It's no surprise, but shout-outs are so numerous in Awesomenauts, every single character makes them. They were actually clogging up the main page and character sheets, and really deserve their own page.
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General
- The plot of two opposing corporations hiring mercenaries to kill each other is heavily derived from Team Fortress 2
- A lot of achievement names reference cartoons from the '80s.
- The hidden Easter Egg game "Roflnauts" is a Retraux-style Smash Bros. game. It gives the characters silly names, such as "Megoman" for Clunk and "Honic" for Leon.
- The Solar Boss was named "Roshan" in the game files for a long time. It has since been renamed to Solar Boss, though.
- Solar Krab Burgers are a utility upgrade available to certain 'nauts.
- The banner for Awesome Pixels was a love-letter to video game magazine ads in the 80s.
- The Galactron matchmaker introduced in 3.3 is a pretty thinly veiled reference to Galactus.
- The narration during the Rocket's Renegades teaser video is a reference to the opening narration of The A-Team.
- A majority of the lines of the Ringleader announcer are references to the lyrics of "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite".
Characters
Froggy G
- His Splash Dash upgrades include Hammer Pants and Ice Cubes.
- He also has Mutant Worms: Limited Ninja Edition. They resemble other famous worms.
- As for his quotes:
Sheriff Lonestar
- Mr. TNT.
- "Time to kick butt and chew tobacco!"
- The Loninator is a pretty obvious reference to The Terminator, and makes several references to the franchise.
Leon Chameleon
- He quotes almost every single one of the French insults from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- "Homicide du fromage!"
- Leon Pirate quotes a forum meme, originally consisting of an image of Leon with the words "vous just mad".
- Ghost Leon is a reference to the Ghost units from Starcraft.
The Scoop of Justice
- His Ice Cream Van Music is a collect of the best hits by Kings of Freon and The Wizard Formerly Known as Merlin.
- Has multiple quotes that reference things:
- One of his kill quotes is "Cold as ice". One of his death quotes is "Willing to sacrifice".
- RoboScoop is a reference to RoboCop, while Bravely Scoop IV: Eternal Fantasy is a reference to both Bravely Default and Final Fantasy. Bravely Scoop also has a multitude of quotes referencing JRPG tropes.
Gnaw
- Gnaw's appearance is very reminiscent of a Zergling, while his skill set is much like The Venomancer's.
- "OMONOMNONOMNOMNOM!"
- Gnabot quotes Danger! High Voltage as one of his help lines.
- Gnariachi quotes Speedy Gonzales quite a few times.
Raelynn
- She has a Joe Doll, and it's Danger edition.
- All of her Timerift upgrades have "Flux" written on them.
- She has a tendency to quote other cold shooters, or twist things into cold-sniper terms.
Ayla
- Her Biter Mask looks familiar...
- As do her Angry Drawings.
- The flavour text of Angry Drawings actually references Slender.
- Her referencing quotes are pretty numerous.
Clunk
- Refers to himself as The Metal quite often, specifically stating that you cannot kill The Metal.
- He also says "Clunk smash!"
- "Bite Clunk's shiny metal."
- Creeper Clunk is Clunk with a creeper head.
Voltar the Omniscient
- His Suicide Drone upgrades all say Skynet on them.
Coco Nebulon
- One of her upgrades is Chuck's Board, while another seems to belong to the Silver Surfer.
- Cyber Coco has references to Jem and the Holograms and Inspector Gadget.
- Wicked Coco says "Double, double, totally trouble!" and "I'm like, melting!"
Skølldir
- A few of his upgrades are references to the viking faction from Ronimo's previous game, Swords & Soldiers.
- His Honeydew Skølldir skin is a love-letter to The Yogscast.
- He also has a handful of references in his quotes.
- "See ya later, Awesomenauts!"
- Which can rarely be replaced with the un-Bowdlerized "See ya later, shitlords!"
- "Screw you guys, I'm going home."
- "Looks like meat's back on the menu!"
- "See ya later, Awesomenauts!"
Yuri
- His Time Warp upgrades all say Do the Time Warp!
- "You damn, dirty aliens!"
- "From monkey, with love!"
- Double-0-Yuri is a reference to James Bond.
Derpl Zork
- All of his cat gun upgrades are references to different LOL cats and other cat image macros.
- "You are weakest link, goodbye."
Vinnie & Spike
- His Cynical Vinnie and Total Spike skin.
- His mannerisms are very similar to Edward G. Robinson.
- Vinnie's a villainous plankton. His buddy Spike loves "krab burgers", which are a popular underwater food.
- His Withered President Mask is a picture of Barack Obama.
- "Pow! Right in the kisser!"
Genji the Pollen Prophet
- His entire concept is based on Jesse Cox's running joke about The Great Space Butterfly. He even has Moon Nectar as one of his upgrades.
