On the Minecraft level, while the characters are all antagonizing the virus, Bella has three small blocks on her fingers which she taps together while saying "Virus, come out and play". This is a direct reference to the movie The Warriors (1979).
The video games that inspired various segments and scenes and styles in the film include Minecraft (2009), which dominates much of the film's second half, with characters walking around in the shape of pixelated blocks. The game Barbie is building and testing in the film's first minutes looks resemble the LittleBigPlanet (1997) series. "Level One," which features things like a dunk tank and whack-a-mole in the shadow of a carnival atmosphere in a 3D world that also contains power-ups is reminiscent of Nintendo Land (2012) meets a 3D Mario game. Level two features characters depicted as being paper-flat, much like Paper Mario (2000). An on-foot and on-track racing level is included, which, slightly more off-the-beaten-path of popular games, is like a similar part of Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), though it otherwise has the basic set-up and feel of a more traditional family-style racer, like a Mario Kart or the dedicated races in Skylanders: SuperChargers (2015).
This is the lowest rated Barbie movie till date with the rating of 5.2/10.
In an attempt to heal the nation, on February 14, 2021, podcast hosts Richard Martin and Alexander "AJ" Jones of the Cult Popture Podcast released an 18+ hour comprehensive podcast reviewing the 37 Barbie films. The retrospective took over a month to prepare and features numerous guest speakers as well as an original song created specially for the podcast.