Star Fox (universe)

File:StarFoxSymbol.png

The Star Fox universe refers to the Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that hail from Nintendo's Star Fox series of primarily-on-rails space shooter video games. While all have been published by Nintendo, each game was developed by a different company: Argonaut Games (originally Argonaut Software), Rareware, Namco, and Q-Games. The series takes place in a fictional star system where all characters are talking, anthropomorphic animals, and focuses on the missions undertaken by the mercenary team Star Fox, led by the main character Fox McCloud, to pilot Arwing spacecraft into battle against interplanetary threats. Fox, his wingmate Falco Lombardi, and his rival mercenary Wolf O'Donnell have all been featured as playable characters in the Smash Bros. games.

Franchise description

During the early years of the NES and SNES, Nintendo worked closely with Argonaut Software, who had previously developed the 3D wireframe vector graphics-based space shooter Starglider for old computers such as Commodore 64. With them, Nintendo developed a prototype for a similar style of game on the NES, but even after it was ported to SNES, it was found that the SNES hardware's capabilities for anything presented in three dimensions was severely lacking. Argonaut agreed to develop a custom chip that the SNES could use to make it better at 3D, and the final product, the Super FX chip, was more powerful than the SNES' standard processor by leaps and bounds. Nintendo designed their 3D rail-shooter game, Star Fox (which was renamed Starwing for the PAL release due to trademark issues caused by an unrelated Atari 2600 game named Star Fox), based on this chip that was built into the game cartridge itself, and in doing so released the first 3D graphics accelerator in a consumer product. Meanwhile, Nintendo opted to avoid creating a game with all of the conventional trappings of a futuristic science fiction space shooter, and therefore gave Star Fox a cast of anthropomorphic animal characters.

The 1993 release of Star Fox for the SNES was very significant in the gaming press and the eyes of the public, and had won many accolades both for its ambitious three-dimensional presentation and its shooting gameplay. Star Fox is often credited with pioneering the use of 3-D video game graphics, and Nintendo took advantage of the opportunity to establish the IP as a series and franchise; however, despite a SNES sequel named Star Fox 2 allegedly finishing development, Nintendo decided to cancel it, and a programmer explained it was because of the impending release of the Nintendo 64 (though the console would end up releasing much later than originally intended). Shigeru Miyamoto had wanted the next Star Fox game to make full use of the enormous advantages offered by the newest hardware, and so he produced Star Fox 64, which is for many intents and purposes a series reboot and a remake combining both the story and gameplay elements of both Star Fox and Star Fox 2. Star Fox 64 (which was renamed Lylat Wars in PAL regions due to the aforementioned trademark issue) was released in 1996 to very enthusiastic critical acclaim and successful sales, and was regarded as an instant classic for the N64 for its refined rail-shooting gameplay, cinematic character-driven storytelling complete with full voice acting, and branching paths.

Despite the undisputed success of Star Fox 64 and its appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series since that series' inception, the Star Fox series underwent a five-year hiatus before being brought back to public attention via unorthodox circumstances; British developer Rareware had originally intended to release an action-adventure title for the Nintendo 64 called Dinosaur Planet, featuring three-dimensional Zelda-style gameplay and a cast of anthropomorphic animal characters. Miyamoto looked over the product and noted its cast's similarities to Star Fox, and the game was revised as a Star Fox-brand title for the GameCube, Star Fox Adventures, and was released late 2002. While generally well-received, Star Fox Adventures drew some criticism for being a particularly large departure for the series both in terms of gameplay and setting. Rare, meanwhile, was subsequently acquired as a first-party developer for Microsoft; Star Fox Adventures was their final title for a Nintendo home video game system.

The Star Fox series released two more installments that progressively returned to the space-shooting roots established by Star Fox 64. Star Fox: Assault was developed by Namco and released for the GameCube in late 2005, and features on-rails shooting segments as well as additional on-foot gameplay segments with third-person-shooter elements. Then, Star Fox Command was developed in conjunction with Q-Games and released for the Nintendo DS in mid-2006, and alternates between an all-range shooting mode and a turn-based strategy mode. But once again, the series would enter an extended hiatus, which has yet to end with a new original release; the only Star Fox-related release since Command is a Nintendo 3DS remake of Star Fox 64, released late 2012. Nevertheless, the Star Fox series has remained a mainstay in every Super Smash Bros. game.

