Bush Whacker 2 is chock-full of shoutouts and other references to other games, movies, television shows, you name it.
Adventure Time
- The flavor text for the Bacon Pancakes ranch item is a verse from Jake's "Makin' Bacon Pancakes" song in the episodes "Burning Low" and "Is That You?".
- One of the hats you can buy is Finn's white hat.
Disney
- In The Mermaid City, the Secret Bonus Area for the area is unlocked by talking to certain NPC mermaids in a specific order, and each of the lines said by them, including the Bush Whacker's quip with the last mermaid, are part of the lyrics to "Under the Sea" from Disney's The Little Mermaid.
- Upon completing the "Spring Cleaning - Rat-a-catchy" quest of the Spring Event, Freddy will remark that the rats infesting his house weren't good cooks. The quest name can also be seen as a reference to Ratatouille.
- The flavor text for the Siamese Cat pet references "The Siamese Cat Song" sung by Si and Am in Lady and the Tramp.
- The Lion King Cat pet wears a costume strongly resembling Scar from The Lion King.
The Legend of Zelda
- The game itself, along with its now-defunct prequel, is heavily inspired by the traditional top-down entries in The Legend of Zelda franchise, most notably The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and the ability to collect items by cutting down grass or shrubbery in the franchise. There are also numerous references to the franchise in the game.
- One of the first Hats you'll obtain in the game is the Elf Hat, which bears a strong resemblance to Link's iconic hat. The Amethyst Hero Hat is a purple version of the Hat that can be obtained as a past item with Bush Bucks during the Anniversary Event, and its description is a reference to the Old Man's famous dialogue in The Legend of Zelda. The Junior Bush Whacker Hat also resemble Link's hat, and the hairstyle that comes with the hat also resembles Link's hairstyle in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
- Two limited-time collectible swords, the Easter Sword and the Dark Masterful Sword, are direct references to the Master Sword.
- Two of the obtainable pet companions in the game, the Octoshrub and its purple variant, are clear homages to the Octoroks. There are also two obtainable Fairy companions that resemble the "glowing ball of light" designs given to the fairies in the franchise starting with Ocarina of Time.
- One of the limited-time events, The Lost Woods, is a huge homage to the franchise in of itself. Various NPCs reference characters like Skull Kid and Majora, Tatl and Tael, Link (even referencing his Heroic Mime nature!), and the Kokiri, and the whole event itself is based on the Lost Woods location in the franchise.
- During the events in The Terrifying Traverse, the Princess keeps blaming the Bush Whacker for various obstacles blocking their way as they escape, and they repeatedly respond with a certain catchphrase used by Link in The Legend of Zelda animated series, each time with an increasing amount of "u"s.
- During the "Bombs for Banquo" quest in The Jungle Temple, talking to Banquo before completing the quest will have him remark on how the area used to have way more pots and vases before a certain green tunic-garbed hero kept smashing them for rupees.
- During "Nate's Spelunking Adventure", completing one of the puzzles in the Cave of Lost Time has Nate excitedly stating that the puzzle you solved was like "a Link to the Past" and that it was like something from "one of those Legends told by [his] cousin Zelda".
- The third iteration of the "Nate's Dates" quest line for the Valentine's Event has a quest where you find Bomb Flowers for Nate to make a bouquet for a stranger he plans on dating.
- The flavor text for the Bug Fairy pet makes a jab at Navi's infamous "Hey! Listen!" phrase.
Star Wars
- One of the obtainable hats, the Tusken Hat, is modeled and named after the Tusken Raiders.
- One of the posters that you can obtain is of Admiral Ackbar. One of the names used for the item also mentions the famous "It's a trap!" meme.
- A sale that is occasionally offered in the game offers "Kill Moon Cakes" as an item to restore your energy, which clearly parody the Death Star.
- The Princess Lola Hologram Doll companion is an obvious reference to Princess Layla.
Super Mario Bros.
- In The Sporing Forest, one of the sets of creatures that spawn after completing one of the puzzles are purple Goombas.
