Login to access exclusive Nintendo content, win prizes and post on our forums. Not a member yet? Register for free
11 amazing Star Fox facts and secrets
Which is the only game to feature a proper barrel roll? Discover the secret Smash Bros taunts...
Did you know that you only perform a real barrel roll in Star Fox Assault? This is just one of many fascinating Star Fox facts and secrets you'll discover by reading Zabba 2's latest feature. Yes, after revealing the secrets of Smash Bros last week, our now resident Nintendo trivia man is back to tell you 11 amazing things about Star Fox. How many did you know?
1. Links with F-Zero
The Star Fox series has had many cool crossovers with F-Zero, Nintendo's other futuristic franchise . A human version of James McCloud, Fox's father, makes an appearance as a playable racer in F-Zero X and F-Zero GX. His vehicle, Little Wyvern, strongly resembles the Arwing that Fox and his teammates pilot. Furthermore, when not racing, James is part of a mercenary team called Galaxy Dog, an obvious parody of Star Fox.
Additionally, a character called Octoman who strongly resembles the F-Zero pilot of the same name is featured as an antagonist in Star Fox Command.
A few endings in Star Fox Command make reference to F-Zero, too. One sees Falco donning the boots of Captain Falcon, and another finds Fox and Falco abandoning mercenary work to race in the 'G-Zero' Grand Prix. There's also the wonderfully obscure fact that both series share the G-Diffuser system as a method for flight.
2. Do an aileron roll!
We're all aware of the infamous 'Do a barrel roll!' catchphrase and its subsequent explosion to internet fame (if you're not aware of it, type 'Do a barrel roll' into Google). In real life, however, the barrel roll as seen in Star Fox is not a barrel roll at all, but rather an aileron roll. It is only in Star Fox Assault that an actual barrel role is performed.
3. Beltino Toad's first appearance
Beltino Toad, Slippy's father makes his first appearance in Star Fox: Assault but is actually mentioned by name as early as Lylat Wars, in the Official Nintendo Player's Guide for the game.
In Brawl, it is performed by taunting just after knocking an opponent off the Lylat Cruise stage.
Uh, I'm pretty sure Brawl's version can be done by tapping one of the taunt buttons repeatedly or something. I forget which, as it's been a while, but it definitely does not have to be done just after knocking an opponent out.
I not exactly sure about starfox cos I got starfox command and It was terrible
As MistaChristopher said, SF64/3D is better. I'd recommend at least trying that.
Knew about half of them but still some interesting stuff! I was expecting one about how the Star Fox team were originally amputated and had metal legs but Nintendo latter changed them to look as though they were boots, you can see it in the Star Fox/Starwing photographs and in the Lylat Wars models. http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv261/Baretooken/309px-Snes-StarFox.jpg
Yeah command was a big disappointment. Assault on Cube was slated but it was pretty decent, same with Adventures. The Star Fox games have had a big of a gloomy time since lylat wars/star fox 64 and it took a remake to bring it back upto scratch. Anyone who wants to hope and dream can always look into "Shadows of Lylat" which is/was a fan designed game on pc using HD graphics. really promising but think it died a poor death halfway through development
These facts were pretty interesting. Didn't know the ones about the Star Fox series being inspired by puppet dramas or Slippy's father, although I knew some of the others.
Good article! I did know almost all of these, except for the parts about the aileron roll and the puppet-dramas, which were both absolutely fascinating. The puppet-drama thing also explains why they used photographs of those awesome fur-covered models/puppets for the promotional materials for the original Star Fox game!
I do know some more facts that weren't mentioned, though, if I may share them. Chew on these;
1: There are two separate Star Fox continuities. The first one encompasses the two SNES games - Star Fox and the cancelled Star Fox 2. The second encompasses Star Fox 64 and all of its follow-ups - it retconned the original games out of continuity, changed most of the characters' ages mostly enormously (Fox went from 25 to 18; Falco went from 28 to 19; Slippy went from 19 to 18, and is the only one whose age didn't change much; And Peppy went from a "cool big brother figure" at the age of 36 all the way up to a "father figure" at the age of 41), and completely altered everyone's backstories.
2: The "Star Fox 64 series" is considered to be "lighter and softer" than the SNES originals, and this is reflected clearly in its writing style and the way that it lampoons established science fiction series. Star Fox 64 alone parodies, at the very least, Independence Day, as mentioned in the article; Star Wars; Gundam; And Star Trek.
3: In the original continuity, Fox McCloud's father was not called James McCloud, but Fox McCloud Sr.. Fox McCloud Senior looked just like the Fox we know, and this is why the retcon series added sunglasses and changed his name.
