Shout Out / Video Games (M to Z)

M

• MacBat 64: Journey of a Nice Chap has a clip that looks like it could have been taken from Nosferatu playing in the Big Boo's Haunt.
• Makai Kingdom:
  • The corn speaks in a very British accent, and when you try to take over the vegetable world, the corn leader of the rebellion tells you he "thought we were an autonomous collective." After you succeed, he'll tell you that "now we see the violence inherent in the system."
  • The One's curse will kill you three days after you receive his call.
  • One of the higher-leveled magic books is the Note of Death. (Don't write your own name in it.)
• Manos: The Hands of Fate contains plenty of Shout-Outs both to Mystery Science Theater 3000 and to other cheesy movies that got skewered on the show, with enemies that include Screaming Skulls, Crawling Eyes, Hobgoblins and even the Robot Monster.
• In Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems, Spider-Man's Web Throw (his Gem Power move) has the same exact animation as Birdie's Murderer Chain move as seen in the Street Fighter Alpha games.
• In Marvel Ultimate Alliance, the Murderworld mini-games are classic videogames. Pitfall! is even named.
• Master Detective Archives: Rain Code:
  • In Chapter 0, Shinigami ponders if there's a Master Detective with a body of a child and a mind of an adult.
  • This game's Hang-Man's Gambit equivalent is basically a fanservicey version of Pop Up Pirate.
  • In Chapter 0 Yuma has to return to an earlier section of the Labyrinth and Shinigami gives Z*om and Ev*c options for teleportation.
  • Early in the game, Shinigami trolls Yuma by warning him about "a clown in the sewer, staring at him".
  • Yomi Hellsmile first appears via a Sliding Bike Stop.
  • At one point, Shinigami suggests to Yuma that he touches a TV located in an alley to see if he gets sucked inside.
  • One of the loading screen blurbs in Chapter 2 mentions a play called "The Culprit is Not Among Us", which involves 15 people and the culprit being in the audience.
  • The appearance of Amaterasu Corporation's main building bares a striking resemblance to Shinra Corp's own main building.
  • In Chapter 2, as the students of Aetheria Academy are too young to legally drink, the wine used for the play is merely grape juice poured into a wine bottle. A possible nod to the Ace Attorney series and its ubiquitous use of "grape juice" in what are clearly wine bottles and glasses.
  • At one moment in Chapter 2, Shinigami uses her fists to commit a rapid-beatdown.
  • GOD Shinigami minigame involves turning giant and smashing castle walls. In Japanese the minigame is called Shingeki No Shinigami.
  • While Yuma is Disguised in Drag, Shinigami at one point quips "Getting addicted to drag are you? I don't think you're about to win any races."
  • In Chapter 2, Desuhiko complains that the Mystery Labyrinth is very dangerous as if they're searching for the lost ark.
  • Shinigami calls Makoto Stark-level rich.
  • In Chapter 3, Fubuki's exploration of the Mystery Labyrinth has her wanting a hat and a whip.
  • Later after he first defeats the Mystery Phantom of the labyrinth, Fubuki decides to call Yuma the Warrior of Light.
  • Chapter 3 features a culprit who stages a terrorist attack as a smokescreen for their true goal: a bank robbery, similar to Die Hard.
  • In Chapter 5, in a facility full of zombies, Shinigami asks Yuma to keep an eye out for any green and red herbs. In addition, the scientist responsible is named Dr. Huesca.
  • The titles of chapter 0, 4, and 5 are "Massacre on the Amaterasu Express", "The Imperfect Insider", and "And Then I Was Gone".
  • Examining the ladder outside the train station will lead to Yuma wondering whether it's a ladder or a stepladder.
  • Kurumi's casual wear includes a rain jacket with a pixel art strawberry with the caption "B B B"
  • When disguised as a girl in chapter 2, Shinigami will berate Yuma for being a pervert and then shout "A Wild Pervert Detective appears!" Later on, Desuhiko will say Fubuki's girlish mannerisms are "Super effective!"
• Master of Orion 2 has almost too many to count, most of it in its tech tree. You can research, among other things, Phasors (ship and handheld), Disruptor Cannons, transporters, Doom Stars (with optional planet-destroying superweapon), and an adamantium armor. Planet names can be taken from Babylon 5^note the punctuation of Za'Ha'Dun is missing, though, due to limitations of the game code for handling planet names, Star Trek, Star Wars, and numerous other sources.
• Max Payne:
  • The first game:
    • The game, being heavily inspired by Hollywood action movies with intricate gunplay and lots of slow motion, has a few references to its influences: The password to a criminal-operated laundromat is "John Woo", and a certain lobby shootout scene near the endgame seems very similar to the one in The Matrix. One of the bad guys in the game is "A real Keyser Soze type."
    • Max can find a mook who had been killed with a stake in the back. Said mook had written out part of the killer's identity: Buff.
  • The second game:
    • There is a billboard advertising a kung fu movie starring Kenneth Yeung. In real life, Kenneth Yeung is the creator of the Kung Fu mod for the first Max Payne game.
    • One of the three mooks who help out Max in the slum level (thinking he's one of them) says "it's raining cats and dogs out there!", to which another replies "for I am a rain dog, too" in a shout out to Tom Waits.
• McPixel has bonus worlds unlocked by finding all the solutions in the stages immediately before them, which are each a set of six levels based around shout outs to films (such as Titanic (1997) a Star Wars), video games (Final Fantasy VII and Portal), and cartoons and anime (The Flintstones and Dragon Ball).
• Mean Santa: One of the toys Santa can steal are toy-sized AT-AT Walkers. You can also collect Virtual Boys.
• Medal of Honor:
  • Medal of Honor: Underground: The second level has tough-as-nails French Resistance fighter turned Allied spy Manon Batiste heading to German-occupied Casablanca to rendezvous with the Allies and give the signal to start Operation Torch. The third level has Manon travelling to the Greek island of Navarone to destroy German gun emplacements inside a phony Nazi archaeological dig site. The fourth level has Manon infiltrating the personal residence of Himmler, a creepy castle in the dark forests of Germany which pits her against occultist SS troopers and Nazi knights in its halls a la Wolfenstein. And the famous final bonus level which has you fighting andromorphic canines (as well as exploding Nazi Zombies and mechanical nut-cracker soldiers — yes, really) in a German castle is named "Where Beagles Dare".
  • Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: The game's third and fifth levels are a massive Shout-Out to Saving Private Ryan — the third level has you charging up the beaches of Bloody Omaha (making this game the Trope Codifier for all the following copycat WWII games that subsequently included a Normandy landing level to reference the film) and the fifth level has you playing the role of Pvt. Jackson, doing counter-sniper work in bombed-out French towns. There's even a blatant Captain Ersatz to Capt. Miller, named Capt. Ramsey (no relation). The Spearhead expansion also has a few to Band of Brothers in its levels.
  • Medal of Honor: Frontline has another Normandy landing level which is a dead-ringer for Saving Private Ryan, but more strangely, one level set in a German-occupied manor has a knife-throwing Evil Chef Unique Enemy who does an impersonation of Swedish Chef. There is also a level called "Several Bridges Too Far" which deals with the valiant but ultimately doomed Operation Market Garden in Arnhem.
  • Medal of Honor: Rising Sun has a mission titled "The Bridge on the River Kwai".
• Messiah has a nod to the composer Jesper Kyd in the form of a location called "Club Kyd".
• Might and Magic:
  • The Mandate of Heaven has the priestess in the Castle Ironfist temple bless you with "Live Long and Prosper!"
  • The second game:
    • There's a Lord Peabody who offers your party use of a Time Machine if you go out and retrieve his "boy", a Paladin named Sherman.
    • Most of the hireling names are jokes of some kind.
    • One of the "portal" services is operated by a fellow named Jean-Luc, who offers to "beam you" to another town.
• Midnight Fight Express:
  • The end of the 2021 trailer cuts to black with someone saying "Remember, no Russia." Cue the player in a horse mask walking into an elevator with armed men and absolutely bodying them .
  • A clip in the 2020 trailer shows off a gigantic free-for-all brawl inside of a church.
  • The costume unlocked by achieving 80% completion of level 1 is of a character called "Dareman."
  • Level 5, "Restroom," takes place in a public bathroom.
  • Level 20 is named "Fight Club", and before you can pass, you have to fight through Kyler Turden. You encounter a group of armed people in animal masks. The leader of them is a guy in a horse mask named BoJacket.
  • One of the enemy types you fight in the docks are giant sailor men with massive biceps who attribute their strength to injecting spinach into their arms.
  • One of the finishers Babyface can pull on enemies is the Crane Kick. However, instead of kicking the enemy in the face like Daniel, Babyface uses it as a feint and knocks them out with a karate chop to the head instead.
  • Droney ends his exposition at the start of the Bar level with "Strike first. No mercy. Babyface never dies."
  • The Warriors are named after The Warriors. They and the Earth Smashers are purple and green respectively, with their bitter rivalry echoing that of the Ballas and the Grove Street Families. The Motel stage even features a scene where a member of the Earth Smashers (who resembles Big Smoke and is named "Large Soda") defects to the Warriors.
  • The description for the zombies, called Deadheads in-game, at the Graveyard level ends with "RISE FROM YOUR GRAVES."
  • In Level 29, "Suburbs", Babyface gets access to a rope dart gun. Droney will make a reference to Mortal Kombat by suggesting for Babyface to scream Get Over Here when using the rope dart.
  • In Level 39, "Office," two of Kingsley's enforcers, Ben and The Butcher were previously trained by Babyface, and also have personal drones. The copycat tactics prompts Droney to say There can be only one.
  • In Level 39, "Office," Kingsley has the Delicious Cake from Portal on his table.
• The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot:
  • One of Painhammer's emotes is the Gangnam Style dance.
  • The Earl of Evilosity sometimes asks "Do you smell what the Earl is cookin'?"
  • After finishing a raid, the Earl may state "Evil always triumphs because good is dumb!"
• Minecraft Dungeons: The Secret Level is a direct reference to the Secret Cow Level from Diablo II, both in needing to go to extreme lengths to find and also in being a level populated entirely by cows, or mooshrooms in this case.
• Minecraft: Story Mode:
  • "That'll do, Reuben. That'll do."
  • When asked where the stairs in the Temple of the Order go, one of your choices are: "They go up."
  • In episode 5, when choosing the Speed potion Ivor offers, Jesse will say "Gotta go fast!"
• Some of the achievements in Mini Motorways are pop-culture references:
  • The achievement for placing 666 road tiles across multiple runs is called "Highway to Hell".
  • Placing 25 traffic lights across multiple runs gets you the "Boogie Lights" achievement.
  • Using all nine motorways in one run rewards you with the "Mom's Spaghetti" achievement.
• The Monkey Island series, being created by Lucasfilm's game division LucasArts (formerly Lucasfilm Games), includes dozens of shout outs to Lucas's movies:
  • The Secret of Monkey Island:
    • There's the number 1138 popping up a lot, a bridge troll being actually George Lucas in disguise, and wall graffiti suggesting its readers to call 1-800-STAR-WARS (which, at the time, was LucasArts' hint line number) "for a good time".
    • The Seagull eating a red herring resembles some of the seagulls from Loom.
    • In the Fettucini circus, Guybrush saying "I'm Bobbin, are you my mother?" is a reference to Loom.
    • At the Scumm Bar, Cobb advertises the game Loom.
    • The Scumm Bar is a reference to the SCUMM engine, previously used for Maniac Mansion.
    • The Grog Machine resembles a Coca-Cola logo so much that the swoosh graphic had to be changed.
    • When conversing with Herman Toothrot about colors, one of the options is Macintosh gray.
  • In Monkey Island 2, Guybrush can talk to LeChuck about Nintendo™ games.
• In Monster Loves You!, several scenarios in the game contain direct references to fairy tales or classic books, despite not being mentioned by name: Little Red Riding Hood, Frankenstein, Puss N Boots, and The Three Little Goats (nee Pigs) make appearances.
• In the yellow variation of Moonmist, three of the four clues you are sent to find are references to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, namely, "The Bells", "Annabel Lee", and "The Cask of Amontillado".
• One of the cargo containers on the main character's ship in Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock is full of fine leather jackets.
• An early mission in MySims Kingdom requires you to build "solid gears of metal" in order to open a gate to another part of the first island.
• In Mystik Belle, when using the Hammer to unjam the drawbridge mechanism, Belle says "Stop, hammer time!"

