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:
- 4: Based on an early concept for an alternate costume.
- 7/"Hair Apparent": Past!Filia (before Samson)
- 8: Her color map (the flat color palette used to apply her alt colors)
- 9/"Idol Threat": Miku Hatsune
- 10: Rei Miyamoto
- 12: Magneto
- 14: Millia Rage
- 16: Zeruel/The Tenth Angel
- 17: Scanty
- 18: Madoka Kaname
- 20: Fionna (Backer Color)
- 21/"Djinn Frizz": Shantae (Backer Color)
- 23/"Dread Locks": Millia Rage again, this time in her Guilty Gear Xrd outfit
- 25/"Class Cutter": Ryuko Matoi
- 26: Hitagi Senjougahara
- 28/"Rock Star": Steven Universe
- 29: Madelinenote
- "Blue Streak" (Mobile Exclusive): Sonic the Hedgehog. When using this variant's ability in Mobile, Filia's hair and outfit turn yellow to reference Super Sonic.
- 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
- Palette Swaps:
- 2/"Brain Freeze": R. Mika
- 3/"Harlequin": Harley Quinn
- 4: The Journey of Dreams version of NiGHTS
- 5: 80's Hulk Hogan
- 6/"Big Top": Hugo
- 7/"Headstrong": The bunny suit from her Story Mode ending.
- 8: The Double!Cerebella palette fought in Cerebella's Story Mode.
- 9/"Toad Warrior": Rash
- 11/"Star Spangled": AMERICA, FUCK YEAH
- 14: Potemkin
- 17/"Criminal Mind": Maleficent
- 18/"Gray Matter": Homura Akemi
- 19: Brazil, with Soccer ball MikeZ cat (Backer Color)
- 20: A hot rod with a flame paintjob (Backer Color)
- 21: Annie of the Stars (Backer Color)
- 22/"Heavy Handed": RED Heavy Weapons Guy (Backer Color)
- 24: Shigen Naoe
- 25: Ira Gamagori
- 26: D.Va
- 27: Harbor Princess
- 28/“Blitz and Glamour”: Twintelle
- "Scare Giver" (Mobile Exclusive): James P. Sullivan, with her green dress being Mike Wazowski
- Cerebella's gameplay is said to be based off of Juggernaut and Potemkin.
- One of her moves has her shouting "EXCELLENT!" while Vice-Versa throws up the heavy-metal "horns" gesture. During said move, Vice-Versa's eyes briefly turn into Kamina's shades while Cerebella herself does the "Pierce the Heavens" pose.
- One of her command throws sometimes has her saying "I'M GONNA TAKE YOU FOR A RIDE!"
- There's a running attack in which Vice-Versa sprouts ram's horns on its "head" and attacks face-first. You even get the standard 2000-point bonus if you manage to kill someone with it.
- The move Tumbling Run followed by pressing medium kick will result in a cross up identical to a type of Japanese prank known as kancho.
- One move has her shouting "Diamonds are FOREVER!" or "A girl's best friend!" while she punches a giant diamond at the enemy.
- She has a close range move (that also reflects projectiles!) where Vice-Versa performs a Finger Gun point. While doing this, the poses of the duo are reminiscent of Jotaro Kujo and Star Platinum.
- During one of her moves she will use Vice-Versa as a pommel horse and shout "Gymkata!"
Peacock
- Palette Swaps:
- 2/"Inkling": The Double!Peacock palette fought in Peacock's Story Mode.
- 3/"Untouchable": Alucard
- 6/"Pea Shooter": Lucky, the mascot of Lucky Charms cereal
- 7/"Dream Catcher": The pajamas from her Story Mode opening
- 8/"That's All Folks!": Black-and-white cartoons
- 9/"Freeze Frame": Cirno
- 11: Milk Chan
- 12: Cable
- 14: Hsien-Ko/Lei-Lei
- 16/"Ultraviolent": The Warden
- 17: Inspector Gadget
- 18: Sayaka Miki
- 19: Raspberyl (Backer Color)
- 20/"Mean One": The Grinch
- 21: Princess Daisy (Backer Color)
- 22/"Prism Plumage": Indian Peafowl (Backer Color)
- 23/"Wildcard": The Joker
- 24: Nonon Jakuzure
- 25: Annie of the Stars
- 26: Cuphead
- 27: Woody
- 28: Sir Pentious
- "Primal Prodigy" (Mobile Exclusive): Mojo Jojo
- Peacock's entire character, from her moveset, animations, and design, is a reference to classic cartoons. As mentioned on the main page, she could have been ripped out of a demented Merrie Melodies cartoon.
- The little bird in her hat is named Avery. Her bomb friends are named Lenny and George (formerly Little Boy and Fat Man, but you can understand why it was changed).
- Intro line references:(vs. Filia): "Maybe she's born with it!"note(vs. Big Band) "Nobody puts Patty in a corner!"
- Her Argus System is a reference to the Argus of Greek Mythology. That Argus had a hundred eyes (some of those eyes in his arms). When that Argus died, Hera placed his eyes in the peacock's tail as tribute.
- She can shoot swords out of her gun (Roll with it). These swords go from the Fireseal and Blodia Fist to the Buster Sword, the Gunblade and a Chainsword.
- Occasionally, when she fires her gun, she'll shout "Garbage day!" With the exact same weird enunciation as the film, just in case you had any doubts about whether it was a reference.
- One of the projectiles she may fire with the gun is a Bullet Bill.
- Another of her gun quotes is "Reach for the sky!"
- One of her crouching attacks kicks the opponent with the Kuribo's Shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3, complete with the good ol' "HERE-A WE GO!". Its name, Curb Your Shoe, is another part of the allusion.
- Her block techniques often have her holding up an actual block of something — from a cinderblock to an L-block.
- Upon gaining the Skull Heart in her story mode, she says "Who needs wishes? I'm already the strongest there is!" "I'm the strongest!" is one of Cirno's more memetic catchphrases, pairing well with her Cirno-themed color palette, as noted above. Also, said palette is number 9.
- She can summon random piano drops on her opponent, from an actual piano, to a barrel with a roast turkey inside. Other drops include:
- A Ms. Fortune Yukkuri
- Hsien-Ko's Tenrai-ha super (in both single spike ball and complete super forms)
- Speaking of Hsien-ko's Tenrai-Ha, one of the new features added to the game in Squigly's patch is taunts, and to do Peacock's taunt, you have to do the same button input as Tenrai-Ha had in the Darkstalkers games. Successfully pulling one off guarantees that the next level 3 item drop you get is the full Tenrai-ha.
