▲
2
▼
According to programmer Dylan Cuthbert (who reportedly help named the original pilots from the first Star Fox), one of the new pilots in Star Fox 2, Fay, was named after his childhood crush, a girl who lived next door to his grandparents' house. Although Fay, as well as Miyu, were never officially given proper surnames, Cuthbert has stated that in his head, he's always considered their full names to be Fay Sinclair and Miyu Swift respectively.
Dylan Cuthbert Reddit AMA comments:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/8mu1pp/comment/dzqfnhr/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/8mu1pp/comment/dzqe1ra/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/8mu1pp/comment/dzqfnhr/
https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/8mu1pp/comment/dzqe1ra/
▲
2
▼
Contary to popular belief and Nintendo's own statements, Star Fox 2 does not require the use of the Super FX Chip 2 to run, as the Super FX Chip 2 only increases game size capacity support and not graphical support, and Star Fox 2 is small enough to fit on a regular Super FX Chip. Star Fox 2, however, cannot run on a MARIO chip, the first revision of the first Super FX Chip which was succeeded by the more graphically powerful GSU-1 and GSU-2 versions of the Super FX Chip.
▲
2
▼
In the original Star Fox on SNES, Venom was said to be a beautiful, green planet in the vein of Corneria before Andross, after being banished by Corneria due to his dangerous experiments, invaded and ruined it, transforming it into a dark, polluted world of military machines, all while enslaving its inhabitants who he drafted into his new army. Star Fox 2's Venom stage on Expert mode would actually depict Venom in its lush green state again, indicating that it was being terraformed back into its original state.
Star Fox 64 would essentially retcon all of this, and claim that Venom was already a desolate wasteland to begin with, which is the entire reason General Pepper banished Andross there after the latter nearly destroyed Corneria with his weapons. That being said, Star Fox Command would later reveal that during his banishment on Venom, Andross had actually created a terraforming device that he planned on using upon Venom as a means to transform it into a beautiful green world similar to Corneria, for prosperity and to also give his heirs and descendants a home to live happily in. This is essentially an inverse of his original SNES backstory, where he's now trying to save Venom and turn it into a hospitable world, as opposed to invading and transforming it into a polluted wasteland.
Star Fox 64 would essentially retcon all of this, and claim that Venom was already a desolate wasteland to begin with, which is the entire reason General Pepper banished Andross there after the latter nearly destroyed Corneria with his weapons. That being said, Star Fox Command would later reveal that during his banishment on Venom, Andross had actually created a terraforming device that he planned on using upon Venom as a means to transform it into a beautiful green world similar to Corneria, for prosperity and to also give his heirs and descendants a home to live happily in. This is essentially an inverse of his original SNES backstory, where he's now trying to save Venom and turn it into a hospitable world, as opposed to invading and transforming it into a polluted wasteland.
Star Fox SNES English manual:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/common/pdf/CLV-P-SADGE.pdf
Star Fox 2 - Venom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQRYr6-a1aE#t=36
User's English translation of Japanese official Star Fox 64 guidebook:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/y8cwc9/finally_got_around_to_doing_translations/
Star Fox Command - Andross' banishment on Venom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swUv9_-cLwM#t=1186
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/common/pdf/CLV-P-SADGE.pdf
Star Fox 2 - Venom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQRYr6-a1aE#t=36
User's English translation of Japanese official Star Fox 64 guidebook:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/y8cwc9/finally_got_around_to_doing_translations/
Star Fox Command - Andross' banishment on Venom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swUv9_-cLwM#t=1186
subdirectory_arrow_right Star Fox Zero (Game)
▲
1
▼
By scanning a Fox or Falco amiibo in Star Fox Zero, the Arwings and Walkers will be swapped out with 16-bit era models as seen in Star Fox and Star Fox 2. The old Arwing model's Charge shot does not lock on to targets, which reflects how they did not have a lock-on feature in Star Fox, but only in Star Fox 2 did they have a Charge shot. At the time of Star Fox Zero's release in 2016, Star Fox 2 remained unreleased, with only leaked beta builds being available, including one that allowed you to lock on to enemies with the Charge shot. The game would eventually be completed by Nintendo and released in 2017, but with this lock-on feature removed. Since Nintendo only showed Star Fox 2 to developers actively working on the series, it's believed that PlatinumGames noticed this feature's removal and referenced it in Star Fox Zero over a year before the game's release by making the old Arwings behave accurately to a version of Star Fox 2 that players did not know about.
