Star Fox (series)/Headscratchers

• Who is Andrew's mother/father? The game says he is Andross's nephew, which means that Andross had to have at least one sibling, who was Andrew's parent. And why wasn't that sibling helping out his/her brother Andross on Venom?
  • In the comic Books, it is revealed that Andross gave Andrew to a family of pigs to raise. Until he was 12. Then he joined Star Wolf. This is how he obtained the last name 'Oinkonny', not 'Andross'.
    • There were actually no comic books dealing with Andrew Oikonny's past specifically. The comics mentioned are probably the Nintendo Power serials. In those comics, Andross, as a child, was apparently adopted by pigs, and there is no mention of him having a nephew. That having been said, it is likely that this particular background story is now considered non-canon since those comics were based off the original SNES Star Fox game. That Star Fox game is not the same canon (read: continuity) as all the other Star Fox games, from Star Fox 64 and on.
  • I will admit I'm not too familiar with the background, but since Andross was exiled, why exactly would his sister (See next point) feel the need to go with him? She wasn't the one conducting amoral research, now, was she? She probably was horrified by his actions, or perhaps unwilling to leave everything just to support her brother. She tried to raise a normal family, but Andrew was enamoured by Uncle Andross's actions. Thus, he caught a ship to Venom and offered his assistance. And the sister part comes from last names. Admittedly, we don't know how marriage rites go in the Lylat system, but we can assume that women tend to take the husband's last names, unless it's shown otherwise...
    • Just thought I'd point out that we don't know what Andross's last name is.
      • It hasn't been stated in the games, but the official Nintendo Star Fox 64 players' guide gives Andross's surname as "Oikonny." If this is correct, then that would mean that, since Andross and Andrew have the same surname, Andrew is most likely the son of Andross's brother.
        • I have the Official Star Fox 64 Nintendo Player's Guide in front of me right now: Andross is referred to as "Dr. Andross", which would imply that it is actually his surname.
  • Command makes this more confusing, as Andross has a grandson named Dash Bowman. So, we'll probably never know Andross's last name.
    • How's that confusing? Andross has a daughter and she married a guy named Bowman. It could have worked the same way as the hypothetical scenario with the sister staying behind when he was exiled - his daughter was taken from his custody or chose to remain behind (the latter if she was old enough to be considered an adult).
• So how did Wolf and Co. survive the events of Star Fox 64? Hell, was Fox fighting Star Wolf even canon (Encountering Star Wolf is optional)?
  • Hard to say if it was canon or not, but most likely if it was, they bailed before their ships blew (if I remember correctly, the final battle with Star Fox and Star Wolf took place on Venom, so it's not like they would've been left stranded in the vacuum of space (of course, Venom's atmosphere from what I've heard is supposed to be toxic, but then again, how would Andross raise an army there, if it was?). What I'd like to know, though, is how they survived being blown up inside a warp tunnel in space in Star Fox Assault.
    • Same here; they clearly return in Star Fox Command, but I've never heard any explanation as to how or why; it's like they're counting Assault as canon, but are conveniently forgetting that Star Wolf sacrificed themselves to help stop the Aparoid invasion.
      • Assault ends with Fox outright stating that Star Wolf survived. No evidence, though. He just knew it.
        • Gut Feeling doesn't cut it, I'm afraid; no in-game explanation for how they survived was given, and as such, they merely reappear out of nowhere in Command. You'd think that a mercenary group with as high a bounty on their heads as Star Wolf just showing back up after disappearing from battle after helping stop an alien invasion would bring some interest from the Cornerian brass as to how they made it back...
    • Perhaps they found or made an alternate escape route? The Aparoid Queen's control of the planet must have gone screwy as she was being defeated in the second stage...
    • According to Dash's ending in Star Fox Command, people do live there around the time the game happens. Granted, I don't think it was stated how long those people were living there.
    • Team Star Wolf just has a screwy Staying Alive system. If you fight them on Fortunato, anyone who dies will stay dead on Bolse, but everyone is always alive for Venom II.