4: Andross' name in Japan is "Andolf". Bearing in mind that the original games were clearly partly inspired by the adventures of World War II pilots, it's easy to see why it was considered necessary to give him the name Andross, instead, everywhere else!
5: Despite Shigeru Miyamoto's claims that the Arwings are named due to looking like the letter "A", the Arwing spacecraft is actually so named because the original SNES games were made by Argonaut Software, Ltd.. As can be seen from cheat-codes present in some of Argonaut's non-Star Fox games, they had a habit of prefacing the names of certain things with "Ar", hence Arwing. It is also partly a Star Wars reference, to the "X-Wing" ships, and the like.
6: Since the original Star Fox series was abandoned and replaced, only one game has visually referenced the original continuity at all: Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, for the Wii.
7: Since the Star Fox 64 series took over, only two games in the series have been made by the ex-Argonaut Software employees who worked on the original SNES games: Star Fox Command, and the 3DS remake of Star Fox 64, Star Fox 64 3D.
8: In Star Fox 2, Andross' nephew Andrew didn't exist as part of the original Star Wolf team - instead, there was a crazy-eyed lemur called Algy!
9: There was an official comic published in North America, which ran in Nintendo Power magazine for ten issues, which acted partly as a prologue for the original Star Fox game on the SNES.
10: Representation of female characters in the Lylat System is shockingly low. In the original series, there was only Vixy Reinard-McCloud (Fox's mother, who died long before the series even started), Fara Phoenix ("Phoenix" is pronounced "Fennecs" in this case - she's a fennec fox who appeared in the official prologue comic, and who was considered for inclusion in Star Fox 2 at one point), Fay Poodle (a new Star Fox Team member from Star Fox 2), and Miyu Lynx (ditto); In the Star Fox 64 series there's Katt Monroe, Krystal, the Aparoid Queen, Amanda Toad, and Lucy Hare. That's a total of nine, and four of them are not even a part of the current continuity! Obviously there are more women around - we just don't see very many of them.
11: In the original Star Fox, Sector X, Sector Y, and Sector Z were named after the axes of three-dimensional movement. In the Star Fox 64 series, this was changed, and they were so named because they have giant coloured gas-clouds at their centres, showing the letters "X", "Y", and "Z".
12: Along with a selection of other classic Nintendo characters, Fox McCloud was originally meant to cameo in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The artwork still exists, and has been retrieved from the game by folks skilled in doing so. The sprites can be viewed here.
13: The first portable Star Fox game was an LCD Game Watch manufactured under license by Zeon in the United Kingdom, and Nelsonic in the USA. Two variants exist - the more common, space age-looking one which has a headphone port at the top of it, and a rarer one which was used for promotional purposes (most famously a promotion with the US arm of Kellogg's, where you could collect box-tops and redeem them for a watch), which has the same casing as the earlier Nintendo Game Watches made by Zeon (such as Super Mario Bros. 3). As was the case with the SNES game, the UK release of this watch was localised as Starwing. The promotional version existed only under the Star Fox name, and was not available outside of North America.
I hope that someone finds these interesting. I've been a Star Fox fan for a long, long time, so it's always nice to get the chance to write about this stuff.
probably been mentioned, but i heard the team have no legs, because it helps with blood circulation or something, ans was wondering if this was true.
This is not true. It's just a rumour that originated from some people's interpretation of the construction of the legs on the Star Fox Team puppets that were photographed to promote the first game on the SNES, and it's occasionally popped up ever since.
Since the models were probably quite small, the feet are attached to them with what looks like a ball-joint and a bolt, and this started a rumour that the team's legs had been amputated and replaced with robotic ones. It's not so - they were just meant to look like boots with metallic parts, and the rumour is disproven by the sprite of Fox McCloud on the Continue screen from the original game, amongst many MANY other things.
This is not true. It's just a rumour that originated from some people's interpretation of the construction of the legs on the Star Fox Team puppets that were photographed to promote the first game on the SNES, and it's occasionally popped up ever since.
Since the models were probably quite small, the feet are attached to them with what looks like a ball-joint and a bolt, and this started a rumour that the team's legs had been amputated and replaced with robotic ones. It's not so - they were just meant to look like boots with metallic parts, and the rumour is disproven by the sprite of Fox McCloud on the Continue screen from the original game, amongst many MANY other things.
I'm not so sure, it hasn't been confirmed but you can see it on the promotional artwork from the time of the Starwing release such as this Nintendo Power cover http://i.imgur.com/sjDHzh.jpg and even on the original sprites you mentioned you can see the bolt on Fox's ankles http://spriters-resource.com/snes/starfox/fox.png Even in Lylat Wars the character models have really thin foot joints which doesn't really make sense if they're boots, I still think they just changed the character design as is common over time, pretty much everything from around the time of the SNES game seems to show the robotic legs.
