Rick And Morty Season 6 Episode 3 Hilariously Referenced The Greatest First-Person Shooter Of All Time
Season 6's Episode 3 of "Rick and Morty," titled "Bethic Instinct," deals with some rather uncomfortable family dynamics. In response, both Morty (Justin Roiland) and Summer (Spencer Grammer) become enamored with a new video game system that Morty hooks up in the earliest moments of the episode. From there, they play a realistic version of "Asteroids," "Final Fantasy 7," a text-based adventure with outcomes that come out of nowhere, and even a "Street Fighter" clone that involves the fighters simply getting to designated locations to fight.
One of the fulcrums of "Rick and Morty" is that the show absolutely loves to poke fun at popular culture — just look at that last episode, which heavily involved the events of the "Die Hard" movies and the season premiere that absolutely lampooned Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) at the start of "Avengers: Endgame." In other words, the show has no qualms with jokes at the expense of wildly popular video games, movies, celebrities, and historical figures. Of course, when one is playing a galactic game system, there are plenty of opportunities for Easter Eggs, and one is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to a wildly silly game mode in one of the most popular first-person shooters of all time.
Rick and Morty referenced a special multiplayer mode in GoldenEye
During the start up and menu of the "Street Fighter" spoof video game, one of the options for gameplay is a mode called "slappers only." This is actually a reference to an immensely fun option in Nintendo 64's "GoldenEye" multiplayer mode. If you are old enough to have played the game, you probably fondly remember collecting four N64 controllers for trash-talking four-player split-screen battles. The customization of multiplayer games for "GoldenEye" is one of the most enduring aspects of the game, since before the matches, players would choose the weapons available. Other options were ones like "power weapons," which featured the most powerful weapons in the game like the RCP-90, as well as options involving the different forms of explosive mines. Of course, "slappers only" meant that weapons aren't available, and combatants would have to slap each other to death. Ah, memories!
Speaking with Complex, "GoldenEye" director Martin Hollis spoke of the game's legacy and said, "The animation is perfect, not in a realistic, competent way, but in a flailing camp way. It's more Benny Hill than James Bond, and that makes it glorious." He later added, "Is it James Bond? Not really. Is it funny? Hell yes. Most FPS games are extremely serious — po-faced really — and don't get mileage from the slapstick that can emerge from running about, spewing bullets and lobbing hand grenades. People like to laugh." Considering that "Rick and Morty" decided to work a reference in about "slappers only," it seems as if the creators must have had first-hand experience (ba-dum-tss) with the hilarious "GoldenEye" mode.