▲
1
▼
When assets from Star Fox 2 were leaked in the 2020 Nintendo Gigaleak, one character that caught people's attention was what appeared to be a human woman. Some fans and news outlets assumed the character to be black based on her frilly hair and large lips, but palettes were eventually discovered that revealed her to be fair-skinned. The human woman's sprites have the same filename as Miyu and Fay's in the final game, and her two sprites' facial structures resemble Miyu and Fay's prototype sprites (the latter being a sheep instead of a poodle), suggesting she was simply a placeholder meant to give a human reference for Miyu and Fay's anthropomorphic expressions.
▲
1
▼
Masanao Arimoto, who took over Takaya Imamura's role as the character and sprite artist for Star Fox 2 from the first game, seemed to have cycled through a wide variety of new character pilots designs to represent the two Light class Arwing models, before finally settling on Fay (a spaniel) and Miyu (a Lynx). These beta designs were discovered in the Nintendo Gigaleak of 2020.
Some of these include a sheep, a bear, a deer, a hippo, and even Fara Phoenix (dubbed internally as "lady") from the 1993 Star Fox Nintendo Power comics. The sheep design would actually appear in an issue of Super Game Power magazine that had a feature on Star Fox 2 (before it was cancelled) along with Miyu, making it clear that it was an early design for what would become Fay.
What's also notable and curious is that there seem to be unused female human pilots found within the Gigaleak. It is speculated that Arimoto drew these up as generic templates to base the new female characters' designs off of, rather than introduce human characters into the Star Fox series specifically like what has been theorized since the Gigaleak. The fact that there are multiple different variants of the same non-descript woman with none of them being a different gender compared to the vastly more distinctive anthro designs that Arimoto brainstormed adds credence to this theory.
Some of these include a sheep, a bear, a deer, a hippo, and even Fara Phoenix (dubbed internally as "lady") from the 1993 Star Fox Nintendo Power comics. The sheep design would actually appear in an issue of Super Game Power magazine that had a feature on Star Fox 2 (before it was cancelled) along with Miyu, making it clear that it was an early design for what would become Fay.
What's also notable and curious is that there seem to be unused female human pilots found within the Gigaleak. It is speculated that Arimoto drew these up as generic templates to base the new female characters' designs off of, rather than introduce human characters into the Star Fox series specifically like what has been theorized since the Gigaleak. The fact that there are multiple different variants of the same non-descript woman with none of them being a different gender compared to the vastly more distinctive anthro designs that Arimoto brainstormed adds credence to this theory.
Star Fox 2 unused human graphics Reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/1779zx5/was_star_fox_2_really_going_to_have_humans_at_one/
Star Fox 2 unused graphics:
https://twitter.com/morkitten/status/1287082081206575109
Super Game Power magazine article on Star Fox 2:
https://twitter.com/AndrossSF0/status/1695127454900433235/
Nintendo Power Star Fox comic:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VtTq6iI5k71IXphL0xXWdC1SKOAuq3f-
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/1779zx5/was_star_fox_2_really_going_to_have_humans_at_one/
Star Fox 2 unused graphics:
https://twitter.com/morkitten/status/1287082081206575109
Super Game Power magazine article on Star Fox 2:
https://twitter.com/AndrossSF0/status/1695127454900433235/
Nintendo Power Star Fox comic:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VtTq6iI5k71IXphL0xXWdC1SKOAuq3f-
▲
1
▼
While Star Fox 64 would mark the debut of Star Wolf, the rival team of Star Fox, they were originally meant to debut in Star Fox 2, which was cancelled for twenty years before seeing an official release for the SNES Classic in 2017.
Something that's very peculiar in the final build of Star Fox 2, however, is how most of the mainstays of the Star Wolf team, such as Wolf O'Donnell, Pigma Dengar, and Leon Powalski, are present, all except for one: Andross' nephew, Andrew Oikonny. In his place is what appears to be a lemur character named "Algy", who is described by SF2's online manual as being rumoured to be "the most devious creature in the cosmos".
