When Kirby absorbs Sora and then uses his Magic, it is immediately clear that Kirby does not get a Keyblade of his own. Instead, Kirby uses an ethereal glowing weapon that resembles a keyblade but is entirely made out of light and sparkles that changes color depending on the spell. While this can be interpreted as being a restriction by Disney over the Keyblade's imagery, Masahiro Sakurai on Twitter chalked it up to being done for lore reasons as he said "...only Keyblade Wielders can use Keyblades..." implying that Kirby isn't "chosen" as barer of one and thus has to use the three spells differently.
The Korean exclusive character, Kim Ung Jae, is named after the then the former president of Viccom, SNK's Korean publishing partner. He is a relative of the company's chairman, Kim Kaphwan.
Kim Jae Hoon and Kim Dong Hwan are named after the then leadership of Viccom, SNK's Korean publishing partner. Jae Hoon was the former president and the son of the acting chairman, Kim Kaphwan. Dong Hwan was the acting president and the chairman's brother.
Kim Kaphwan was named after then chairman of the Korean development studio, Viccom. Chairman Kim was responsible for the Korean imports of SNK arcade cabinets and lent his name, as well as the names of his family members, to ensure SNK's Korean characters had authentic Korean names. Like his game counterpart, he was also a Taekwondo practitioner.
In Part I: The American Dream - Chapter Two: Live From The Crime Scene, if the player throws a grenade into the big gap on the wall at the beginning of the level, the objectives will then say "I had declared a war against rats". The rats ahead will use their deagles to kill the player.
In the tutorial level, there's a 'Tar Cafe sign' that has a quote below it's name says "All your base are...". This is likely a reference to Zero Wing's English translation meme "All your base are belong to us".
When starting New Game Plus, the player can trigger an easter egg by searching for three zombies hiding under three different cars scattered around the map (for this secret to work, those zombies must not get killed, knocked out or become aware of your presence). All three zombies must gather behind the Safe House in the northern part of the map, and then they each must be killed with a melee attack (again ensuring that they do not notice you, otherwise you will have to hide again until they go back to attacking the building). After killing the zombies, a gigantic crow will appear nearby, which will reward the player with 60,000 Green Gel when killed.
In Chapter 2, if the player activates the Warp Door in Queen's mansion and uses it to revisit Cyber City, they will find one of the paths blocked off by an oversized toilet sprite. According to a tweet posted by Toby Fox during Chapter 2's development, the sprite was created at his request by the game's primary graphic designer Temmie Chang, only to end up absurdly large due to a miscommunication.
Furthermore, interacting with the toilet produces the message "(For some strange reason, a giant toilet-shaped toilet is blocking the way.)" This is a reference to the Iron Pencil statues in EarthBound, which produce the near-identical message "(For some weird reason, a pencil-shaped iron statue is blocking the path.)" when checked.
Within the game's code is an unused attack for Spoiler:the first fight against Queen in Chapter 2 that summons bouncing trails of spade cards; this attack references the 1990 version of Windows Solitaire, which features a similar "bouncing cards" effect whenever the player wins.
In one room of Spoiler:the mansion basement in Chapter 2, the player has a rare chance of seeing a grinning face appear out of bounds at the far left before quickly fading away. The face's pink and yellow eyes match those of Spamton, who by this point Spoiler:has instructed Kris to retrieve the EmptyDisk from the basement.
During the spotlight puzzle segments in Queen's mansion, if the player moves the bird-shaped light onto Berdly and keeps it there for long enough, Berdly will claim that Kris is trying to taunt him, before claiming that they're only able to do so because "this isn't online." This is a reference to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which disables the use of taunts during Quickplay matches.
Disney heavily restricted the use of Mickey Mouse in the game especially as the central character like Square initially wanted. This was because Disney was nervous about the success of the game and did not want its possible failure leaving a black mark on the company and its mascot. Tetsuya Nomura stated that these contractual restrictions went so far as to have Disney allow Mickey to only make a minor cameo appearance (such as "in the background of a crowd" as Nomura put it). Spoiler:Nomura and his team got around this by having Mickey have an extremely important but brief role at the end of the game in the form of Mickey helping Sora close the Door to Darkness so no more Darkness gets out of it, separating the two. King Mickey even appears mostly in silhouette in this scene. When the first Kingdom Hearts became a humongous success for both Disney and Square, the former allowed the game developers to feature their mascot in a much more prominent role in the franchise from then onward.
If the player builds the duck version of the Thrash Machine in Chapter 1 and imports the resultant save file to Chapter 2, its attacks during the Spoiler:Rouxls Kaard fight become extremely easy to avoid; Spoiler:Rouxls and Ralsei will also have unique dialogue surrounding the machine's design.
Later, when the Thrash Machine is incorporated into the mech used to fight Spoiler:Giga Queen, the duck version replaces the standard punch sound effects with squeaking noises and features "DuckMode" as its offensive ACT, which reduces the move's strength in exchange for slightly draining additional health from Spoiler:Giga Queen between turns.
