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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.
4. Secret Smash Bros taunts
In Super Smash Bros Melee and Brawl, the Star Fox characters can perform unique secret taunts on the Star Fox-themed levels. In Melee, playing as Fox or Falco, rapidly tap left and right on the GameCube D-pad and, after a strange pose, a communication link with the other members of Star Fox will open up akin to Lylat Wars and Melee's Adventure mode.
In Brawl, it is performed by taunting just after knocking an opponent off the Lylat Cruise stage. Brawl's version resembles the communication link seen in Star Fox Assault. These taunts can only be performed once per match, and will fail if you are hit while performing it.
5. A pheasant surprise
As revealed in a recent Iwata Asks interview for Star Fox 64 3D, Falco is actually based on a pheasant rather than a falcon.
6. Star Fox are go!
In the same Iwata Asks interview, Shigeru Miyamoto cited his love for puppet dramas such as Thunderbirds. According to Mitsuhiro Takano, this played a large part in why the characters mouths flap up and down like a puppet in Lylat Wars. Miyamoto also stated he had an ambition for the franchise to be turned into a puppet drama! Star Fox are go!
7. Lylat Wars was inspired by Independence Day
There's a scene called 'Reunion' on planet Katina in Lylat Wars in which the enemy mothership is looming over the base. This highly resembles the iconic scene in the film Independence Day. Furthermore, Fox's friend who appears in this level is called Bill Grey, who is seemingly named after William Grey, a character from the film.
8. General Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
General Pepper appears to be named after the Beatles album (and song) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as he also shares a similar outfit to the Beatles on the cover.
9. What's my name again?
ROB 64, the robotic operator of the Great Fox mothership has a different name in Japan. His Japanese name is NUS64, which stands for Nintendo Ultra Sixty Four, the original name of the N64. Additionally, NUS is used in the serial numbers of Nintendo products.
10. It's Tricky
Tricky from Star Fox Adventures and Tricky The Triceratops from Diddy Kong Racing were intended to be the same character. Tricky the Triceratops was to be the star of Dinosaur Planet, the game Rare scrapped in favour of Star Fox Adventures when the company moved from developing games for N64 to the GameCube. If Rare had made Dinosaur Planet, it wouldn't have been the first game to star a character from Diddy Kong Racing. Banjo from Banjo Kazooie also starred in Diddy Kong Racing as did Conker of Conker's Bad Fur Day fame.
11. Farewell Falco
An official Star Fox manga exists called Farewell Beloved Falco which depicts some of the events that occurred in the eight year gap between Lylat Wars and Star Fox Adventures. These include the reason why Falco left the team (as the title suggests) and the battle against a new antagonist, Captain Shears, who tried to clone the then-deceased Andross. It was only released in Japan, but fan translations
exist online for any dedicated fans.
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