Shout Out / StarCraft

Here's the place for every Mythology Gag, Continuity Nod, Shout-Out, Expy, Captain Ersatz and No Celebrities Were Harmed references in both Starcraft and Starcraft II.

Starcraft and Brood War

Terrans

Units

• The Wave-Motion Gun on the Terran Battleship is called "Yamato Cannon".
• The Medics greet you with "Please state the nature of the medical emergency".
• The Firebats also references Hank Hill, with lines about "propane and propane accessories".
• The Dropship pilot clearly resembles the pilot from Aliens and spouts dialogue from the movie.
• The Siege Tank is a huge shout-out to Apocalypse Now. He even sings the opening to Ride of the Valkyries.
  • If you click on him too much, he'll ask you "What is your major malfunction?"
• The Battlecruiser Captain looks like Captain Gloval (a swarthy Russian man with an epic mustache), and he spouts Star Trek dialogue.
• When clicked on enough times, the pilot of the Valkyrie Frigate will say, "Blucher!" (followed by a horse whinny).

Heroes

• The hero-class unit of the Terran Firebat is called Gui Montag.
• The hero-class unit of the Terran Wraith is called Tom Kazansky.
• Word of God confirmed that the name "James Raynor" is one towards James Ryan.
• The bad guy from the Enslavers campaign is called Alan Schezar.
• The first dialogue between Kerrigan and Raynor is a nearly-literal Shout-Out to a dialogue from the first season of Babylon 5.
• General Duke is an Expy of John Wayne.
• UED Admiral Gerard DuGalle, to Charles de Gaulle.
• Vice-Admiral Alexei Stukov to Georgi Zhukov, a Russian general in World War II.

Zerg

• The core of the Zerg hivemind is called the Overmind, and the units used to increase population are Overlords.
• The Zerg are truly a Shout-Out to the Xenomorphs from the Alien films, crossed with the Arachnids of Starship Troopers. Their working title in the demo was even "Xenomorphs", and several cinematics involving them are scene-for-scene remakes of Aliens scenes.
• The lore booklet included in the manual describes a few of the spacefaring zerg broods, giving each distinct roles and strengths. The Terrans name identified broods after mythological monsters, such as Fenris or Jormungandr (spelled "Jormungand"). This is rather similar to how the Tyranid hive fleets are described and classed, with some of the names even being the same (e.g. Leviathan Brood and Hive Fleet Leviathan).

Heroes

• The hero-class unit of the Zerg Hydralisk is called the Hunter-Killer.
  • Similarly, the hero-class unit of the Defiler (not seen in-game, but available in the map editor) is the Unclean One, after a type of Nurgle-serving daemon.
• The hero-class unit of the Zerg Ultralisk is called the Torrasque, which is also the name of a dragon from an old French legend.

Protoss

• The front face appearance of the Protoss is similar to that of the aliens from Independence Day, as they don't have a mouth.
  • They also have traits akin to those of the Predators.

Units

• The Observer is a treasure trove of these in both games. Among its greatest hits are a German War Craft II advertisement, a Steve Irwin-like voice, a Diablo quote from Griswold and...
  "One small step for man. One giant... STOP POKING MEEE!"
• The flying Corsair in Brood War arrives with "It is a good day to die."

Heroes

• Artanis has some fun with his Stop Poking Me! quotes:
  Stop poking me!
  What do I look like, an Orc?
  This is not Warcraft in space! It's... much more sophisticated! I know it's not 3-D!