Within the data for Chapters 1 and 2 is an unused weapon item called the Trefoil; hacking it into a Chapter 2 save file and attempting to equip it to Noelle results in her saying "Okay! ...? What do you mean, unused!?"
In Area B: Room 5, it is possible to reach the top of the building just above the teleporter that brought you there in the first place. To do this, you must go to the puzzle "Behind the Iron Curtain" and while completing it, maneuver your way so that a box and fan used in the puzzle are blown out of the puzzle's walls into the Room's map. Afterwards, take the box to a nearby hole that leads to the river until you find a connector for the fan and place it there. After going back to retrieve and place the fan, jumping into it will blast you through the air across the map and onto the top of the building, which will then suddenly teleport you to a dark cave. Walking further into the cave will reveal a glass pyramid prism with a light shining through to create a rainbow. This is a recreation of the cover art of the band Pink Floyd's 1973 album "The Dark Side of the Moon", and interacting with the prism will play a short cover of the instrumental opening to the first part of the song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" from Pink Floyd's 1975 album "Wish You Were Here".
One of the enemies in the "Secret of the Oracle" episode, Dopefish, was a "stupid little fish" created by the game's designer Tom Hall and described in-game as "the second-dumbest creature in the universe" (in reference to the dumbest creature in the universe, the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal from Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" franchise). Dopefish has since gone on to develop a cult following by becoming one of the biggest recurring in-jokes in the video game industry due to the sheer amount of games it has made appearances in (a large chunk of which having Tom Hall's involvement).
As of October 2021, Dopefish has made known appearances in Wacky Wheels, Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, SiN, Descent 3, Battlezone, Kingpin, Daikatana, Anachonox, Max Payne, Hyperspace Delivery Boy, Commander Keen (2001), Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Eternal Daughter, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Red Faction, Congo Cube, The Frozen Throne expansion to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, SiN Episodes: Emergence, Chili Con Carnage, TAGAP: The Apocalyptic Game About Penguins, Fortress Forever, OFF, Dystopia, Alan Wake, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Pettington Park, Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken, Warsow, Bombshell, Doom (2016), Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Ion Fury, and Doom Eternal.
Beyond video games, Dopefish notably made cameo appearances in two animated series: "Tiny Toon Adventures" in the 1992 episode "Toon TV" during the song "Toon In, Toon Out", which aired less than a year after Dopefish's debut, and "Lakewood Plaza Turbo", the pilot episode to the 2017 series "OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes".
Normally, using the Suffrajester on Rincewind will have him say "Let's just leave her alone." and do nothing else. However, in the Forest, using the Suffrajester 12 times near the Stones will cause him to change his response to "Not a bad idea, but the legs seem to get in the way." At this point, enter the portal in the Stones, leave and then enter them again. Rincewind will be teleported to a secret room from Discworld featuring the original version of himself and his luggage from that game, where the two will have a humorous conversation about the differences between the games, the incompetency of the players and the developers, the original Rincewind asking for a hint about the first game, and a moment that notably features Discworld II's Rincewind commenting:
"I want to be the first person in a sequel to say f**k! Anyway, nobody wrote in and said they heard it in the first game, it must have been too well hidden! Well who'd have thought eh?"
This is a reference to an Easter egg from the first game that referenced John Cleese's 1989 eulogy to the late Monty Python member Graham Chapman.
In the Nyakuza Metro DLC, there is a hidden area that can be accessed in the Green Clean Station by jumping off of a moving subway train at the last second and then wall-jumping up to the top of a large, green, three-tiered LCD display above the station ledge. At the top, a cage with an egg can be found, but just near it is a Springboard that will send Hat Kid to a hidden, burning, grated area through a manhole. Upon interacting with the manhole, a message can be found on it that reads "Kiwami means extreme." Suddenly, an eye-patched Metro Cat named Meowjima will ambush you by jumping out of the manhole and screaming:
"HAT KID-CHAAAAAAN! You've grown soft, time to bring out your fighting spirit!"
This initiates a secret mini-boss battle. The message on the manhole is a reference to the tagline of the game Yakuza: Kiwami, and this character is a parody of Goro Majima based on his appearance in that game as well as a reference to one of its side quests "Majima Everywhere", where he ambushes Kazuma Kiryu through disguised encounters as a form of training. There is no reward for completing this boss battle, and upon interacting with the manhole again you will be sent back to the Springboard you used to enter it.
By plugging a controller into the second port on a SNES, two extra features can be accessed:
•Pressing A/B/Start at the same time will start the game without having to click on Mario. •Pressing A/B/Select at the same time will (after a short delay) load and display the currently saved drawing, animation, and music. If nothing has been saved, the message "NO SAVE DATA" will be displayed instead, and you must reset the console to return to the title screen.
If the player talks to Spamton in his shop and selects the "OUR DEAL" option after purchasing the Keygen item from him, Spamton will simply say "KEYGEN" and oscillate between various colors while the dramatic chiptune track "KEYGEN" plays. This is a reference to "The King Downloads Sony Vegas", a 2009 YouTube Poop by Moto200Alt, which depicts King Harkinian (from Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon) flashing between a negative and positive image of himself after opening an illicit keygen for Sony Vegas and being awed by its chiptune soundtrack.
