References

[LVL99]

I feel like 20XX is full of references to other games, TV shows, movies etc. Below is a list of the references I have identified. There are probably many more of which I am totally oblivious, so let me know if you can contribute any and I will add them to this list.

Augments

• Plumber Hat: So obvious, even I can figure this one out easily. If you know Super Mario, you can probably too.
  
• Heart Container: Heart Containers are what increases your max health in the Zelda games[zeldawiki.org].
  
• Potato Battery: Looks like Portal 2's GlaDOS[theportalwiki.com]. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• Xcalber: I was always wondering why this item's name was deliberately misspelled. Apparently, this is the shortened name for Excalibur[ffe.hendersongdi.com] in the NES version of Final Fantasy 1 which they had to give the weapon due to character limitations.
  
• Ninja Sash: It looks like the forehead protector[naruto.wikia.com] worn by the characters in the anime/manga series Naruto, who happen to be ninjas. I don't know any other ninjas who wear anything like this. In the item description it says “Gotta go fast”, which is a reference to the theme song of Sonic X. (Thanks Aarontu.)
  
• Choicebooster: When you pick up Choicebooster, shops in Eridu stock up with more goods from home shopping channel QVC[imgur.com] (see lower-right corner of the image).
  
• Thrift Actuator: This aug makes every shop item cost 50% less. The icon for this aug looks quite steamy. Steam sale, anyone? (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• Forgotten Memento: A reference in itself, since it looks like the Bronze Stud / Silver Stud / Gold Stud / Platinum Stud augments which were removed from the game. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• Zephyr: Previously known as Bantam Dancer. Possibly a reference to the Phantom Dancer in League of Legends[pm1.narvii.com]. (Thanks darthnumbers.)
  
• Charging Magnet: The icon looks like Magneto[en.wikipedia.org] from the Marvel Universe, who is also able to create magnetic fields. The icon image's file name is even called “Magneato.png”.
  
• Contractor Plus/Omega: Another Super Mario reference. The Mushroom turns Mario and Luigi into their super versions. In 20XX, Mushrooms make you “super” as well and increase all your stats, no strings attached.
  
• Entropy Lock: A reference to a legacy boss power with the name “Entropy Clock”. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• System Restore: Doesn't only heal your character of the negative effects of prototype augs, but also your computer[en.wikipedia.org] of the deadly virus that you get from installing a pirated copy of 20XX v0.80b. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• Seven-Leaf Clover: A reference to the seven-leaf clover Fry finds in the Futurama episode “Luck of the Fryrish”[futurama.wikia.com] (Thanks cirkuu.)

Legacy Augments

• Aerial Stabiliser (replaced by Oxjack's Blitz): Looks similar to Mega Man X's dash boots. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• Shootypuff Jr. (replaced by Murderdrone): This drone was named after Scooty-Puff, Jr.[futurama.wikia.com], a little scooter that appears in an episode of Futurama. It's kind of fitting that both were superseded by better items. (Thanks 17thUnitMaverickHunter.)

(For item descriptions and icons, see Cirom's item guide.)

Powers and main weapons

• Vera: A gun from the TV show Firefly[tvtropes.org]. (Thanks to Youtuber Parallax Abstraction.) Looks like the Heavy's minigun in Team Fortress 2. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• Quint Laser: An enhancement to the Mooninites' Quad Laser in Aqua Teen Hunger Force. (Thanks to Azrael for pointing this one out to me.) Possibly an additional reference to the character Quint[megaman.wikia.com] who appears in some of the Mega Man games for the Game Boy. (Thanks Dinh the Red.)
  
• Boomerang Blade: The Boomerang Blade just reminds me too much of the cross sub-weapon[castlevania.wikia.com] from the Castlevania games to not mention it here. It's probably inspired by Mega Man 3's Shadow Blade[megaman.wikia.com] or Mega Man 2's Metal Blade[megaman.wikia.com] though. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• Flameshield: Any shield with protective projectiles encircling the player ever. Could be inspired by Flame Barrier from Rogue Legacy or Scorch Wheel from Mega Man 7. (Thanks Cirom and Dinh the Red.)
  
• Splinterfrost: Works similar to Mega Man X's shotgun ice[megaman.wikia.com]. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• N-Buster and A-Saber: Probably just references to the Mega Buster[megaman.wikia.com] and the Z-Saber[megaman.wikia.com] in the Mega Man X games.
  
• Wave Beam: Works similar to the Wave Beam from Metroid. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• Plasma Blender: Feels and mostly looks like the sword Crissaegrim/Valmanway[2.bp.blogspot.com] from the Castlevania games.

Core Augs

• Armatort's Dome: Looks totally like Mega Man's helmet. (Thanks Cirom.)

