red suspenders (in place of a red tie), orange pants (in place of an orange skirt), and blue boots (in place of blue shoes). He's likely also a reference to Mr. Heart.
    • It's worth noting that as far as his color palette relations to Heart go, an in-game image in Cerebella's story shows him with very different colors (as well as different colors for various other troupe members than what is shown in most character art), so it is currently unclear whether or not this will remain as his color palette if he is added into the game. The hair and ribbon remain key to his design.
  • Visible on the right side of the New Meridian stage is The Kid's hammer, along with a Squirt. They're placed on both sides of a female NPC based on the art director of the very same game, seen here. (The three-eyed creature next to them is likely one of Alex "o_8" Ahad's Author Avatars.)
  • The Medici Tower stage has a billboard for "Wave Motion Emitters" with a picture of a blue fireball above it. The famous Hadouken is sometimes called "Wave Motion Fist" by fans, after its literal translation from Japanese.
  • One of the characters at the card tables in River King Casino is dressed like Jotaro, as a nod to the encounter with D'Arby during Stardust Crusaders.
  • If one goes off to the right of Maplecrest they'll find a certain pompadoured space traveler as a student.
  • Also present in the Casino are Masaka and Madije from the Kawaiikochan!! Gaming No Korner webcomic and Yuzuriha from Under Night In-Birth.
  • One of the NPCs that can appear in the Glass Canopy stage is a young woman in blue and white carrying a purse with a George plushie in it. This character is actually a personification of Sanshee, one of the two companies who are licensed to make Skullgirls merchandise.
  • Several backers from the Indiegogo campaign can also appear in the background of both the Casino and Glass Canopy, including some popular internet personalities such as Matt and Woolie and Zone-tan. Some of these characters represent prominent people in the competitive Skullgirls community, such as Duckator and Severin; the NPC of the latter in particular later appeared in the Fukua trailer.
  • Cupcake-tan and Deadeye from RPG Shooter: Starwish can also be seen as background characters.
  • The New Meridian Rooftops stage has two billboards for Eighty Sixed, a clothing store whose Twitch channel hosted Lab Zero's weekly SALTY! stream, and Frootsii, a bakery in California that was the original venue for said stream.
  • The Under the Bridge stage contains a food van that specializes in salty items; the first item written on the truck is "Salty Cupcakes," the original name of Lab Zero's weekly Twitch stream.
  • The 2013 holiday patch introduced a new mode called The Typing of the Skullgirls where the player gets a chance to do extra damage with supers by typing in words that appear on the screen during super flashes. Two of the phrases that can pop up are "dogs of the ASG"note  and "Suffer like we did!"note . Several other phrases reference various parts of the game and memes created by the community.
    • The entirety of the list can be found here, and is worth reading.
    • The code to activate the typing mode is gottatypefast!
  • According to patch notes, One Must Fall 2097 inspired the Infinite Prevention System.
  • The Mana Meter in Skullgirls measures Dramatic Tension.
  • The effect that happens during double snaps (the action lines and the Skullgirls main theme in the background) was inspired by Japanese player Poccola, who would always add the effect during a double snap or a Happy Birthday in Skullgirls videos.
  • Finishing a match with a Blockbuster causes the background to change and display a line art portrait of the defeated character with an expression of pain on their face. This is a reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, where similar portraits appeared after a character was defeated by a super move.
  • In Robo-Fortune's story mode, Brain Drain says "Never send an organic to do a machine's job" after she succeeds in acquiring the Skull Heart. This plays off of Agent Smith's "Never send a human to do a machine's job" from The Matrix.
  • The phrase on Squigly's poster "Dellamore Dellamorte" is a shout-out to the film Cemetery Man. However, the two words are switched.

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