      • It seems more like that you just don't die in the Starfox verse. Everyone but Andross reappears in Command, even Pigma and Andrew, both of which got blasted onscreen in Assault.
        • Even Andross appeared as a ghost in certain Command levels.
  • Encountering Star Wolf is not optional. You either fight them on Bolse, or you fight them on Venom II.
    • Technically, you don't have to kill him: The Bolse mission ends once you destroy the reactor core. I guess any surviving members of Team Star Wolf just leave.
  • If Star Wolf survived getting blown to pieces once, when you defused that bomb, they could do it again.
  • It seems fighting Star Wolf twice is canon, as Wolf is bandaged up in Venom, which presumably could only come from injuries suffered from their defeat in Fortuna.
    • But if you didn't go to Fortuna, this could be taken as an implication that Starfox took them down recently before the events of the game. One path that wouldn't make sense is if you lost to them on Fortuna and still see them injured on Venom.
  • I would guess that the ending in which you go to Venom "hard side" is canon, since Andross is never actually fought in the other ending.
• How did Star Wolf meet Panther Caroso? We don't know diddly about his past prior to his joining of the team, and no mention of how or why he joined.
  • Bad Guy Bar, perhaps?
    • If so, he was probably just there to pick up chicks. Or kittens.
      • All There in the Manual says that's how Wolf met Leon.
• Okay, it's been heavily rumored by both fans and hinted by the game itself that Leon is a merciless killer with a penchant for torture. So... why is his bounty so low? I read somewhere that Leon's bounty is the lowest out of all the individual Star Wolf members, even lower than that of newcomer Panther. If he's such a danger to society, you'd think that they'd bump up the reward on his head...
  • Maybe he's just not that good at it?
    • Perhaps the inverse, he is so good at it they can't prove he actually did it.
  • The size of the bounty on someone's head isn't necessarily linearly proportional to the horrific-ness of their crimes. Perhaps all of the other Star Wolf members managed to wrong-do organizations which could front bigger bounties, and Leon kept most of his atrocities on a somewhat more one-on-one basis.
  • It could be because Leon and Wolf are almost always together, so it's assumed by the military that if you want to kill/capture Wolf, you would have to go through Leon first, meaning putting more money on Leon would be the same as putting more money on Wolf. So they chose to add to Wolf's bounty instead.
  • In one ending of Command, Star Wolf is saving the day. Leon is excited about them getting parades and flowers.
• The changes made to the characters in Star Fox Command bug me: Bill's change from surfer dude to southern hick (same goes with Wolf, if Super Smash Bros. Brawl is to be believed), Kat's fur color change from pink to gray, Panther suddenly channeling the speech patterns of Doctor Doom, etc. Then again, that concerns me less than the fact that the creators hinted the next game will supposedly be set in the middle of Command, essentially making half the game and all of its endings moot.
  • Tell me about it. I miss Wolf's British-ish accent. Come on, a one-eyed mercenary with a British accent! You can't lose with that!
    • My mate's wanting to poke his eardrums out at the sound of Panther in Brawl; he had such a... "Garr Gay" voice to him (don't ask; it would be too hard to explain; just think if a British accent could create perpetual Even the Guys Want Him moments) in Assault, and they just had to ruin it... That reminds me of another complaint I noticed with Wolf's new accent; why is it that American voice actors seem to be obsessed with giving their characters Southern or Texan accents? Wolf has one now, Bill had one in Command, they gave Johan from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX one...
      • I guess it has something to do with Panther's original VA not being available.
      • Does anybody want to explain to me how Wolf's accent in Brawl counts as Texan? There's hardly any southern drawl to it in the least. Yes, it's not his British accent, but I found the accent in Brawl to somewhat fit him better.
        • There's a bit of it in there, but there's so little actual vocalization in Brawl that it's kind of pointless to make a big deal of it.
  • To be fair, Jay Ward, Wolf's VA in Brawl (who also does Meta Knight's VA) does emulate Wolf's Assault VA pretty well... and I think Wolf's Assault VA is his best as it fits his personality. He doesn't really have a personality at all in 64, and people stereotyped his "British" voice as him having character.