N

• The half-sunken Statue of Liberty at the end of the Coastal course in the original Need for Speed.
• Neverwinter Nights:
  • The first game has a reference to an Archdruid named Getafix.
  • Neverwinter Nights 2:
    • In the core campaign, the greeter in the Moonstone Mask festhall is named "Evlyn". In the back, you'll find a dancer named "Teelah". It's a nice shout-out to Masters of the Universe.
    • In Mask of the Betrayer, you can find an item named the Astral Rodent Charm with the inscription "To M..." on the back. This is a shout out to Minsc and his miniature giant space hamster.
    • A Dance with Rogues, a fan module series, includes the premade character Lyanna Stormborn, as a Shout-Out to A Song of Ice and Fire (which actually did inspire a lot of the story). The player's adventures seem somewhat similar to those of Arya Stark, after all.
• Nibblers:
  • Up to a certain point, each update starts with "FISH ARE FRIENDS NOT FOOD".
  • The boss of Acid Bog is Cobracabana, which runs with this down to the achievement for defeating her ("Her Name Was Lola") and her Lizzypedia entry ("With her, music and passion are always in fashion").
  • Defeating Thornzilla yields the achievement "Thornzilaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!".
  • Defeating Lizard Wizard yields the achievement "OVER 1000!!!"
• In NieR, the hero is asked to save a prince from a forbidden shrine who is searching for his mask. When the prince is found and he finds his mask, the screen goes letter box as the camera gives a slight bird's eye-view of the prince, his mask spinning in midair a little bit over his outstretched hand. This perfectly mirrors "Item Found" cutscenes of the 3D The Legend of Zelda games. It also comes complete with a Suspiciously Similar Song version of the Zelda fanfare.
• Horror game Night Blights has, around the house, countless toys and a few other props. One such prop is a crystal statuette of a dragon which is quite clearly frozen in crystal. You can also find, on an upstairs wall, what looks to be a featherless Aku Aku.
• In Night in the Woods:
  • Mae's house has a blue canary night light.
  • Mae can lie to Gregg about having porn pop-ups cleaned from her computer, to which he'll respond: "Why must you turn the Internet into a den of lies?"
• Night of the Living Robot: The iteration of Billy the clown that appears in this game is dubbed Wise-Billy and closely resembles the version of Pennywise in the 2017 film adaptation.
• In Nightmares from the Deep 3: Davy Jones, the screen after you come out of the maze in the mines features a fedora-wearing skeleton with a whip, which when spoken to says "Fortune and glory, lady... fortune and glory."
• The Zeppelin in Ninja Gaiden Xbox heavily resembles the Hindenburg, and goes down in flames in a similar manner. "Oh, the humanity!"
• Ninjish Guy In Low Res World: One enemy in the game is a big brown guy who throws brown blocks at you.
• One of the Reputation Quests in Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds for the Goldbeard segment involves finding someone named Jerry on a deserted island. When you get there, you find a castaway, who tells you that he doesn't want to go back to Evermore but he does want you rescue Jerry, his only friend for him. Jerry turns out to be a soccer ball.
• Nobody Saves the World:
  • Yung Venuz appears on a wanted poster in Mutown.
  • Knife Bro's training hall has swords from various other series hanging on its wall, including the Master Sword, the Monado, the Buster Sword, the Transistor, the Keyblade, the Dragon Slayer, and an Energy Sword.
  • The Stonecutters' Sacred Parchment is hanging on a wall in the N.L.O.W. headquarters.
  • One shop that is the subject of a side quest uses bottle caps as currency.
• In Nonstop Knight, an ad for gems says, "It's dangerous to go alone! Take these gems."
• In one early season of Nexus Clash, hiding anywhere had a chance to send you to the Wood Between the Worlds.
• No Umbrellas Allowed:
  • Some of the items you can buy for Darcy's secondhand store are pop-culture references:
    • The Trophy for Best Father is modeled after the Oscar Statuette.
    • The "Totem From a Film" is a spinning top.
    • One of the gaming consoles you can sell is a Tamago.
    • One of Nari's paintings, "A Hilarious Mermaid", is a muscular version of Ariel singing the reprise of "Part of Your World" as the waves crash behind her on a rock.
  • Some of the achievement titles are parodies of movie titles:
    • The achievement for buying a fake ID is called "Call Me By His Name".
    • The achievement for not reporting anyone for a week is called "The Silence of the Finger".
    • The achievement for listening to Prof. Choi's news broadcast is called "Cloudy With a Chance of Umbrellas".
  • One of the jewelry brands is called Emeralds of Oz, referencing Emerald City.
    A sorcerer's desire, Emeralds of Oz.
  • Bokho can be seen painting an Octorok by the gate of Junuk Side.
• Not Dying Today contains references to basically every zombie-related game ever made.
  • The zombie Doberman enemies looks exactly the same as those from the Resident Evil series, having their skulls and ribcages exposed thanks to exposure to the zombie virus, but capable of moving faster than human zombies.
  • There's also an insect-human hybrid zombie mook which resembles Plagas-infected victims from Resident Evil 4.
  • Meanwhile, the Final Boss, Z-Lord, wearing a thick green trench coat with a balding deformed head, seems to take design inspirations from the T-00 of Resident Evil 2 fame.
  • Zombie nurses being a recurring enemy bring Silent Hill to mind.
  • And then there's the towering zombie quarterbacks, ala Plants vs. Zombies.
  • The Super-Zombie Nurse boss, "B.G. Nurse", have an attack where she pukes a pillar of toxic blood that covers a big portion of the screen, much like the zombified heroes from Metal Slug.
  • In-between gameplay, the cutscenes (and opening cinematics) are portrayed as comic-book pages using artwork similar to the The Walking Dead graphic novels.