Other

• So many from Aliens. The "Battle of the Amerigo" cinematic alone is pretty much a bunch of bits of Aliens — Space Marines investigate a structure gone dark and are mistakenly confident over it, aliens attack them from ceilings, an exploding Taking You with Me occurs — condensed into a four-minute cutscene.
• The cheat codes:
  • there is no cow level^note An Urban Legend of Zelda surrounding the original Diablo was that if you clicked on a certain cow outside of town enough times, you'd be sent to a secret level. Blizzard officially debunked this. Then they proceeded to put one into Diablo II and Diablo III as a Mythology Gag.
  • operation cwal^note Short for Can't Wait Any Longer. A series of humorous and popular vignettes written on the forums during the beta, consisting of the exploits of a group of the regular posters trying to steal the Starcraft Beta from the "evil" Blizzard headquarters.
• Click on the hero unit Samir Duran in Brood War long enough, and he will start speaking the titles of Duran Duran songs.
  • To further the reference he speaks the first two lines in the chorus to Duran Duran's most well known song.
  Duran: "My Name is Duran, DURAN!"
  Duran: "What's so funny?"
  Duran: "Please, please, tell me now!"
  Duran: "Is there something I should know?"
• A Terran mining planet is named Moria. A mission takes place there in which you have to mine loads of minerals. Can't be any more obvious, can it?
• The Terran victory cinematic from Brood War is a parody of newsreels from The '50s, and probably also a shoutout to the first Starship Troopers movie.
  • For more sci-fi franchise content, the clip of Vice-Admiral Stukov's funeral — whether genuine in-universe or not — shows his coffin being a dark metallic rounded elliptical cylinder much like a torpedo casing from Star Trek, being launched into space in a sombre military-honours ceremony, much like the one which was held for Spock at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (no bagpipes this time, though).
• The intro to Brood War is a near-direct copy of the Do Lung bridge scene from Apocalypse Now, complete with a detached soldier sporting a grenade launcher listening to a Hendrix-esque guitar track.
• The fourth Terran mission in the original game, "The Jacobs Installation", after one point where the player-controlled squad passes a doorway, has an enemy Marine that yells at his squadmates, "It's them! Blast them!"
• The Terran campaign in the original game (Episode 1), as a whole, gets the title "Rebel Yell".

Starcraft II

Terrans

General

• Lots of aspects of the Terrans, in particular the Used Future aesthetic and the awesome new music, give one the impression that someone at Blizzard got the Firefly DVD set for Christmas.
  • Also, a website error yields one of two messages: "Some terrible, terrible error has occurred," or "I swallowed a bug — we seem to be having a little problem with our website, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then — explode." invoked
• The hologram of a dancing Night Elf female in the Hyperion's cantina appears to be the actual character model, imported directly from WoW.
• The very first Tosh mission has you mining for boatloads of minerals on a planet called Redstone, while creepy crawly Zerg run a periodic interference on your otherwise peaceful operations.
• The Hyperion's armory is Bay 12. Rory Swan, the manager, also looks pretty dwarvenly.
• The Siege Tank model used by Terran forces in this game is known as the Crucio. The new model devised by the Umojans, as stated in the flavor text for the corresponding skin, is called the Imperio.
• When Raynor helps General Warfield up on Char, it's a clear shoutout to the Manliest Handshake scene of the film Predator. The General even remarks, "You magnificient son of a bitch!"

