Trivia / Star Fox

• Acting for Two: In the English versions of Star Fox 64 and Assault, Fox and James (the aparoid-absorbed memories of him in the latter game, anyway) are portrayed by the same voice actors, Mike West and Jim Walker (per each game, respectively).
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Peppy's memetic line "Do a barrel roll" is present in Star Fox 64 but it is not constantly spammed throughout the game like most people think. He only says the line about two or three times in the entire game (once on Corneria and again on Meteo, the first and second levels in the game, to help illustrate the ability to deflect enemy fire, and one more time on Aquas when Fox gets faced with a wall of lasers while piloting the Blue Marine).
• Creator Backlash:
  • While he doesn't hate it, Shigeru Miyamoto has cited the series as getting worse after being developed by other companies.
  • Dylan Cuthbert from Q-Games once called out the more obsessive fans for "liking those furries a little too much."
  • Three words from Estelle Ellis (as Krystal): "Command isn't canon."
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Slippy Toad. Starting in 64, he has female voice actors in all of the Japanese games, and in the English version of Star Fox 64 as well. He's voiced by a man in Adventures and Assault, but went back to a female in Zero and Guard. This lead to western fans infamously (and continually) mistaking him for a girl, despite Peppy's line at the ending of the Titania level establishing that Slippy is indeed male ("I'm sure he's [Slippy] learned his lesson."). This is a strong contrast to the original game, in which Slippy has the second lowest voice of all the main characters — an unmistakable Simlish baritone, with only Falco's bass voice being lower in pitch.
• Fake Brit: Alesia Glidewell, an American, plays the British-sounding Krystal in Assault and Super Smash Bros.; this is because in Krystal's Adventures debut, her voice actor (Estelle Ellis) actually is British.
• Franchise Killer: While the series has had mixed fan reception with every game from Star Fox Adventures onward, Star Fox Zero for the Wii U saw the biggest polarizing reactions from both critics and fans alike, thanks to its unconventional control scheme and removal of staple features. Longtime fans also weren't happy that it would serve as the series' third Continuity Reboot. The result was Zero getting middling sales internationally and becoming the worst-selling game in the franchise in Japan, narrowly beating out Command. Outside the release of (the very delayed) Star Fox 2, there hasn't been a new game since. Star Fox characters would be included in the Switch version of Ubisoft's 2018 game Starlink: Battle for Atlas and even have their own exclusive mission, but despite it being well-received and the Switch version selling the best, that game also sold poorly overall due to being a Toys-To-Life Game released just as the fad had all-but-died.
• He Also Did: The manga Farewell, Beloved Falco was illustrated by Shigehisa Nakaue, who would later be known as the primary 2D artist of Super Mario Bros. from Super Mario 3D Land-onward.
• Inspiration for the Work: Miyamoto was a big fan of the Thunderbirds series, explaining why the character's mouths open and close like puppets. Miyamoto even admitted in an interview once that he secretly wanted to do a Star Fox TV show with the Thunderbirds team.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • The Gamecube instalments, Adventures and Assault have never been officially rereleased outside of their main console.
  • After the closure of the Wii U and 3DS eshop, Command, 64 3D, Zero and Guard are gone too and the only way to play them is through a physical copy.
• Killer App: The original game showcased the Super FX chip, which was necessary for its 3D graphics (the Super Nintendo was nowhere strong enough to do the necessary math calculations, so the chip handled that). The N64 version was the first major console game to feature force feedback vibration (other companies tried minor attempts, but it was Nintendo that really got it right and pushed it on the populace). This game also had extensive voice acting for a cartridge-based game, a massive technical achievement of its time.
• Market-Based Title: In PAL territories, Star Fox was known as Starwing and Star Fox 64 was known as Lylat Wars. Contrary to popular belief, this was not due to an existing 1983 Atari 2600 game of the same name, but rather because of Nintendo's worry that the European company StarVox would have an identical pronunciation in German. This issue was dropped by Star Fox Adventures.
• The Other Darrin: Shinobu Satouchi originally voiced Fox McCloud and Leon Powalski in Star Fox 64. In Assault, however, he continued to voice only Leon, as Fox was then voiced by Kenji Nojima. Similarly, Hisao Egawa originally voiced Wolf O'Donnell and Falco Lombardi in Star Fox 64. In Assault, he gives Wolf to Mahito Oba.
• No Export for You: The "Farewell, Beloved Falco" promotional manga for Star Fox Adventures. There's no official English release for it, so interested readers need to rely on an online fan-translated Scanlation.
• Recycled Script: In the comic series that was released at around the same time as the original 1993 game, Slippy is kidnapped on Titania, but manages to rescue himself using his Utility Necklace. In 64, Slippy is kidnapped on Titania and has to be rescued by Fox. In Farewell, Beloved Falco, Slippy is kidnapped on Titania and has to be rescued by Fox again. Both scenarios involve the Landmaster, but in 64 it's used to rescue Slippy, while in Farewell Slippy is kidnapped while piloting it. Zero continues the trend of reusing the Titania rescuing plotline, though this time Peppy is the one kidnapped.
• Referenced by...: A model Arwing, as it appears in Star Fox 64, can be seen in Mario's room in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
• Rule 34 Creator Reactions: Krystal's original voice actor, Estelle Ellis, references Krystal's infamous "popularity" in certain spaces:
  Krystal: "I know there are a few of you looking for me. Don't try to hide it, I can read your mind, after all. Eugh."
• Shrug of God:
  • In regards to the humanoid metal legs fans believed the Star Fox crew sport, despite many people trying to justify their existence as helping the pilots deal with the G-force or that they are augmented specifically for field work, Miyamoto admits outright the only reason the original promotional puppet had metal legs was because he wanted them to appear a bit more human, and otherwise they are only there for Rule of Cool.
  • "Do a barrel roll!" has become infamous for using the incorrect term, in that the move the pilots are performing is actually an Aileron Roll. Miyamoto confirms its addition was due directly to Woolseyism, when the game was first being translated the English team suggested the term "Barrel Roll" which made Miyamoto think of Donkey Kong, since the titular ape would use barrels to attack, and fell in love with the name, so it stuck. In Japan and certain other games, the move was just called "rolling".
• Trolling Creator: Back in 2018, there were rumors of a new game in the Star Fox series by Retro Studios titled Star Fox Grand Prix, rumors of which would only increase after artwork of the logo was "leaked" to the public. However, not only did the game turn out to not be real, but the whole thing was later revealed to have been an deliberate hoax by Nintendo themselves in order to screw with leakers and to expose them.
• Vaporware: The sequel to the SNES Star Fox, Star Fox 2, was heavily promoted only to be quietly cancelled as to not outshine Star Fox 64. For years, unfinished ROMs were the only way to experience the game, but in 2017, thanks to the SNES Classic Edition, the game received an official release.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Fara Phoenix was in early alpha builds of the Star Fox 2, but she got replaced by two new female characters in later builds. However, Star Fox 2 was never actually released - until 2017, for the SNES Classic.
  • General Scales was intended to have a full boss battle, but that didn't happen due to Rare being sold to Microsoft.
  • According to an interview with Adam Conover, there were plans for a "Fantastic Mr. Fox-style Star Fox Claymation project" to be produced alongside CollegeHumor for Netflix. It was cancelled after leaks of a supposed The Legend of Zelda series appeared online.

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