  • Where did that "in the middle of Command" rumor came from? The creators stated in an interview that Command is supposed to be at the end of the timeline (of course, if it gets shuffled to yet another company, who knows) and that other SF games will probably take place before it. But either way, unless the next game declares one of the endings (or a mix of it) canon, it's up to the individual to decide what the real ending is, anyway
    • This interview for IGN with the developers of Command pretty much confirms that the next game will most likely be in the middle of Command (and that none of the various endings of the game are in fact canon).
      • Anyone want to place bets for when they'll finally break down and have more than one "timestream" (like the 2009 Star Trek)?
  • You might as well take into account the screwy Command translation. Oh, and Panther rocks.
  • On the subject of changing voices, I didn't like the switch between Leon in 64 and in Assault. In 64 he had this smug, deep, aristocratic tone but in the latter game, he had a cartoony, high-pitched voice. I really liked his first one better, as I just thought the voice was really badass. Was it changed to not contrast with Panther?
    • Perhaps they figured that it made him sound more unhinged. Or maybe they figured they already had Wolf and Panther with deep, smooth voices, so they could use some contrast.
• If the Warpstone can't warp dinosaurs, what the hell is he doing on Dinosaur Planet?
  • Maybe he was somehow there before the dinosaurs. Or just was there but rather useless. It would explain why he bitches at Fox for waking him up after a thousand-year rest, or why the one dinosaur calls him "a disgrace".
• Speaking of Dinosaur Planet, what the hell was Scales hoping to accomplish by removing the Spellstones and blowing up his own planet?
  • Nothing. He was possessed by Andross. And that guy is just a DICK.
    • But returning the spellstones and Krozoa spirits allowed Andross to be revived. Maybe he's actually a Magnificent Bastard, but Fox is just better.
    • Wait a sec, if putting the Spellstones and Krozoa spirits back was what it took to revive Andross, why would he remove them in the first place?
  • You're all forgetting the biggest question: How does a spacefaring species MISS AN ENTIRE PLANET IN THEIR SYSTEM until it's in danger?
    • We've been in space for like... 4 decades and only found out about Eris 5 years ago. How a species that can readily travel between planets missed it, however...
  • This troper had a theory about that, which lends itself to Fridge Brilliance. Look at the chunks of planet that were hacked apart. By removing the Spellstones, General Scales successfully divided the planet, to keep the dinosaur tribes separate. Andross had found out about the Krazoa spirits, and hung around until some hero shows up to put together the planet. He catches Krystal, who can channel the power, then just has to taunt Fox with the idea of rescuing a hot vixen. Bam - he's got the dude who beat him before unknowingly working his tail off to revive him.
• Something that's bugged me since the end of Star Fox Adventures - did Krystal learn English? Or does the whole team still use a translator to understand her?
  • I figure that she's always been able to speak English (or whatever language it is that is spoken in the Lylat System), but she never did until the end because up until that point, she thought she was speaking with Dinosaurs.
    • That's one of the better headcanons I've heard for this so far. Thanks!
• Am I the only one who liked Star Fox Adventures (Dinosaur Planet, if you really can't stand that name)? I never understood why people found it so bad.
  • This troper will be glad to share what he didn't like about the game: the unintuitive button-mashing combat, the numerous plot holes (how did Fox know Tricky's dad had been captured, for starters), the wasted opportunities (an epic battle with Scales would have been more interesting than a remake of the previous game's final battle with Andross), the frustratingly annoying challenges (THAT GODDAMN VOLCANO LEVEL WITH THE PTERODACTYL), as well as the inescapable Fridge Logic (how do they put on their jewelry?). Don't get me wrong, the game looks really pretty, but it just seems to be missing a lot of life in it. Oh yeah, and that damn cackling bat-demon that you could never avoid no matter what.
    • Well, This Troper liked it, you big complainer you.
    • I know; I was just explaining why people found it so bad.
    • Well that's actually one of the most constructive complaints about Dinosaur Planet/Adventures I've actually read - namely for the fact that you're actually pointing out flaws of the game that are actually part of the design. For a good what, eight nine years, a good 90-100% of the criticisms I've seen of the game have been some variant of "It's not Starfox 64" or "It's a Zelda ripoff".