- A television with the Nico Nico Douga face or with Filia dressed as Sadako coming out of it.
- A steamroller, complete with her partner Avery standing on top and shouting WRYYYYYYY! when it hits. On top of that, if it hits, time will stop and everything else will darken while Avery pounds the steamroller further into the opponent, chanting "Muda!".
- A moai head
- The Refrigerator from Requiem for a Dream.
- For her standing hard kick, she attempts to kick a football and misses when Avery yanks it away at the last second. She yells "Good grief!" when she trips, and the move is even called "Kick the Football, Peacock!". The alternate line for that technique is "Laces out!"
- One attack turns her arm-eyes into blades, the classic visual pun on "looking daggers" at someone. The chances of her also shouting "Like THIIIIIIIIS!" are about one in five.
- Keeping with the WFRR theme, one of her win quotes (when defeating Parasoul) is "You're not bad, you're just drawn badly" — riffing on Parasoul's undeniable resemblance to Jessica Rabbit. Yet more Bonus Points for Parasoul having a color palette that gives her Mrs. Rabbit's outfit.
- Her jumping Medium Kick, which involves her beartrap mouth, is called "Nice Booby Trap", a line from Eddie Valiant about the bear trap that Jessica Rabbit keeps in a very punny place.
- Two of her win quotes are "I never forget a face, but for you, I'll make an exception" and "Either you're dead or my watch has stopped," all while smoking a cigar.
- Groucho's not the only Thirties/Forties comedy icon Peacock pays homage to, either. She also quotes at least two of Moe Howard's catchphrases ("Why, I oughta—" and "Spread out!"). She also references Curley: when selected, her call-out line is "Soitently!"
- Her time-out animations seems to be a reference to Daffy Duck being shot by Elmer Fudd.
- One of Peacock's lines on being KO-ed is "I smell bread" — a reference to M*A*S*H by way of Veronica Mars.
- Before getting pulled away by a Vaudeville Hook, she'll mutter "Hello my baby-".
- Her jumping fierce punch, which involves her firing a shotgun and being blown backwards by the force, is called Robo With A Shotgun.
- Her Level 3 super is titled "Goodfellows".
- In her Story Mode, she's awoken from bed by Avery saying "Hey! Listen!"
- Unsurprisingly, she can also say "Ain't I a stinka?" and "What a maroon!" when she wins, and "This ain't Albuquerque!" when tagged in. As noted above, "Of course you know, this means war!" is one of her intro lines.
- One of her lines when using her c.LP (where she attacks the opponent with a cigar) is "Nyah, see?", imitating classic actor Edward G. Robinson, known primarily for playing gangster roles and was famous for peppering his lines with heavily accented "Yeah!" and "See?".
- When she uses her "Lonesome Lenny" super, which prompts her to drop a gigantic bomb, one of her lines is "Fall down, go boom!"
- Peacock may also be referencing This Very Wiki. Her aerial throw is named "Big Ball of Violence", and she has an attack named "Shadow of Impending Doom".
- Anime Peacock:
- "In the name of Lab 8, I will pulverize you!"
- "It's time to DUEL!"
- "A wild schoolgirl appears!", "Blasts off again!", and "I choose you!"
- "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?", "A medical ninja? BELIEVE IT!", and "Art is an explosion!"
- "All Purpose Cultural or 4-D pocket?"
- "Is that a zombie?"
- "Her little sister can't be this cute!"
- "MUDAMUDA!", "Withdraw coolly!", "Yare yare", and "But I refuse!"
- "Pi-piru-pi~"
- "Mustn't run..." and "I feel sick..."
- "NANI SORE?!" is a shout out and Actor Allusion to Nonon in Kill la Kill.
- "Sit boy, sit!"
- "You're gonna carry that weight."
- "Another Heaven Coin closer to redemption."
- "I'll call you when I want some pepperoni."
- "You are already dead!", "Abeshi...", and "I regret nothing!"
- "Uguu~" and "Gao~", both verbal tics of Key heroines.
- "The bird of Hermes is my name!", "Fun's yet to come!", and "Hurry, hurry!"
- "My love, my anger, and all of my sorrow!", "Get mad! Get mad!", "Ready, GO!", "Burning!", and "Shining!"
- "High Mega!" when shooting from her head. You could argue it's not anime. Not anime.
- "All according to keikaku!"
- "Solar Flare!"
- "Gum-Gum!"
- "This is my hole!"
- "Peki peki peki desu ka?"
- "New Meridian is about to explode!"
- "LUNCHTIIIME~", "Kakii~n!", and "It takes an idiot to do cool things. That's why it's cool!"
- "A catgirl is fine too"
- "Gokigenyou"
- "Hoe? Hoe?"
- "EET'S PAAFEKKTO!"
- "Begin the killing time!"
- "Die, die, die, die...UUUUUGGGGHHH!!!!"
- "Don't be so quick to throw away your life."
- "Composure!", "Kiwami, AAAAAAAH!!", "Zero Style!", and "Secret Sword!" Specifically the dub meme that caught on in Japan.
- "It's dazzling!"
- "Quest Class!" in reference to Karasu, the living bomb maker.
- "Boundaries!"
- "Call it good!" Possibly with a nod to the trope name.
- "Become light!"
- "Desudesudesudesudesu!"
- "Gekigan!"
- "Blam!" while flying through the air from her gun's recoil.
- "Juu'nen hayain dayo!"
- "Where are all the decals?" is a nod to Painwheel's Japanese nickname being Itasha.note
Parasoul
- Palette Swaps:
- 2: Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen
- 3: Mirielle Bouquet
- 7: The fencing outfit from her Story Mode ending.
- 8/"Heavy Reign": The Egret color scheme.
- 9: Kneesocks
- 11: Mitsuru Kirijo
- 12/"Regally Blond": Olivier Armstrong
- 14: Kula Diamond
- 15/"Shadow Ops": Alruna. Also a case of Artist Allusion, as Alruna was designed by Alex Ahad.
- 16: Megurine Luka
- 17/"Risky Ginger": Jessica Rabbit
- 18/"Primed": Samus Aran's Justin Bailey outfit from the original Metroid.
- 19/"Ivy League": Poison Ivy (Backer Color)
- 20/"Summer Salt": Fluttershy (Backer Color)note
- 21: Char Aznable (Backer Color)
- 22: 90's Jean Grey (Backer Color)
- 23: Kyoko Minazuki
- 24: Captain Commando
- 25/"Star-Crossed": Annie of the Stars
- 26: Daphne Blake
- 27: Widowmaker
- 28/"High Ruler": Zelda, circa Breath of the Wild
- "Bombshell" (Mobile Exclusive): Barbie
- "Indomitable" (Mobile Exclusive): Makima
- Parasoul has a Level 3 super that's similar to one of BB Hood's.