Bosses

• Death Lotus: One commenter in one of my videos (Analytic31) attributes the name to a missile created by the Youtuber w4stedspace for the game Space Engineers. This could also just be a coincidence though, since that missile doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Death Lotus of 20XX. I wasn't even sure if I should list it here.

Skulls

• Final Destination: The skull that removes all items from the game. Related to a Smash Bros meme[knowyourmeme.com]. (Thanks Cirom.)

Quotes

• “But...the future refused to change”: This is one of the Failure Notes that appears in the results screen when you die. This sentence is also displayed in the bad ending of the SNES RPG Chrono Trigger.
  
• “Good, good...let the salt flow through you”: Another Failure Note. Possible Star Wars reference?
  
• “Nobody exists on purpose”: One of the pickup lines when looting a corpse. Reference to a great scene in Rick and Morty. (Thanks Aegis.)
  
• “For Glory!”: The pickup line for Thrillseeker and an online mode in 20XX Melee Super Smash Bros. 4[www.ssbwiki.com]. (Thanks Cirom.)
  
• “It's bad, and it should feel bad. -- WOOP WOOP WOOP”: This Failure Note consists of two quotes from Futurama's Dr. Zoidberg. Links for #1 and #2. (Thanks cirkuu.)
  
• “Nothing is ruined. Everything's fine.”: This quote from the intro sequence also appears in an episode of the Homestar Runner series. (Thanks Obvious.)

Miscellaneous

• That box from the tutorial: Looks like the Amazon logo[lh3.googleusercontent.com]. The “e” probably stands for “Eridu”, which I think is a location in the lore of the game's alpha version and part of its former title, Echoes of Eridu. Apparently, the e-mazon logo can also be seen on today's regular crates, just a lot smaller. (Thanks Cirom for pointing that out.)
  
• The game's name itself: 20XX is the loosely defined time period in which the classic Mega Man series takes place and when Dr. Light built Mega Man X[i.imgur.com].

[Dinh]

Besides the ATHF reference in the quint laser if could also refer to quint from the mega man classic games http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Quint (who actaully is megaman)

[Cirom]

Some additional stuff...

Vera also looks near-identical to the minigun The Heavy uses in Team Fortress 2, even down to the markings on the weapon. Additionally, The Heavy nicknames his minigun "Sasha".

The Flameshield could be related to the Flame Barrier from Rogue Legacy. Additionally, the Flameshield used to be channeled just like the Flame Barrier - a permanent fire shield which drains Energy over time until dismissed.

To me, the Boomerang Blade is most alikened to MM2's Metal Blade. It can be fired in 8 directions and it deals massive damage. Although it's a lot more energy-hungry than Metal Blade was.. so maybe it's more like the Shadow Blade instead.

Splinterfrost is apparently identical in functionality to a weapon called Shotgun Ice in the Mega Man X games, save for the recent addition of being able to fire it diagonally.

The Wave Beam is apparently based off of a Metroid weapon with a similar name.

Armatort's Dome actually looks a lot like Mega Man (Classic)'s helmet, moreso than the default.
Also worth noting that Focusing Sagelens, Violence Enhancer and to a lesser extent Final Shell and Sanity Converter also have very Mega Man-style helmets visible.

The e-mazon logo is also visible on the newer crates, it's just a lot smaller now.

The old Aerial Stabiliser augment (now used as the "jump height" stat graphic) looks very similar to the upgraded armour in Mega Man X.

The spider-like enemies which explode are called Creepers. I... feel like this one's self-explanatory.

The Thrift Actuator (the item which makes all items on sale) appears to have steam coming from it.

The Forgotten Memento I'd technically argue is a self-reference, as I bet everyone forgot about the Bronze Stud / Silver Stud / Gold Stud / Platinum Stud items which share its graphic.

The Vibroreserve looks like Potato-GLaDOS from Portal 2.

[Dinh]

Yeah i was going to edit in that the flame wheel is 100% scorch wheel from mega man seven.

[LVL99]

Thanks for all the hints, I updated the OP with them.

Originally posted by Cirom:

Armatort's Dome actually looks a lot like Mega Man (Classic)'s helmet, moreso than the default.

True, but that makes me wonder, why does Armatort's Dome look more like Mega Man's helmet than the other Core helmets? What makes it more Mega Man-y than the others?

Originally posted by Cirom:

The spider-like enemies which explode are called Creepers. I... feel like this one's self-explanatory.

Good thing my nephew made me play Minecraft once. However, I just checked and it seems those spiders are called “Sploders” now (the small ones with 4 and the big ones with 8 projectiles). I did find the string “Creeper” in the game's exe file though (also “Creeperboss”), so I guess they had that name once.