O

• Ōkami has several shout-outs to The Legend of Zelda, the main source of inspiration for the designers. There are also references to other Capcom games, such as Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, and Viewtiful Joe.
• Organ Trail: Director's Cut gives a quick nod to the creators of the original game with a Steam achievement called "Don, Paul and Bill's Curse"^who?Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger, which you earn by having one of your party members die of dysentery.
• Ori and the Blind Forest:
  • There are several hidden references to classic games, including a Super Mario Bros. pipe in the Sunken Glades, a Triforce engraved on a tree in Thornfelt Swamp, and a dead Meat Boy in the Forlorn Ruins.
  • A Wilhelm Scream is heard if you Bash an enemy off the highest cliff in the Valley of the Wind, whose name itself is a reference to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
  • The final credits picture is of Ori napping on Naru's belly, in the style of Mei and Totoro.
• The Other Side: Tower of Souls has a "Back to the Future" achievement, complete with a picture of sidekick Boris, a talking cat, sporting an Emmett Brown hairdo. He even lampshades it when you first travel to the past by saying "Now I look like Doc Brown."
• In Outcast, the player can stumble upon one of the natives playing the Star Wars tune on a flute.
• Overlord:
  • In Overlord: Raising Hell, in the Infernal Abyss, you come to a labyrinth, prompting Gnarl to say "Oh, great, a labyrinth. If you see any rosy-cheeked maidens whinging about Goblin Kings, or if anything starts singing...Kill them!"
  • In Overlord II, following the player's attack on a city's gate involving explosives, the game confirms the event by saying, "You've blown the bloody doors off!"

P

• Paleo Pines:
  • A few dinosaurs can have a blue and orange colour scheme called "portals"; this is a reference to the Portal series of video games, which makes use of Blue and Orange Contrast.
  • The description for the gooseberry is "Untitled Gooseberry, full of attitude", a reference to Untitled Goose Game.
• Pankapu
  • The ship that Chii forms is known as the "Chiikaruga".
  • Zoldabilly's profile page states that he believed the time had come for happy days. "Monday, Tuesday, happy days, Thursday, Friday, happy days.".
• Pâquerette Down the Bunburrows:
  • After reading Ophéline's note to not clog the elevator with fur, Pâquerette comments that the sign can't stop her even if she can read.
  • Some achievements are called "Bunstack", "I saw the bunny vent, sus", "Bunny Instrumentality Project", "Hazbun Hotel", "High-Bunneh Renmei", "The Bunos Principle" and others.
• Parkasaurus:
  • One of the "hats" is an Elizabethan collar called the Cone of Shame, a nickname that originates from Up.
  • The node on the science tree that unlocks the second-tier garbage bins is called Captain Planet.
  • One of the decorations added in the Sea Monsters DLC is a pineapple house, like the one Sponge Bob Squarepants lives in.
• Perfect Dark:
  • Both games feature the "MagSec 4", a large handgun which fires in bursts. It's essentially the Auto 9 of RoboCop fame with a lighter paint scheme and a different name.
  • In Zero, Jack Dark's Heroic Sacrifice scene, where he draws enemy fire away from Joanna while she escapes, then is shot point-blank in the head by Mai Hem while on his knees after running out of ammo, almost exactly echoes Law Bruford's death at the hands of Cecile Newcastle in WinBack.
• Pikmin 2: The Man-at-Legs' scientific name is Pseudoarachnia navaronia, and it has a built-in machine gun. It's The Guns of Navarone.
• Pixelo: The background called Animal Farm has "All animals are equal" as the description.
• Pony Island:
  • There are multiple references to Undertale:
    • Louey himself is obviously a reference to Flowey. Aside from names, they both use "howdy, friend" and look innocent at first.
    • If you answer "Chara" when Hopeless Soul asks for your name, he will say "You might be in the wrong game."
    • Asmodeus talks to you in nothing but a black screen with slowly advancing text and ominous music and attacks the screen if you answer his questions wrong, like in Mettaton's first battle.
    • Checking the Credits in Pony Island 3D only gets the message "Credit Where Credit Is Due," written in a mix of Comic Sans, Papyrus, and Wingdings.
  • One of the files when you exit to the desktop for the first time is called MissingNo. Interesting because it's a shout-out to a famous glitch in a game that's all about fixing and exploiting glitches.
  • One of the glitched option screens has a list of "Yes, No, Maybe, I Don't Know, and Can You Repeat the Question".
  • The way the colored version of Pony Island starts out as a bright and cheerful world and gradually decays into something more nightmarish is more than a little reminiscent of Eversion, including trees withering away and the screen briefly flickering at some points to a screen showing only a setting sun that looks similar to Eversion's World 4.
  • The I AM ERROR Room has ERROR with a design very similar to that other game he was in.
• Potion Punch: Besides the Captain Ersatzes of pop-culture characters appearing as special guests, the achievements are also pop-culture references:
  • The achievement for selling 1,000 Stamina Gels is called "Stamina mina, eh eh".
  • The achievement for selling 1,000 Snake Swizzlers is called "Parseltongue".
  • The achievement for playing the game 28 days in a row is called "Monthy Python".
• Power Stone: Wang-Tang is a homage to Goku from Dragon Ball, complete with a Super Saiyan-esque transformation, and is even voiced by a woman (Megumi Ogata), which also applies for Goku's Japanese voice. The game also shares its name with a special weapon from another Capcom game.
• Prehistoric Kingdom:
  • Nigel Marven being involved in the running of a park full of prehistoric animals is a clear reference to his role in Prehistoric Park, with him even stating in one of his quotes about Triceratops that he “prefers names beginning with T” for the genus, in reference to Prehistoric Park’s resident Triceratops Theo.
  • The Torvosaurus’ Volcanic skin has colourations very similar to the Torvosaurus from Dinosaur Revolution, particularly in the head region
  • There are, of course, numerous references to Jurassic Park and the rest of the Jurassic franchise:
    • One of the maps just so happens to be on Costa Rica
    • Among the messages that flash by on the loading screens - next to "Ruffling feathers..." and "Going back in time..." is "Sparing no Expense..."
    • One of Nigel Marven’s quotes about Tyrannosaurus states that “your favourite dinosaur movie” depicted T. rex as having poor eyesight
    • Nigel Marven’s advisory role in this game is highly reminiscent of the park staff from Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis and Jurassic World: Evolution
• The Prince of Landis:
  • Evan's friend at school is a kid named Dustin.
  • In the second day in school, Dustin asks Evan is he saw Ninja Turtles last night.
• In Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, push 20 enemies off ledges and you get an achievement titled "This is Persia!"
• In Project Hospital, the achievement for building an inaccessible room is called "You shall not pass!"
• Pumpkin Jack: The hook-weapon you get after beating the Scarecrow bares a striking resemblance to a Cooper Family cane.