What makes this even more strange is the fact that Andrew actually was initially conceived for SF2, as a piece of concept art drawn by series' character designer Takaya Imamura portrays him along with Wolf, Leon and Pigma. In fact, there actually exists evidence that, by the time of Star Fox 2's gold build, Algy was still internally referred to as Andrew in the game's source code, which makes it all the more clear that Andrew was indeed planned to be in SF2 before being changed out for Algy.
It's worth pointing out, however, that despite being the main character designer for the first Star Fox, as well as future games like Star Fox 64, Imamura actually had very little to do with Star Fox 2's development, outside of the aforementioned initial Star Wolf concept art and also play-testing and advising towards the end, being only listed as under SF2's "Special Thanks" credits. Another staff member at Nintendo, named Masanao Arimoto, took over his duties as character/sprite designer for SF2. Comparing his final spritework to the original concept art, one could see that Arimoto took a lot of creative liberties with Imamura's initial designs, the latter of which look more closer to how the Star Wolf characters would look in Star Fox 64, with the most glaring example being Andrew transformed into an effectively different character.
It's pretty obvious that when Takaya Imamura returned for Star Fox 64 as its art director, Algy was reverted back into Andrew Oikonny.
Something that's very peculiar in the final build of Star Fox 2, however, is how most of the mainstays of the Star Wolf team, such as Wolf O'Donnell, Pigma Dengar, and Leon Powalski, are present, all except for one: Andross' nephew, Andrew Oikonny. In his place is what appears to be a lemur character named "Algy", who is described by SF2's online manual as being rumoured to be "the most devious creature in the cosmos".
What makes this even more strange is the fact that Andrew actually was initially conceived for SF2, as a piece of concept art drawn by series' character designer Takaya Imamura portrays him along with Wolf, Leon and Pigma. In fact, there actually exists evidence that, by the time of Star Fox 2's gold build, Algy was still internally referred to as Andrew in the game's source code, which makes it all the more clear that Andrew was indeed planned to be in SF2 before being changed out for Algy.
It's worth pointing out, however, that despite being the main character designer for the first Star Fox, as well as future games like Star Fox 64, Imamura actually had very little to do with Star Fox 2's development, outside of the aforementioned initial Star Wolf concept art and also play-testing and advising towards the end, being only listed as under SF2's "Special Thanks" credits. Another staff member at Nintendo, named Masanao Arimoto, took over his duties as character/sprite designer for SF2. Comparing his final spritework to the original concept art, one could see that Arimoto took a lot of creative liberties with Imamura's initial designs, the latter of which look more closer to how the Star Wolf characters would look in Star Fox 64, with the most glaring example being Andrew transformed into an effectively different character.
It's pretty obvious that when Takaya Imamura returned for Star Fox 64 as its art director, Algy was reverted back into Andrew Oikonny.
Star Fox 2 unused human graphics Reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/1779zx5/comment/k4t3e9z/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Star Fox 2 developer interview:
https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/9214cd6a-758b-11e7-8cda-063b7ac45a6d
Star Fox 2 online manual:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/starfox2/html/EUen/character.html
Dylan Cuthbert comment during Giles Goddard Reddit AMA:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/ni55it/comment/gz0gh9r/?context=3
Star Fox 2 credits:
https://www.mobygames.com/game/141069/star-fox-2/credits/switch/?autoplatform=true
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/1779zx5/comment/k4t3e9z/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Star Fox 2 developer interview:
https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/9214cd6a-758b-11e7-8cda-063b7ac45a6d
Star Fox 2 online manual:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/starfox2/html/EUen/character.html
Dylan Cuthbert comment during Giles Goddard Reddit AMA:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/ni55it/comment/gz0gh9r/?context=3
Star Fox 2 credits:
https://www.mobygames.com/game/141069/star-fox-2/credits/switch/?autoplatform=true
▲
1
▼
Star Fox 2 features gigantic battle cruisers deployed by Andross' army known as Cannon Betrayers that feature the "Planet Cannon", a massively powerful laser cannon that, hence its name, can easily destroy planets like Corneria. This ship or at least a ship of a similar design would also appear in Star Fox Zero, known as the Salvadora.