  • Dinosaur Planet is to Star Fox what Spirits Within is to Final Fantasy, basically. Except Rare didn't basically sink into financial ruin because of it. Only Star Fox's reputation did.
    • Star Fox's reputation is fine, and you'd be hard-pressed to find any critic who finds Assault a better game than Adventures. It's just a They Changed It, Now It Sucks kind of thing. The game itself is actually a fairly well done, the reviews were good, and much better than either of the two games that came after it. Also, I prefer Fox's characterization in Adventures than any other game.
  • User:Starshine I loved it, but I've always been more of a puzzle game person and the Arwing levels drove me crazy, so maybe I'm not the best judge of what makes a good Star Fox game. (Although what was up with the goddamn Test of Fear? That was basically just dumb luck!)
    • No it's not, it's just insanely misleading on how to work it. This troper nearly threw her controller out the window trying to beat it, until she went for a strategy guide.
  • This troper liked the game, but actually found that the Arwing and Andross additions felt tacked on. Yes, she knows they were, but she would have been fine if it were Fox doing an on-world mission with a ninja staff, as a sort of Non Sequitur Scene game.
  • This troper agrees with the one above and wants to add that in addition, the game feels like a shell added onto another game. Heck, I liked the game overall, I thought it was actually a reasonably decent adventure game on its own merits. And I don't even mind that it was co-opted by the Star Fox universe (and in my opinion, Fox's character model in Adventures is VASTLY superior to Assault or Command - YMMV of course). But it doesn't feel connected to the Star Fox universe. It's hard to explain, but it feels like the game doesn't add any depth to the universe or characters (an ongoing problem with the series - see another JBM below). By the end of it, while I liked the game, I had the sense that They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot.
• Who the hell is Fox's dad! Seriously, the only exposition we ever get is in Star Fox 64, about how he died in battle after Pigma betrayed and shot him. All we know about his character is from Peppy, who says what a great guy he was. And we know his name, James. WHO IS HE?! If he comes back so much to help Fox in tight spots, WHY HASN'T RARE/NINTENDO GIVEN MORE BACK STORY FOR THIS GUY?!
  • Sometimes, keeping it a mystery is for the best.
    • Apparently being the original commander and creator of the Star Fox team isn't good enough for some people as far as backstory goes. Also when Nintendo (or whoever they outsourced the story to) keeps playing the "is he really dead" card it tends to get confusing.
• I can understand Fox vs. Wolf and Peppy vs. Pigma, but what exactly is the story behind Falco vs. Leon and Slippy vs. Andrew?
  • Matching types: Falco/Leon are both (in the fluff) considered the best pilots in both teams, and act as highly-competent lancers to their leaders. Slippy/Andrew are both the least skilled pilots in their relative groups and only given a position in Star Fox/Wolf for somewhat suspect reasons (Slippy due to being a better mechanic than a pilot, and Andrew because Andross was paying Wolf to have him in the team).
  • The above post is probably right, it also just makes sense. Slippy and Andrew are portrayed as fairly weak pilots, so naturally they're go after eachother rather than someone more competent. It's probably not hard for full-time mercenary fighter pilots to visually pick out the proverbial weak animal in the herd. It's possible that Falco and Leon either go at it because of the above-explained nature of both being the best or just because everyone else is taken (Fox and Wolf in a leader v. leader fight, Pigma and Peppy in an old blood feud, Andrew and Slippy being the lowest common denominator of their teams)
• In Star Fox Command, Fox uses the Arwing Mk. II, which is Jack of All Stats of ships and has a single laser. Fair enough. However, in a few missions it's possible to play as Peppy and James, and they pilot the Arwing (note the lack of "Mk. II"). What's the difference? Well, the Arwing Mk II has a single laser, while the Mk. I has a double laser. Let me repeat that. The only real difference is that the Arwing II has a weaker laser. No other differences. How is making your ship weaker an "upgrade"?