Q

• The Quest for Glory series contains a number of these.
  • The most prominent example takes place in Quest for Glory I, where the player is required to answer three questions in order to enter Erasmus's castle. The whole sequence is a direct reference to the similar one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The VGA version also includes "I want to be a pirate" as a possible answer.
  • In Quest for Glory V, if the main character drowns, the game over text mentions Guybrush Threepwood's ability to hold his breath for 10 minutes.
• Quilts & Cats of Calico:
  • The achievement for finishing a non-Story Mode game with the Rainbow Button is called "Somewhere, Over the rainbow".
  • The letter that the Cat Whisperer leaves behind in the epilogue reads, "Meow the Force be with you."

R

• The first phase of the boss of Raiden IV's second stage looks and behaves similarly to the stage 2 boss of DonPachi, while the third boss, which consists of multiple ships that first attack separately then combine, was apparently inspired by the third boss of Konami's old Raiden clone Lightning Fighters.
• Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army:
  • There's a homeless NPC that you can encounter in Chapter 2 early on. After you bribe the Lucky Charm out of his hands, you can read his mind again to reveal him saying "You all assume I'm safe here in my hood, unless I try to start again." This is a shout out to Linkin Park's song, "Breaking the Habit".
  • Also in Chapter 2, Oboroguruma, a ghost car that appears at the full moon, says this:
    Oboroguruma: IN tHe NaMe of ThE fULl mOOn, I wIll PuNiSh YOu!
• Rakuen:
  • One of the paintings in Monsieur Bud's mansion is of him observing two people dancing inside of a lighthouse.
  • A recurring NPC seen in Morizora's Forest is a singing sunflower. Creator Laura Shigihara's first big break was composing the music for the game, as well as voicing the Sunflower.
  • As a more general RPG reference the frog the Boy finds and hopes to keep as a pet is named Glenn. The Boy's mother also mentions during one of her dialogues that she used to play a videogame where the characters traveled through various time periods.
  • There is also the obvious parallel between Gemma & Winston and Romeo & Juliet.
• Randal's Monday is filled with references to everything, from The Lord of the Rings to The Legend of Zelda to Terminator.
• Freebie MMO Rappelz has many NPCs in the first area directly named after characters from the Ogre Battle strategy RPG series, at least in the English version.
• The Revenge of Shinobi features a boss fight with Spider-Man. And when you defeat him, he turns into Batman. Watch this video.
• The Re-Volt RC car driving game has two tracks called "Toys in the Hood", set in peaceful suburbs.
• Revolution X has several of these.
  • Mondor's nonplussed reaction to getting its legs blown off. "It's only a flesh wound!"
  • The credits end with a "Llamas Trained by" credit, and the screen starts flashing to complete the reference.
  • Steven Tyler crying out, "TOASTY!", when you shoot the Skull Bomb. Well, this was made at the height of Kombatmania. Not to mention it's the same developer.
  • In the Middle East level, Mortal Kombat II machines can be found.
  • "Welcome to the real Pleasuredome!" (Good ending only.)
  • Blow up the school bus in the Middle East and you get a screen informing you that "School's Out... Forever."
  • The New Order Nation's logo looks like a parody of the Nine Inch Nails logo.
  • The game itself is a nuttier take on Kilroy Was Here. A lot nuttier.
• In Roots of Pacha, Garrek's dance is reminiscent of Gangnam Style. He even calls it "Garrek Style".
• One of the items in Rule of Rose is a storybook titled The Little Princess. No, not that one. Although both the book and game explore the journey of an emotionally repressed orphan girl struggling to retain her moral integrity when faced with the stark realities of life in Victorian England, so the mistake is understandable.
• One of the spear-type weapons in Rune Factory 5 is the 'Safety Lance', which looks like a giant cotton bud, or q-tip. Its description states that 'We can stab if we want to!'

