Best of ND 2013: 20 Years of Star Fox: Fun Facts and Trivia

We end our celebration of Star Fox with some interesting trivia from the series!

By Kyle England. Posted 12/30/2013 17:00 Comment on this     ShareThis

Inconsistencies and Oddities

In artwork for the 1993 Star Fox, the team seemed to have prosthetic legs. Some speculate they had their legs voluntarily amputated to reduce G-Forces rushing blood into them. Later games have shown the characters’ legs to be intact.

Fox McCloud’s eye color has been inconsistent across several games. His official eye color is now green, and it appears this way in most releases. However, in Super Smash Bros. Melee and the original Star Fox, his eyes appear to be blue.

Wolf wears an eyepatch and later a scouter in the games, but it’s not entirely clear if he is actually missing an eye. He wears it on his left eye, but in the work that was done on Star Fox 2, he was shown to have a scar across the right eye.

Panther Caroso spoke normally in Star Fox Assault, but in Star Fox Command, he suddenly and inexplicably began referring to himself in the third person. No explanations have been given for this change in speaking patterns.


Star Fox and F-Zero
The F-Zero and Star Fox franchises are linked in a number of interesting ways. Both series started as SNES titles developed by Nintendo EAD to showcase a certain technology (Mode 7 for F-Zero and Super FX for Star Fox). Takaya Imamura designed the characters in both franchises as well.

There is an human racer in F-Zero X and GX named James McCloud. He wears an outfit similar to Fox’s signature getup and his spiked hair resembles fox ears. He drives the Little Wyvern, a machine strikingly similar to an Arwing. McCloud’s bio also states that he has a young son at home.

The G-Diffuser system is mentioned in the F-Zero universe, and it is what levitates the machines off the ground. It was invented by Jody Summers’ father. In the Star Fox series, the G-Diffuser system is used to ease the G-Force of high speed Arwing flights.

Octoman, a racer in F-Zero X and GX, makes an appearance in Star Fox Command.

An ending in Star Fox Command has Fox and Falco converting their Arwings into racing machines. They establish a league called G-Zero and become galactic celebrities. Sound familiar?


Star Fox in other games

Fox and Falco are fighters in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl. According to the largely respected tier system in the competitive Smash Bros. community, they are considered to be quite good. In Melee, Fox and Falco are the two highest ranked characters in the entire competitive tier. In Brawl, Fox has fallen to #16 while Falco is at #6.

Fox’s dominance in competitive Melee has made him the preferred fighter. This prevalence has created the gaming meme “No Items, Fox Only, Final Destination.”

A massive Arwing appears as a piece of furniture in several Animal Crossing games.

A model of an Arwing appeared next to a model of Captain Falcon’s F-Zero machine in the Barrel Volcano shop in Super Mario RPG.

Tricky the Triceratops appears as a boss in Diddy Kong Racing in 1997. Rareware stuck several characters from upcoming games into the racer, actually.

The mask selection screen in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask contains a subtle reference to the Star Fox team. On the second row, masks resembling a fox, bird, rabbit, frog, and pig appear. These animals grouped together are commonly believed to signify the Star Fox team and Pigma Dengar.

In WarioWare: Smooth Moves, the boss of 9-Volt’s stage is a faithful recreation of the original Star Fox. It’s got the beloved polygonal graphics and controls by tilting the Wii remote.


Know of any other Star Fox secrets, Easter eggs, or references? Let us know! Sadly, this brings our celebration of 20 years of Star Fox to an end. But the Arwings never stop flying! Keep playing, future pilots, and perhaps someday we shall see another game! Good luck!

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