The Titans explore all sorts of video game worlds in a virtual reality room Robin has set up for training purposes.
"Video Game References" contains the following tropes:
- Big "NO!": Raven lets one out in her segment when Circle Guy eats one of her fellow ghosts. Cyborg lets one out when the Pie Shop is blown up.
- Callback: Cyborg sings the pie song from the episode "Pie Bros" when he gets to the Pie Shop.
- Chicken Joke: Referenced in Beast Boy's game. Unable to cross the road as a frog, he turns into a chicken and avoids all the vehicles. And then gets eaten by a crocodile hiding under the lilly pad.
- Non-Standard Game Over: Starfire gets one of these in her game. Because she was too busy dancing, the Evil Wizard took over the world.
- Shout-Out: Duh, why do you think the episode is named "Video Game References"? Many of the Titans' games are this to a lot of games. Heck, even Robin has to blow on the cartridge to make it work like it's an NES game.
- Starfire is put into a very Zelda-esque game.
- Beast Boy's game has him trying to cross the street like Frogger. His transformation into a chicken serves as a shout-out to Activision's Freeway.
- Raven's game has her as the ghosts for Pac-Man.
- Cyborg's game has him going out for pie in a game like Spy Hunter.
- Robin's game has him going through a Mario-esque game.
- Stepford Smiler: Cyborg asks if Starfire ever gets tired of being excited about a lot of things Robin does. She is, but she's only doing so to be polite while she has a twitch in her eye.
- Use Your Head: Robin literally uses it as he hits the blocks with his head, hurting himself in the process.