Around Peter Quill's room and house there are many seemingly fictional things that are actually homages to 1980's pop culture media, but with the names, concepts or brands slightly changed or parodied:
•Prouix Calculator Wristwatch Advertisement - Based on real calculator wristwatches sold by companies like Casio.
•"The Lost Starwalker" Film Poster - A spoof of the film "The Last Starfighter" and its poster.
•"Caves & Creatures" Table-top RPG - Based on table-top RPGs popular in the 1980's such as the Dungeons & Dragons series.
•"Furthings" Monster Film Poster - Parody of the film "Gremlins".
•A banana figurine playing the guitar - Resembles the old McDonald's mascot "Mac Tonight".
•"Nukegames" - a take on the film "WarGames", the plotline of which involves nuclear warfare.
•"Deathtrap Dungeon" book - An homage to "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.
•"Robot Within" newspaper ad - The poster's imagery and film's concept is a callback to the sci-fi horror film "They Live".
•"Animal Graveyard" novel - An homage to Stephen King's novel "Pet Semetary".
•"VROOM!" Show TV magazine ad - A reference to popular 80s action show "Knight Rider".
At the end of the credits after completing the game for the first time, an audio clip of Obi-Wan's voice will play, in which he recites a line-for-line parody of a monologue originally performed by Ewan McGregor from the opening scene of the 1996 film "Trainspotting":
"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 twelve 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?"
The sound of an activating lightsaber can then be heard before the game returns to the main menu. This secret message cannot be triggered again when replaying the final level. This line choice is also likely a reference to Ewan McGregor being the actor for Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
In 2021, a widely undocumented Easter egg during the "Enter the Battle Dome" mission in "The Umpire Strikes Out" level in the Rocket Channel was uploaded to YouTube. When the player reaches the purple energy tower, you will need to climb the tower up to the square platform area with two air tanks on it. Just to the right of those air tanks, an invisible path marked by vague star textures and small red lights will appear in view once reached, leading to a hidden area with a floating metallic cube featuring a photo of programmer Evan Wells behind a blue background. Like the production baby cameo found in the same level, the object will slowly spin around showing the photo on each side, can be jumped on, and can be destroyed with Gex's attacks.
In 2020, a widely undocumented Easter egg near the start of "The Umpire Strikes Out" level in the Rocket Channel was uploaded to YouTube. From the level's checkpoint, there is a platforming section consisting of floating metallic walkways. If the player karate kicks from the second walkway into the abyss, you should land on a mostly invisible platform, only marked with vague star textures and small red lights. Going south of the platform will lead the player back to the start of the level. If the player goes north, mindful that you jump over a hole in the platform on the way there, a small area can be found that contains an oxygen tank, some crates, two Green Fly TVs, and a floating metallic cube with an image of a newborn's face on two sides. The cube will spin in place slowly unless the player destroys it with Gex's attacks. The cube even has some collision that allows the player to jump on top of it. It's unknown who this infant is, but it is presumably a production baby raised by one of the game's developers.
Outside Merlin's House in Traverse Town in the first Kingdom Hearts game, the likeness of an owl can be found on the broken archway in front of the house as well as in the form of several small statues surrounding the building. Outside Merlin's House in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden in subsequent games, this owl's presence is reduced to two emblems hanging over Merlin's front door both inside and outside the house. These owls are a reference to Merlin's pet owl Archimedes, a character from Disney's 1963 film adaptation of the T.H. White novel "The Sword in the Stone", who does not appear in the Kingdom Hearts series.
In Chapter 8: To the Core, when a Space Slug first appears in front of the Autobots, Ironhide says "Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong" to it, much to Warpath's confusion. This is the same phrase used in Transformers canon as an intergalactic "universal greeting", with it first being heard in 1986's The Transformers: The Movie. Ironhide even refers to it as a universal greeting in the scene.
In Chapter 7, the two Autobots Jazz and Arcee can both be seen in a Kaon prison cell. They can also later be seen out of bounds helping the many other Autobots escape the Decepticon prison complex.
During Chapter 1: Dark Energon, specifically during the part where the Decepticons navigate across the space debris, if the player looks up they can spot a celestial body that greatly resembles the logo of the game's developer High Moon Studios.
In the underground caves of Shinra Manor, several Coffin Keys can picked up from Sahagin enemies which can open four coffins found in the area. Three coffins contain more enemies, while the fourth coffin contains an unseen sleeping man who Zack decides to not disturb. This person is Spoiler:Vincent Valentine, who at this point in the Final Fantasy VII series storyline was Spoiler:in the middle of a long, dormant sleep after undergoing genetic experiments.