S

• The arcade game San Francisco Rush 2049 has, on the cabinet, a telephone-style numpad for entering your password for your in-game account. It's also used in-game to activate codes. One such code, "8675309#", is an obvious reference to the song "867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone. Entering this code will end your current game.
• The Sapling: According to a devlog, the triple tube-shaped eyes added in the sea & sandbox update are a reference to Alien Biospheres.
• The eroge Schoolmate 2 has a scene where the female protagonist (or rather one of the ghosts that's possessing her) finds a vibrator that she'll soon put to good use. She warns you of her discovery by lifting the vibrator up to the air while singing "Ta da da daaaa!!!".
• The three episodes of Secret Agent are named "The Hunt For Red Rock Rover" (the RRR being the MacGuffin you're after in this episode), "Kill Again Island", and "Dr. No Body".
• Sensoy Overload has, at one point, a random maze of identical rooms, eventually leading to a secret item, the Silencer. When you enter the maze, it says "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike", an obvious Colossal Cave shoutout.
• Septerra Core has a shout-out to the "Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?" scene from Star Wars: A New Hope when Maya infiltrates Connors's pirate base. The number 1138 crops up in the form of an override password.
• In The 7th Guest, Stauf's "welcome to my house" speech seems to be a reference to The Legend Of Hell House.
• Shadow Hearts:
  • The Wolf Bout in Shadow Hearts Covenant features several references to the Gundam franchise. For example, the Black Dog Stars are based on the short-lived Goldfish Poop Gang of the original series, while Blanca's ultimate move, Red Comet, is a Shout-Out to the nickname of recurring Gundam character Char Aznable.
  • From the New World:
    • A convict named Smith in Alcatraz asks you to spread a message to his ally Murdock. Murdock tells you to give the message to Peck, and Peck asks you to send the message to Baracus. Sound familiar?
  • The Erick Theatre on Chelsea in New York City is showing The Phantom of the Opera.
• Shadow of the Wool Ball: Apart from some textures outright based on the decoration from Wolfenstein 3-D, there's the secret level "Smells of Doom", which has kittens dressed up like the protagonist from Doom, as well as "Nostalgia Park", which contains areas using textures from Wolfenstein 3D and Prince of Persia, complete with animatronics of enemies from the respective games.
• Shadow Warrior (1997) has a few, including:
  • A strung-up Lara Croft.
    Lo Wang: She's raided her last tomb!
  • A tomb, presumably belonging to Jackie Chan, if Lo Wang's remark is anything to go by.
  • Pick up a second Uzi and Lo Wang will say "Be proud, Mister Woo."
• Sherlock Holmes:
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is packed with these. Not only is the game itself a pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle and H. P. Lovecraft, but two major characters under investigation (Dr. Gygax and Lord Arneson), as well as the authors of several reference books Holmes consults, are named for RPG designers. Plus, there's a cameo appearance by a little Belgian kid on a train, whose name just happens to be Hercule Poirot.
  • In the "sequel", Sherlock Holmes Versus Arsène Lupin, you need to take a picture of a bat to stun it (long story). When you look at the picture, sure enough, the shadow looks exactly like a famous insignia. And then the guard says to take it to a man named Wayne, as it was his camera.
• Shift 4 has the ending make a reference to Shaft, but the series as a whole creates lots of shout outs to Portal:
  "The timer is a lie!"
• In Shonen Idle Z, there are the enemies Astrakid, iCRTOPUS, and Metalic Slime. The helpers resemble characters like Master Roshi and Lucca. The protagonist's outfit can be made to look like the Dragon Ball Z Gi or Battle Armor with scouter.
• Morgan Industries, one of the factions from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, has a subdivision called Morgansoft. Its slogan: "Where do you want your node today?" — a not-so-subtle reference to a Microsoft and their then-ongoing "where do you want to go today?" ad campaign.
• In SimEarth, you can advance the evolution of a species with a square black Monolith. Also, when the planet's civilisation reaches a high enough level, the cities turn themselves into starships and lift off from the planet, possibly a reference to James Blish's Cities in Flight.
• SINoALICE:
  • Sleeping Beauty's Paladin Class story references Sun, Moon, and Talia, another variant of her story.
  • When pulling the Grimoire, there is a chance for Parrah/Gishin to do the Shun Goku Satsu on Noya/Anki. This exchanges 1 A weapon for a shiny book that's either an S or SS/SR weapon.
  • The Shadowlord's skill as a Nightmare is named 'For Whom the Bell Splashes'.
  • In the Manga, one of the news reporters discussing recent murders in Tokyo resembles 2B and even reports for the 2B Channel.
  • The 'Yokubo Robo MKII' heavily resembles the Gurren, complete with a blue version of Kamina's shades.
  • The preview video for the Kaguya/Spacesuit job from the Dorothy's Workshop series snuck in 2: a variation of Neil Armstrong's famous "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"^noteThat's one small step for female, one giant leap for mankind quote, and the 'To be continued' meme from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
• The Skeleton: The mode that pits you against a small army of skeletons is known as "Spooky Scary Skeletons Mode".
• In Soda Dungeon, the pet Dasha references Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Masks and hairstyles in the customize menu reference Crono from Chrono Trigger, Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, Wakka from Final Fantasy X, the mask from The Mask, the Guy Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta, Trap Jaw from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), Ghostface's mask from Scream (1996), and Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. The Lair of Despair monsters reference Barney & Friends, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Cast Away, Duck Hunt, Pokémon, Super Mario Bros., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, KFC, Love Lamps, Ring Pops, and Troll Dolls.
• The achievements of Solasta: Crown of the Magister contain a lot of references to pop culture:
  • Surviving a Critical Hit is the requirement for the achievement Just a flesh wound. Killing an enemy with your own critical hit grants How do you want to do this?
  • Identify 20 magic items and you get the achievement Stay awhile and listen.
  • Exploiting Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors for the first time gives you an achievement titled It's Super Effective!
  • The achievements for killing 20 enemies in a single campaign each with Cold and Poison damage are respectively Ice Ice Baby and Ah, sweet toxicity!
  • Creating a Cleric grants the achievement I need healing!, a Wizard grants Yer a wizard, Henry, a Barbarian grants To crush your enemies, a Druid grants I speak for the trees and a Monk grants I know Kung Fu.
  • Kill Mardracht and you get an achievement titled You get nothing! Good day sir!
• Solomon's Keep has a Gauntlet reference. There's a chance for the evil necromancer himself to appear on a cleared floor to whack the player wizard's hit points really low. After which he says: "Muahahahaha! Blue Wizard needs potion badly!"
• So Many Me: One of the costumes you can collect in the game is called "Grimm", and looks like a certain area-corrupting troll.
• Soma Spirits: To A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: The Long Rope's Flavor Text is a reference to that, another RPG Maker game, which is distributed at the same site as the freeware version of Soma Spirits:
  A very long rope that doesn't quite reach the top of the sky.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • The series is fairly laden with obvious references, especially with the Death Egg (originating in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and seen many times since) and Super Sonic (also originated in Sonic 2). But there's also less obvious ones, such as G.U.N, a play on S.H.I.E.L.D..
  • Eggman is a reference to the I Am The Walrus song.
  • Eggman's robot storage facility in Sonic Battle is named Gimme Shelter.
  • A quest in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood tasks you with retrieving a shopkeeper's prized possession in exchange for a piece of Eggman's old tech, which is needed to advance the story. The missing item in question? The shopkeeper's beloved red stapler.
• Soulcalibur: The fourth game features the "Tower of Lost Souls" mode, which has similar reward functions to The Tower of Druaga.
• In Soul Nomad & the World Eaters, when Christophe sends the hero and his/her group off to fight one of the World Eaters, Danette demands to know its special powers and weaknesses:
  Gig: ...it can fly at like 5 million miles an hour. It has heat vision, it can breathe super-freezing air, and it can shoot freaking lasers from its eyes. Oh, but it can't see through lead, and it's totally weak to a certain element from its home world.
  Danette: R-really?
  Hero: No. He just stole that from somewhere.
• In Space Rangers 2, there's a disease that you can catch that makes you see strange things in space, including the Death Star, the battle between Red Squadron and Darth Vader's wings, and the Babylon 5 station.
• Spandex Force 2: Superhero U has a "Professor Stormbringer" as well as a "Lighting Lad" who claims he misspelled the name on his application. During Professor Blizzard Wizard's Christmas speech he states "And also, to So-and-So, for cool logic in the face of danger, I award Chimeron House fifty points."
• In Spectre (1991), the flying Hunter-Killers resemble the HK-Aerial gunships from the Future War in The Terminator.
• In The Spectrum Retreat, most of the achievements you get for completing levels are references to the song "Hotel California" by Eagles.
• Spider-Man: Web of Shadows features Spidey remarking, "You know what? Chicken butt", at least if you're running it on PSP.
• Spider-Man Trilogy:
  • Spider-Man 2:
    • Aside from having the usual Shout-Outs to Spider-Man and the Marvel Universe in general, the game also includes a considerably more subtle Shout-Out to a completely different work. The Shout-Out comes in the form of a random piece of dialogue you might hear from some thugs on the street.
      "Time for a little of the ole ultraviolence."
    • There's also Mysterio saying "Clatto Verata Nicto!" and "YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME!"
  • Spider-Man 3 has Spidey telling villains "I'd heard you were a cowardly and superstitious bunch..."
• Spiritfarer:
  • Raccoon Inc, the main business that you buy goods from throughout the game, mimics Tom Nook's business Nook Inc. from the Animal Crossing series. It's staffed by various raccoons (or tanukis, Gwen isn't quite sure) all named Theodore, and has a reputation for being a harsh Predatory Business reminiscent of a long-standing interpretation by Animal Crossing fans of Tom Nook being a sleazy businessman.
  • The description for sawdust reads that it's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
  • The names of the three turtles (Olga, Masha, and Irina) are taken from Anton Chekov's play Three Sisters, which the artbook lists as Stella's favorite piece of literature.
  • Upon offering Gwen a cup of coffee, her favorite food item, she proclaims it to be "a damn fine cup of coffee."
  • Among Buck's figurines are a man with an absurdly huge sword in a red cloak between a man with white hair and armor and a dark-skinned woman, both wielding more reasonable swords. Seems the guy is a fan of Berserk. He also has a Conan the Barbarian poster and a pair of hobbit figurines.
  • While it could be a coincidence, the description of sugar cane is "That cane will sure come in candy!" Puns aside, that's exactly how another charming psychopomp offered a comfortable journey into the afterlife, though admittedly on a tighter budget.
  • There's a twofer in the mint trading card — it's for "Sorcery: the Reunion" and the narration hopes it's a Black Thunder Lotus.
  • The description of the Valuable Ring:
    A beautiful specimen of the one true ring. But this one doesn't rule anything, except your wallet.
  • This is a pretty obscure one, but it has to do with a Mondegreen. In the song "Our Lips Are Sealed" by The Go-Go's, the titular line is sometimes misheard as "Alex the Seal." The seal which runs the bus stops is named Alex. Also, one of the game achievements is called "Sealed Lips."
  • The self-help books you can add to Jackie's On-Call Room are described to be written by "self-help professionals such as Bobson Dugnutt and Dwigt Rortugal". These names come from the Japanese version of the SNES game localized as Fighting Baseball, where the Japanese developers didn't have the rights to use the names of real MLB players and made up American-sounding names instead. A list of several of them went viral online around 2017.
  • Francis's errand to give him three different kinds of tuna in exchange for five jars of honey is called "Honey, I Shrunk the Fishes".
  • One of the residents at Edgeborough Lane says, "When the sun hits that dumpster just right, you can really smell the dead fish."
• 'Splosion Man makes a Shout-Out in the process of pointing out that something else in the game isn't actually a Shout-Out — the achievement for getting all the Cakes is called "This is not a Portal reference."
• SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge:
  • The bonus levels take place in an Amusement Park called "Six Clams Adventure Park".
  • There is a "Sponge-Signal" high in the sky in the background on the box art.