Interestingly, the official Japanese Star Fox 64 guidebook claims that both Gorgon, known in Japan as デス・ボール (Desu bōru), or Death Ball, and Bolse are also equipped with Planet Cannons, with the former using it in battle against the Star Fox team at the end of Area 6 in Star Fox 64.
Interestingly, the official Japanese Star Fox 64 guidebook claims that both Gorgon, known in Japan as デス・ボール (Desu bōru), or Death Ball, and Bolse are also equipped with Planet Cannons, with the former using it in battle against the Star Fox team at the end of Area 6 in Star Fox 64.
User's English translation of an official Japanese Star Fox 64 guidebook:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/y8cwc9/finally_got_around_to_doing_translations/
Star Fox Zero - Salvadora:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln9qPKQ82nw
Star Fox 2 - Cannon Betrayers in Corneria stage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDfRc6YsdI0
Gorgon using its Planet Cannon in Star Fox 64:
https://youtu.be/ajORXLo-A3g?t=103
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/y8cwc9/finally_got_around_to_doing_translations/
Star Fox Zero - Salvadora:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln9qPKQ82nw
Star Fox 2 - Cannon Betrayers in Corneria stage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDfRc6YsdI0
Gorgon using its Planet Cannon in Star Fox 64:
https://youtu.be/ajORXLo-A3g?t=103
subdirectory_arrow_right Star Fox Adventures (Game), Star Fox Zero (Game), Star Fox: Assault (Game), Star Fox (Game), Star Fox 64 (Game), Star Fox Command (Game), Star Fox (Franchise)
▲
1
▼
The Aparoids are unique in Star Fox's rogue gallery in that they're the only main enemy forces, at least within the official game canon (which includes "Farewell Beloved Falco", the manga interlude between Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Adventures) to have absolutely no connections or ties to Andross whatsoever:
• In Farewell Beloved Falco, Captain Shears, despite being affiliated with the Cornerian army, was revealed to be a turncoat seeking to revive Andross through cloning.
• In Star Fox Adventures, General Scales and the SharpClaw were revealed to be the unwilling pawns of Andross' ghost, who manipulated them as well as Fox to revive himself using the power of the Krazoa.
• In Star Fox Command, the Emperor Anglar and his Anglar Army are revealed to be bioweapons created by Andross in secret within Venom's acidic oceans.
In particular, the Aparoid Queen is the only final boss in all of the Star Fox series to either not just be Andross again (Star Fox, Star Fox 2, Star Fox 64/Star Fox 64 3D, Star Fox Adventures, Star Fox Zero), nor a creation of his (Star Fox Command).
• In Farewell Beloved Falco, Captain Shears, despite being affiliated with the Cornerian army, was revealed to be a turncoat seeking to revive Andross through cloning.
• In Star Fox Adventures, General Scales and the SharpClaw were revealed to be the unwilling pawns of Andross' ghost, who manipulated them as well as Fox to revive himself using the power of the Krazoa.
• In Star Fox Command, the Emperor Anglar and his Anglar Army are revealed to be bioweapons created by Andross in secret within Venom's acidic oceans.
In particular, the Aparoid Queen is the only final boss in all of the Star Fox series to either not just be Andross again (Star Fox, Star Fox 2, Star Fox 64/Star Fox 64 3D, Star Fox Adventures, Star Fox Zero), nor a creation of his (Star Fox Command).
Star Fox "Farewell Beloved Falco" manga:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Fnk1t-4Uw_VaFTeWTpvsCaFQDFEK1psW
Evolution of Andross boss battles in Star Fox games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY5bGXYgrxg
Star Fox Adventures - General Scales boss fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEQ4Wd1CCvE
Star Fox: Assault - Aparoid Queen boss fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDLGphZTpxI
Star Fox Command - Emperor Anglar boss fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZilG-nNgok?t=653
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Fnk1t-4Uw_VaFTeWTpvsCaFQDFEK1psW
Evolution of Andross boss battles in Star Fox games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY5bGXYgrxg
Star Fox Adventures - General Scales boss fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEQ4Wd1CCvE
Star Fox: Assault - Aparoid Queen boss fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDLGphZTpxI
Star Fox Command - Emperor Anglar boss fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZilG-nNgok?t=653
subdirectory_arrow_right Star Fox 64 (Game), Star Fox Command (Game), Star Fox Zero (Game), Star Fox (Franchise)
▲
1
▼
Prior to Star Fox Zero, there were two attempts in previous installments to revitalize the concept of the Walker from Star Fox 2, or at least the idea of the Arwing transforming into a robot form, those specifically being Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Command, games that both aimed at preserving ideas from the then-long-lost Star Fox 2.