Units

• The SCV will say that you got a purty mouf... and that he is "In the rear with the gear".
• The Marine will make several quotes associated with marines in war movies.
  • Like Tychus, he makes the infamous Chew Bubblegum comment when clicked on repeatedly.
  • He also complains he's "still stuck in this chicken*BLEEP* outfit"...
  • "Thank you, sir! May I have another?"
• Marauder:
  "Got a whole lotta love!"
  BELIEVE IT!!!
  • There is also a group of mercenaries with exceptionally volatile guns known which go by the name of Hammer Securities available for a contract in the Cantina.
  • Marauders share a name with the hulking, death-and-destruction spewing suits of Powered Armor from Starship Troopers; although the MI used Grenade Launchers only once (at the start of the book and never in the movies).
• Many of the Thor's lines are retoolings of various Arnold Schwarzenegger lines. With the same accent. The German version has even Schwarzenegger's dub voice for the Thor.
  "If somebody asks me if I've killed any Zerg, I say yes, but they were all bad."
  "What is best in life: to crush the Zerg, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the Protoss."
  "I'll be back!"
  "Sue me, dickhead!"
  "I am here! Click me!"
  "What happened to you, Commander? They got you pushing too many pencils?"
  "If someone asks me am I really a god, I say yes!"
  • Two subtle ones: The Thor pilot has a Mjolnir pendant around his neck, while the second Odin's pilot is a white-haired old guy missing an eye.
• The Spectre rattles off a whole bunch of titles of Steven Seagal movies when repeatedly clicked.
• The Ghost, likewise, spouts out more than a few Clint Eastwood quotes.
  • There's also this gem:
  "I see live people. [two gunshots] I see dead people".
  • And:
  "Johnny #5 is not alive."
• The Reaper is a walking, talking potpourri of Shout Outs, with a few obvious ones towards Repo Man.
  "The life of the Reaper Man is always intense."
  "I thought I signed up to be a *Repo Man*! Imagine my surprise."
  "I like you. That's why I'm gonna kill you last."
  "This is ground control to Major Tom."
• The Hellion seems to be a fellow troper:
  "Suspension is an integral part of any vehicle, but this one requires Suspension of Disbelief... Get it?"
• Vulture:
  A subtle one is "No problemo", a possible homage to the Terminator, considering he's a bike-riding maniac.
  "Ever told you about my rug? It really tied the room together!"
  "Fool me once, shame on... me? No. SHAME ON YOU ... twice... for fooling' me ... once? Bah, forget it. Let's just be friends."
  • "Sssmokin'!"
  • When the Hellbat is repeatedly selected: "Transform and roll out!"
• Cyclone:
  "Annnd, here... we... go."
  • There was apparently a misreading of the Cyclone as Cyclops somewhere during playtesting.
  "It's a cyclone... not a cyclops, alright? I don't care that it has one eye!"
  • The Cyclone driver likes to reference how the Diamondback didn't make through playtesting into melee, and got replaced by the Cyclone itself.
  "Oh, this will drive circles around a Diamondback. I guarantee it."
• Liberator:
  "By the way, freedom is not free, okay? Freedom costs a buck o' five."
• Medivac:
  "Why you boys all wearing red shirts anyway?"
• Quoth The Raven:
  "I'm sorry, commander, I'm afraid I can't do that".
  "I know I've made some very poor decisions lately, but I can give you complete assurance that my work will be back to normal"
  —> "This vessel has assumed control. It has assumed control."
  "All your base are belong to us!"
  "Who said anything about cake?"
  • Via editors people have found out how the Raven operator's face looks like. He has a blank expression staring at a screen while holding a control stick. It's suspected to be a joke towards the clichè of hardcore gamers in front of their monitors.
• The Viking pilot will say "Transform and roll out!"
  • One of his fun quotes directly references the early Blizzard game, "The Lost Vikings". He calls out the three characters names, and concludes that they probably got lost again.
• Wraith:
  "Gravity: it's not just a good idea, it's the law.
• Banshee:
  "What's the vector, Victor? Give me the clearance Clarence."
  "I picked the wrong day to quit stimpacks."
  "Apocalypse... Now!"
  "In space, everyone can hear me scream... 'cause, I'm the Banshee. Get it?"
  "Today's in-flight movie will be Ghost Academy: The Musical, starring Zec Afron and Corbin Green."
• Firebat:
  "Burninatin' the countryside."
  "Turns out I hate the smell of napalm in the morning."\\ (Which in itself is a Mythology Gag to the first game where he expresses his love for napalm.)
  • "Flame on!"
• Battlecruiser:
  "It's a trap!"
  • The Battlecruiser captain is also apparently a World of Warcraft player as he complains: "Let's hurry up and finish this attack. It's raid night."
• The Hercules pilot not only speaks with Scottish accent he also has a blue strip over his nose. It seems like a copy of Braveheart was also onboard the old starships. It even has a kilt pattern spray-painted on his armor suit.
• The Spartan Mercenary Goliath pilot is modeled after Dustin Browder, head producer of the game. He gained internet fame by his enthusiastic reporting style, birthing the "terrible, terrible damage" meme that is also referenced in-game several times.