- There's a small chance (1 in 20) that one of her assist soldiers will say "Well, ex-CUSE me, Princess!" when called. They'll always say it if called after she successfully completes her yawning taunt.
- In two of her supers she can be heard to say "Egrets assemble!" and "Egrets, roll out!" respectively.
- She can also be heard saying "One Million Troops!", Tak Fuji's infamous line from E3 2010, when using her Motor Brigade super move.
- One of her lines for her sniper super is, "Ready, number thirteen!"
- It's also called Silent Scope, which happens to be a Konami game.
- She borrowed Chun-Li's mid-air stomp attack as one of her many command normals.
- Her win quote against Valentine is "Winners don't use drugs.".
- One of the Black Egrets, Molly, has a talking pose where she salutes, closes her eyes and has an open zigzagged mouth, which may remind some people of Wobbuffet.
Ms. Fortune
- Palette Swaps:
- 3: Reiko Hinomoto
- 4/"Hellcat": The color scheme of her original design.
- 6: Shelly. Another case of Artist Allusion, as Shelly is associated with another Gaia Online character Alex Ahad designed.
- 7: Celty Sturluson
- 8: Black★Rock Shooter
- 9/"Wind Stalker": Morrigan Aensland
- 10/"Purrfect Dark": Fran
- 11/"Claw and Order": Xbox 360
- 12/"Hack n' Splash": PS3
- 13: Blue Mary
- 14: Leona
- 15: Pussycat
- 16/"Rogue Agent": Moriah the Thief
- 17: Etna
- 18: Mami Tomoenote
- 19: B. Orchid (Backer Color)
- 21/"Ms. Trial": She-Hulk (Backer Color)
- 22: Trades (also one of the Casino NPCs) (Backer Color)
- 23/"Furry Fury": Makoto Nanaya
- 24: Felicia's black Assist 2 palette from MvC2
- 25/"Meow and Furever": Elena
- 26: Shielder
- 27/"Time Thief": Tracer
- 28: Sly Cooper, with Fortune's tail acting as Sly's cane
- "Foot Soldier" (Mobile Exclusive): Juri Han, specifically her outfit in Street Fighter 6
- Ms. Fortune's original outfit seems to be a reference to Makoto (the general appearance) and Lara Croft (the color and the pouches she has on her belt). Since then, her color scheme and hairstyle have changed to stand out from the other characters and be more fitting with the 30's era.
- Her air dash, and a lot of her blood splattering moves resemble Jedah's moves.
- Her anti-air special, Fiber Uppercut, is named similarly to an anti-air used by Sagat.
- During her grounded level 1 super, she might end up saying "Fur-serker Purr-age!" which is where the move drew its inspiration from. Alternatively, she might say "Cat Scratch Fever!"
- Her level 3 is named "The Fifth of Dismember".
- This isn't the first time a disembodied head has told someone to "Get ready for a surprise!"
- who's a little pudgy) is "Can I have a cheeseburger?" Of course, she doesn't appreciate having it turned around on her.
- Cerebella: You can has cheezburger?
Ms. Fortune: That's RACIST!
- Her severed head's grab move has her chew on her opponent, while saying "omnomnomnom!"
One of her opening quotes against Filia ( - Her entrance resembles Cammy's, aside from the trenchcoat she's wearing, and her head spinning 180 degrees.
- One of her winning quotes is "YOU'RE TEARING US APART!"
- Another win quote is "A claws encounter of the furred kind."
- One of her supers involves a dash forward filled with scratching the opponent. With her head on, she headbutts the opponent backwards.
- If she uses the super with her head off, however, she turns her hand into a drill and makes a pose like a certain mecha.
- Her other super, Feral Edge, has her using her tail as a sword to dive down in similar fashion to Ragna's Belial Edge.
- One of her special attacks is done with three repetitions of the same button combination (Quarter-circle forward + Punch), similar to characters like Fei-Long, Karin Kanzuki or Iron Fist. That's not the Shout-Out part, however - these types of characters are known as "Rekka-style" characters. What does Ms. Fortune say if you finish the three-hit special with one of two alternate enders? Either "Wreck-a your face!" or "Wreck-a your shins!"
- She announces one of her low attacks by saying, "Tail spin!"
- Sometimes when she bowls her head at the opponent, she'll say "Rolling start!"
- Other times she'll yell out "STEEEEE-RIKE!"
- The logo on her collar looks a lot like the Bonne family logo from Mega Man Legends.
- One of her intros against Beowulf is her asking "Who let the dog out?"
- Defeating Marie has Fortune saying "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
Painwheel
- Palette Swaps:
- 7/"Neuromancer": Brain Drain
- 8: Valentine
- 9: Kamen Rider #1
- 11/"Grim Fan": Day of the Dead (Mexican holiday) colors
- 12: Sentinel
- 14: Vega
- 15/"Freaky Friday": Jason Voorhees
- 16/"Raw Nerv": EVA Unit-01
- 17: Haku
- 18: Basara
- 19: Dat Mango Sentinel (Backer Color)
- 21: Rozalin/True Zenon
- 22/"Web Crawler": Spider-Man
- 24/"Biting Cold": "Vile" Nemo (Backer Color)
- 25: Berserk Ryuko
- 26: An albino laboratory rat
- 27: Hisako
- 28: Skull Kid
- Painwheel's Super Mode, "Hatred Install", is probably inspired by Sol Badguy's Dragon Install.
- Her "Death Crawl" super move may be inspired by The Exorcist.
- Or, alternately, Voldo.
- Like Filia, she also has a move that's like the classic Spin Dash. Painwheel's imitates the input more than the appearance.
- Some of Valley Girl Painwheel's lines are based on lyrics from "Valley Girl" by Frank Zappa.
- "I'm from a really nice part of Maplecrest, so it's okay."
- "Chill out! Don't be such a moon unit!"
- And, of course, Valley Girl Painwheel tells us to look at Squigly's butt.
Valentine
- Palette Swaps:
- 3/"Oh Mai": Mai Shiranui
- 4, 5, 6, 8/"Last Hope": Fellow Last Hope nurses Hallow, Patty, Easter, and Christmas
- 7/"Graveyard Shift": Skullgirl coloring from Valentine's Story Mode ending
- 9/"Silent Kill": The nurses from Silent Hill 2.