- In The Stratus Incline, one of the NPCs you'll be helping out is Maria, a genderbent Mario expy, and her quest involves finding Warp Whistles for her. The same area also features a line of four Question Blocks that you can click on for free gold, and one is able to be obtained for your Ranch.
- The Snapdragon from the 2023 Spring Event strongly resembles a Piranha Plant, and its description also makes reference to Mario and Luigi.
Miscellaneous
- One of the Stations in the Christmas Event has you donate Candy Canes to help one of the Elves make video games for Christmas presents. These video games happen to be Bush Whacker 2 on cartridges strongly resembling the cartridges used by the Nintendo Entertainment System.
- Nate Dragon is a clear parody of Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.
- The IDEA Furniture Catalogue mentioned with the Ripped Catalogue item and some of the ranch item flavor texts is a clear parody of Swedish furniture retailer IKEA.
- The title of one of the achievements for the limited-time Spring Event, "Five Days At Freddy's", sounds oddly familiar to a popular horror game. Thankfully, you won't need to protect yourself from evil animatronics to get this achievement.
- The flavor text for the Sparkling Pinwheel Sword makes reference to Patrick's "Who 'ya callin' Pinhead?" line from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "Survival of the Idiots".
- The Fur Hat's flavor text is a spoof of the classic "In Soviet Russia" joke format.
- In The Mine Collapse, one of the quests required to complete to progress has you gather up pickaxes, which are rendered in 8-bit, for an NPC named Steve.
- Brawl Island:
- First off, the quest to get there begins with Nate receiving the black spot.
- Brawl Island has three trials, insult swordfighting, a mansion with an idol... all that's missing is the grog.
- The curse is that the only dream the pirates and Nate have is a Pop Tart cat flying through space, singing a strange song repeating all night.
- The Jungle Island is one to the novel Tarzan. William Clay enlists you and Kaine to search a jungle island. Along the way, you discover Zartan is William's brother, and first in line for the Clay fortune. However, instead of mutineers, William sabotaged the voyage, and he's taking you just as the limitations on the will are about to expire. He gets off rather lightly with a jail sentence, and Zartan still bequeaths the money to him.
- Early on during the Christmas Event, the Grinch can be seen frozen in a shard of ice in the North Pole. Later in the event, he breaks free and has a questline that involves giving him 50 cakes to cheer him up. Predictably, his heart literally grows three times its size from eating all of them, and talking to him after completing his quest has him complaining of dizziness and chest pains. He's also a purchasable pet in the event's dedicated store.
- The game ran a limited-time quest based on Star Trek in early March 2015 in tribute to Leonard Nimoy where you must find a Communicator and, upon completing the quest, you received a tiny version of Spock (named Leonard) as a reward. The quest would be rerun in March of 2023, this time with a new quest based on "The Trouble With Tribbles" where you helped round up Tribble expies called Trubbles and their offspring. Said Trubbles were also purchasable pets during the course of the event's rerun.
- One of the pets you can purchase with DNA from PAGAS, the Indigo Dragon, is modeled after Spyro. The flavor text for it even references his ability to glide!
- The Broom Stand ranch item indicates that it's for in case a game of Quiddich breaks out.
- The first quest of the Incandescent Ascent is a Game of Thrones reference, obtaining obsidian to fight off the White Walkers.
- One area of the Salt Desert is called the Dead Pools, and quite fittingly for such an area they included as one of the quest NPCs Death Puddle, Codename Games' Expy of Deadpool from Crusaders of the Lost Idols, and due to the character's signature Medium Awareness his post-quest dialogue has him note the developers would likely be more on-the-nose if not for the need of Writing Around Trademarks.
- The Caine quest Mystery of the Missing Heirloom has you shrunk down by a Mr. Flyn to recover an heirloom from near an ant hill. After helping the ants find their queen, what is the "heirloom?" A super suit that holds the prototype of the shrinking technology. (The sapphire pendant used as the icon is the reward.)
- One of the quests in Siobhan's quest line for the Saint Patrick's Day Event involves chasing after a thief who stole some of her cabbages, and almost every time you whack him, he says some variant of "My cabbages!"
- One of the quests in The Fractal Forest has you helping Witcher by tossing some coins to him.