  • Fox is still technically a mercenary, while Peppy is drawing in a fat General's commission (And James may not exist, so I'm ignoring him in this argument). Fox's financial commitments are involved with owning and running both a personal starfighter and a carrier, while completely manning and maintaining both pretty much solo. Peppy has a regular wage, and probably a personal hangar and support crew. Fox might have commissioned a new Arwing model from Space Dynamics, but the situation is that he can't either maintain it at peak performance or purposely bought a cheaper model in order to save a few bucks. Peppy has no such financial limits. It's also largely hinted that Fox is still paying his father's debt on the first Great Fox, which is now debris. Fox's Arwing is newer, but not necessarily better, while Peppy probably could maintain his first generation Arwing and probably have it upgraded. Expanding further, the big problem with the "Mk. II" designation is that it's wrong. There's been several generations of Arwings: The first being those flown by the original Star Fox (James, Peppy, Dengar) and probably in the original Star Fox game (Which Assault still counts as canon). Ignoring SF2, SF64 introduced a whole new generation of Arwings with an all-range mode, and Adventures featured this same Arwing albeit stripped down to the bare bones (And Peppy and Slippy's sold off to earn some cash) in order to keep running costs and maintenance low. Assault featured another generation of Arwings (And Landmasters), bought for with the commission from the Sauria job, minus whatever Fox kept aside for other running costs and paying off daddy's fat debt. Three canonical generations of Arwings with different specifications have shown up in the games before the Mk. II. The Mk. II designation is wrong (Or correct in that it's a cheaper, more generalized version for commercial sale rather than specific contract commission) and should be ignored. In the Japanese version, Fox didn't fly an Arwing Mk. II, he flew an Arwing "Fire Fox", while Peppy stuck with his his classic Arwing. That's probably more accurate, and I personally propose that, while we don't strike Command from the canon, we strike the English version and keep the more accurate, makes-more-sense, Japanese Special Editionâ„¢.
  • Or, more simply, Peppy picked up the dual-laser powerup from the three bridges and gate.
  • To be honest, I just simply chalk up the Arwings as a case of You Don't Look Like You. I.e., it's the same Arwing each time until Command, each with a different mecha designer at the helm.
  • The question was answered yet ignored. Fox pilots an Arwing MK II, but there are more than two generations of Arwings.
• What's with names like "Fox", "Falco(n)", "Wolf", and "Panther"? Their first name is the same as their species. It's like calling yourself "Human"!
  • Who knows, maybe if we were just one of numerous sentient species then we'd follow that naming convention, too.
  • Pepper Ann Pearson is a person.
  • If I recall correctlym the various characters' species have never actually been mentioned, so perhaps intelligent space creatures have different names for their own species? And then long ago they crash in the Garden of Eden and upon meeting Adam and Eve inspired the namings of the species we are familiar with today? Ergh, now I feel dirty.
  • And if it's not their first name, it's their last.
  • I always figured it wasn't the equivalent to naming them "Human," it's more like naming them "Guy." It doubles as a generic term, but also works just fine as a name (if an uncommon one). As for last names, again, that could be equivalent to "Smith" or "Johnson" to them. Generic but not unusual.
  • Wolf is a proper first name, need I remind you that a certain 18th century pianist went by it? As for Falco(n), odd but not unheard of to have a surname be applied to one's given name. There was a very famous captain named "Falcon". Fox is obviously not his given name, rather an official nickname he received for he is cunning like a fox. As for Panther - His parents didn't love him enough to give him a proper name.
    • Actually, while it may fall into another example All There in the Manual for this series, the IS some mention on the English official website for Assault the species for the members of Star Wolf. Wolf, for example, is listed as being a Canis, and Panther is listed as a Felinidea (Both names references to the genus that the real world animals they are based off originate from). While a personal theory, I assumed physical differences between, say Fox and Wolf, are just be the in-universe equivalent to humans having a variety of skin tones. And Fox IS his given name.
• I don't know a lot about dogs, but why would they change General Pepper's look in Star Fox: Assault? He doesn't even look like the same type as 64 and Adventures!
  • He was supposed to be really old by Assault, hence his wrinkly look.