- 10/"Assasin's Greed": Trish, AKA the Healing Spring fairy
- 12: Sheena Fujibayashi
- 13: Anesthesia
- 14: Baiken
- 15: Sam the Mechanic
- 16: Yowane Haku
- 17/"Sparring Partner": Haruko Haruhara
- 18: Kasumi
- 19: Kyoko Needleworker
- 20: Shinobu (Backer Color)
- 21: Nu-13 (Backer Color)
- 22/"Pyro-Technique": Taki (Backer Color)
- 25/"Wetwork": Strider Hiryu (Backer Color)
- 26: Chipp Zanuff
- 27/"Seraph Soldier": Mercy
- 28/"Kill Joy": Nurse Joy
- 29/"Très Chic": Sheik
- 30: Yoruichi
- "Final Fang" (Mobile Exclusive): Kakashi Hatake
- Valentine's stance is the same as Mai Shiranui's from the later The King of Fighters games. Fittingly, her third palette is one for Mai.
- Her EKG Flatliner special is similar to Ibuki's Yami Shigure special.
- One of her supers involves throwing scalpels the same way as Dio Brando. The name of the move, "Checkmate Incision", makes the reference more explicit, as Dio says "Checkmate" when using that throwing knife attack.
- One of her special moves is very similar to Chipp Zanuff's Alpha Blade special.
- She has a command grab patterned after fellow-ninja Guy's Spinning Piledriver.
- Valentine may or may not be as crazy when in the OP Table as other insane doctors from fighting games, such as Dr. Faustus or Dr. Baldhead.
- Heck, she's even got a reference to Trauma Center in the name and description of her achievement, "The Medical Board Will Be Notified".
- When attacked, she might occasionally say "It's just a flesh wound!".
- Valentine's Level 3 Super features the opponent getting seven different kinds of messed up, but said messing up is concealed behind medical screens and red flashes. Very similar to Akuma's Raging Demon attack.
- If she loses by timeout, she explodes into a mass of bones as if hit by a Mortal Kombat 3 fatality, down to the multiple skulls and ribcages.
- Sometimes when Valentine tags out to Double, she says, "Prepare for trouble!" It's the first line of the Team Rocket mantra from the Pokémon anime. (The next line of that mantra is "Make it double.")
Double
- Palette Swaps:
- 2: Squiglynote
- 3: Red
- 4: Based on Double's old design.
- 5: Umbrellanote
- 6: Arakune
- 7: The "stomach" colors from her story mode ending.
- 8: Based on Double's character poster.
- 9/"Xenomorph": Oil
- 10: Saya no Uta
- 11/"Sundae School": Neapolitan ice cream
- 12: Ms. Victorianote
- 13/"Temple Tyrant"; 14, 15, 16: Water, Silver, Gold, and Blood, respectively
- 17: Envy
- 18/"Doublicious": Ditto
- 19/"Rainbow Blight": Double Rainbow (Backer Color)note
- 20/"Heart of Darkness": The Skull Heart
- 21/"Evergreen Evil": Christmas Tree (Backer Color)
- 22/"Jawbreaker": Ichiro Irabu
- 23: Cubia
- 24/"Immoral Fiber": Life Fibers
- 25/"Myst-Match": Mystique
- 26: Wii Fit Trainer
- 27/"Creature of Habit": Abyss, First Form. Alternatively, a can of Monster Energy Drink.
- 28: A Cluster Gem
- "Altar Ego" (Mobile Exclusive): Father
- Double's "Cilia Slide" special is explicitly stated to emulate Sub-Zero's, right down to the input.
- Her level 5 super turns her into a Gradius Moai head. She even says "Shoot the core!"
- Its name? Megalith Array.
- Her Cerebella special has her slam butt-first into the opponent, much like R. Mika.
- Her jump animation is extremely similar to Arakune's.
- One of her intro quotes has her ask "What is a man?" (which doubles as a shoutout to Arakune, who says the same thing), and one of her winquotes answers "A miserable little pile of secrets", which also doubles as a Shout Out to the game's composer.
- She also will sometimes say "Have at you!" when using her Peacock super.
- One of her attacks is called Item Crash (i.e. Grand Cross and Hydro Storm).
- Her Peacock super involves Peacock and her bomb mooks running over the opponent with a giant cartoony jalopy.
- When activating her Level 3 Blockbuster Nightmare Legion, she might tell you to "Be Praying". At the end of her attack she then might tell you there is "No Refuge".
- Her tag-in quote? "Run coward!"
- The name of one part of her tag-in attack is Second Impact
- Or alternatively, to Street Fighter III Second Impact: Giant Attack.
- The Republican Double voice has some.
Squigly
- Palette Swaps:
- 3: Lydia
- 5: The Princess of the Crystal
- 7/"Scared Stiff": How she looked when she was alive.
- 8: Marie
- 9/"Poltergust": Either Abyss or Dead Master.
- 12/"Nearly Departed": Zozo
- 13: Emily; Leviathan as Maggot
- 14: Litchi Faye-Ling
- 15/"Love Crafted": Zone-tan; Leviathan as her pet tentacle monster Lenny
- 17: Sucy
- 18: Kyoko Sakura, with Leviathan acting as her spear
- 19/"Gang Green": Gum
- 20: Yoshika Miyako
- 21/"Plot Twisted": Alice; Leviathan as the Cheshire Cat (Backer Color)
- 23/"Dead Heat": Sable (Backer Color)
- 24/"Bio-Exorcist": Beetlejuice
- 25: Nui Harime
- 26: Elsa
- 27: Ronald McDonald; Leviathan as Grimace
- 28: Earthworm Jim (Leviathan as Jim, Squigly with a mostly-transparent head as his suit). An older version of this palette was in a beta release, but was removed becuase Alex didn't like how it looked.
- 29/"Thrill Shrieker": Michael Jackson's Thriller
- 30: Kagamine Rin
- 31: Rottytops
- "Demon Artist" (Mobile Exclusive): Nezuko Kamado
- 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
- Palette Swaps:
- 2/"Epic Sax": Kolchak: The Night Stalker
- 3: Q's red Medium Kick palette
- 4: Smooth Criminal
- 5: White Ranger
- 6/"G.I. Jazz": Big Zam
- 7/"Treble Maker": Sepia-tone
- 8/"Private Dick": Dick Tracy
- 9/"Resonant Evil": Sturm
- 10: Nonon's Symphony Regalia Grave uniform
- 11/"Vintage Virtuoso": Famicom
- 12/"Megasonic": Mega Drive
- 13: The Question
- 14/"Dream Band": King Dedede[[note]] Note how this color palette makes Big Band's mouthpiece look a lot more like a bill. Oh, and there's also the fact that his last name's Birdland. Get it?