The setting of the Star Fox series is a planetary system named the Lylat system, and Corneria is the Earth-like planet that supports sapient life in this system. All sapient life, however, is comprised of anthropomorphic animals belonging to a wide variety of species, but nonetheless Cornerian civilization is technologically advanced enough to allow for interplanetary travel and starship dogfights not unlike Star Wars. A group of mercenaries named Star Fox, operating small assault spacecraft called Arwings and based on a mothership named the Great Fox, are regularly hired by Corneria's defense forces to conduct military operations against enemy forces that threaten Corneria and the Lylat system as a whole. The leader is Fox McCloud, a red fox who inherits his position from his late father, team founder James McCloud, and his initial wingmates are the pheasant Falco Lombardi, the hare Peppy Hare, and the toad Slippy Toad.

In Star Fox 64, a mad ape scientist, Andross, previously exiled from Corneria, launches an attack across the Lylat system, and Fox takes up the job to destroy Andross and his operations at the planet Venom and settle a personal score, while dealing with a rival mercenary team hired by Andross, Star Wolf, led by Wolf O'Donnell. Eight years later in Star Fox Adventures, Star Fox is assigned to conduct an on-foot investigation of a crumbling planet named Sauria, and after the end of Fox's effort to stop the planet's self-destruction, the princess of another destroyed planet, the blue fox Krystal, joins the Star Fox team. The following year, amidst Star Fox's continued battles against vengeful remnants from Andross' army, Lylat is suddenly threatened by a race of mechanical insectoids called the Aparoids, and Star Fox must make unlikely alliances in order to save the day. Lastly, two-to-three years later in Star Fox Command, most of team Star Fox has disbanded, but Fox is given heavy incentive to bring team members back into the fold when one last threat, a fish-like race called the Anglar, emerges out of Venom's acidic oceans to strike at Corneria. This game's story allows multiple branching paths, and a total of nine different endings are possible; the question of which one, if any, is the "canon" ending is left to player speculation.

In Super Smash Bros.

The Star Fox franchise is represented as one of several "standard universes" found in Super Smash Bros., which consists with one character and one stage.

Character

• 
  Fox: The son of Star Fox team founder James McCloud, who was seemingly killed when his supposed teammate Pigma Dengar betrayed him to Andross' custody, Fox McCloud leads the Star Fox mercenary team in his father's name. He starts out an amateur Arwing pilot but gets more confident and cockier over the years. His main arch-enemy at first is the villainous ape scientist Andross, but his chief rival pilot throughout the series is Wolf O'Donnel, and his romantic interest is the blue fox Krystal. Among his acts of interstellar heroism are destroying Andross more than once, rescuing Sauria the Dinosaur Planet, destroying the Aparoid Queen, and defeating the Anglars. As a fighter in SSB, Fox uses a slow-ish blaster and is intermediately light. Thanks to his speed and combo ability, Fox ranks 3rd on the SSB tier list.

Stage

Super Smash Bros. features one Star Fox-themed stage:

• Sector Z: The second-largest stage in the game takes place along the length of the Star Fox central command ship, the Great Fox, and it resides in an area of the galaxy called Sector Z, so named for the Z-shaped nebula in the background. The KO-boundaries on either side of the stage are rather close to the stage's edges, so a Smash hit will probably make for a KO.

Music

• 11: A remix of trademark Star Fox music, heard on Sector Z.
• 21: The victory fanfare of Fox is an orchestration of the standard "Mission Complete" theme heard in general Star Fox games.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Melee features much more content than the original game, and the amount of properties from the Star Fox franchise is increased proportionally - though oddly enough, there are no battling items that represent the Star Fox series.

Characters

• 
  Fox: Returning from SSB, but redesigned to sport drastically increased agility and dropping speed and a lighter build, Fox McCloud becomes one of the swiftest and most effective characters in the game. His blaster is redesigned to do rapid non-knockback damage and he gains a Fox Illusion tackle as his new side special move. He is ranked as a top tier fighter and is often used by the world's best players of the game.
• 
  Falco: A new character that functions as a direct clone of Fox. Falco Lombardi is the smart-mouthed but experienced and trustworthy companion member of the Star Fox team, and is the most adept Arwing pilot of Fox's wingmates. His past is a mystery to the team, and after Star Fox 64 he left the team for personal reasons, mainly for being tired and bored, but after Star Fox Adventures he has since returned to his post to rediscover the thrill of flying with the team. It is hinted that Falco was formerly a member of a gang. As a Melee fighter, Falco is a modified version of Fox whose statistics more closely resemble the SSB version of Fox, and his slower blaster features knockback. He is a top-tier-ranked fighter as well for his blend of speed and power.