There's a couple more vague references to Star Fox in F-Zero.
Leon looks a little bit like Wolf O'Donnell, without the eyepatch/Saiyan scouter, and QQQ's racer, the Rolling Turtle, is effectively a green Landmaster.
I forgot something, before: The name Andross is derived from a Greek word meaning "Of a man" - and, being a primate, he's as close to human as the series tends to get.
I wasn't really into Starfox, or rather, never played it. I played the demo version on SSBB, and goodness, Nintendo know how to get one hooked! I found Starfox adventures at a bargain sale for £5, so I got that. Then I got Starfox 3D. I love it...wonder if there'll be a new sequel. Perhaps a gem in the ole of Falco
Wow, best list of facts so far
I not exactly sure about starfox cos I got starfox command and It was terrible
^Command was awesome. But you should get SF64/3D since it's the best. But what evs.
I knew 8 of these facts so I'm quite proud lol.
Uh, I'm pretty sure Brawl's version can be done by tapping one of the taunt buttons repeatedly or something. I forget which, as it's been a while, but it definitely does not have to be done just after knocking an opponent out.
As MistaChristopher said, SF64/3D is better. I'd recommend at least trying that.
Another awesome and interesting list of facts. Well done!
Around 7 of them I already knew. But I didn't know about general Pepper, that is pretty cool.
Knew about half of them but still some interesting stuff! I was expecting one about how the Star Fox team were originally amputated and had metal legs but Nintendo latter changed them to look as though they were boots, you can see it in the Star Fox/Starwing photographs and in the Lylat Wars models.
http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv261/Baretooken/309px-Snes-StarFox.jpg
Yeah command was a big disappointment. Assault on Cube was slated but it was pretty decent, same with Adventures. The Star Fox games have had a big of a gloomy time since lylat wars/star fox 64 and it took a remake to bring it back upto scratch. Anyone who wants to hope and dream can always look into "Shadows of Lylat" which is/was a fan designed game on pc using HD graphics. really promising but think it died a poor death halfway through development
knew some of it and some of it i did not know
Also the Characters as they appear on the Starwing box are based on key members of the development team, one of them being Miyamoto (possibly Fox).
The General Pepper one is really cool.
probably been mentioned, but i heard the team have no legs, because it helps with blood circulation or something, ans was wondering if this was true.
Starwing miles better then lylat wars/3d or n64 version. Music and gameplay.
These facts were pretty interesting. Didn't know the ones about the Star Fox series being inspired by puppet dramas or Slippy's father, although I knew some of the others.
Good article! I did know almost all of these, except for the parts about the aileron roll and the puppet-dramas, which were both absolutely fascinating. The puppet-drama thing also explains why they used photographs of those awesome fur-covered models/puppets for the promotional materials for the original Star Fox game!
I do know some more facts that weren't mentioned, though, if I may share them. Chew on these;
1: There are two separate Star Fox continuities. The first one encompasses the two SNES games - Star Fox and the cancelled Star Fox 2. The second encompasses Star Fox 64 and all of its follow-ups - it retconned the original games out of continuity, changed most of the characters' ages mostly enormously (Fox went from 25 to 18; Falco went from 28 to 19; Slippy went from 19 to 18, and is the only one whose age didn't change much; And Peppy went from a "cool big brother figure" at the age of 36 all the way up to a "father figure" at the age of 41), and completely altered everyone's backstories.
2: The "Star Fox 64 series" is considered to be "lighter and softer" than the SNES originals, and this is reflected clearly in its writing style and the way that it lampoons established science fiction series. Star Fox 64 alone parodies, at the very least, Independence Day, as mentioned in the article; Star Wars; Gundam; And Star Trek.
3: In the original continuity, Fox McCloud's father was not called James McCloud, but Fox McCloud Sr.. Fox McCloud Senior looked just like the Fox we know, and this is why the retcon series added sunglasses and changed his name.
4: Andross' name in Japan is "Andolf". Bearing in mind that the original games were clearly partly inspired by the adventures of World War II pilots, it's easy to see why it was considered necessary to give him the name Andross, instead, everywhere else!
5: Despite Shigeru Miyamoto's claims that the Arwings are named due to looking like the letter "A", the Arwing spacecraft is actually so named because the original SNES games were made by Argonaut Software, Ltd.. As can be seen from cheat-codes present in some of Argonaut's non-Star Fox games, they had a habit of prefacing the names of certain things with "Ar", hence Arwing. It is also partly a Star Wars reference, to the "X-Wing" ships, and the like.