- 15: Original, based on military uniforms
- 16/"Robocopy": RoboCop
- 17: Big The Cat
- 18: Gato
- 19: The Big O
- 21: Big Pimpin'
- 22: Negaducknote
- 23: Metal Flotsam (Backer Color)
- 24: Captain Spaceman from Spaceman: Unarmed and Ready to Launch, a comic by Lava Punch (the studio Alex Ahad had previously worked at)
- 25: Robo-Ky
- 26/"Heavy Metal": Jotaro Kujonote
- 27: Potemkin, in his Guilty Gear Xrd outfit
- 28: the American SNES
- 29: Wario, with Big Band's oxygen mask colored to resemble his nose and mustache and a Waluigi-colored sax
- Big Band is explicitly stated to play like Q "but good".
- His jumping HK is a pretty blatant reference's to Q's jumping HK.
- He has a charge rush punch move.
- He can use a Practical Taunt to power himself up.
- He can parry by pressing forward while standing or jumping and pressing down while crouching.
- His last name, "Birdland", is a reference to a famous jazz club in New York City and a famous jazz song by the band Weather Report.
- Taunting before using his charge super will give it an extra finisher, where he lets loose with Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs in a familiar fashion. It's even called "TUBA TUBA".
- Speaking of his taunt, its revised input is Forward, High Punch, Mid Punch, Low Punch, Forward, almost the exact same input as DIO's Space Ripper Stingy Eyes move from the Capcom fighting game.
- His level 5 super (taking out the trumpet and playing the Skullgirls theme) causes time to stop like Dio's famous ZA WARUDO move. Doing so lets him either do a massively amped up version of his Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs or play his trumpet in peace for as long as his meter holds out.
- The name of this move is Satchmo Solo (and the Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs followup is called Satchmo Death Blow).
- One of his specials is named "Giant Step", a double shout-out to EarthBound and John Coltrane.
- When using Super Sonic Jam, Big Band may say, "Aww... HORNCRUSH!!"
- He has a chance of saying "Lazy bird." during his airthrow, in another reference to John Coltrane.
- His reply of "So what?" to the Skullheart is a reference to a Miles Davis song of the same name.
- Against Mafia members (i.e. Cerebella), he gets the opening quote "You will be prosecuted to the full extent of the jam" — which takes an infamous bit of Engrish from the DonPachi series and fits it into his jazz theme.
- Among his added VO clips are "I have to go now, my planet needs me" and "See you, space cowboy" upon victory (the flight animation).
- Other quotes include "We have come to terms", "The world is full of obvious things" and "One truth prevails".
- One Big Band's losing quotes is "Salt...peanuts". This is a reference to the bebop tune "Salt Peanuts" composed by Dizzy Gillespie.
- Big Band's "Beat Extend" is likely a pun on "Heat Extend", Potemkin's anti-air grab move.
- Speaking of Potemkin, the Heavy Kick version of Giant Step is functionally similar to Potemkin's Sliding Head attack.
- Adding onto the Potemkin connections, his Brass Knuckles and Emergency Stop function basically the same as Potemkin's Hamerfall and Emergency Stop respectively. Brass Knuckles and Hamerfall even share the same charge motion.
- It's more of a case of Author Appeal at this point. Mike Z really likes Potemkin. Beowulf has a super that functions similarly to Heavenly Potemkin Buster for cripe's sake!
- While performing a jumping LK, he'll sometimes say "Shake, shake!".
- Take the A Train, his command grab, is a direct shout out to a Duke Ellington tune.
- When using Brass Knuckles, he'll occasionally give a James Brown-esque "OWW!" Take the A Train takes it a step further."Hit me! Two/three times!"
- Occasionally, when performing a snapback, Big Band may yell out "Beat it!"
- At the end of his story mode, after listening to his narration, Peacock remarks that they should make his story into a comic book or something, and that they could call it Defective Comics.
- He pulls a Louis Armstrong impression sometimes, replacing St. James Infirmary with Last Hope Infirmary. Big Band also does a more direct reference when he beats Cerebella in a round."You can't strong-arm this Armstrong!"
- One of his intro quotes (and, in fact, his backstory) offers a not so subtle nod to another reconstructed police officer. Reinforced by his 16th palette, as noted above."Dead or alive, you're coming with me!"
- Early in his story mode when he discusses his past as a police officer, one of his fellow cops who beat him to near death and left him for dead is a Pig Feral.
- And another one of the cops looks oddly similar to Colonel Sanders.
- His alternate voice pack is called the Saxploitation pack, and it is stuffed to the gills with references, mostly Blaxploitation ones (naturally):"Girl, I'mma sine your pitty on the runny kine."(Tagging in) "I can dig it!"/"Dy-no-mite!"(when landing a 3-hit A Train) "Take the Soul Train!""I got 99 problems but a lich ain't one."
Fukua
- Palette Swaps, most of which reference other "clone" characters:
- 4: Decapre
- 5/"Souls Sisters": Ermac
- 6: Shadow Lady
- 7/“Dream Demon”: Akuma (Who started out as a buffed headswap of Ryu and Ken)
- 8: Mecha-Zangief
- 9: Morrigan Aensland
- 10: Sean Matsuda
- 11/"Rain Shadow": Rain
- 12/"Chameleon Twist": Reptile
- 13: Maeruto Suezumaeki (parody of Naruto)
- 14/"Feathered Edges": Falco Lombardi
- 15: Alpha-152
- 16: Violent Ken
- 17/"Shadow Puppet": Shadow the Hedgehog
- 18: Eva Earlong's HAR units
- 19: Allen Snider
- 20: Red Venom
- 21/"Splitting Image": Honoka
- 22: War Machine
- 23: Robo-Ky Mk. II
- 24/"Night Terror": Ryuko Matoi while brainwashed by Ragyo Kiryuin
- 25: Orochi Shermie
- 26: 2B's palette swap found in Soulcalibur VI, nicknamed 2P
- 27: Daisy
- 28/"Phantom Threads": Ann Takamaki
- 29/"Apex Complex": Badelinenote
- Fukua's Forever A Clone special, where she projects one of her two souls to attack, is said to be inspired by Shadow's cloning gimmick. Its name is a pun on the Forever Alone meme.