• There are a lot of strange creature in Spore, but one of the stranger Maxis-created ones are the Barney Empire. And yes, they are purple dinosaurs. Oddly enough, they also live in close proximity with the Grox, which might say something about Barney...
• One of the Specimens from Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion was intentionally designed to resemble the Happy Mask Salesman from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
• Spyro the Dragon:
  • There's one in Spyro the Dragon (1998) to Parappa The Rapper. In the "Gnorc Cove" level, when Spyro rescues Tomas, at the end of their conversation Spyro goes "You gotta believe!" in a similar tone to that of Parappa.
  • Spyro: Year of the Dragon:
    • In the level "Desert Ruins", there's an explorer called Tara, who is a not-so-subtle parody of Lara Croft. Not only does she have large... bazoomas, when she sees Spyro, she complains that she spends "all day moving crates, and pushing switches", only for someone else to come and steal her treasure.
    • There is one in Shelia the Kangaroo's stages. Unlike the rest of the game, it's almost completely viewed from the side. Its name? "Krash Kangaroo".
    • The first-person shooter section with goals entitled "You're Doomed!" and "You're Still Doomed!".
    • Moneybags claims that Sgt. Byrd is pining for the fjords. Not that children would get that one.
    • In Enchanted Towers, one task involves rescuing a wolf called Farley, and returning them to their owner, named Mowat. At one point, Mowat says "[...] Don't cry, wolf, never cry, wolf...". The entire thing is a Shout-Out to the book Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat.
  • A T. rex-shaped robot enemy Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly is known as the R-1000. It is an obvious reference to the T-1000 of Terminator 2: Judgment Day fame, right down to the liquid metal construction.
  • Spyro: A Hero's Tail has a scene where the Professor advises Spyro on what he needs to reach a level. Most of his suggestions are shout outs to other games.
• In Stacklands, the Plank item card is depicted with a crudely-drawn smiling face on it, one that makes it look exactly like Johnny 2x4's Companion Cube pal Plank from Ed, Edd n Eddy.
• In Stampede Run, one of the victory poses has that character doing the "Gangnam Style" dance.
• Star Control series has enough Shout-Outs to earlier works of science fiction to have a long "Influences and References" list on its own wiki. Perhaps the most obvious is the roster of human starship pilots, which includes such names as Kirk, Solo, and Adama — as well as literary Shout-Outs such as Ender, Halleck, Pirx, Van Rijn, and Spiff. Several are hidden inside Technobabble; especially subtle is a reference to Roadside Picnic. Even The Princess Bride gets a plug.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds features the Imperial basic troops (unsurprisingly, stormtroopers) announcing "THX-1138 ready, sir."
  • When the player is doing well while playing as Han Solo in Star Wars: Battlefront II, an enemy stormtrooper will occasionally exclaim, "Hey! Solo shot first! That's not fair!", a clear reference to Han's confrontation with Greedo at Mos Eisley in the original Star Wars movie.
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has a few.
  • The most obvious one is Bastila, who is a slightly more developed version of Aribeth from an earlier BioWare game.
  • "Canderous" was also the name of a minor NPC in Castlekeep.
  • The 2001 Xbox game Star Wars: Obi-Wan, set before and during the events of The Phantom Menace, ends on a bizarre parody of the "Choose life" monologue from Trainspotting. It's an obvious Actor Allusion to Ewan McGregor's roles in both films, but The Other Darrin Lewis Macleod plays him as a lot more Scottish than Obi-Wan ever sounds in the films, while also making reference to a lot of characters Obi-Wan never met.
  "Choose the Force. Choose a job. Choose the Dark Side. Choose the Council. Choose a flubbing big lightsaber. Choose protocol droids, holoprojectors, and R2 units. Choose Watto, Tatooine, and Alderaan. Choose fixed-interest credit payments to Sebulba. Choose a Corellian freighter that did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. Choose a Wookiee. Choose sitting in Jabba's throne room, watching mind-numbing dancers, stuffing green chubas into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, disappearing into thin air, nothing more than an embarrassment to the whiny kid you trained on the way to Alderaan. Choose your destiny. Choose the Force. But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose the Dark Side. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got a lightsaber?"
• Starcrystal Episode I: Mertactor: The Volentine Gambit. The instruction book for the game says that one possible job on the planet Mertactor is collecting the droppings of Beck's Beasts. It says "When your grandchildren ask 'What did you do in the Fifth Frontier War?', you can say 'I shoveled dung on Mertactor'". This is a reference to a line in the movie Patton where the title general says that if your grandson "asks you 'What did you do in the great World War II?', you won't have to say 'Well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana'".
• Startropics has a Moai head as a boss in one of its later levels.
• The Shin Megami Tensei game Strange Journey has a skill called Bites The Dust, which turns the target into a living bomb.
• SteamWorld Dig has a hidden area in the Old World stage, where you find a half-destroyed video game shop deep in the caves. It's adorned with Half-Life 3 logos and posters ("It's Finally Here!"). It also has a line of skeletons who were presumably queuing for launch day - shame about the world ending first. One of them is even wearing a rather familiar HEV suit...
• Sticky Business: In Plan With Me:
  • William Forger's username is "@will.i.am".
  • The achievement for completing Violet and Emily's storyline is called "Smells Like Sticker Spirit".
• Strangeland: The close-up shot of the stranger talking on the payphone is a visual reference to Phone Booth.
• In Strawberry Vinegar:
  • If Rie refuses Licia's deal:
    Rie: I know about Dr. Faustus, and I know what happens to people who make contracts with demons.
  • Licia mentions that her mother loves the manga Silky Mami and Violet of Versailles.
  • Rie knows a concerning amount about the H-scenes in Fate/stay night:
    Rie: And you don't know anything about mollusks, or carnivorous plants, or honey pots?
    Licia: Ehehe...I really don't know what you're talking about. Is it some kind of code?
    Rie: I-in a matter of speaking, I suppose.
  • The online forum Licia's sister visits where she posts pictures of anime girls and tells people to kill themselves. Licia says her sister gets really mad every time she gets on it, but for whatever reason keeps going on it. A certain real website comes to mind.
  • The name of a waitress changes to Sadako after Rie comments on how her complexion and black hair make her look like she should be in a horror movie.
• Streets of Rage 3 has a trio of Ninja Mooks named Mifune, Kosugi, and Chiba.
• String Tyrant has a few:
  • The testaments and best gear are all tributes to Bloodborne
  • The achievement picture for getting the golden ending on the hardest difficulty is a reference to one of the Studio's other NSFW projects.
  • The person who made all the dolls that populate the manor is named Pygmalie, in reference to Pygmalion Plot.
• At one point towards the end of The Suffering, you can answer a phone that isn't actually ringing to get a warning from a girl that you will die in seven days.
• In Suikoden, the home base of the characters is always somewhere near water — it's actually an enormous ship, in the most extreme case. This is a subtle Shout-Out to the novel from which the series gains its name and some of its themes — including the recurring 108 characters — in which the bandit protagonists are based out of a marsh.
• Summon Night:
  • Summon Night: Swordcraft Story has standard Mythology Gags to the main series, but Atlus added at least one Shout-Out in it. "I love the knuckle. It's so bad."
  • Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2:
    • A sword in the game has the Flavor Text of "Who You Gonna Call"?
    • The protagonist says the line "Don't call me Shirley!" from Airplane!.
• In Sumomo Theater, a parody of Wonder Momo, enemies resemble a female GeGeGe no Kitarō, the floating samurai-helmeted boss from Getsu Fuma Den, the zombies in Ghosts 'n Goblins, fire-breathing ninjas from The Ninja Warriors, horned enemies from the arcade version of Rygar, the hoverbike riders in Seicross, the avian pilot from Sky Kid, the Rick Dom mecha in Space Harrier, blue ghosts from Spelunker, and the wizard from The Tower of Druaga.
• Super Kiwi 64: In the Doomsday campaign, there are some cardboards modeled after the main character of MacBat 64: Journey of a Nice Chap.
• Super Robot Wars contains an incredible number of Shout Outs to the mecha genre, which should come as little surprise as the entire series can be considered a virtual love-letter to the genre and its fans.
  • One famous example is Ryusei Date, an Ascended Fanboy who yells out phrases from his favorite shows while in battle.
  • Some of the mecha unique to the game were made as homages to others; the most famous of these are the Grungust series, made to resemble Mazinger Z and its brethren, and the Huckebein series, which look like dead-ringers for Gundams. In their first appearances, they even went so far as to give one of the Huckebein's alternate colors the familiar red, white and blue scheme.
  • Original Generation 2:
    • In the ending to several members of the team are re-assigned to a remote base in Russia called Gandum. Ryusei seems to find the name awfully familiar...
    • Earlier in the game, Masaki gives another character the nickname of "Comet", as she's The Rival of a third character known as "Shooting Star", and happens to be piloting a red fighter. One of Masaki's cats starts to say "So should we call you the Red...", but is interrupted before she can complete her sentence. This sure sounds familiar to some rivalry in a Humongous Mecha show...
    • Excellen accidentally refers to the machine Calion as the "Galion". Galeon is the name of the lion that turns into GaoGaiGar.
  • In Original Generations, Excellen Browning shows her own brand of nerdiness, especially when she references Back to the Future.
  • In games where they appear together, Amuro Ray and Misato Katsuragi flirt constantly, a reference to the fact that their voice actors played Usagi and Mamoru in Sailor Moon. As well, many characters will note how they sound similar to other characters.
  • Mio Sasuga from the Masou Kishin sub-series of Super Robot Wars brings us a Fist of the North Star shout out, especially in Alpha Gaiden where attacking with her Zamzeed's Chou Shin Dou Ken had her yelling Kenshiro's battle cry "Atatatatatata!" and ending with his Catchphrase "Omae wa mou shinderu ...Just kidding!"
  • In addition to the general influence from and gags related to mecha series, Super Robot Wars contains a massive degree of homages, pastiches, and general shout-outs to every thinkable medium. In Super Robot Wars UX, for example, the protagonist quotes (or comes very close to quoting) quite a bit of dialogue from Shigotonin, one of the nicest-looking attacks performed by the originals is a shout out to one of that series' most iconic sequences, and one of the major themes associated with the heroes is a clear musical parallel to it's musical intro.
  • Super Robot Wars V:
    • The Shadow Army mooks, after being critically damaged by a Gundam, will ask if it's equipped with Shingan Sensor. This is actually a reference to "Hidden Shadow of G", an extremely obscure UC Gundam spinoff about a ninja Gundam fighting other mobile suit ninjas.
    • An equally obscure one happens in the "Three Strengths" DLC mission, where Kouji compliments Shinji, saying that he was a "warrior of miracle", referencing the name of the cheesy, super robot-esque insert song of the Sega Saturn Evangelion game.
  • Super Robot Wars X: Mazinkaiser is the next in line to pay homage to Raoh's Dying Moment of Awesome by uppercut-firing its Kaiser Nova towards its target in the skies, complete with the same angled shots.
• Super Smash Bros. Crusade has a Sandvich from Team Fortress 2 as a recovery item. Unlike in TF2, though, this is a regular food recovery item and doesn't recover all your damage.
• Supreme Commander 2 has a subtle Firefly Shout-Out late in the game:
  Which one should I attack first?
  The ugly one.
  .....could you be more specific?
• Sword Of Chaos:
  • "For the alliance!" —Centaur, Pleiadene Temple.
  • "Queen Humbaba is angry. You won't like her when she's angry--" —Crucifer, Green Courtyard description.
  • "I was also once an adventurer. Until I was hit in the knee by an arrow..." —Arena Officer
• In Swordigo, a man hands the hero a sword, and says, "Before you go, take this sword. It's dangerous to go unarmed."
• Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan
  • In the first temple, you can converse with a Mayan who wonders why the merchants selling things for money don't just break the pots containing all the gems they want. His final line is "Knowing is half the battle.".
  • Upon giving the Ka'ak Tablet to Bit'Hed, he will activate the magical disappearing and reappearing floating block platforms.
  • Before growing Kukulkan to the size of a house, Kinich Ahau tells Sydney he's gonna die a Suda51 death, and shouts "Kukulkan Strikes Again!!!".
• In Symphony of War, after returning from the dead, the player character's class becomes "Lord". A heavily armored sword wielder who calls lighting from the sky to strike down an entire enemy squad. In Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen the player character is also has the lord class, with a similar attack (if of neutral alignment) while wielding a sword.
• The Space Elevator in Syndicate Wars is placed in Sri Lanka. This is also home of Arthur C. Clarke, who popularised the idea in fiction.