• Everything about James McCloud in Command. Nobody else even seems to notice he's there, he only appears after the strategy segment of the stage ends (meaning there's no longer any concrete advantage to having a fourth character), and he's not even a better pilot than Fox because that path includes a laser upgrade for the Arwing Mk. II. What the heck is the point?
  • If you take enough turns in the strategy segment (five I think), he shows up and Fox gives a WTF reaction. You can move him on the map like any other fighter you control.
    • Crutch character; it's been a while since I've cleared Command, but I seem to recall always taking less than five turns that mission if I was, y'know, actually trying. You either have to drag out that encounter purposely to trigger the newcomer or you're really struggling and need an extra set of wings to help clear the mission.
• Lucy Hare. While Peppy being married and having a daughter isn't unlikely, why is it that she's the same age as Fox, and a skilled pilot, but only brought up NOW, in Star Fox Command? Why hasn't she (and Vivian) been brought up before?
  • Probably because of one of three reasons, your to busy fighting for your life to chat about family and the like, Lucy was an astrophysics teacher (or something of the like) with apparently only bare minimum pilot training so she wouldn't be showing up for much in the way of military actions (and she apparently only gets in a plane to help Fox look for her dad) and Peppy might have been divorced at the time of Star Fox 64 with no visitation rights to his daughter so it might have been a sore spot for him at the time.
    • I was under the impression that Vivian died rather than divorcing Peppy. One of Command's endings, if memory serves, involves Peppy and Lucy reminiscing about Vivian, implying that she died at some point, probably before Star Fox 64. Most likely, the topic just never came up because they had other things to deal with, such as Andross's invasion in 64 and the Aparoids in Assault (though you'd think Peppy would show a little concern for his daughter with all the chaos going on).
• Is it just me, or did Nintendo made Star Fox like an excuse to hate on monkeys? We knew Donkey Kong would have made that line, but it seems that SF made something that would cross it.
  • Well, monkeys are evil.
• Falco, when shot in Star Fox 64, says "Hey Einstein, I'm on YOUR side!" How does he know who Einstein is?
  • Someone wrote into Nintendo Power asking this. If I recall correctly, their answer was, "Because the people who developed the game know who Einstein is."
  • Alternatively, it could be part of the Translation Convention; Falco didn't actually name-drop Einstein, he used a figure of speech that is equivalent to calling someone "Einstein" sarcastically in English.
    • On THAT note, how does your teammates know it was YOU specifically who shot them? Sure, the computer AI will know, but story-wise, in the heat of battle, how can Falco be so certain that it was you who accidentally shot him? He shouldn't be instantly angry at you, he should think it was the enemy.
      • That depends solely on if they can tell where the ship gets shot, and how their radar works. If it's from behind and their radars don't pick anybody else but their wingmates up, then they would come to that conclusion. And as they don't bring up Fox specifically - they just say "you" which could mean anybody - this could be seen as them only knowing that it was somebody on their team, not necessarily Fox, and calling out to everyone in order to avoid future shooting. But if there are enemies as well... you got me there.
• Is it just me, or after 64, does the series try to dance around the issue that the Star Fox team is essentially a PMC? Star Fox Adventures even went so far as to call them adventurers.
  • Colonel described them as one in Brawl, calling them a "commando-for-hire" group.
  • Even in 64, they allude to it without actually bringing it up. At the end of the game, Pepper asks Star Fox to join the Cornarian fleet but they turn him down. And after the credits, we see the bill General Pepper has to pay the Star Fox team for their efforts (If you kill a heavy number of enemies, he'll remark, "This is one tough bill, but it's worth it" and if you kill even more enemies then that, he'll let out a dumbfounded, "WHAT?!"). Assumingly Star Fox just works exclusively for Pepper or noble causes and can't be outbid to someone like Andross, making them good guys in spite of their profession (as opposed to Star Wolf, who will work for Andross but still have some sense of honor, or Pigma, who will just do anything for money).