- Her introductory trailer kicks shout outs to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (specifically, Brain Drain asks a dog to leave and says he should come back once he learns to "manipulate sand or something", referencing Iggy, from the manga's third part, Stardust Crusaders.), Street Fighter IVs reveal of Decapre, and Super Mario Bros. 2s ending.
- The reference to Iggy's sand-controlling Stand, The Fool, is further complemented by Fukua and her trailer being an April Fool's event.
- The "Filia sleeping" part might also be a reference to the beginning of Ultra Street Fighter 4's Edition Select trailer.
- It is also highly likely a reference to the ending of Super Mario Bros. 2 with the only difference being Filia replacing Mario.
- Fukua herself is both a parody of Ermac: (ascended joke, fusion of souls, Palette Swap) and Decapre (the aforementioned introductory trailer). As already noted, she has palette swaps based on both characters.
- The ending of Fukua's story mode (and the Stinger that follows the credits) references the infamous Cliffhanger ending of Twin Peaks.
- In one of the very few cases of Fukua recieving unique frames of animation, she will do Shadow the Hedgehog's iconic pose from the box art of Sonic Adventure 2 if she's trapped in one of Umbrella's bubbles.
Eliza
- Palette Swaps:
- 2: Cleopatra
- 3: Eliza
- 7/"Bloodbath": Bloody (from Eliza's Story Mode)
- 8: Princess Iset
- 9: Midnight-Blissed Jedah Dohma; Albus as Jon Talbain
- 10/"Scarlet Viper": Crimson Viper; Albus as Rufus and Horace as Goku, giving three Actor Allusions for the price of one.
- 11: Tharja
- 12: Doctor Doom
- 13: I-No
- 14: Queen Odette
- 15/"Stand Out": Dio Brando; Albus and Horace as The World from the original manga, with Sekhmet as The World from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage For The Future
- 16/"Bloody Valentine": Faye Valentine; Albus as Spike Spiegel and Horace as Jet Black
- 17/"Red Velvet": Velvet
- 18/"Mummy Dearest": Ragyo Kiryuin; Sekhmet as Life Fibers, Albus as Rei Hōōmaru and Horace as COVERS
- 19: Red; Sekhmet as The Process
- 21: Porrim Maryam (Backer Color)
- 23/"Diva Intervention": Urien; Sekhmet as Twelve, Albus as Gill and Horace as Necro
- 24/"Tomb & Gloom": Raven; Sekhmet as Trigon, Albus and Horace as Beast Boy (Backer Color)
- 25: Elizabeth; Sekhmet as Thanatos
- 26: Ana
- 27: Sora's outfit from Kingdom Hearts III; Sekhmet as a Heartless, Albus as Goofy, and Horace as Donald
- 28/"Lapis Luxury": Lapis Lazuli
- 29/"Inner Pieces": Ajna
- 31: Kikuri-Hime
- 32: Astarte
- For starters, damn near every one of her animations doubles as a reference to Egyptian Mythology. Even her animations when getting hit reference things like mummification.
- Eliza's win pose (where she changes into a random alternate costume) is based on a similar win pose of Morrigan's.
- When using Osiris Spiral:Eliza: What's wrong?
- Wait a minute...Egyptian Mummy Vampire? Didn't this happen before?
- When she does her Dive of Horace, her lackey, Horace does a dive kick in a similar pose as Rufus from Street Fighter IV.
- One of Eliza's story mode portraits has her smiling in a similar manner as Jetstream Sam.
- Horace loves to engage in jolly cooperation.
- One of her winning quotes is the famous "Deal with it" meme.
- One of the quotes for her hard crouching kick is "I'm on a boat".
- Her microphone stand/scythe/staff weapon is called the Staff of Ra.
- One of Sekhmet's quotes is "Rip and Tear!".
- Sekhmet's heart-shaped hole is a reference to Giorno Giovanna's Cleavage Window.
- While on the subject of JoJo, Sekhmet's line when performing their taunt is "I have no weaknesses!"
- Eliza and Sekhmet's relationship mirrors that of Hazama and Yuuki Terumi. Eliza and Hazama are the outer human halves who handle the day-to-day affairs. Sekhmet and Terumi are the hidden villains who mastermind many bad things in the plot of their series. Both pairs seemingly share the same mind as well.
- It should be noted that the human half seems to be "in charge" with Eliza, because Double hates humans, not parasites. There's nothing indicating that Sekhmet is the mastermind.
Beowulf
- Palette Swaps:
- 3: Sexy Firefighter
- 4: Dudley's Pink Heavy Punch palette
- 7: Beowulf's superhero attire from his ending (Backer Color)
- 8/"Wulfsbane": Grendel (Backer Color)note
- 9: El Santo
- 10/"Hype Man": Alex (Backer Color)
- 12/"Wrestler X": Wolverine
- 13: Jax Briggs
- 14: Kanji Tatsumi
- 15: The Mighty Morphin'-era Green Ranger
- 16/"Dragon Brawler": Yamcha
- 17: Jon Talbain
- 18/"Snake Bite": Naked Snake (Backer Color)
- 19: Silent Storm, a custom M.U.G.E.N character (Backer Color)
- 20/"Number One": William Riker
- 21/"Weekend Warrior": Ultimate Warrior
- 23/"Dark Might": Batman
- 24: The Baz
- 25/"Freedom Fighter": Captain America
- 26: Incineroar
- 27: Captain Planet
- 28/"Beast King": Ganondorf, circa Ocarina of Time. Mainly references Ganon's grabby special moves from Super Smash Bros., but in addition, the moon in the Three Wulf Moonsault blockbuster is redrawn to resemble the moon from Majora's Mask.
- "Ogre Achiever" (Mobile Exclusive): Shrek
- Aside from the obvious, Lab Zero said they went through the archives of a ton of old Professional Wrestling videos when looking for Beowulf inspirations, and it shows.
- Beowulf's standing light punch has him dramatically holding his hand to his ear, just like Hulk Hogan. Holding it hypes up the crowd as well. Another reference to the Hulkster is in the name of one of Beowulf's level 3 supers, Wulfamania.
- Occasionally when doing the aforementioned standing light punch, he'll shout "WHAT?!"
- His standing heavy kick is a superkick. Hitting with it causes a music note to appear, revealing it to be a reference to Sweet Chin Music, the finisher of Shawn Michaels.
- His crumple state animation is just like Ric Flair's "Flair Flop".
- He'll also sometimes shout "WOOOOO!" when doing his knife edge chop move (jumping medium punch).
- The name of his stage is NMO Arena.