When Kirby absorbs Sora and then uses his Magic, it is immediately clear that Kirby does not get a Keyblade of his own. Instead, Kirby uses an ethereal glowing weapon that resembles a keyblade but is entirely made out of light and sparkles that changes color depending on the spell. While this can be interpreted as being a restriction by Disney over the Keyblade's imagery, Masahiro Sakurai on Twitter chalked it up to being done for lore reasons as he said "...only Keyblade Wielders can use Keyblades..." implying that Kirby isn't "chosen" as barer of one and thus has to use the three spells differently.
In the tutorial level, there's a 'Tar Cafe sign' that has a quote below it's name says "All your base are...". This is likely a reference to Zero Wing's English translation meme "All your base are belong to us".
When starting New Game Plus, the player can trigger an easter egg by searching for three zombies hiding under three different cars scattered around the map (for this secret to work, those zombies must not get killed, knocked out or become aware of your presence). All three zombies must gather behind the Safe House in the northern part of the map, and then they each must be killed with a melee attack (again ensuring that they do not notice you, otherwise you will have to hide again until they go back to attacking the building). After killing the zombies, a gigantic crow will appear nearby, which will reward the player with 60,000 Green Gel when killed.
In Chapter 2, if the player activates the Warp Door in Queen's mansion and uses it to revisit Cyber City, they will find one of the paths blocked off by an oversized toilet sprite. According to a tweet posted by Toby Fox during Chapter 2's development, the sprite was created at his request by the game's primary graphic designer Temmie Chang, only to end up absurdly large due to a miscommunication.
Within the game's code is an unused attack for Spoiler:the first fight against Queen in Chapter 2 that summons bouncing trails of spade cards; this attack references the 1990 version of Windows Solitaire, which features a similar "bouncing cards" effect whenever the player wins.
In one room of Spoiler:the mansion basement in Chapter 2, the player has a rare chance of seeing a grinning face appear out of bounds at the far left before quickly fading away. The face's pink and yellow eyes match those of Spamton, who by this point Spoiler:has instructed Kris to retrieve the EmptyDisk from the basement.
During the spotlight puzzle segments in Queen's mansion, if the player moves the bird-shaped light onto Berdly and keeps it there for long enough, Berdly will claim that Kris is trying to taunt him, before claiming that they're only able to do so because "this isn't online." This is a reference to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which disables the use of taunts during Quickplay matches.
Within the data for Chapters 1 and 2 is an unused weapon item called the Trefoil; hacking it into a Chapter 2 save file and attempting to equip it to Noelle results in her saying "Okay! ...? What do you mean, unused!?"
In Area B: Room 5, it is possible to reach the top of the building just above the teleporter that brought you there in the first place. To do this, you must go to the puzzle "Behind the Iron Curtain" and while completing it, maneuver your way so that a box and fan used in the puzzle are blown out of the puzzle's walls into the Room's map. Afterwards, take the box to a nearby hole that leads to the river until you find a connector for the fan and place it there. After going back to retrieve and place the fan, jumping into it will blast you through the air across the map and onto the top of the building, which will then suddenly teleport you to a dark cave. Walking further into the cave will reveal a glass pyramid prism with a light shining through to create a rainbow. This is a recreation of the cover art of the band Pink Floyd's 1973 album "The Dark Side of the Moon", and interacting with the prism will play a short cover of the instrumental opening to the first part of the song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" from Pink Floyd's 1975 album "Wish You Were Here".
One of the enemies in the "Secret of the Oracle" episode, Dopefish, was a "stupid little fish" created by the game's designer Tom Hall and described in-game as "the second-dumbest creature in the universe" (in reference to the dumbest creature in the universe, the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal from Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" franchise). Dopefish has since gone on to develop a cult following by becoming one of the biggest recurring in-jokes in the video game industry due to the sheer amount of games it has made appearances in (a large chunk of which having Tom Hall's involvement).
In the Nyakuza Metro DLC, there is a hidden area that can be accessed in the Green Clean Station by jumping off of a moving subway train at the last second and then wall-jumping up to the top of a large, green, three-tiered LCD display above the station ledge. At the top, a cage with an egg can be found, but just near it is a Springboard that will send Hat Kid to a hidden, burning, grated area through a manhole. Upon interacting with the manhole, a message can be found on it that reads "Kiwami means extreme." Suddenly, an eye-patched Metro Cat named Meowjima will ambush you by jumping out of the manhole and screaming:
If the player talks to Spamton in his shop and selects the "OUR DEAL" option after purchasing the Keygen item from him, Spamton will simply say "KEYGEN" and oscillate between various colors while the dramatic chiptune track "KEYGEN" plays. This is a reference to "The King Downloads Sony Vegas", a 2009 YouTube Poop by Moto200Alt, which depicts King Harkinian (from Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon) flashing between a negative and positive image of himself after opening an illicit keygen for Sony Vegas and being awed by its chiptune soundtrack.