• In 64, it is possible to enter Sector X and then enter a Warp Zone before you get to defeat the "Secret Weapon". Then it's as if they forget that big robot and just go on with their mission. It would have made sense if you atleast got a cutscene "after the end" with them getting interrupted on the journey back, and either letting the computer take care of it or you doing it.
• Wolf is a wolf. Pigma is a pigma. Leon seems to be a frog/lizard. What is Andrew supposed to be?
  • He's obviously a monkey. Just because his name doesn't match his species doesn't mean anything. Krystal, General Pepper, James, etc. have nothing in their names to distinguish what animal they are either.
  • Also, Leon is a Chameleon.
    • Andrew-Mandrill, maybe? Or else he and Andross have the 'andro' prefix for being humanlike..
      • Your thinking 'anthro', where as 'andro' refers to man, as in the gender.
  • Andrew and his uncle Andross are both Apes. That's why the Star Fox team (Falco in particular) call Andross's soldiers "Monkeys." I read somewhere that the reason Andross has Oikenny as his last name is because he was adopted by pigs, but don't recall the source. I think a comic that was released somewhere...
  • Take one look at his picture. Tell me what you think that looks like?
• I'm surprised nobody else has brought this up yet but.... What is up with Andross's One Wing Angel transformation? Everything we get about him before that is that he's a Mad Scientist-slash-Evil Overlord-slash-monkey. Then.... it turns out not only is he a giant head, but also a giant brain? Normally I would just think "Well, that's a very ego-driven flagship, sort of like the kind Brainiac flies," but then Fox remarks "So, Andross, you show your true form!" Did he transform himself into a giant brain? Was Fox joking? Is there some manga that explains this? It kind of seems like the kind of thing that would pass in an old NES game without anyone blinking an eye, or even a satirical game like No More Heroes, but Star Fox is oddly rooted in realism (anthropomophic animals not withstanding). I'm just confused.
  • Andross had experimented on himself so much that he became a giant brain. His head and arms were mechanical.
• So how does General Pepper feel when Star Fox counts random rocks and asteroids as "enemies", thus raising their income?
  • Given how close in proximity they are to Corneria, he might actually appreciate him cleaning them up so that it's less likely their planet will get hit by one. That or he simply doesn't know that Fox is artificially inflating his count and trusts Fox's data.
  • I was wondering if his thought might be, "Holy crap, these four guys totally defeated a conquering, invading force I couldn't repel with my entire army. I'm just going to give them what they want and not risk either pissing them off or thinking they should go work for someone else."
  • This is the brilliance of Star Fox taking advantage of the Cornerian government's bureaucracy (which has undoubtedly inconvenienced them in the past), cooking the books by counting random rocks as "enemy defenses" or "weapons".
• Okay, so in Starfox 64, Cornelia has an entire, trained army; Peppy Hare is an experienced pilot while Falco's an ex-mercenary; and at least once per playthrough, the team encounters Star Wolf, an elite team of mercenaries. And yet, Fox McCloud is the only person who can do easily done flying maneuvers and take down an entire army of ships that can be taken out in a few shots. Oh, also Wolf won't get confused by your maneuvers until after he gets cybernetic parts.
  • I think it's because Fox's considered the greatest among every good guys as you're controlling him (Well, you can do anything that he's supposed to do,) while most of Cornelia army are filled with Redshirt Army who get frighten easily when someone's on their tails. For Star Fox team, the whole "crew rescuing stuff that happens during linear mode is supposed to be some sort of obstacle to test if you can fully control your ship in a tight situation. They probably do fine offscreen since their shield rarely drop unless they're asking for a help. In All Range mode, however, you can blame their AI for their stupidity. Wolf's "What the heck?" only appears on easy route, so you may count it as a signal for "Get ready to attack" or something for beginners.
  • Do you remember how pathetic all the Cornerian ships besides Bill's were on Katina?
• Does anyone else feel like the star Fox series as a whole hasn't been developed very well? I don't mean game-wise, but rather continuity-wise. The characters up through Assault haven't been given a lot of in-game depth (this troper hasn't played Command; the word from a relative who has is that it's only marginally better in that game), and the universe as a whole doesn't feel developed beyond a series of things for you to shoot at. If there's backstory, it's All in The Manual, and almost never explored in-game; this seems wholly dissatisfying to me, because there seems to be a lot of potential avenues of exploration here. It seems like the Star Fox series cries out for some expansion and depth that other long-running Nintendo series don't really need so much (e.g. Mario, Legend of Zelda, Metroid).