- His mic drop is is a shout out to a wrestler once known as the "Best In The World".
- One of his main gimmicks is the use of a folding metal chair, one of the staple weapons in professional wrestling. His standing heavy punch with the Hurting equipped (where he brings the Hurting down upon his opponent's head) is one of the ways the steel chair is most commonly used during a match.
- Almost all of his grab finishers are legitimate pro wrestling moves. Hurting might remind one of This Is Gonna Hurt written on the weapons of ECW's chair swinging freaks (Balls Mahoney and Axel Rotten)
- His strongest grab finisher is the Vertebreaker, a back-to-back double underhook piledriver which happens to be one of the most powerful and dangerous moves in all of professional wrestling. The official name of it is "Da Grendel Killa", a reference to the name Homicide used for the move in TNA's LAX: "Da Gringo Killa".
- If Beowulf kills with a Canis Major Press out of a super with the maximum amount of hype built up, a penguin feral will slide into the arena and count a pin before sliding away. This references how wrestling refs sometimes throw themselves onto their sides while sliding in order to count a pin during especially heated matches.
- The slide itself is a reference to Jack Doan's slide across most of the ring during Stone Cold Steve Austin and Scott Hall's match.
- Beowulf alternating on either saying "YES!" or "NO!" during his Naegling Knee Lift can be seen as a reference to Bryan Danielson.
- Although not as much as the wrestling references, there are shout outs to the poem from his moveset as well.
- Geatish Trepak: Beowulf is from Geatland.
- Naegling Knee Drop: Naegling refers to the sword Beowulf used in his final battle against the dragon.
- Heorot Family Roundhouse: Heorot refers to the mead hall that got ambushed by Grendel. They associate "Heorot" with Roundhouse.
- Another of his grab finishers is a Cossack dance, which is infrequently used in combat by another video game wrestler.
- His Outtake animation is based on Lieutenant Riker's unique way of sitting. He also has a matching Palette Swap (which was given the name "Number One" in Skullgirls Mobile), as noted above, and two of his Outtake lines are also references to Riker's role in TNG:"Make it so!""I'm number one."
- His first super is a a shout out to Slayer's Dead On Time overdrive (and also possibly Ralf's Galactica Phantom).
- It is not, according to Mike Z, a reference to Spencer's Bionic Lancer super, though the move is called "Gigantic Arm".
Mike Z: "For those of you who said "Bionic Arm", you have to play more older fighting games." - Beowulf's Airwulf super is similar to Potemkin's Heavenly Potemkin Buster in execution, named after an '80s action show.
- One of Beowulf's special moves is Jon Talbain's Beast Cannon in all but name.
- One of Beowulf's level 3 supers is the Three Wulf Moonsault. The three wolves and moon from the shirt even appear if the move hits.
- He initiates the maneuver by chugging a gallon of Tuscan Milk, another product that went memetic due to amazon.com customer reviews. Sometimes he shouts "Cry for the Moon!" to reference the infamous alternative foreign theme song of the '90s X-men cartoon.
- Beowulf's voice reel also features a ton more wrestling references. Including:
- "It's time! It's time! It's BEOWULF time!"
- "To be the man... AWOOO!... I'm gonna beat Big Band!"
- "The Big Bad Wulf is your hookup!"
- "Howl back if you hear me!"
- "FINALLY... the Wulf has comeback to Maplecrest!/New Meridian!/Little Innsmouth!/...wait, what?"
- "It doesn't matter!"
- "Laying the Hurting down!"
- "Know your role!"
- "Jabroni!"
- "CAAAN YOOOU DIG IT?!"
- "I'm the wildest there is, was, and ever will be!"
- "I am the Legend Killer!"
- "Have a nice day."
- "SUPER DRAGON!"
- "Say your vitamins and eat your prayers!"
- "Whatcha gonna do?!"
- "Wulfamania runs wild!"
- "One twenty inch python!"
- "I'm a real Canopian!"
- "Minus five stars!"
- "Who's next?!"
- "OH yeah!"
- "S-screwjob..."
- "It's true!"
Robo-Fortune
- Palette Swaps, most of which are based on other fictional robots or characters with robotic appearances:
- 2: Alt color Fei-Yen
- 3: Colon
- 4/"Overclocked": RAcaseal
- 5/"M3OW": C-3PO
- 6/“Vector Protector”: Vectorman
- 7: The...unique graphical style of the Virtual Boy
- 8/"Purrminator": The T-800's endoskeleton
- 9: Monsoon
- 10/"Persona Assistant": Aigis
- 11: Drossel von Flügel
- 12/"Nyanotech": Iron Man
- 13: Robo-Ky
- 14: RX-78-2 Gundam
- 15: Bass
- 16: Motoko Kusanagi
- 17: Sarah N. Dippity (Backer Color)
- 18/"Head Hunter": Samus Aran in the Varia suit
- 19: Samus Aran in the Gravity suit
- 20: KOS-MOS
- 21: T-elos
- 23/"Terror Byte": Kireek
- 24/"Blue Screen": R-DASH 5000 (Backer Color)
- 25: Spiral
- 26/"Blue Bomber": Mega Man
- 27: Pharah
- 28/"X-Bot": Master Chief, with her laser attacks colored a vibrant red to resemble the Spartan Laser.
- 29: Mega Man X, fully armored
- 30: Fei-Yen, default colors
- 31: Zero
- "Buffering Zone" (Mobile Exclusive): A Zonai Construct
- When using her Heavy Theonite Beam, Robo-Fortune strikes the pose for Buster Beam, and also rips out her own power core as a shout out during one of her supers.
- Her Magnetic Trap super is an amped-up version of Iron Tager's Atomic Collider.
- Jumping HP sees her cross her arms and shoot a short-ranged shockwave, similar to Magneto's Magnetic Blast.
- Headrone Salvo is similar to Doctor Doom's Hidden Missiles in execution.
- If you try to bring in more than 3 Headrones, she will insist "Max Headrone."
- Her Systemic Circuit Breaker super is similar to Robo Ky's Gen-Ky Lovers, providing buffs for a short period before violently exploding and damaging herself.
- The move's start-up animation is very similar to a successful Zandatsu in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, though more likely references the self destruct from Getter Robo echoed in Gunbuster.
- Some of her lines reference common keyboard shortcuts, such as Alt+Tab when using her Outtake.
- Her attack named Device Driver is accompanied by "Dividing!"
- The throw Shell's Crash is performed like Android 16's Hell's Flash.
- Her tag-in is modeled after time travel in the Terminator franchise.
