The ships the player pilots, the Arwing, got its name due to it being shaped like the letter A.

There is a possibility General Pepper is named after The Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". He is also wearing an outfit similar to a character on the album cover.

According to an interview with Dylan Cuthbert in the British Official Nintendo Magazine, the renaming of the game from Star Fox to Starwing in European territories was done to avoid confusing the game with an unrelated German company called Star Vox, as the letter "V", in some languages like Dutch and German, is pronounced as the letter "F".

There is a secret level that can be reached from the Asteroid Field in Level 3. Getting there requires destroying the second of two large asteroids and then flying straight into the bird that appears. Doing so results in being transported to "Out of this Dimension" where the background is warped, the enemies appear to be floating pieces of paper, and the boss is a giant slot machine. Once defeated by getting three 7s, the end credits roll and the player is stuck in this level until the game is reset.