Easter Eggs Abound! Gaming References Hidden in Hearthstone
All across Hearthstone, from gameboards to flavor text, sharp-eyed players will notice a plethora of pop culture references. Hidden among the cards, you can find nods to Star Wars, Spongebob, Harry Potter, and more. For us gamers, the ones that stand out the most are, of course, gaming references. Read on to see which hidden gaming treasures we found, and be sure to let us know what your favorite easter eggs are in the comments below!
#1: Mirror Entity
This card references the Portal series in a few ways. Of course there are the signature orange and blue portals, but if you look closely you can see a symbol on his sleeve that looks an awful lot like the Aperature Science logo. While you’re at it, check out his companion cube necklace. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I was promised some cake.
#2: Cobalt Guardian
When the Cobalt Guardian meets its demise it can be heard saying “Error 37” which is a reference to Diablo III’s infamous error which plagued users at its launch. The error message itself told players the "servers are busy at this time" and became the go-to response on forums when players encountered a problem with the game.
#3: Orsis Guard
While this isn’t actually a playable card (it’s a boss minion from The League of Explorers), you may have heard this card say “Someday, I’d love to be in Heroes of the Storm” when it was attacking you during your adventures.
#4: Gadgetzan Game Board
When the expansion Means Streets of Gadgetzan dropped it came with a game board loaded with references to none other than Blizzard’s own Overwatch. In the lower right corner of the board, the building for the Jade Lotus has a few references to the Shimada brothers, Genji and Hanzo. If you click on the katana stuck in the side of the building you’ll see it surrounded by the green dragon that signifies Genji’s ultimate ability, Dragonblade. On the other side of the building, you’ll find the projectile of choice for each brother: an arrow (for Hanzo) and a Shuriken (for Genji). Across in the other corner, if you’re lucky you might even fish up a Pachimari .Maybe the decorator for this board went shopping in Hanamura?
#5: Argent Horserider
Back to back references to Overwatch! Tracer fans will instantly recognize this card’s voice line when he’s summoned, “Don’t worry loves, the cavalry’s here!”
#6. Rattling Rascal
Referencing a very different kind of game, the flavor text on this card is a nod to the Dark Souls franchise. It reads: Don’t give up, skeleton! and refers to the messages players would leave for each other in Dark Souls.
#7. Infested Tauren
You know what we haven’t seen so far? A Starcraft reference! Let’s fix that with this card, which is a reference to the Infested Terran unit from that series.
#8. Evolving Spores
You wouldn’t know it just by looking at it, but this card actually references the Super Mario Bros. series. It’s flavor text reads: The most powerful mushrooms are commonly found in boxes marked with “?”
#9. On the Hunt
Some players might not be old enough to get the reference with this card, but us NES kids know that the flavor text, The mastiff giggles if you don’t hit any ducks, is a reference to the beloved classic Duck Hunt. Seriously though, that dog was rude.
#10. Blizzard
As a nod to itself, Blizzard wrote this for the flavor text for this card: This spell can be very Entertaining.
Bonus Section!
These cards feature pop culture references to famous franchises in their flavor text or voice lines:
- Harry Potter
- Jurassic Park
- Game of Thrones
And these are just a few! There are a ton more out there, can you find them? Show us what you’ve got in the comments below.
Kindly Grandmother is a reference to the little red riding hood
Romulo and Julianne is a reference to Romeo and Juliette by William Shakespeare
Big-Time Racketeer its refer to al pacino from Scarface
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVQ8byG2mY8
There's a Firefly/Serenity reference in the dungeon run. If your opponent steals your Loyal Sidekick, the Sidekick will say "Curse my sudden but inevitable betrayal." I wish I had been able to stop laughing fast enough to get a screenshot.
So I have a few old good ones:
Lorewalker Cho has the flavor text talks about his favourite story is where Joey and Phoebe are on a road trip. This a clear reference to Friends (Season 6-1)
Flying Machine when attacking says "Stay on Target." This is a quote from Star Wars: A New Hope.
Brave Archer... The picture, when the minion enters the board and flavor text are based on Brave... shocker.
Eerie Statue has flavor text which is based on the advice The Doctor (Doctor Who) gives when confronting the Weeping Angels. I will link it to that part (3:46) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwdbLu_x0gY
So there is a few more, enjoy.
Speaking of Doctor Who, the art of the priest spell Resurrection is a clear reference to the regeneration of the Doctor
Finally something mentioned Doctor Who refferences! I'm not the only one.
Argent Horserider one doesn't make sense. The Grand Tournamenet was released one year before Overwatch. It can be the other way around.
Overwatch entered public beta only a couple months after TGT, and had been in development for years prior to that.
Don't confuse the release date of a game with the time a character in it was created.
By your logic it is still the other way around because this set would have been in development for a while before it was released could have just been coincidence that they used similar lines though rather than an actual Easter egg
i heard that they worked on Overwatch game in the studio for 3 years before releasing it on public so its make sense
First overwatch cinematic trailer was released in november of 2014, and featured this phrase said by Traicer. TGT was released in august 2015.
It makes perfect sense that Blizzard knew about Blizzard projects long before release :P
At the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan board there are also fruits near the bottom right house. If you click them enough they will launched up then if you tap the fruit at mid air there will be a slash animation and sound. And this refers to the Fruit Ninja.
His flavor text is Holy Grail, but his VO battlecry is GoTs.
The Black Knight and The Skeleton Knight are based on the same character in Warcraft, therefore they both have links to Monty Python. But as Zoltan19 said, The Skeleton Knight will quote GoT instead of Monty Python (but you are indeed correct about the flavor text).
In case my post is just confusing, watch this short lore video from Nobbel:
You missed the one I looked for on this, Skull of the Man’ari.
In the cult-classic D&D CRPG, Planescape: Torment, you play as the Nameless One, a scarred immortal that previously lost his memory every time he is mortally wounded and regenerates. You start the game in a mortuary and immediately enlist the aid of a talking (and floating) skull named Morte who informs you of instructions tattooed on your back. Later in the game you find a stone engraved with the exact same instructions, except these end with the sentence “DON’T TRUST THE SKULL”.
I don't really know if that's a Planescape reference. It's more likely a reference to the Demonologist artifact weapon from WoW: Legion, Skull of the Man'ari, which also tends to talk to the player.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present: The filler article. When Hearthpwn has nothing new to talk about and tells you stuff you already know just like Buzzfeed.