Area N can be accessed from the Transerver room in Area M-3. In this area, while on Normal or Hard difficulty, you can obtain a Mysterious Rock after defeating either Spoiler:Omega (in his Zero form) from Mega Man Zero 3, or Spoiler:eight bosses with four each culled from Mega Man Zero 3 and Mega Man Zero 4. In order to access either set of four bosses in the latter method, you must be playing on an original DS or DS Lite, as the Game Boy Advance cartridges for either Zero 3 or Zero 4 must be inserted to gain access to them. In Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection, you can select either game to use for this bonus content via Link Mode before starting up Mega Man ZX.
After obtaining the Mysterious Rock, you can take it to Fleuve who will analyze and transform it into Spoiler:the Biometal Model O, allowing Vent or Aile to turn into Omega and use all of his attacks.
During the battle tutorial in Chapter 1, if the player repeatedly selects "FIGHT" and misses Kris's attack, Ralsei will grow increasingly agitated, eventually abandoning the tutorial altogether after ten misses and blaming himself for being a poor instructor.
Additionally, the third time Kris's attack misses, Ralsei's response will contain a typo in it, featuring an 8 mistakenly typed to the left of the asterisk that usually starts a line of in-game text.
Menat's moveset has some divergences between the Japanese and English names. Both the Japanese and English names are filled with references to Egyptian mythology:
•Overflowing Nile in the Japanese version is ナイルの氾濫 Nairu no hanran (“Flooding of the Nile”). Nile floodings have exceptional importance for both ancient and modern Egyptians.
•Wisdom of Thoth was ジェフティの知恵 Jefuti no chie, “Wisdom of Thoth”. This discrepancy in spelling is due to the Japanese using one of the most common of Thoth’s transliterations, from his ancient Egyptian name ḏḥwty, also pronounced as Jehuti amongst other spellings.
•Left Eye of the Lion is 獅子の左目 Shishi no hidarime (“Lion Left Eye”, or “the Left Eye who is a Lion”). This alludes to Sekhmet, the lion goddess of war and destruction.
•Judgement of Anubis is 黒犬の審判 Kuroinu no shinpan ("Judgement of the black dog"). The Japanese name comes from the fact that he has a jackal’s (or black dog) head.
•Divine Retribution is a generic adaptation of the original 罪人を喰らう顎 Zainin wo kurau ago (“The jaws that eat the sinner"), an allusion to the goddess Ammit, the monster who devours the dead whose heart ends up being heavier than the feather of Ma'at.
•Khamun Kick is カーメンキック Kāmen Kikku, and derives from a common liberty the Japanese took with Ancient Egyptian language: coming from Tutankhamun's name, the most famous of all the pharaohs. His name in Ancient Egyptian is Twt ˁnḫ Jmn, "living" ˁnḫ, better known as ankh) "image" (twt) "of Amun" (Jmn). Amun's name was written first for respect towards the god, even if it was pronounced last. Given that Tut, Ankh and Amun are single words, "Khamun" doesn't make sense in context. Nevertheless, Japanese already popularised the use of カーメン kāmen as an ancient Egyptian reference, maybe prompted by the fact that the Japanese 仮面 kamen means "mask" and Tutankhamun's funerary mask is well known.
•Guardian of the Sun is in Japanese 太陽の守護者 Taiyō no shugosha, a direct translation. This references Khepri, the beetle Sun god. Khepri rolls the Sun across the sky, and he is visible on Menat's nape.
•The Nefertem is in Japanese ウン・ネフェル Un - Neferu. Nefertem is the lotus god of scent and good perfumes, as well as the son of Sekhmet. On the other hand, the Japanese name doesn't actually reference Nefertem, because the title wnn nfr, variously transliterated "Wenennefer", "Wenufer" or Unnefer, "The perfect one", "The happy one", is one of the epithets of Osiris.
Contrary to popular belief, Menat's name doesn't come from Arabic, even though that's the language spoken in modern-day Egypt. The character's name actually comes from "menat", a necklace which was used in ancient Egypt as a musical instrument for cultic dances and religious processions rather than a necklace proper.