Heroes and story characters

• Tychus quotes the infamous Chew Bubblegum line in the first Odin mission.
• Your science guy in the Terran campaign is called "Egon Stetmann", a walking, talking reference to all sorts of stuff:
  • During the mission "Belly Of The Beast", where he accompanies you, upon examining a defeated zerg queen, he'll say, "She's dead, Jim...''
  • He's also the hero-medic, and unarmed. If you send him alone into a group of enemies, and your screen isn't focused on him when he's attacked, he'll shout "Game over, man! I'm done! Don't wanna play anymore!"
    • A group of marines in that mission also say that line when they are about to get killed by the Brutalisk.
  • And his name, "Egon Stetmann," is a combination of the three original Ghostbusters: Egon, Stantz, and Venkman.
    • And one of his greetings is "Back off man. I'm a scientist."
  • He also wears a shirt bearing the insignia of the Horde.
  • In the Co-op Mist Opportunities missions he mentions that he built the bots in a cave with a box of scraps
  • One of his random quotes is: "Ah, yeah ok. Have you seen my stapler? Little hint, it's red."
• Tosh looks like a burlier version of Reggae legend Peter Tosh, (hence the surname) but he is most certainly not a laid-back Rastafarian.
  • In the Hyperion's Cantina there's also a poster about "Tosh and the Screamers", his band.
• Valerian was derisively called "Arthas-in-Space". When the Starcraft II official site was first launched, the entire biography page on him was littered with comments about his likeness to Arthas Menethil.
• Warfield spouts one to the famous "TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DAMAGE!" meme in the mission "The Gates Of Hell":
  "Mah ship has taken terrible, terrible damage!" invoked
• Tychus was convict number 626.
• Mira has a death sentence in twelve systems.

Zerg

• Kerrigan's ghost number is 24601
  • She's also a P-12.
• The Zealot Changeling has this line:
  Changeling: I'm looking for a cat, means worlds to me.
• The Torrasque returns as a strain of the Ultralisk in Heart of the Swarm, like its namesake it regenerates when "killed". Also the mutation is acquired after some Ultralisks are exposed to radiation from an experimental nuke.
• Zagara is also another user of Merely a Setback in the mission you face her.

Protoss

Units

• The Colossi are a thematic shout-out to the Martian war machines from The War of the Worlds: giant stilt-legged striders with ray guns (heat-based, too, like in the original) that sweep across enemy crowds.
• Some of the Probe's quotes are robotized quotes from other games units, with the Warcraft II's Troll Axethrower's being the most recognizable.
• The new Dark Templar portrait bears a strong resemblance to a Predator.
• Mothership quote:
  "Shuffleboard on the Lido Deck, now commencing."
  "The white zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only."
• The Void Ray advices you:
  "Always bet on Void"
  "Fire at will, commander!"
• The High Templar seems to be a bit of a nerd:
  "Your thoughts betray you."
  "Get out of my mind, novice!"
  "Yours is the inferior intellect."
  "Do you know what happens to a frog when it gets hit by lightning?"
• Immortal
  "There can be only one!"
• Maar sometimes says "Merely a temporary setback" when he revives.
• As noted in this Team Liquid thread, the Void Seeker unit has the same markings in its inner ring as the markings on the South Korean flag.

Heroes

• Artanis looks A LOT like he's wearing Gundam Exia's head.
• Have Fenix do 5000 damage after you summon him in one mission, get the "Fix-It Fenix" achievement.