T

• Freeware puzzle game TAG: The Power of Paint features a neat Shout-Out. In the game, different color paints give you different powers when you walk over them. And red paint makes you go faster.
• In Tales of Lagoona 2: Peril at Poseidon Park:
  • Some of the quests are called "You've captured their stunt doubles!", "My voice is my passport", "I'm the map", "I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay", and "Say 'cello' to my little friend". The latter's description says that every time two rival orchestras get together in a back alley "finger-snapping and drum solos" take place.
  • Leona's grandfather says "Holy barnacles, Batmanatee!" when he sees the park improvements.
  • A Barnacle Falls Bulletin headline states "Aperture Science lies about cake for test subjects, lawsuit pending."
  • A quicksand-making puzzle says to watch out for "rodents of unusual size".
  • Two of the characters are named Peabody and Sherman.
• Tales Series:
  • The series as a whole likes to reference other Namco-Bandai games. Pac-Man is a favourite — there's a Pac-Man sculpture in Flanoir in Tales of Symphonia, and Jade Curtiss's belt is shaped like Pac-Man in Tales of the Abyss.
  • In Tales of Phantasia, Cress can equip a set of ten items from The Tower of Druaga to receive the title "Gilgamesh". The same title and a similar set of items exist for Zelos Wilder in Tales of Symphonia, which is also a prequel to Phantasia.
  • Tales of Symphonia features the recurring phrase "Give me your name and I'll give you mine," from the Dwarf-raised Lloyd.
• In Tap Adventure: Time Travel, Fiery Fox may be a reference to Firefox.
• In Tap My Katamari, in a victory screen, the Prince says, "One does not simply roll a Katamari..."
• In Tap Tap Infinity, there is the zombie Lurch, the frog soldiers Spartan and Prince Leomitus, and the red bat Rhed'it.
• Tap Titans:
  • In the first game, the hero Twitterella the Tweeter is a reference to Twitter. The enemy Nicholson is a reference to Jack Nicholson.
  • Tap Titans 2 has the heroes Sawyer and Zato, there is a blue spiked shell helmet, and there are the Titans Ackkuh, Dead Poo, G.L.A.H. and D.O.S., Great Old One, Drakecula, Munster Man, Sir Paul Beat, Starry Ringo, Tony Stalk, and Witty Birb John.
• In the ZX Spectrum game Techno Cop, one crime to which the player is called is "Baby being crushed". The perp's name is Charles Paisley, the "baby crusher" mentioned in the Piranha brothers sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants In Manhattan:
  • After you beat Wingnut, he flies off on a flying machine similar to the Green Goblin's glider.
  • Before the climax of the game, Michelangelo says "All your base are belong to us" with Krang's robot-head.
• Teenagent:
  • Mark Hopper mentions even Obelix has friends besides being fat.
  • Mark Hopper mentions he always liked Star Wars.
• Temtem:
  • The Kickstarter trailer included two players, Fry and Leela, joining forces for a cooperative battle.
  • Trainers are referred to as Tamers, much like Digimon.
  • Monsters are kept in cards.
  • A tamer named Olayinka in the Chini Grotto resembles Korra.
  • In Arbury (an island based on Great Britain), there's a ginger woman named Mèrida who's looking for her bow, just like the protagonist of Brave.
  • Also in Arbury is Lady Romanescu, a parody of Lady Dimitrescu. Down to jokes about her ass.
  • If you try to go to another room in the Evershifting Tower without choosing a starter first, a dialogue box says "It's dangerous to go alone!", a reference the old man's iconic line in The Legend of Zelda when he gives Link the sword.
  • Chromeon's Tempedia entry begins with the line "Chrome-chrome-Chromeoooon, you come and gooo...", a reference to "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club.
  • Halzhi is partially named after HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey; Skail and Skunch are named after Skaven, the rodent-people from Warhammer; and Oceara is named after the Mearas Mearas, a breed of wild horses from Lord of the Rings.
  • Hoglip and Hedgine's "Gotta Go Fast" trait is named after the memetic opening line of the Sonic X theme song.
  • The description of Psychosis says "Never take a shower before checking you're really alone," a reference to the famous shower murder from Psycho.
• Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura - Eternal Heart is a Tetris: The Grand Master Licensed Game spinoff based on Cardcaptor Sakura. The goal is to clear seven jeweled blocks rather than make lines. This objective was adapted into a game mode in Tetris: The Grand Master 3 - Terror-Instinct. Heboris, a fan clone of TGM, features a similar mode called Tomoyo.
• ThanksKilling Day: Whenever the killer pilgrim manages to kill the kid, the Final Fantsy theme plays over the Game Over screen.
• In Theta vs Pi 7, you talk with a piano player early on who is less than impressed. He claims that even his plumber is a better adventurer than you.
• Some of Thunder Force V's bosses are named after bands: for instance, Deep Purple for Stage 1, and Iron Maiden for Stage 2.
• Timberborn: The flavour text for the medical bed begins with "'Tis but a scratch!", a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• Time Gal has one, but only in Japan: in one of the death scenes in 1588, Reika is chased by a shark. What does she say while this is happening? "JAAAAAAAAAWZUUUUUUUUU!" In the U.S. version, when swinging on a vine in 65,000,000 B.C., she attempts a Tarzan scream.
• The first motorcycle level in Tomb Raider: Legend is a shoutout to the ending of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
• Totem Tribe has a series of stones with mostly-helpful information along the coast of the game's various islands. On Monkey Island, one of them says "Guybrush Threepwood was here."
• Toy Story 3: Once you get deeper into the Haunted House, the game starts playing "Grim Grinning Ghosts".
• Seeing as how Transformers: War for Cybertron is basically High Moon Studio's love letter to the childhoods of boys who grew up in The '80s, the whole game runs on Shout-Outs to the Transformers universe.
  • What isn't a blatant re-purposing of content from other continuities is simply Pragmatic Adaptation: turning Megatron's alt mode from a pistol to a tank is one of them.
  • Clearer examples are often used for the names of achievements. For example, if you kill two snipers within 5 seconds of each other, you are rewarded with the achievement "Targetmaster".^note For those who aren't Transfans, the Targetmasters was a line of toys produced during Generation 1.
  • Props go out to the boss battle with Soundwave during the Autobot half of the Campaign mode. After the player hasn't seen hide nor hair of Rumble, Frenzy, or Laserbeak during the three missions where you can play as Soundwave, and possibly as a mild Shout-Out in his possession of the Sentry ability, he produces all three during the boss encounter, and they are in fact integral to defeating the monotone fiend.
  • The entire game is basically a re-imaging of the backstory to G1, with a TV series following up on it planned. It has Shout-Outs to every other Western Transformers thrown in for good measure. Actually explaining how Starscream went from a scientist and friend of Jetfire to a treacherous Decepticon is a nice touch.
  • Transformers: Fall of Cybertron continues the tradition, with Slug (formerly Slag) quoting his entrance from The Transformers: The Movie. Plenty of other pop up as well, including Starscream's crown from his coronation scene in the same film.
• Transistor:
  • The Bracket Towers Maintenance Section has the code 0451, which is famously used as the initial door code in System Shock, and many games referencing this since. (Which is itself a reference to Fahrenheit 451.)
  • In a track "She Shines" has a set of lyrics that could be a nod to Blade Runner.
    "Lost in the cloud, like tears in the rain."
• The Tree of Life:
  • Row 9 of Coin upgrades is the opening lines of Star Wars films, with "rather near here..." instead of "far, far away..."
  • The last five Amino Acids milestones that are exclusive to non-extreme mode are taken from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 106.
  • The Dilation challenge is partially inspired by Time Dilation from Antimatter Dimensions, as the changelog for the entry that added an explanation for it states "[go play AD y'all]".
• In Trinity Universe, there's an optional event where Kanata and his friends run into Recit after he goes on a rash of cash register vandalism. Recit immediately admits to being responsible, which disappoints the Prinny, who expected to engage in a battle of wits where Kanata would "use logic, deduce, and present evidence" to incriminate him.
  Prinny: Take that, dood!
  Pamela: Objection!
• True Crime: Streets of LA: "Like this? This is my BOOMSTICK!"
• The Steam achievements for the oil-drilling business simulation Turmoil include "Empty Milkshake" and "Tree Fiddy".
• In Outlaw's ending of Twisted Metal: Head On, Carl accidentally wishes for Jamie to "shut up", and her mouth fuses shut in the same manner as Neo's in The Matrix.
• Twisted Wonderland all over the place, with details referencing not only Disney Animated Canon but also the original fairy tales the works were based on.

