Great Fox
Template:Nihongo is the name of mother ship belonging to the Star Fox mercenary group. The Great Fox appears in Sector Z, Corneria, and Venom. It also appears in the background of Lylat Cruise.
The Great Fox is a giant ship that consists of four big wings. In the front of the ship is a port that allows Arwings to enter and exit the ship. The front of the Great Fox has two turrets that fire high-powered energy blasts. The Great Fox serves as the base of operations for every one of Fox's team adventures since Star Fox 64, and it serves purposes ranging from launching and carrying the Arwings to having ROB 64 send Fox supplies.
History
The original Great Fox, a Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser, was constructed on the order of James McCloud by Space Dynamics. The ship was so expensive, James had to take out an 80-year loan. James never used it, disappearing and presumably perishing on Venom while on a mission with the Star Fox Team, before the ship was completed. however do to the fact that it was destroyed in Star Fox Assault a new model was built equipped with missiles in Star Fox Command.
The Great Fox was still relatively new when James' only son Fox McCloud, having re-formed the Star Fox Team following his father's apparent death, took ownership of the ship. The Great Fox was originally used as a carrier & repair facility for the team's Arwings, as well as acting in a logistical capacity by transferring supplies to the combat zone when needed. In terms of combat, the Great Fox used it's powerful weapon systems (in the form of 2 powerful laser cannons) to aid the squadron's progression during missions, blowing apart asteroids and causing serious damage to massive battleships (such as the Venomian battleships that guard the Area 6 access corridor to Venom). The ship's own defenses allow it to survive in a variety of environments, allowing it to be able to enter a planetary atmosphere, and land on planet-side spaceports, as well as having a limited aquatic capability (e.g. on Aquas, where it half-submrged itself to deploy it's Blue Marine submarines).
In the years following the defeat of Andross, the Great Fox, due to lack of funds (with freelance work becoming harder to come by) to keep up maintenance, and soon fell into a state of disrepair, its exterior armor beginning to deteriorate and it's engine power decreasing considerably, to the point the ship is only able to drift with its boosters. The weapon systems ceased working, as such Fox was unable to count on space support while chasing down and battling the resurrected Andross out in space above Sauria, where the Great Fox was orbiting.
With the money received by General Pepper for successfully saving Sauria from destruction and the Lylat system from devastation, the team were able to overhaul the Great Fox. It now appeared as a much sleeker & cleaner looking ship, inside and out, and also added new equipment. This included a long-range transfer system that can send Arwings and Landmasters to a planet's surface when needed. The ship served the team well, allowing Star Fox to appear where needed throughout Lylat during the Aparoid Invasion. Eventually, the Great Fox led a fleet of Cornerian Defense Force warships to the Aparoid Homeworld, where in the conclusion of the battle, a large swarm of Aparoids attacked the Great Fox out in space, while the team was trying to gain access to the planet's core. Its systems compromised and, due to the lack of proper weaponry on exposed areas of the ships' hull, it soon fell prey and was infected by the machine-assimilating aliens. Before it could be compromised, Peppy and ROB, despite knowing it would mean their deaths, heroically sacrificed the ship by deliberately ramming it into the Anti-Laser Shield blocking the main entrance to the core. Peppy and ROB escaped at the last moment, escaping in the ship's bridge, which could also serve in an escape pod function. The pod, rejoining the team following the destruction of the planet, flew back to Corneria.
Faced with the loss of their mothership during their invasion of the Aparoid Homeworld, the Star Fox Team have to purchase a new one. The new ship, christened the "Great Fox II", was a decommissioned Cornerian Assault Carrier, which, as a result, had all of its weapons and military grade hardware pulled, leaving just a basic hull. As a result, the ship is taxed in terms of defense, and is significantly weaker than the original Great Fox, to the point it can't withstand an assault by even the weakest of enemies for a prolonged period of time. However, this makes it more cost-effective and much less expensive than its predecessors. The ship was restored, somewhat, upon purchase, as it was able to use missile attackers on clusters of attacking enemies, which proved useful as by attacking and defeating enemies from afar rather than attack them directly with a pilot was far safer. The new ship looks completely different from the past models of the Great Fox, resembling more of a space-faring aircraft carrier than a battle-cruiser.
Trivia
A ship called the "Mothership" was featured in the unreleased Star Fox 2. Most people consider the Mothership to be Great Fox. The Mothership was only a carrier-ship without weapon-capacity, so it meant it could only be outside the battle but, could hold and repair up to 6 fighters.
The Pleiades, the ship used as the platform in the Lylat Cruise stage, is the same class of ship as the Great Fox 2. In fact, since the original Great Fox can be seen in the background of this stage, there is some debate about whether or not the Pleiades and the Great Fox 2 are in fact the same ship.
In Super Smash Bros.
The Great Fox appeared in Super Smash Bros., in the Star Fox 64 stage Sector Z, where the Great Fox acts as the platform on which the players fight each other. The players can only traverse the ship length-wise. The ship is greatly scaled down (or the fighters are greatly scaled up), as normally, the entire Star Fox crew can fit comfortably in the cockpit, and the ship can store several Arwings and other large vehicles). The ship also is shown very briefly in the game's intro, before the camera zooms into the bridge to show Fox. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Great Fox is again reduced to a smaller, unrealistic size (however if the game mode is "Tiny Melee", all characters are smaller and are roughly to scale to the ship, though the Arwings and Wolfens are not). It is featured on two stages; In the Corneria level, the Great Fox acts as a platform as in Super Smash Bros., acting as a platform that the players traverse lengthwise, while in the Venom level, the player traverses the ship's width as it flies over the planet Venom from Star Fox 64. Its four wings become usable as platforms; the top two can be passed-through. It again appears in the intro, in Melee shown along with the Captain Falcon's Blue Falcon and Samus Aran's starship. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Great Fox gives up it's role as platform in the new Star Fox stage, Lylat Cruise, ceding it to the Pleiades. It still zips by in the background, however, and still appears in the Corneria stage from Melee. It features a role in the Adventure Mode, the subspace emissary, as well.
Subspace Emissary
The Great Fox briefly engages the Battleship Halberd in a quick battle over a giant wasteland. Shortly afterwards, it is defeated and carried off on the underside of the Halberd before being slammed into the Glacial Peak; however what exactly became of the vessel after this remains unknown, as it is never seen after the "Snake's Mission Begins" cutscene where it seen erratically fleeing the area, it's engines heavily trailing smoke.
As a Trophy
The Great Fox appears as a trophy in Melee, and has two collectible trophies in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. One taking on it's original appearance, and the other taking on the Assault appearance.
Trivia
- In the Subspace Emissary, it is revealed that the Great Fox is much smaller than the Halberd, leading to the fact that it can not withstand its firepower.