Normally, Spoiler:the SnowGrave spell on the Weird Route is only meant to be used against Berdly, who is frozen in a giant block of ice. However, using it against a regular enemy causes them to dissolve into a red mist, similarly to how monsters die in Undertale. This can be seen legitimately by Spoiler:progressing through enough of the Weird Route for Noelle to learn SnowGrave, then sparing Berdly instead of freezing him. Backtracking through Cyber City allows the player to access the cheese maze, where, if they hadn't done so already, they can spawn Maus enemies that can be fought and killed with SnowGrave.
While fighting Spamton and Spoiler:Spamton NEO, the player is able to press F1 to summon a miniature Spamton angel that heals the party, which can only be done once. On the PS4 and Switch versions, this function is normally mapped to clicking the right stick, but connecting a USB keyboard to the console allows the player to activate it with the F1 key anyways.
Spamton draws a number of parallels to Mettaton from Undertale throughout his character arc in Chapter 2:
• Both characters have names ending in "-ton", and both Spoiler:have NEO forms that can be optionally encountered. Speaking with Swatch after Spoiler:defeating Spamton NEO on the normal route implies that Spoiler:the robot that became Spamton NEO's body was designed by Deltarune's equivalent of Mettaton. • Both characters speak in all-caps with idiosyncratic speech patterns (staggered text scrolling for Mettaton, random bracketed text and typos for Spamton). • The purchasable Spamton-shaped mannequin in Cyber City wears the same dress Mettaton does during the latter's opera performance. • Before fighting him on the Neutral and Pacifist routes in Undertale, Mettaton makes a statement that appears to align with the protagonist's goals before quickly responding with "NOT!!!" Spoiler:On the Weird Route in Deltarune, Spamton NEO makes a similar jab, even using the exact same formatting for the "NOT!!!" response. • Spoiler:Both Spamton NEO and Mettaton utilize similar mechanics in their fights. Both are fought using the Yellow SOUL, both include miniature versions of themselves with their own attacks, both use identical cross-exploding bombs, both feature attacks where the player must shoot their hearts (which fire back in turn), and both fights involve a free turn for the player (Mettaton EX taking a break, Spamton NEO being attacked by his own phone). • Spoiler:Spamton NEO's "Check" description reads "He's his own worst invention." This nods back to Mettaton NEO's "Check" description, "Dr. Alphys's greatest invention." • Spoiler:One line of flavor text in Spamton NEO's fight reads "The stage lights are shattered," nodding back to flavor text in Mettaton NEO's fight that reads "Stage lights are blaring." • Spoiler:Spamton NEO's battle theme, "BIG SHOT", samples Mettaton NEO's battle theme, "Power of 'NEO'". • Spoiler:Spamton NEO's ultimate attack on the Weird Route includes mock VCR HUD icons that read "WRECK" and "SPEW", nodding back to Mettaton EX's "REC"/"REW" attack.
During the epilogue of Chapter 2, the player can encounter the Deltarune counterparts of Undertale's guard dogs as prisoners in the police station's jail, describing themselves as a criminal group called the Wet-Nose Bandits before describing how they were attacked by an unknown individual in the shadows during an attempted burglary over the holidays. The name and backstory of the group reference the Wet Bandits, the main antagonists of the 1990 comedy film Home Alone.
There are cut Transmission logs in the game's data that took the form of Autobots frantically and intensely contacting Optimus and the crew from Iacon on Cybertron about the planet Junkion, a key planet from Transformers lore that contains a robotic race of technologically-adept robots. These logs would have featured Autobot characters not in the final game at all, including Scavenger, Jetfire, Smokescreen, Sideswipe, and Blurr. Another thing about the logs is that they also would have revealed the origin of the Decepticlones: Megatron took advantage of the Junkion's inventive prowess and their "Hyper Power" cloning technology to make his near unstoppable army. Spoiler:The off-world Autobots would have also warned Optimus and the Earth team about Unicron's arrival to Cybertron when the Earth team arrived at Pacific Island.
If the player waits on the title screen for 2 minutes, a secret cutscene will play out featuring a mother and daughter, named Connie and Dakota, encountering the outbreak in Wilamette and fruitlessly fending off zombies from their car. These characters bear striking resemblances to Spoiler:psychopath Cliff Hudson's daughter and granddaughter in the photo found in his wallet after he is defeated.
There are several books that makes references to Capcom series.
• The 'Fighting Street' book referencing the Street Fighter game on the PC Engine (Resident Evil VII: Biohazard used the same book Easter Egg as well.). • The 'Rock's Man' book referencing Mega Man's Japanese's localization name 'Rock Man'. • The 'Biography of Kenzo Tsujimoto' book is referencing Capcom's chairman and CEO.
