There Will Be Brawl: In-Jokes, Analysis, and Serious Geeking Out

By now, most web-savvy gamers (is there any other kind?) are well-acquainted with the newly minted classic, There Will Be Brawl. If you haven't seen it already, check it out above (mildly NSFW). It's a grim, Noir-ish look into the Mushroom Kingdom, and features awesome production values and appearances by the biggest names in Smash Brothers history (and those who aren't in Episode 1 are on their way...we hear the Pokemon Trainer is next up for the spotlight! Can Pikachu be far behind?).

I recently wrote a detailed review of the show, which you can read at Tilzy.TV. But more importantly, our resident Nintendo specialist Degan was good enough to take meticulous notes on the series, including annotations for the show's many in-jokes and references. You can play the video and read along, or just skim through to see all the nerdy references you may have missed the first time.

• Abductions and mutilations? I'm not sure if this is a yet-to-be-revealed plot point or a reference to some character i'm not thinking of... are the abductions referencing the weird trophy-fying gun that Bowser uses on the characters in the brawl story mode?
• Toad people! Its not the mushroom kingdom without Toads!
• I believe the first Noir music cue is a tune from Mario 2.
• Wii fit ad a nice touch ("unseen arbiter").
• Creepy mask guy in the hallway is from Mario 2.
• "Pileup on Moonview Highway to Moo Moo meadows" is from Mario Kart.

More after the jump? You better believe it.

• Lakitu newscaster is from a bunch of games, but the fact that he's a newscaster is a reference to Mario Kart, where he's the cameraman for the instant replays, and fishes you out after you throw yourself off a cliff. Here, he's complete with fishing pole, and if you look closely you'll see his desk is cloud with eyes.
  
• Luigi's drinking the classic red health potion (I believe first seen in Zelda-but its such a video game convention that I'm not even sure anymore). [edit: there's some debate on the TWBB forums about this potion... many there seem to think its the warp potion from Mario 2... I still maintain that it's regular old health potion. For one, they never drank the warp potions... they threw them on the ground to create doors! So in the context of the scene, it doesn't make much sense for Luigi to be drinking a warp potion... unless he's trying to commit suicide by "internal door".]
  
• Police chief Link and his "Hylean" brand justice-reference to Lake Hylia in Hyrule... apparently an authoritarian police state... never knew. [edit: apparently the "Hylians" are the people of Hyrule... not just lake Hylia]
  
• Awesome violin Mario music that starts as the Mario Death tune and leads into the classic Mario Theme!
• Power up boxes! sweet! And power up mushrooms complete with Mario World sound effects!
• Wario's awesome! And those ice climbers are super creepy... why does Nana need a monobrow?!?
• Roy and Pichu are two characters who didn't make into the line-up for Smash Brothers Brawl...now we know why.
  
• More reference to the mutilations and "tiny guts"? Is that just cause Pichu is tiny... or is there some shrinking thing I'm not picking up?
• Blinking Wario growth a nice touch too
• "Tunic-wearing fairy"- nasty way to refer to Link... "his pigs"? Either just your typical slur for police or possibly a reference to the pigs of Ness' New Pork City? Are there even pigs there though? I don't know...
• Mario Dungeon Theme when Mario confronts Wario and Luigi (actually its the Haunted House theme from Mario World)
• I love the princess' undercover-celebrity-glasses and hoodie! At first I thought the princess was terribly acted... then i realized she's trying to do that obnoxious high-pitched monosyllabic speaking style she always has in the games... pretty clever.
• Mario's medical practice! Dr. Mario reference, natch. [edit: it only just occurred to us the reason for Mario's "failed medical practice"... Dr. Mario isn't featured in Brawl-it's how they killed him off (like they did Pichu, Roy, and MewTwo)]
  
• Shrinking noise from Super Mario World when Mario attacks Wario.
• Ha, "Been a referee (Punchout), been a doctor (obviously Dr. Mario)". Man, Mario's been around.
• Is there tension between Waluigi and Wario? He seems pretty touchy about the issue.
• Awesome awesome ringtone! Sonic Boom! The theme song from the barely played Sonic CD for the even more barely owned SegaCD (I think I owned the only one) I guess that means she's in contact with Sonic... Also surprising they used this since I was one of 7 people who owned SegaCD.
• Ha, "dance around in your skin!" Cause that's kinda what Kirby does!
• "Her own court anymore?" And since when have the Mario Bros not been useful? Not sure if these are game references or again, yet-to-be-revealed plot points...
• Megavitamins.... that's what Dr. Mario used!
• Kirby's a scary freak!

That he is, Degan, that he is. No, seriously. When I had to check the credits for my review, I put my hand over the screen in case I went too far back and ended up on a still of him. Not joking, people.