6: Since the original Star Fox series was abandoned and replaced, only one game has visually referenced the original continuity at all: Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, for the Wii.
7: Since the Star Fox 64 series took over, only two games in the series have been made by the ex-Argonaut Software employees who worked on the original SNES games: Star Fox Command, and the 3DS remake of Star Fox 64, Star Fox 64 3D.
8: In Star Fox 2, Andross' nephew Andrew didn't exist as part of the original Star Wolf team - instead, there was a crazy-eyed lemur called Algy!
9: There was an official comic published in North America, which ran in Nintendo Power magazine for ten issues, which acted partly as a prologue for the original Star Fox game on the SNES.
10: Representation of female characters in the Lylat System is shockingly low. In the original series, there was only Vixy Reinard-McCloud (Fox's mother, who died long before the series even started), Fara Phoenix ("Phoenix" is pronounced "Fennecs" in this case - she's a fennec fox who appeared in the official prologue comic, and who was considered for inclusion in Star Fox 2 at one point), Fay Poodle (a new Star Fox Team member from Star Fox 2), and Miyu Lynx (ditto); In the Star Fox 64 series there's Katt Monroe, Krystal, the Aparoid Queen, Amanda Toad, and Lucy Hare. That's a total of nine, and four of them are not even a part of the current continuity! Obviously there are more women around - we just don't see very many of them.
11: In the original Star Fox, Sector X, Sector Y, and Sector Z were named after the axes of three-dimensional movement. In the Star Fox 64 series, this was changed, and they were so named because they have giant coloured gas-clouds at their centres, showing the letters "X", "Y", and "Z".
12: Along with a selection of other classic Nintendo characters, Fox McCloud was originally meant to cameo in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The artwork still exists, and has been retrieved from the game by folks skilled in doing so. The sprites can be viewed here.
13: The first portable Star Fox game was an LCD Game Watch manufactured under license by Zeon in the United Kingdom, and Nelsonic in the USA. Two variants exist - the more common, space age-looking one which has a headphone port at the top of it, and a rarer one which was used for promotional purposes (most famously a promotion with the US arm of Kellogg's, where you could collect box-tops and redeem them for a watch), which has the same casing as the earlier Nintendo Game Watches made by Zeon (such as Super Mario Bros. 3). As was the case with the SNES game, the UK release of this watch was localised as Starwing. The promotional version existed only under the Star Fox name, and was not available outside of North America.
I hope that someone finds these interesting. I've been a Star Fox fan for a long, long time, so it's always nice to get the chance to write about this stuff.
This is not true. It's just a rumour that originated from some people's interpretation of the construction of the legs on the Star Fox Team puppets that were photographed to promote the first game on the SNES, and it's occasionally popped up ever since.
Since the models were probably quite small, the feet are attached to them with what looks like a ball-joint and a bolt, and this started a rumour that the team's legs had been amputated and replaced with robotic ones. It's not so - they were just meant to look like boots with metallic parts, and the rumour is disproven by the sprite of Fox McCloud on the Continue screen from the original game, amongst many MANY other things.
I'm not so sure, it hasn't been confirmed but you can see it on the promotional artwork from the time of the Starwing release such as this Nintendo Power cover http://i.imgur.com/sjDHzh.jpg and even on the original sprites you mentioned you can see the bolt on Fox's ankles http://spriters-resource.com/snes/starfox/fox.png Even in Lylat Wars the character models have really thin foot joints which doesn't really make sense if they're boots, I still think they just changed the character design as is common over time, pretty much everything from around the time of the SNES game seems to show the robotic legs.
Star Fox and Independence Day? THIS IS SO TRUE!!
Starfox vs. Independence Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGYW62s9_yU
Nice to see Zabba still around these parts.
really great facts especially the G.Pepper one,I never knew that
There's a couple more vague references to Star Fox in F-Zero.
Leon looks a little bit like Wolf O'Donnell, without the eyepatch/Saiyan scouter, and QQQ's racer, the Rolling Turtle, is effectively a green Landmaster.
I forgot something, before: The name Andross is derived from a Greek word meaning "Of a man" - and, being a primate, he's as close to human as the series tends to get.
Some of this article was speculative, as opposed to fact, but was interesting regardless.
Wow I did not know a lot of these. Its a shame more star fox games are not around.
Knew the sgt. pepper one and there is also a reference of star fox in legend of Zelda ocarina of time.
Which one, Volvagia's flight-path?
I wasn't really into Starfox, or rather, never played it. I played the demo version on SSBB, and goodness, Nintendo know how to get one hooked!
I found Starfox adventures at a bargain sale for £5, so I got that. Then I got Starfox 3D. I love it...wonder if there'll be a new sequel. Perhaps a gem in the ole of Falco