DID YOU KNOW BADNIX: Chain of Memories

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Ever think to yourself while reading a comic, “boy, I wish I knew which 20-year old games were being opaquely referenced in this panel”? Sure, we all have! While Badnix is on break, I thought I’d share some notes on bits from past storylines that you might have overlooked. First up is the most recent installment, Chain of Memories.

  • Tin Man was heavily based on EVE, an antique robot from the original Mother on the NES. Like Tin Man, EVE was found in a hidden underwater base, which she later escaped by shattering its windows.
  • We only get a few glimpses of Don Gepetto, the original puppet master of the Bug Mob, but he seems to have been an actual living puppet. Apart from the obvious Pinocchio parallel, his design draws on Geno from Super Mario RPG.
  • The Sub Pop was inspired (among other things) by the Marine Pop from Super Mario Land. The Sub Pop bursting apart instead of imploding into a grisly mess of steel is, of course, a case of me fudging physics for the sake of a fun cartoon visual, but if it helps you can pretend the Sub Pop had some type of “safeguard” in place that detected the unsafe pressure and sprung apart on its own. (Why that feature was included is anyone’s guess.)
  • On a similar note, Arika’s concern about “getting the bends” is actually unfounded – the bends is caused by decompression during a diver’s ascent. She didn’t ascend! She just teleported to a different dimension using a magical instrument. Which I’m assuming carries no health risks.
  • The underwater Bug Mob hideout visited by Perry and Arika is pretty much a dead ringer for the robot fish mini-boss in Bubble Man’s stage from Megaman 2.
  • Many of the trees in Food World are actually made out of a fork standing in front of a plate.
  • Marigold’s design borrows some elements from the assistants in the Monster Rancher games. I originally intended to have some scenes of her wrangling large, monstrous produce, but that wound up being cut for space. Her outfit also vaguely echoes Perry’s: the red & blue color scheme, high collar, oversized boots, etc.
  • Perry’s Star Wars fandom has been a facet of his character almost since the beginning of the comic. If you look closely, you can see a Star Wars VHS tape and a Papa Plastik CD in one of the boxes Perry sifts through at Marigold’s house.

One response to “DID YOU KNOW BADNIX: Chain of Memories”

  1. Arbitrary says:

    Regarding the bends, it looks like the second cause in the wikipedia link would apply here, but maybe the magic teleportation didn’t teleport the gas bubbles in the blood or something, i dunno it’s magic.

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