In 2021, a widely undocumented Easter egg during the "Enter the Battle Dome" mission in "The Umpire Strikes Out" level in the Rocket Channel was uploaded to YouTube. When the player reaches the purple energy tower, you will need to climb the tower up to the square platform area with two air tanks on it. Just to the right of those air tanks, an invisible path marked by vague star textures and small red lights will appear in view once reached, leading to a hidden area with a floating metallic cube featuring a photo of programmer Evan Wells behind a blue background. Like the production baby cameo found in the same level, the object will slowly spin around showing the photo on each side, can be jumped on, and can be destroyed with Gex's attacks.
In 2020, a widely undocumented Easter egg near the start of "The Umpire Strikes Out" level in the Rocket Channel was uploaded to YouTube. From the level's checkpoint, there is a platforming section consisting of floating metallic walkways. If the player karate kicks from the second walkway into the abyss, you should land on a mostly invisible platform, only marked with vague star textures and small red lights. Going south of the platform will lead the player back to the start of the level. If the player goes north, mindful that you jump over a hole in the platform on the way there, a small area can be found that contains an oxygen tank, some crates, two Green Fly TVs, and a floating metallic cube with an image of a newborn's face on two sides. The cube will spin in place slowly unless the player destroys it with Gex's attacks. The cube even has some collision that allows the player to jump on top of it. It's unknown who this infant is, but it is presumably a production baby raised by one of the game's developers.
Outside Merlin's House in Traverse Town in the first Kingdom Hearts game, the likeness of an owl can be found on the broken archway in front of the house as well as in the form of several small statues surrounding the building. Outside Merlin's House in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden in subsequent games, this owl's presence is reduced to two emblems hanging over Merlin's front door both inside and outside the house. These owls are a reference to Merlin's pet owl Archimedes, a character from Disney's 1963 film adaptation of the T.H. White novel "The Sword in the Stone", who does not appear in the Kingdom Hearts series.
During Chapter 1: Dark Energon, specifically during the part where the Decepticons navigate across the space debris, if the player looks up they can spot a celestial body that greatly resembles the logo of the game's developer High Moon Studios.
Area N can be accessed from the Transerver room in Area M-3. In this area, while on Normal or Hard difficulty, you can obtain a Mysterious Rock after defeating either Spoiler:Omega (in his Zero form) from Mega Man Zero 3, or Spoiler:eight bosses with four each culled from Mega Man Zero 3 and Mega Man Zero 4. In order to access either set of four bosses in the latter method, you must be playing on an original DS or DS Lite, as the Game Boy Advance cartridges for either Zero 3 or Zero 4 must be inserted to gain access to them. In Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection, you can select either game to use for this bonus content via Link Mode before starting up Mega Man ZX.
During the battle tutorial in Chapter 1, if the player repeatedly selects "FIGHT" and misses Kris's attack, Ralsei will grow increasingly agitated, eventually abandoning the tutorial altogether after ten misses and blaming himself for being a poor instructor.
Normally, Spoiler:the SnowGrave spell on the Weird Route is only meant to be used against Berdly, who is frozen in a giant block of ice. However, using it against a regular enemy causes them to dissolve into a red mist, similarly to how monsters die in Undertale. This can be seen legitimately by Spoiler:progressing through enough of the Weird Route for Noelle to learn SnowGrave, then sparing Berdly instead of freezing him. Backtracking through Cyber City allows the player to access the cheese maze, where, if they hadn't done so already, they can spawn Maus enemies that can be fought and killed with SnowGrave.
Spamton draws a number of parallels to Mettaton from Undertale throughout his character arc in Chapter 2:
During the epilogue of Chapter 2, the player can encounter the Deltarune counterparts of Undertale's guard dogs as prisoners in the police station's jail, describing themselves as a criminal group called the Wet-Nose Bandits before describing how they were attacked by an unknown individual in the shadows during an attempted burglary over the holidays. The name and backstory of the group reference the Wet Bandits, the main antagonists of the 1990 comedy film Home Alone.
If the player waits on the title screen for 2 minutes, a secret cutscene will play out featuring a mother and daughter, named Connie and Dakota, encountering the outbreak in Wilamette and fruitlessly fending off zombies from their car. These characters bear striking resemblances to Spoiler:psychopath Cliff Hudson's daughter and granddaughter in the photo found in his wallet after he is defeated.