Glitch Techs Season Two is available on Netflix. Featuring callbacks to many video games throughout history, here are 10 references to classic games you might’ve missed.
Glitch Tech’s second season finally debuted three weeks ago, delivering the remainder of the long-awaited 20 episodes of what was supposed to be the show’s first season. After delays due to a tumultuous fallout with Nickelodeon, the long-anticipated animated series was finally available online via Netflix in 2020. Created by Eric Robles and Dan Milano, the show follows the adventures of a group of teen Glitch Technicians who battle and recapture digital glitch-monsters. A tribute towards video games and gamer culture, there are many callbacks and references to popular video games throughout history in nearly every episode.
Because it is quite easy to miss. Here is a reference list of 10 of the most notable video game callbacks featured in the series.
10. Guitar Hero
In the pilot episode, “Age of Hinobi,” Miko enthusiastically plays away on a guitar-shaped controller. Revealed to be a rhythm game that showers it’s players with accolades the better they perform, it’s evident that this is a callback to Guitar Hero. The popular music and rhythm game released in 2005.
9. Pac-Man
This Easter egg is featured in the second portion of the two-part pilot (made one episode by Netflix). Chomp Kitty is a cat that can eat pixel pellets and power-ups. An obvious reference about the gobbling classic: Pac Man. The first glitch Five and Miko face-off and capture in the series, Chomp Kitty is one of the show’s most popular recurring glitches.
8. Super Mario Brothers
There are quite a few references to Super Mario Brothers on the show but the most obvious reference is in the first episode of the second season: “The Glitch Modder”. In this part 2 introduction, the audience is soon introduced to Ridley. An eccentric yet gifted character who establishes a bond with Miko. All for a moment that leads to this cutaway gag and hug.
7. Final Fantasy
This reference’s dead giveaway is in its character design as Ally the giant bird is a mix between the ostriches from Joust but more importantly: Final Fantasy Chocobos. First seen in Season 1, Episode 3: “Going, going, gauntlets,” what really sells this as a Final Fantasy callback is in the title menu for Bravestone XII listed above. It looks exactly like the starting menu to the original Final Fantasy games.
6. Mega Man/Jazz Jackrabbit/Sonic/Pokemon
The cold open in Season 1, Episode 8, “Adventures in Pet Training” features this odd little glitch. He is a strange mix of the biggest 90s era videogame characters. An amalgam of the best of the era, Zoom Kazoom has the skin of Mega Man, the rabbit design of Jazz Jackrabbit, speed of Sonic the Hedgehog, and has the inability to say anything beyond its name, just like a Pokemon. A Frankenstein’s monster of 90s nostalgia.
5. Five Nights at Freddy’s
In Season 2, Episode 3, “Ralphie Bear is Back,” we learn that Five is obsessed with the Chuck E. Cheese styled restaurant mascot Ralphie Bear. But when a pizza arcade glitches and robots are brought back to commission, just like in Five Night’s at Freddie’s, things go awfully awry. An episode parodying Five Nights at Freddie’s, when a scared Miko accidentally de-skins one of the robots, you can absolutely see the reference.
4. Dragon Age/Fire Emblem
In Season 2, Episode 2, we see that Ridley really wants to mod her captured Chomp Kitty into an Uber Dragon — which is a high level creature from the game Fire Age 4. An homage to the RPGs Dragon Age and Fire Emblem, we also get to see a knight and mage armored Five and Miko.
3. Castlevania
In Season 1, Episode 5, Five and Miko play the game ‘Castlestein’. Where they scale and explore a two-dimensional castle in search of destroying a vampire glitch and saving their fellow techs. An obvious allusion towards the hit Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. This episode is just like the Five Nights at Freddie’s one in that its an entire episode-long parody.
2. Metal Gear Solid
In the last episode of the first season, Five obsesses with a stealth-based video game based on a character who looks like Solid Snake but with an afro. Reenacting stealth missions in real life, Five even goes so far as to carry around a box to be like his hero. All of course, for a tribute to Solid Snake from the classic videogame series: Metal Gear Solid.
1. Tetris/Candy Crush
Finally, where would a meta-television show about gaming be without a Tetris Reference? In Season 1, Episode 7 we see Miko spend the day with her sister Nica who is then forced to join along on a glitch busting mission. In the process, we meet a glitch based on a mobile game alluding towards Candy Crush. However, what’s also very evident as seen above, are that the block pixels are designed just like Tetris blocks.
Thoughts about the list? Let us know in the comments below and if you want, check out Glitch Techs Season 2 Review.
