Insomniac Games' two recent ventures, Marvel's Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, benefit from the same extended Marvel Comics universe to use as a reference point that the blockbuster Marvel Cinematic Universe does. For example, the New York in Marvel's Spider-Man references the Avengers, and the newly-released Miles Morales also has fun collectibles for X-Men fans to discover.
One such collectible was pointed out by Twitter user Fifth Dream, who found a pair of ticket stubs Miles kept from an in-universe concert that took place on September 22, 2015. The concert was a joint performance by Alison Blaire, going by her X-Men heroine alias Dazzler; and Lila Cheney, a mutant musician who can teleport across intergalactic distances. Dazzler also recently had a cameo in the movie X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019).
According to the Marvel fandom wiki, Blaire and Cheney have performed together in the comic book canon, which makes it a deep-cut reference to include in Spider-Man: Miles Morales for any fans whose knowledge about the universe goes beyond Insomniac's games. Both titles have a decent collection of characters and supervillains for comic fans to count off, but Insomniac Games has also referenced other media with inclusions like a Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse suit in Miles Morales.
The game's developers have also taken the opportunity to include references to memes in its marketing. In the lead-up to Spider-Man: Miles Morales' release as a launch title for the PlayStation 5 Thursday, Insomniac Games put out a GIF of Miles and Spider-Cat shake-dancing, using models from the game to replicate a now-iconic Shaquille O'Neal meme.
General excitement for the new Spider-Man game has been capitalized upon in various other ways, too. For example, Adidas is selling Spider-Man: Miles Morales shoes that replicate the character's in-game attire - though one of the hallmarks of the series is being able to swap out Spider-Man's outfit for various unique looks.
All-in-all, Spider-Man: Miles Morales has been positively received alongside the Ultimate Edition's remaster of Marvel's Spider-Man, which originally released on the PS4. The latter title has seen some more notable criticism thanks to Insomniac swapping out Peter Parker's character model, but beyond a few complaints about how this affects certain dramatic scenes there have been seemingly minimal issues. Fans will no doubt spend a lot of time playing both titles to seek out any more references that Insomniac Games has included.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales is available now on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
Source: Marvel Wiki