• For Star Fox 64, according to Shigeru Miyamoto in an interview at the end of the Star Fox 64 Official Player's Guide, he wanted to have the Arwing transform into "a human-type craft". This was rejected by other staff members of the SF64 development team. In response, Miyamoto told his team to come up with better ideas, and from there they created the Landmaster and Blue Marine for additional vehicles.
• For Star Fox Command, according to Takaya Imamura in an interview in 2007, the dev team experimented with having the Arwing and other spacecraft transform into robots, but this was ultimately dropped.
• For Star Fox 64, according to Shigeru Miyamoto in an interview at the end of the Star Fox 64 Official Player's Guide, he wanted to have the Arwing transform into "a human-type craft". This was rejected by other staff members of the SF64 development team. In response, Miyamoto told his team to come up with better ideas, and from there they created the Landmaster and Blue Marine for additional vehicles.
• For Star Fox Command, according to Takaya Imamura in an interview in 2007, the dev team experimented with having the Arwing and other spacecraft transform into robots, but this was ultimately dropped.
Star Fox 64 Nintendo Power Official Strategy Guide with Shigeru Miyamoto interview:
https://archive.org/details/Starfox64NintendoPowerOfficialStrategyGuide/page/n119/mode/2up
Nintendo of Europe Takaya Imamura interview:
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2007/Interview-Star-Fox-Command-249670.html
https://archive.org/details/Starfox64NintendoPowerOfficialStrategyGuide/page/n119/mode/2up
Nintendo of Europe Takaya Imamura interview:
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2007/Interview-Star-Fox-Command-249670.html
▲
1
▼
There were four canceled Star Fox games.
The first, planned for the SNES, was a sequel to the original game and titled "Star Fox 2". It was completed, but its release was shelved in order to continue the series in 3D on the Nintendo 64 with the release of Star Fox 64. Star Fox 2 would eventually see an official release on the Super NES Classic in 2017.
The second was a Virtual Boy release titled "Star Fox" which was canceled due to the poor sales of the console.
The third was a Star Fox game for the Wii, which after years of being talked about ended up being cancelled for unknown reasons.
And the last was an arcade version (also titled "Star Fox"), though very little is actually known about it or why it was canceled. The only known image of this game is shown in the attachment.
The first, planned for the SNES, was a sequel to the original game and titled "Star Fox 2". It was completed, but its release was shelved in order to continue the series in 3D on the Nintendo 64 with the release of Star Fox 64. Star Fox 2 would eventually see an official release on the Super NES Classic in 2017.
The second was a Virtual Boy release titled "Star Fox" which was canceled due to the poor sales of the console.
The third was a Star Fox game for the Wii, which after years of being talked about ended up being cancelled for unknown reasons.
And the last was an arcade version (also titled "Star Fox"), though very little is actually known about it or why it was canceled. The only known image of this game is shown in the attachment.
Related Games
Star Fox: Assault
Star Fox 64 3D
Star Fox
Star Fox Zero
Star Fox Guard
Star Fox Adventures
Star Fox 64
Star Fox Wii
Star Fox Command
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Star Fox
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Metroid II: Return of Samus
F-Zero
Donkey Kong Bongo Blast
Kid Icarus: Uprising
New Trivia!
Pokémon Ruby Version
Nintendogs + Cats: French Bulldog & New Friends
Mother
Fatal Frame 2: Wii Edition
Mario's Cement Factory
Metroid Dread
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright
Super Mario Spikers
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Mario Bros. Classic Serie
New Trivia!
Pilotwings Resort
Resident Evil 2
Donkey Kong Circus
Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Nintendo World Championships 1990
Pokémon Ultra Sun
Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World
Super Mario Maker
The Goonies II
Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
Pokémon Art Academy
Wario's Woods
Mickey Mouse
Metroid Prime
Perfect Dark
Doubutsu no Mori e+
Crystalis
Everybody 1-2-Switch
Street Fighter Alpha 2