- His name is the Spanish/Portuguese word for "Cat".
- Gato, Tizoc, B. Jenet, Hotaru Futaba and Rock Howard are the only original characters of Garou: MOTW who makes one or more appearances in The King of Fighters series.
- He is visually based on Retsu Kaioh from the Baki the Grappler manga series. Since Retsu is voiced by Kunihiko Yasui, who is known to SNK fans as the voice for Iori Yagami, the developers decided to hire a different voice actor who could mimic the same menacing tone for Gato. SNK then decided that Gato would be voiced by Kōji Ishii, similarly to Ryuji Yamazaki, until KOF XI.
- His T.O.P. attack is the Menghu Yingpashan/Mouko Kohazan (猛虎硬爬山, Fierce Tiger Stiff Mountain-Climb), a common Bajiquan/Hakkyokuken technique, albeit done in the style of a frontal-straight palm thrust akin to the version performed by Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter and Liu Bei's Knights of Valour 3 portrayal.
- Coincidentally, he shares a technique written with the characters that literally translate to "Dragon Fang" with Robert Garcia, though both are rendered in romaji differently; Robert's version is "Ryuuga", while Gato's version is "Tatsu Kiba" and are both completely different techniques (both are even anti-air-based moves).
- Likewise, Gato even shares a technique named "Raiga" (Thunder Fang) with one other character in other fighting game, that being Garuda from the Street Fighter EX games and Fighting EX Layer.