Stages

Super Smash Bros. Melee features two Star Fox-themed stages:

• Lylat System: Corneria: The spiritual successor to the original Sector Z stage, this is quite literally the same Great Fox-based stage as before, but with some important differences: The Great Fox is somewhat less large, the ship's blasters at its lower left end can be jumped on as a platform, the Arwings fly around and attack differently, and the background is now the 3D environment of the planet Corneria that the Great Fox flies through as the stage progresses.
• Lylat System: Venom: This stage is now the Great Fox rotated ninety degrees, so that its front end faces the camera, and the ship's four wings are the platforms where the battling takes place on. The Great Fox travels across the reaches of the acidic planet Venom as the stage progresses. The layout of the stage is rather small and almost cramped, making for unusual battles.

Music

• 13: Corneria: An orchestrated medley two songs from the original Star Fox with the Venom level and the main theme. It is heard on Lylat System: Corneria.
• 14: Venom: An orchestration of main theme heard in Star Fox 64. This is heard on Lylat System: Venom.
• 44: Fox's Victory: The victory fanfare of Fox and Falco is an orchestration of the standard "Mission Complete" theme heard in general Star Fox games.

Full Trophy List

• Fox McCloud's three game trophies
• Falco Lombardi's three game trophies
• Andross (two)
• Arwing
• Great Fox
• Landmaster Tank
• Peppy Hare
• Slippy Toad
• Wolfen

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

A fair amount of Star Fox-related content has been confirmed to appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The playable Star Fox characters have the most heavily altered designs compared to the way they look in their own game. Even their running speeds have been altered, as in Star Fox Assault, Falco was faster than Fox, and Wolf was even faster than Falco.

Characters

In the final character select screen (after all characters are unlocked), the Star Fox Characters, joined by Captain Falcon, occupy the 6th column.

• 
  Fox: As expected, the beloved space mercenary makes his return appearance in Brawl, sporting the designs from Star Fox Assault and Star Fox Command. Fox has been confirmed to keep his incredible speed, and his Blaster and Reflector attacks stay intact with cosmetic upgrades. Fox's Final Smash is the Landmaster, which fills up a huge portion of the stage as he drives around blasting his opponents. Similar to the games, the tank can both hover and roll.
• 
  Falco: Fox's wingmate and friend returns in Brawl, with a new design based on Star Fox Assault and Star Fox Command. His moveset appears to be similar, yet slightly modified from Melee. Falco's Final Smash is the Landmaster, which fills up a huge portion of the stage as he drives around blasting his opponents. Similar to the games, the tank can both hover and roll. Oddly, when Falco performs his Final Smash, he says "Personally, I prefer the air.", even though he resorts to using the Landmaster.
• 
  Wolf: Fox's main rival and leader of the Star Wolf Team makes his debut in Brawl. He has unique feral look as opposed to the other space animals, and his A attacks are quite original (he uses claws and occasionally his legs). His B moves are inspired by Fox but heavily modified to be different. His Final Smash is also the Landmaster, but unlike Fox and Falco's, it deals more damage and knockback but has less control time.

On the final character select screen (after all characters are unlocked), the Star Fox characters, joined by Captain Falcon, occupy the sixth column. All these characters are known to fly spaceships (hence having a choice of fighting only up to two of these in Classic Mode).

Assist Trophy

• Andross: Andross flies towards the back of the stage in his SNES form and spits polygonal panels out of his mouth. Any character that is pelted by the panels will take damage.

Stages

• 
  Lylat Cruise: Takes place on an original space ship called the Pleiades that travels through various locales in the Lylat system, including an asteroid field, an epic space battle, and even the atmosphere of planet Corneria. Fox, Falco and Wolf have a secret taunt in this stage, calling their allies as they comment on the battle.
• 
  Melee Stages: Corneria: One of the few stages known to return from the previous game, its only real change is the lack of knockback on the lasers shot from the Arwings. Otherwise, it's unaltered. Like in the previous game, Fox and Falco can perform a secret taunt to call their comrades (who are in their Star Fox 64 rendition).

Item

• Smart Bomb: An extremely powerful explosive throwing weapon.

Music

See List of SSBB Music (Star Fox series).