Originally posted by Cirom:

The Thrift Actuator (the item which makes all items on sale) appears to have steam coming from it.

Hehe, good one.

Originally posted by Cirom:

The Forgotten Memento I'd technically argue is a self-reference, as I bet everyone forgot about the Bronze Stud / Silver Stud / Gold Stud / Platinum Stud items which share its graphic.

Those studs themselves have quite a distinct look. Are they also referencing anything?

[Cirom]

Originally posted by LVL99:

However, I just checked and it seems those spiders are called “Sploders” now (the small ones with 4 and the big ones with 8 projectiles). I did find the string “Creeper” in the game's exe file though (also “Creeperboss”), so I guess they had that name once.

Odd. The Datalore for the Skittery Smuggler refers to them as Creepers. Guess their name hasn't been finalised yet.

(Also, they used to literally look like creepers from Minecraft before the graphics overhaul that changed them into spiders :V)

EDIT: Also, something I completely forgot - the Minimech Orbital Grinder. Technically not so much a reference as it was a Backer Item, but the name itself abbreviates to MMO Grinder - the name of backer ChaosD1's online YouTube show. I'm not actually sure if any of the other items in the game are Backer Items, though.

[LVL99]

Originally posted by Cirom:

Odd. The Datalore for the Skittery Smuggler refers to them as Creepers. Guess their name hasn't been finalised yet.

(Also, they used to literally look like creepers from Minecraft before the graphics overhaul that changed them into spiders :V)

Inconsistent naming in 20XX? Why am I not surprised. Let's see which name they'll eventually choose.

[AgentFlea]

Rick and Morty

The corpse text 'don't think about it' is a R&M reference. I think there's a few others too. Don't remember at the moment

[LVL99]

Originally posted by Aegis:

Rick and Morty

The corpse text 'don't think about it' is a R&M reference. I think there's a few others too. Don't remember at the moment

Does it really say that when you loot a corpse? I though the pickup text is always "WTF?" (I don't really see the corpses too often though since I mostly play challenge runs). Otherwise it does indeed sound like a R&M reference (and judging by the concept art for one of the additional characters from the kickstarter campaign we know that the developers are familiar with the show).

[batterystaplegames]

Originally posted by LVL99:

Originally posted by Aegis:

Rick and Morty

The corpse text 'don't think about it' is a R&M reference. I think there's a few others too. Don't remember at the moment

Does it really say that when you loot a corpse? I though the pickup text is always "WTF?" (I don't really see the corpses too often though since I mostly play challenge runs). Otherwise it does indeed sound like a R&M reference (and judging by the concept art for one of the additional characters from the kickstarter campaign we know that the developers are familiar with the show).

A few patches ago, we added a bunch of different lines that can pop up when you come across that. (I think the line is "don't think about it too much", which wasn't intended as an R&M reference, but one of the other ones certainly was.)

[Aarontu]

Also, the description for the Ninja Sash says "Gotta go fast!", which is a Sonic the Hedgehog reference.

[eric numberknower]

Bantom Dancer was a reference to League of Legends before they changed the name.

[LVL99]

Originally posted by batterystaplegames:

Originally posted by LVL99:

Does it really say that when you loot a corpse? I though the pickup text is always "WTF?" (I don't really see the corpses too often though since I mostly play challenge runs). Otherwise it does indeed sound like a R&M reference (and judging by the concept art for one of the additional characters from the kickstarter campaign we know that the developers are familiar with the show).

A few patches ago, we added a bunch of different lines that can pop up when you come across that. (I think the line is "don't think about it too much", which wasn't intended as an R&M reference, but one of the other ones certainly was.)

Hey, thanks for confirming. I just found “Nobody exists on purpose”, that must be it.

Originally posted by Aarontu:

Also, the description for the Ninja Sash says "Gotta go fast!", which is a Sonic the Hedgehog reference.

Added!

Originally posted by darthnumbers:

Bantom Dancer was a reference to League of Legends before they changed the name.

Thanks, do you have a reference? I don't really know anything about League of Legends.

[eric numberknower]

http://pm1.narvii.com/5766/5445a9b72fac6384c9de47ded3b20546f16e6a0e_hq.jpg

[LVL99]

Originally posted by darthnumbers:

http://pm1.narvii.com/5766/5445a9b72fac6384c9de47ded3b20546f16e6a0e_hq.jpg

Thanks, good catch. That does look like the old Bantam Dancer icon. Added.

[LVL99]

I added Charging Magnet and Contractor Plus/Omega to the aug reference list.

Googling Quantum Spook hinted at Quantum Entanglement and Einstein referring to the phenomenon as “spooky action at a distance”. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, since I haven't got a clue what they are talking about. If you're an expert in quantum physics, please explain.