Other

• The cheat codes, again:
  • whysoserious
  • eyeofsauron
  • jaynestown
  • sosayweall
  • nevergiveupneversurrender
  • moredotsmoredots
  • iamironman
  • hanshotfirst
  • tooktheredpill
  • whatisbestinlife
  • imadoctornotaroachjim
  • stayclassymarsara
  • catfoodforprawnguns
• Many of the archievement titles...
  • Mission "The Outlaws": "Be Quick Or Be Dead".
  • Mission "The Drill": "Yippee-Ki-Yay" and "Drill Hard".
  • Mission "The Moebius Factor": "Alive Inside!".
  • Mission "Welcome To The Jungle": "Welcome To The Jungle", "Appetite For Destruction", "You'ze So Crazy" and "It's So Easy".
  • Mission "Maw Of The Void": "I Have The Power" and "Master Of The Universe".
  • Mission "Outbreak": "28 Minutes Later" and "Army of Darkness".
  • Mission "Safe Haven": "You Shall Not Pass" and "My Precious!".
  • Mission "The Devil's Playground": "Reaper Man".
  • Mission "Breakout": "Cool Hand Tosh" and "Jailhouse Rock".
  • Mission "Ghost Of A Chance": "Total Protonic Reversal"^note As if Egon's name and references weren't enough...
  • Mission "Media Blitz": "Seek and Destroy" and "Blitzkrieg".
  • Mission "Shatter The Sky": "Demolition Man"
  • Mission "All In": "Aces High".
  • Mission "Cutthroat": "Minesweeper", "Solitaire"
  • Mission "Whispers of Doom": "Merely a flesh wound"
  • Mission "Lab Rat": "Mighty Mouse"
  • Mission "Back in the Saddle": "Brütal Legend", "Full Throttle"
  • Mission "Fire in the Sky": "Command & Conquer", "Red Alert"
  • Mission "Old Soldiers": "Nuclear Launch Rejected"
  • Mission "Enemy Within": "Biomass Effect"
  • Mission "Waking The Ancient": "A Game of Drones"
  • Mission "The Crucible": "Epic Meal Time", "Can't Touch This Chrysalis".
  • Mission "Hand of Darkness": "Power Underwhelming"
  • Mission "Phantoms of the Void": "Stukov Strikes Back", "The Phantoms Menaced"
  • Mission "With Friends Like These": "MinedCraft", "Space Ace"
  • Mission "Conviction": "Staying Alive", "Saturday Night Fever"
  • Mission "Planetfall": "Death Start"
  • Mission "For Aiur!": "Shadow of the Colossus", "In Living Khala".
  • Mission "Spear of Adun": "Sprinter Cell"
  • Mission "Templar's Return": "Outrunner".
  • Mission "Brothers in Arms": The title itself is a shoutout to Brothers In Arms. Also, "For the Alliance".
  • Mission "Templar's Charge": "Ultimate Answer"(Collect 42 resource pick-ups on the map).
  • Mission "Last Stand": "Rush Hour".
  • Mission "Temple of Unification": Templar of Doom, "Unity, Precision, Perfection".
  • Mission "The Infinite Cycle": "Hero of the Storm
  • Mission "Forbidden Weapon": "Danger Zone"
  • Mission "Unsealing the Past": "Brood War", "I've Fallen and I Can't Shoot Up"
  • Mission "Purification": "Don't Taze Me Cybros", "Power Overwhelming"
  • Mission "Steps of the Rite": "Guerrillas in the Mist".
  • Mission "Rak'Shir": "Flawless Victory"
  • Mission "The Essence of Eternity": "Praise the Sun!".
  • Mission "The Reckoning": Zerg Rush
  • Multiplayer: "It's Morphing Time!", "I See Dead Units", "Can't Touch This", "Big Brother Is Watching", "Meet the Spy" and "Professionals Have Standards", "Welcome Back, Commander", "Would You Kindly...", "Raining Blood".
  • Other: "Stay Awhile and Listen", "Belly Of The Beast", "Death from Above", "Shout-Out", "Where the Wild Things Are", "So Many Banelings!", "Psi-Lence is Golden", "My Cool Bay Explosions", "Monster Mash", "Monster Smash", Ludicrous Speed, "Star Tours", "Apocalypse Now", "My Life for Hire", "You Will Be Assimilated", "Total Recall", "Fix-It Fenix", "Don't Blink", "Hostbusters", "For the Swarm!", "Gotta Go Fast", "I Am... In-Nova-table".
• In the mission Gates of Hell, the invasion to Char looks really, really familiar to Starship Troopers, the movie and the game. Not that this similarity is something new to StarCraft, but still: spore cannons shooting down ships in orbit, capital ships in so much disarray that they crash into each other, the whole ‘badly outnumbered bunch of troops surrounded by a Horde of Alien Locusts’ situation, and to some extend Banshees wiping off some zerg in the Warfield's rescue cinematic.
• Do you think the inmates on the prison planet New Folsom have the blues? Tychus sure does.
• There's a Metroid in the secret map, as well as a Diablo on The Devil's Playground.
• The anchorman Donny Vermillion is a loose Expy of Ron ''Burgundy''.
• The arcade game "Lost Viking" is (in name) a reference to a previous Blizzard title, The Lost Vikings. One of the achievements has the face of one of the protagonists of the game, Erik.
• The salvaged Adjutant in the laboratory is mounted in the same way as the Puppetmaster◊ in Ghost in the Shell.
• There's a Night Elf holograph doing her World of Warcraft dance in the cantina.
• With some employees of Blizzard having formed a Heavy Mithril band, it's unsurprising that there would be many references to Heavy Metal and rock music, as well:
  • From the High Templar:
  "Ride the lightning!"
  • From the Phoenix:
  "Justice for all! (Except for the Zerg)"

