Surprisingly, Simon Says Mobile is loaded with a lot of pop-culture references, both in-game and in its achievements.
In-game
- The five Elite Backgrounds you can unlock and buy as you level-up pay homage to five popular mobile games:
- Katana Training's wooden background is meant to evoke the background of Halfbrick Studios' Fruit Ninja. Swipe gestures also trigger sword-slashing sounds, and the background's description talks about "spilling some juice", the closest clue that alludes to the game without violating trademarks.
- Train Yard is a picture of train tracks, where the hooligans of Kiloo's Subway Surfers would spend running down to evade the law.
- Hurler of Revenge is a picture of a giant slingshot, the weapon of choice for Rovio Entertainment's Angry Birds. A downward swipe triggers the giant slingshot for guaranteed destruction.
- Finger Virtuoso is a still image of black tiles scrolling down several blank lanes - meant to remind players about Cheetah Mobile's Piano Tiles.
- The Ancient Ruins are meant to be the ruins of mysterious temples waiting to witness the action and mad chases of Imangi Studios' Temple Run unfold.
- The three Jigsaw Backgrounds introduced in 2018 that can only be unlocked and owned by collecting pieces from Booster Cards pays homage to how certain characters in Subway Surfers must be unlocked by gathering enough copies of particular items from mystery boxes.
- The ability upgrade system, introduced in late 2018, pays homage to the 2015 turn-based RPG mobile game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, with the player spending special upgrade material and currency to upgrade the abilities of unlocked backgrounds. The one particular detail from it that points to Heroes is the presence of Omega and Zeta Upgrade Tokens, used to complete the final upgrade level of a character's ability in that game.
- As a tribute to Bop It's Pass It mode, the Hot Potato multiplayer mode's Have a Nice Death message given to players eliminated is exactly the same message an eliminated player hears in Bop It's Pass It mode."Nice try...you're out."
Achievements
Several achievements pay homage to Disney movies:- "Go The Distance" is a song from Hercules.
- "I Laugh At The Face Of Danger" is a line taken straight from The Lion King (1994).
- "Ooh...Shiny!" is Dory the tangfish's response to an anglerfish's lure in Finding Nemo.
- "No Capes!" is a line from Edna, the superhero costume designer in The Incredibles.
- "Let It Go!" is the title of the most famous song from Frozen (2013).
There are other achievements that pay homage to other films that don't come straight from Disney:
- "I Can Do This All Day" may sound like a generic quote, but Word of God intended it to point to Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain America: Civil War.
- "These Are Your First Steps" is a line from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
- "Precious...My Precious!" is Gollum's most famous line from The Lord of the Rings.
- "Not Today, Death! Not Today!" is a line from Paul Blart in Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.
- "You Only Live Thrice" is a parody of the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.
- "Diamonds Are Forever" is a the title of a James Bond film proper.
- "THIS! IS! SPARTA!" is a very famous line in the film 300.
- "These Go To Eleven" is a line from Nigel Tufnel in the film This is Spın̈al Tap.
Achievements that reference video games:
- "Flawless Victory" is what you'll exactly hear if you vanquish your opponent in a round of Mortal Kombat without a scratch.
- The achievement icon for "Invincible" is a star. Guess who that reminds you of...
- "Danmaku Daredevil" celebrates the infamous danmaku or "Bullet Hell" that proves to be the bane of any Shoot 'Em Up player.
Achievements that reference other pop culture:
- "With Great Power..." and "...Comes Great Responsibility" form the motto of your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
- "Over 9000" is a line from the anime Dragon Ball Z.
- "Tough Mudder" is the name of a real-life endurance foot race.
- "Shooting Stars" is the name of a catchy song from Bag Raiders.
- "Winter is Coming" is a warning uttered by Lord Eddard Stark in the series premiere of the TV series Game of Thrones.