  • Well you are busy fighting for your life for the majority of the games, not exactly time to sit down and chat about your past with your friends over drinks.
• Why did Andross feel the need to put a bunch of bioweapons on the sun? It's way too hazardous to consider building a garrison or something there, very few people are willing to even go there and it's a waste of resources. (Yes, I am aware that some sources say that Solar is not the sun, but I think my point still stands.)
  • He might've just been hiding the bioweapon on Solar. If I remember right, Command says that Andross had quite a few bioweapons on several planets (including Titania). He might have been developing a bioweapon as an ace in the hole against the Cornerian army and decided that no one would think to check on Solar, so it would be a pretty good place to hide a weapon capable of surviving its temperatures.
  • Alternatively, that bio-weapon could've somehow had the power to manipulate how the Solas functioned and could've caused it to go nova or something if so commanded. Maybe if Andross was killed it was programmed to do so as a way of getting revenge on the ones who did it.
• Why does the team make so many stops on the way to Venom in Star Fox 64? Yes, if they didn't, there wouldn't be much of a game, but why don't they just go straight to Venom in the Great Fox? Really, the only levels that are strictly necessary are Area 6 (as it takes place in Venom airspace and has Andross throwing everything at you to stop you from reaching the planet) or Area 6 (as it seems to be some sort of defense system protecting Venom) and then Venom (where you have to go to take out Andross). Corneria might be justifiable, as Fox would probably want to protect his homeworld, but there doesn't seem to be much sense in stopping at, say, Solar or Zoness, considering that the only threats there are the bioweapons, which don't exactly seem like they'd be going to attack any time soon. They could just go to Venom, blow Andross up, then double back through the other planets to clean up the remaining threats.
  • Personally, I assumed that the Arwings needed regular maintenence and refueling. And as proven by Sector Z, Venom's Armies are perfectly capable of intercepting Star Fox. Also, they probably don't head straight for Venom for the same reason that in war, we don't have our first battle in the enemy capital: there's a lot of other stuff in the way that needs to be taken out first. Also also, as demonstrated by the beginning of Assault, Venom's armies can be a decent threat by themselves.
  • General Pepper hires the Star Fox team not only to zip along and kill Andross, but also complete several other objectives along the way (depending on which route you take, of course). Note that, at the start of most missions, Fox reports to General Pepper for a new mission (Titania probably being the only exception, which you would have to go to to save Slippy). Killing Andross isn't going to do a whole lot if his army is left to run rampant across the system. He even pays the team by kills! (Including asteroids)
  • To elaborate on the above, each of the missions, regardless of path, has a specific military objective.
    • Sector Y and and the Asteroid Thicket seem to be Cornerian Airspace, and the battles there are breaking through a "blockade" of the planet, and/or destroying another Attack-fleet En-route to Corneria - Failure to complete those missions result in Corneria getting destroyed behind you.
    • Katina/Katinara and Fichina/Fortuna are both critical Cornerian assets - even disregarding civilian population centers on each, the former seems to be a major Cornerian Fleet "Harbor", and Fortuna's a Supply Depot. Losing either would put the Cornerian Military at a severe disadvantage.
    • Aquas, Solar, and Sector X house extremely powerful Superweapons that have enough firepower to destroy the Cornerian Fleet.
    • Zoness and Macbeth are logistically critical to Andross' war effort.
    • Sector Z is an Unavoidable Ambush
    • Bolse and Area 6 are Venom's last line of defense.
• Something that really bugs me: Why did they Bowdlerize Falco's "Hey Einstein, I'm on your side" line in Star Fox 64 3D to "Hey genius, I'm on your side?"
  • I seem to recall Nintendo Power getting a letter asking how a falcon in a distant galaxy could possibly know who Einstein was. Weird, but might be that.