  • It's a double reference. It may also refer to a particular ace attorney...
  • From the Reaper:
  "Fear the Reaper, man!"
  "This is ground control to Major Tom"
  • From the Vulture:
  "Born to be wild!"
• One of the on-location news reports takes place aboard the evacuation ship Skynyrd II.
• The songs listed in the commercial for the Level 800 Elite Tauren Marines albums: The song titles are all somewhat inspired by titles of 20th Century and 21st Century music.
  • I Kissed a Zerg! (Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl)
  • Like a Firebat out of Hell (Meatloaf - Like A Bat Out Of Hell)
  • I Left My Heart on Mar Sara (Literally) (Frank Sinatra - I Left My Heart in San Fransisco)
  • New Folsom Prison Planet Blues (Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues)
  • Don't Cry For Me Tarsonis (Madonna - Don't Cry For Me Argentina)
  • Another Hydralisk bites the dust (Queen - Another One Bites The Dust)
  • With or Without Nukes (U2 - With or Without You)
  • Saturday Night's Alright for Nuking (Elton John - Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting)
  • Lucy In The Sky With Mutas (The Beatles - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds)
  • I Can't Drive Warp 5.5! (Sammy Hagar - I Can't Drive 55)
  • Every Rose Has It's Thor (Poison - Every Rose Has It's Thorn)
• The song Terran Up The Night has two pretty obvious ones:
  We have our own Transformer
  The rough and tough Viking
  He can fly and he doesn't cry
  Like the little wuss Starscream
  We never served a king, no
  We never served no lord
  But if we lived in Azeroth, honey
  You know we'd join the Horde!
• The whole plot could be seen as an homage to the Firefly universe in general, and the Serenity movie in particular:
  • Both settings have a lot of parallels to the post-Civil War South.
  • The (anti)hero is a former soldier who has become cynical and disillusioned by his experiences in war, and now captains a ship with a Badass Crew that does not-strictly-legal work to pay the bills. He has retained his sense of honor, but has a deep grudge against the government.
  • The Big Guy is an amoral Starscream and a definite badass, but the hero's Combat Pragmatism means he'll win whenever they fight.
  • The crew has a suicidal battle against insane, berserk opponents at the climax.
  • The government's corruption is exposed by broadcasting the incriminating evidence over mass-media.
• One of the short stories on the official website writes the mutalisk's call as Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!
• There are cars painted like the General Lee.