- Another upgrade is a reference to Gentlemen Broncos of all things.
- While he doesn't straight-up quote Yoda, quite a few of his voice lines having him speaking in the same manner.
- He's naturally peppered with other quotes.
- "You shall not pass!"
- "POWER! UNLIMITED POWER!"
- Both of which double as Actor Allusion, since Jesse likes to quote those.
- "Fly, you fools!"
- "We all live in a material world!"
- Kage Genji is a reference to Naruto, while Genji the Grey is a reference to Gandalf.
Admiral Swiggins
- His upgrades include Squidward's house and a blue heart medallion.
- Being the first character to have community-chosen voice lines, he naturally has a few references.
- Dr. Swiggins PhD turns him into Dr. Fetus.
- Abyssal Swiggins' store description is written in Zalgo text.
Rocco
- One of his upgrades mentions a quote from Gus Pollos, a character from the popular TV show "Breaking Eggs".
- Has a handful of quotes, too.
- E.S.C. Rocco makes him look like a member of Daft Punk, and gives him plenty of quotes referencing their songs.
Ksenia
- Her Vanish upgrades are all references to Virtual Reality and mind warping, including references to Total Recall (1990), The Matrix, Virtual Boy, and Men in Black.
- In one of her taunts, she calls her enemies a flock of seagulls before laughing.
- Her theme song includes the lyrics "...trim ya with my scissorhands!"
- Cosmic Captain Ksenia looks like a Power Ranger.
Ix the Interloper
- He seems like an Expy of Io, as an energy being that links up to players (and even has a very similar name). The creator has gone out and said that was the chief inspiration, with a little bit of Urgot for good measure.
- He has a Diamond Pickaxe and Shrubbery Gems.
- He also has a handful of references in his quotes.
Deadlift
- One of his upgrades is a direct reference to Old Spice.
- He also has a SweatWow.
- He's got a few quotes with references.
Ted McPain
- His backstory pokes fun at long-running franchises and bizarre spin-off games.
- One of his upgrades is Princess Adlez's phonenumber.
- He's got a lot of borrowed quotes about being manly or tough.
- Titanium Ted was meant to look like a marine from Starcraft, although he had to be changed due to legal reasons.
Penny Fox
- Penny Fox is possibly inspired by the titular protagonist of the film Foxy Brown. Her theme song also has a Blaxploitation style similar to the theme song of Foxy Brown.
- One of her merit badges is The Cookie Monster Badge, while another is The Grey Man Group Badge.
- She quotes Star Fox far more than is worth listing.
- "Dodge this!"
- "I really am a quote unquote 'fantastic fox'!"
- "I am a 36th century fox!"
- "This fox is on fire!"
Sentry X-58
- He has the Circuits of Time and a Glass Case of Emotion on his beacon row.
- One of his skills is called Black Hole Sun.
- Several of his lines are Shout Outs to other robots (or "robots").
- He has a few outside of robot quotes as well.
- Giga Sentorii is a reference to both Power Rangers and Gurren Lagann.
- Specimen X-58 is a reference to Alien. He's even called a Xenomorphic in his backstory.
Skree
- He has a familiar looking suitcase monster.
- Roughly 60% of his quotes are Bob Marley lyrics.
- The other 40% is Yoda.
- His skin? "All shall bow to Skreeletor!"
- Skree Wukong is a clearly meant to be Sun Wukong.
Nibbs
- "Burninate!"
- "Oooh, what does this button do?
- "Flame on!"
- "This magic dragon go poof!"
- "Don't stand in the fire!"
- The Battle Nibbs skin makes Nibbs look like Battle Cat, complete with a little He-man (well, He-Zurian) on her back. The He-Zurian even sings a little bit of the infamous HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA song!
- Her character theme is a barely-concealed Suspiciously Similar Song parody of the theme song from Adventures of the Gummi Bears.
Professor Milton Yoolip
- The icon for one of his upgrades looks a lot like John Hammond's amber-topped walking stick.
- Speaking of Jurassic Park, they didn't miss out on quoting it.
- "How's this for chaos theory?"
- "That's my clever girl!"
- He also has a few other quotes.
- 8-bit Yoolip has a multitude of quotes related to classic arcade and Nintendo games.
Chucho Krokk
- A Metroid appears in the icon for one of the upgrades to Chucho's pistols.
- "Sufferin' succotash!"
- "¡Sí! ¡He dejado en liberdad los prisoneros y ahora vengo por ti!"
- "No more wibbly wobbly timey wimey escapes for you, Yoolip!"
Jimmy/Amy and the LUX5000
Max Focus
- All of his Slow-Mo Shot upgrades are expies of famous newscasters and TV personalities.
- "News team, assemble!"
- "It's the Slap Zork!"