• Space Armada - An arrangement of the Space Armada theme from the first Star Fox game. Is used on the Lylat Cruise stage.
• Corneria - A remix of the Corneria background music from the original Star Fox. It is used on the Lylat Cruise stage.
• Main Theme (Star Fox) - An orchestrated version of the main theme of the original Star Fox. The remix is taken directly from the Star Fox credit's soundtrack. It is used on the Lylat Cruise stage. This song is also played during Fox's Classic Mode credits.
• Main Theme (Star Fox 64) - A techno styled remix of the main theme of Star Fox 64. It is used on the Lylat Cruise stage. This song is also played during Falco's Classic Mode credits.
• Area 6: The background music of the level known as Area 6 from Star Fox 64. It is used on the Lylat Cruise stage.
• Area 6 Ver. 2 - A techno styled remix of the Area 6 theme. It is used on the Lylat Cruise stage.
• Star Wolf - The music that plays when facing the renegade Star Wolf team in the Star Fox series. This remix is taken directly from the Star Fox 64 soundtrack. It is used on the Lylat Cruise stage. This song is also played during Wolf's Classic Mode credits.
• Space Battleground - Taken directly from Star Fox Assault, this was the music played during the first half of the first mission. It is the theme of the Lylat Cruise stage.
• Star Wolf (Star Fox Assault) - Taken directly from Star Fox Assault, this is the slower, more methodical remix of the traditional Star Wolf theme. It is used on the Lylat Cruise stage.
• Break Through the Ice - Taken directly from Star Fox Assault, this was the background music of the Fichina level. It is played on the Lylat Cruise stage.
• Corneria (Melee) - Taken directly from Melee. It is used on the Corneria stage. It is a remixed version of the music heard on the stage "Venom" in the original Star Fox.
• Venom (Melee) - Taken directly from Melee. It is used on the Corneria stage. This is a redone version of the Star Fox 64 main theme.

Trophies

Great Fox trophy

• Fox McCloud
• Landmaster (Fox)
• Falco Lombardi
• Landmaster (Falco)
• Wolf O'Donnell
• Landmaster (Wolf)
• Fox (Assault)
• Falco (Assault)
• Falco (Command)
• Peppy Hare
• Slippy Toad
• Krystal
  

  Krystal trophy
• Tricky
• General Pepper
• ROB 64
• Panther Caroso
• Leon Powalski
• Arwing
• Great Fox
• Great Fox (Assault)
• Wolfen
• Smart Bomb
• Andross

Stickers

• Andrew
• Arwing
• Bullfrog
• Falco
• Fox
• Krystal
• Leon
• Panther
• Peppy
• Pepper
• Slippy
• Wolf
• Wolfen

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Characters

• Fox: Fox is confirmed to be a playable character in the upcoming game, Super Smash Bros. 4.

Games with elements from or in the Super Smash Bros. series

Star Fox/Starwing

Fox McCloud, who made his debut in this game and is the main character of the series, is a playable character in all three Super Smash Bros. games. Falco Lombardi, who also made his debut in this game, is an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl. But Peppy Hare and Slippy Toad are not playable characters, but they are rumored to appear on a future SSB game by some fans. The songs Main Theme (Star Fox), Corneria and Space Armada are featured in Brawl on the Lylat Cruise stage.

Andross, the antagonist of Star Fox as the final boss, can be used in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. as an assist trophy. He aids the user by shooting large tiles at foes that cause slightly severe damage. His SNES image of a ominous floating head is used in Brawl. In Star Fox 64, the remake of Star Fox, he was remodeled as an ominous floating chimpanzee.

Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars

Wolf O'Donnell, a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, made his canon debut to the Star Fox series in this game. Wolf also appeared in the opening sequence of Super Smash Bros. Melee.

The music from the Sector Z and Venom stages were originally from Star Fox 64. Also, a trophy of this game's Andross can be collected in Super Smash Bros. Melee. The main theme of this game is a song in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as well as the Star Wolf theme from this game (both in re-recorded forms).

Fox's design and Blaster move come from his abilities in Star Fox 64's multiplayer when he is not in his Arwing. The same applies to Falco, who is unlocked in the game.

The Area 6 music from this game is used twice in Brawl. One of the Star Wolf themes also comes originates from this game.

Other games

Fox, Falco, and Wolf get their appearance and artwork from Star Fox Command. There exist stickers from this game as well. There are trophies using designs of characters from Star Fox: Assault. There exist stickers using artwork for characters from Star Fox Adventures.

Trivia

• Star Fox is one of only two universes to have more trophies than stickers, the other being the Ice Climber universe.
• The number of playable characters from the Star Fox universe has gone up by one for each Smash game. Fox was introduced in Super Smash Bros., Falco was introduced in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Wolf was introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
• Currently, every game in the Super Smash Bros series has at least one Star Fox character in the top tier.
• Star Fox is one of only two universes to have a new character in each installment of Smash Bros, the other being Pokémon.

External links

• Lylat Wiki