Heart of the Swarm (To be sorted)

• The mission "With Friends Like These" has a few Star Wars and Star Trek references.
  Rory Swann: The Hyperion may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts!
  Matt Horner: Make it so!
  Matt Horner; If we hit that bullseye the rest of those dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.
  Fighter Pilot: It came...from behind!
• The first ability you have access to with the Hyperion allows the ship to travel in hyperspace over extremely short distances to confuse the enemy.
• The primal banelings that approach, hiss, and explode? They're called creepers.
• Yet again, Zagara may randomly let out Merely a Setback when defeated.
• The fight with the Ancient One is similar to Diablo 3's Belial, another Blizzard game, of all things.
• Brood Mother Niadra's infiltration of the Protoss ship is very much like Alien.
  • Including a line from the Sentry that discovers the leavings from her first meal: "All other priorities rescinded," a direct mirror of Ash's recitation of Special Order 937.
• As per usual, the Stop Poking Me! lines include these, such as: The Hyperion has "I'd estimate the odds of successfully navigating this asteroid field as 3750 to 1", quoting The Empire Strikes Back and Zapp Brannigan's mixed metaphor in Futurama, "Knock down the first domino and the rest will fall like a pack of cards - checkmate".
• The final cutscene is rather blatantly modeled after the climax of Return of the Jedi, with Mengsk calmly informing Kerrigan everything is All According to Plan, then using electricity to disable and torture her while he gloats, followed by a surprise save (complete with chokehold-and-toss) by Raynor (who, by the way, wear a black armor). Followed by The Emperor exploding.
• The same cutscene begins with the villain, an old white-haired man, facing the protagonist by slowly rotating to face Kerrigan in his chair, in a room fitted wall to wall with Ominous Multiple Screens.
• What with his hunchbacked posture, vaguely insectoid features, talk of spinning, lack of true devotion towards his commanding entity, and of course sounding like he's gargling rocks at the bottom of a well, voiced by Steve Blum, Abathur is pretty much Anub'arak IN SPACE!.
  • Manner of speech, suspiciously similar to Mordin Solus. Both scientists, develop improved technology for leader. Specialize in biology. Probably coincidence, but direct homage also possible.
  • It is also possible that his monologue about perfection is inspired by Mayuri's of Bleach fame similar one.
• The hero has been redeemed and depowered in the previous game. Now, we have a few missions with the hero depowered, then a Love Interest is killed, the hero goes to repower, a few mission of Roaring Rampage of Revenge... Then it turns out the Love Interest is alive, hero swings back toward good, goes to rescue said Love Interest from a starship prison, and they flee right before it explodes. The only difference is, Kerrigan doesn't have Kyle Katarn's beard.
• If you have Stukov before the first Hyperion mission and talk to him, he says:
  Stukov: When I see the stars arrayed before me like this, I think of Earth. I remember its green hills

Legacy of the Void (To be sorted)