U

• Understand: The theme of level 8-? is references to other puzzle games. The rule is that you have to highlight the name of the game being referenced.
  • 8-?-2 is a straight-forward reference that spells out the title of The Witness and displays some symbols from it.
  • 8-?-3 references Baba is You, and even uses the Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue... poem from the "Poem" level.
  • 8-?-4 shows you a sentence along with the main character from Fez.
  • 8-?-5 shows you the Portal logo, a companion cube and another portal. The portals are functioning, and necessary for spelling out "PORTAL".
• Unison League:
  • "How can the princess be MISSING? Is she in another castle?" —Falsa, after completing Stage 3.
  • "Still, as a wise man once said, it's dangerous to go alone." —Nimey, explaining how to join a guild.
• The Universim: One of the posters that can appear on the side of a skyscraper depicts Nugget versions of Rick and Morty, and occasionally they'll visit your planet through a portal.
• Unpacking:
  • The protagonist gets her hands on several classic Nintendo systems throughout her life, such as a Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, Game Boy, and a Nintendo DS. In addition, some of the games that you must put away are not-so-subtly inspired by real games, such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Animal Crossing, The Simpsons Hit & Run, and Ōkami. She also acquires a PlayStation 4 and an appropriate collection of games for it. She also has a couple volumes of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure English hardcover collection and DVDs and Blu-Rays of assorted movies such as Avatar, Brokeback Mountain, Donnie Darko, Jaws, Pan's Labyrinth, Shin Godzilla, and UP.
  • One of the protagonist's stuffed toys is Bluey from Dragon Tails.

V

• Venture Kid: One of the treasures you can collect to get the game's True Ending is a golden NES cartridge.
• Vermintide II:
  • One of the tomes in the map "Empire in Flames" is located in a bricked-up alcove in a wine cellar with a skeleton in it.
  • The picture for the "Gun to a Swordfight" achievement is clearly a reference to a famous scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones shoots a big man brandishing a sword at him menacingly.
  • An exchange between Saltzpyre and Kruber is very similar to one given in Sharpe, where the dying Cpt. Murray gifts his officer's sword to the protagonist Richard Sharpe. Given that it's the same actor, Tim Bentinck, it might qualify as a Homage.
  Saltzpyre: Should I die, Kruber, I want you to have my sword of office.
  Kruber: Uh, why? So people will think I'm a Witch Hunter?
  Saltzpyre: No. So that people will think I liked you.
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: The Developer's Note for the song "Royalty". The Lennus series is Paladin's Quest and Lennus II:
  This song was pretty heavily inspired by the music from the Lennus series.
  I also attribute my overuse of the glockenspiel to the Lennus series (though there is no glockenspiel in this song).
• VGA Miner: To The Hobbit when the game ends:
  — Thanks for playing Miner VGA. Hope you had a good time. May the hair on your toes never fall off... Frodo

W

• Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (1997) has Shakespeare himself quote his own play when trying to get his dog to leave. He yells "Out, damned spot."
• In While True: learn(), one of the skins you can buy for your pet is Catbus.
• White Noise 2: One of the new investigators, Maria, has Rose Quartz's hair.
• In Wu Tang: Shaolin Style, Inspecta Deck's Touch of Death fighting style references Kenshiro's Hokuto Shinken art from Fist of the North Star, complete with a head-asploding Finishing Move.
• In Witch Hunt, the player is followed around the map by a mysterious black goat that looks a lot like Black Phillip. And like The VVitch, the ending implies the goat is Satan in disguise, keeping tabs on you.
• Wobbledogs:
  • If you hatch a dog with only one wing, you get the "One Winged Angel" achievement.
  • "Peeking Dogs Wallpaper" is clearly inspired from "Bliss" wallpaper from Windows XP. This wallpaper depicts a green hill, blue sky with white clouds, and... a gigantic dog behind the hill.
  • The description for lasagna says, "Mondays, right? Haha." This is a reference to the title character of Garfield, who loves lasagna and hates Mondays.

Y

• Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void:
  • The names of the unlockable characters:
    • The default Noid is "None Pizza", a reference to the "None Pizza with Left Beef" meme.
    • "The Return" lets you play as a Noid who wears green, jumps higher, wiggles his legs while jumping, and skids to a stop, making him a clear parallel to Luigi. Additionally, his name in text boxes is "Mr. Green", confirming that he's the antagonist of the original game.
    • Crust 40 has you play as a Sonic-like Noid.
    • The pill-shaped Noid is selected through the "Proto Man" option. According to the text boxes, his name is Cappy.
  • In Swing Factory, there's a platform near the start with four notches, pepperonis in three of those notches, and a rock nearby. Putting the rock in the empty notch causes a mushroom named Oroki to appear, who says "Yahaha! You found me!"
  • The final boss of the game is a blue-haired man "voiced" by a text-to-speech program, named Mike Hatsune. He also makes reference to creating a "vocal Noid".
• Your Bizarre Adventure (a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Fan Game):
  • Most of the game's music is taken from Made in Abyss.
  • You can find "Joe Kojoe" (Part 6 Jotaro) out into the ocean surrounding the main map's Colosseum, referencing a popular GIF depicting him dancing in a shallow body of water.
  • Death is always accompanied by "Bruh Sound Effect #2".
  • The pizza place occasionally plays the pizza delivery music from Spider-Man 2 while you're inside it.