- Can be heard saying "Robo-Fortune stupid name" when called in for an assist as Number 5 did of his name.
- Her moves that involve flailing limbs around are accompanied by "Danger!"
- Within the first few minutes of activation, Robo-Fortune runs through three internet memes: Keyboard Cat, Nyoro~n, and "Can I having been acquired a cheezburger?"
- When she is first deployed in Story Mode, she is sortied out in an elevator ala the Evangelion units (minus hitting her head on the closed elevator bay doors).
- Robo-Fortune's ending is an homage to the Seven Days of Fire from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, with the giant Robo-Fortunes in place of the God Warriors.
- When she does the Systemic Circuit Breaker while using the Gravity Suit-inspired palette, she flashes rainbow colours like Samus did at the end of Super Metroid and the explosion uses a very similar graphical effect to a Power Bomb. Doing the same super with the Varia Suit palette makes her flash yellow as if a Shinespark were being performed, as well as using the Power Bomb explosion graphic.
- Several references from her voice reel:
- "I fight for my friends."note
- "What am I fighting for?!"
- "Both your face are belong to us." "For great justice."
- "Bite my shiny metal tail."
- "Still alive." "This was a triumph."
- "Fission Mailed"
- "Daisy..."
- "Do you dream of flesh sheep and why?"
- "WARNING: A huge villain is approaching early."
- "I AM ERROR"
- "Your function has come to terms."
- "FRAUD DETECTED"
- "Lab 8 in-fur-ior. Lab 0 su-purr-ior."
- "I'll form the head"!
- "Priority override. New behavior dictated."
- "Build up. Cattai complete."
- "Are you enjoying the time to grieve?"
- "Pathetic creatures of meat and bone."
- "Purr-digious!"
- "Being repressed!"
- "A new type."
- "Blast Processor!"
- "I will battle you as many times as it is necessary."
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
- Palette Swaps:
- 7: A palette based on her sister Parasoul, with Hungern's palette referencing her umbrella, Krieg
- 8/"Puddle Pirate": May; Hungern as Mr. Dolphin
- 9/"Wild Child": Beowulf; Hungern as Grendel
- 10: Princess Peach
- 11/"Tidal Traveler": Moana
- 12: Ash Ketchum; Hungern as Ash's Pikachu
- 13: Tiana in her princess attire; Hungern as Naveen in his frog form
- 14: Hat Kid
- 16/"Space Case": Gaz; Hungern as GIR in his disguise
- 17/"Rose-Tinted": Amy Rose; Hungern as her Piko-Piko Hammer
- 22: Chihiro Ogino; Hungern as Haku's dragon form
- 23: Hsien-ko
- 25/"Wunderkind": Lucca; Hungern as Robo
- 26: Roll
- 28/"Raining Champ": Iris; Hungern as her Axew from the anime
- 29/"Eager Deceiver": Neopolitan
- 30/"Death Wish": Umbrella if she turned into the Skullgirl. As a special cosmetic bonus, completing the effect by also using the Skullgirl Umbrella voice makes the Skull Heart float behind Umbrella and also causes certain attacks and animations to have added bones and/or skeletons.
- "Psykid" (Mobile Exclusive): Anya Forger; Hungern as Bond
- Umbrella's poster is based on the iconic packaging design◊ for Morton Salt, a play on the long-running in-joke of Umbrella being salty.
- When performing her Cutie Ptooie special move, which causes a small butterfly to appear, Umbrella may ponder "Is this a pigeon?", referencing a particularly memetic scene from The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird.
- Her Bobblin' Bubble move, as well as Umbrella's bubbles in general, are an obvious reference to Bubble Bobble, right down to Hungern imitating Bub and Bob spitting out bubbles when performing the move.
- Umbrella's Retina Reflector is a dead ringer for Urien's own Aegis Reflector. Visually, it resembles Potemkin's Giganter Kai, with four orbiting nodes generating the barrier between them.
- A few of her entry quotes have references:Spoonful of sugar... and a pint of salt!When fighting Parasoul: Adam said it's MY turn to fight the Skullgirl!When fighting Valentine: A Hungern a day keeps the nurse at bay!
- If she wins against Fukua, she may say "I think this Filia is sus."
- One of her victory animations has her opening up Hungern and flying away in the wind like Mary Poppins.
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
- This is Tuna with Bacon! Let's Rock!
- This is true love we're making!
- The Gorilla Fate is Yearning! Action!
- Now that's Real Soviet Damage! note
- Impossible to Gauge!
- It's super effective!
- Can anybody stop this fighting machine?!
- It all depends on your skill!
- Beat 'em up, guys!
- Go for broke!
- You can't give up now!
- Nobody blink!
- Now you're playing with power!
- You got a lot to learn!
- That's All, Folks!
- When a character just barely wins a match (such as landing the killing blow with one pixel's worth of health left), the announcer sometimes yells a disgusted, "CUT! CUT! CUT!"
- When the game is paused, the (Real) Soviet Announcer has a chance of saying "Toki yo tomare!" Similarly, when the game is resumed, he may say "Soshite toki wa ugoki dasu!" Both are references to Dio's time stop-related Catch Phrases.
- With the switch to Gary Schwartz as the Soviet Announcer's voice, the team took the opportunity to add a few lines referencing his most iconic role, the Heavy from Team Fortress 2:"Who send these children to fight?""Good fighting! Now sandvich time.""Next time, use bullet. No one outsmarts bullet."
- With the switch to Gary Schwartz as the Soviet Announcer's voice, the team took the opportunity to add a few lines referencing his most iconic role, the Heavy from Team Fortress 2:
- The Dazed Announcer can go with "Decide..<hic>...the destiny!"
- The Female Announcer will also say "Believe in the announcer who believes in you!"
- The Japanese Dazed Announcer says "Kore wa zombie desu ka?" when selecting Squigly.
Combo Names
- A mere 11 hits is a King Combo, 12 hits is a Killer Combo. 80 hits is an Ultra Combo.
- 13 hits is "Unfortunate"
- 34 hits is "Crass"
- 37 hits is "In A Row"
- 42 hits is "Meaningful"
- 53 hits is "Cromulent"
- 65 hits is "Jurassic"
- 69 hits is "Dude!"
- 121 hits is "Gigawatt"
- 187 hits is "Murderous"
- 300 is "Madness"
- 403 and 404 are references to the internet browser errors for forbidden pages and missing pages respectively.
- 420 is "Everyday"
- 808 is "Stately" (after the techno band 808 State).
- 950+ is "Inconceivable"
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.
- 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.