• Karax states that Purifiers operate more efficiently when in proximity to each other, because some secondary protocols can be off-loaded to free cores. This is the exact principle through which Geth have achieved sentience.
  • For that matter, the protoss on board the Spear of Adun also resembled the quarians.
• Xel-Naga Kerrigan looks an awful lot like Phoenix Force, doesn't she?
  • it also seems like that she also got its inspiration from Terra Branford
• The Spear of Adun, in its intended purpose, is in many ways the Protoss equivalent of an Eldar Craftworld.
• Once on the Spear of Adun, Karax builds himself a set of mechanical tentacles to assist in his duties, which include operating the Spear's artificial star power core.
• The Unsealing the Past mission has you landing on the forest moon of Endion in order to destroy the shield generator protecting the immense battle station orbiting the planet. If you search the map carefully, you can find Ewoks in several hidden areas.
  • Additionally, another hidden area on the map shows a large holding pen containing an "enhanced strain" Ultralisk named Indomilisk Rex.
• Keep poking Fenix and he'll mention stories about losing an entire squad saving the last of four brothers, fighting a strange alien species that hunted down his squad one by one while saving a captured diplomat from terrorists, among others.
• The Shrines in The Infinite Cycle, and the way the camera zooms in on certain parts during the narration, before panning out in the end, not to mention the black-and-white coloration appear to have been based on Brütal Legend's Artifacts.
• The destruction of Shakuras closely resembles that of a certain other planet that was home to an alien species.
• The Xel-Naga look suspiciously Lovecraftian in design.
• The purifier warden in the Purifier mission talked like GLaDOS, and had the same feelings towards the Daelaam as she had towards the main character
• After a conversation with Alarak, Artanis remarks that "This bargain grows less appealing by the moment."
  • In the co-op mode, one of Alarak's quotes when he uses Structure Overcharge is "I find your lack of defenses disturbing."
  • The Spear of Adun is powered by it's own star. Too bad it can't travel through time.
• As a whole, Amon is an Expy to leaders of the Burning Legion found in Blizzard's Warcraft universe.
  • Like Sargeras, he was initially good, before losing faith in his mission, and vowing to destroy all life/unmake the universe. Both also went inactive later on.
  • Like Mannoroth, he once bound a people to his will, lost control over them, and attempted to reclaim them, before ultimately failing again.
  • Like how Kil'jaeden became obsessed with hunting down Velen and the draenei, he became obsessed with destroying the protoss for their defiance to him.
• Artanis and Alarak together are a shout-out to Star Wars. Artanis uses blue and green psiblades and frequently behaves like a Jedi Knight, while Alarak's psiblades are red and he is basically a Sith Lord.
• Just as The One Ring can only be destroyed in fires of Mount Doom, Amon himself can only be destroyed in the Void by a power of similar magnitude.
• Co-op Missions:
  • Egon Stetmann is full of them in his co-op mission, starting with a remark that he built his harvesting bots in a cave with a box of scraps.
    • He continues this tradition as a co-op commander, with his lines like "Don't embarass me in front of the space wizards!", and Gary quoting the 'Tears in Rain' monologue.
  • The "Dead of Night" mission is basically a rehash of the Blizzard-made custom map "Left 2 Die", which in turn references Left 4 Dead, complete with Captain Ersatz Zerg versions of the Special Infected.
  • One of the Mutators spawns invulnerable Killbots that have to be defeated by letting them kill your units until they reach a preset kill limit and shut down.
  • In 2016, Blizzard held a Mutation creation contest. The winner was titled "The Injustice League" and included a Mutator called "Heroes from the Storm".
  • For April Fool's Day 2017, Blizzard rolled out a one-day Mutation where the two players fight each other instead of playing cooperatively. The Mutation was titled "Sudden but Inevitable".
  • Patch 5.0 features a new Mutator where bots will carry nukes towards your base. One player can defuse the nuke, but cannot see the correct combination; the other player can see the nuke's code, but cannot defuse it themselves.
  • The Mutator "Hello My Old Friend" involves darkness.
  • Another Mutator name is "Blasting Off Again".
  • Upon winning a mission, Karax may remark that "I greatly appreciate it when a plan is brought to fruition."
  • Many of the commander-specific achievements have references as names:
    • Artanis: Finger of Death, Warp Speed
    • Vorazun: My Turn
    • Alarak: A Good Day to Die
    • Stukov: Apocalisk Now
    • Fenix: Champions Assemble
    • Zeratul: That Belongs in A Museum!
    • Mengsk: I Am the Law, The Best of the Best of the Best, Emperor, I Am the One who Nukes

Nova Covert Ops (To be sorted)

• The way Nova receives her new ship strongly resembles a similar case from Mass Effect 2
• The cardboard box right outside Nova's holding cell. She can interact with it, but can't hide underneath it. It's also called 'Reptile Box' in a subtle reference to said game's protagonist name.
• The monomolecular blade.
• The first mission begins with Nova awoken by a robotic camera which looks just like GLaDOS.
• In the second mission of the second pack (the fifth mission globally, the mission "Night Terrors"), when Nova dies to one of the miniboss of the mission (either the Eradicators or the Blightbringer) and then comes back to the area, a big green dot will appear on the ground where she previously died and when you move Nova on it, it will say "+X souls retrieved" (X is a number that is not fixed). Why does it sound strangely familiar ?
  • In this mission, after you defeat the first Eradicator, the second one will shout "Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate"
• The Blazefire Gunblade you can obtain in mission 7 is an obvious reference to Lightning's trademark weapon.

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