'''Star Fox''' is a series of [[:Category:Video games|video games]] started by [[Wikipedia:Nintendo|Nintendo]] in 1993. It is a very successful series, continuing to draw an avid fan base from most Nintendo gamers to this day. Some [[furs]] were drawn into the [[fandom]] because of this game.

==Star Fox History==
===Star Fox===
[[image:IMAGE7.png|left|thumb|The ''Star Fox'' title screen.]]
[[image:IMAGE.png|right|thumb|The ''Star Fox'' map screen.]]
In 1993, Nintendo's feature system, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES for short) was blessed with the gift of the Super FX graphics chip. This chip, when installed on certain game cartridges, would enable the system to generate and display polygonal 3D sprites and backgrounds which would be a graphical leap potentially larger than that of ''Final Fantasy VI'' or ''Super Mario World''. The first game to feature this chip was the premier release of ''Star Fox'', a video game classified as a shooter which was licensed entirely by Nintendo with the help of Argonaut Software in a contract for three Super FX chip games.

''Star Fox'' was hailed as a marvel of graphics technology at the time, and it took a while for the game to really take off as people dived into its unique world. Nintendo later released a second version of the home game and a limited lumber of cartridges which were used in the "Weekend Competition". This more competitive version kept track of your score and gave you a limited amount of time in which to play. It also sparked the creation of a wristwatch version of
the game which was a promotional item people could get from collecting cereal box tops. Comics and figurines followed and were considered the most important aspect to the game’s universe.

===Star Fox 2===
[[Image:ZSNESSF2CAP.png|left|thumb|The "final" version of the SNES game: ''Star Fox 2''.]][[image:SF2 - Wolfen.png|thumb|right|Star Wolf's debut appearance.]]
In 1995, demand started rising for another game in the series. Nintendo again started work to create a game superior in quality as much as possible. Their efforts included the introduction of all-range stages for the majority of the game, two additional characters named Miyu (Saru in the earliest beta) and Faye (Lady in the earliest beta), new ships and ship transformations, a map in which players could literally fly everywhere, new enemies, and the introduction of Star Wolf. This title was tentatively called ''Star Fox 2'' and held promise as the second title that used the Super FX chip to control the graphics. This game also included more - and higher quality - synthetic voice clips than its predecessor. However, the release of the Nintendo 64 system promised more capability than the SNES and the ''Star Fox 2'' project was scrapped in its final bug-testing stages and thus was never released outside the beta cartridges that were in the company and the demos that were seen at E3.

These few cartridges were eventually turned into ROMS and distributed across the Internet in its original Japanese form. Patches were eventually made and a more or less final version of this beta game was released on the internet. This release had some rumors attached to it. At one time at the E3 expo that it was a feature in, one avid fan tried to steal the cartridge. He never left the booth with it as he was arrested, but Nintendo dropped charges soon thereafter.

Further, Nintendo had sent out eight copies of the full game to major magazines so they could make a review by release day. When the game was canceled, Nintendo asked for the cartridges to be returned. A few magazine companies complied, and a few did not. One of these cartridges showed up at an auction once and sold for over ten thousand dollars due to the rarity of a complete cartridge. It is from one of these cartridges that the ROM circulating the internet was copied from.

Due to the technical completion of ''Star Fox 2'', the third and final game in the contract, Argonaut Software parted ways with Nintendo and returned to its former productions.

===Star Fox 64===
[[image:StarFox64-01.png|left|thumb|''The Star Fox 64'' title screen.]]
[[image:StarFox64-05.png|right|thumb|An Arwing firing a smart bomb as seen in ''Star Fox 64''.]]
Two years later in 1997, after many discussions from Nintendo and sneak previews, ''Star Fox 64'' was released. This was the first game in the series to use voice actors for real-time dialog, the first ever addition of the Rumble Pack to let players "feel" the game (such as when they got hit by enemy fire), and greater levels of detail along with a rework of the sprites and new vehicles.

The system map split the game into three routes similar to the original game, and unlike the original, it allowed players to change routes depending on their performance in the last mission. This made the game more diverse and expansive than before, since the player could pick a path through the enemy lines to get to the final level which in itself had two possible layouts depending on the attack approach the player took.

Unknown to many players however, were the elements of the game which were carried over from ''Star Fox 2''. Star Wolf, the All Range Mode, and the Wolfen were reused from ''Star Fox 2'' and played a pivotal role in the game, as you could not go through the game without having to go through these things at least once. Each mission also carried a score cap which the player had to meet or exceed to get a medal for that stage, with a requirement that the entire team survive. Collecting all the medals for every stage on the map would unlock an expert mode with more enemies, a smarter AI, and the fragility of the Arwing increased. It also had extras for multiplayer mode which could be unlocked for performing certain tasks; all of this gave the game a decent replay value.

Many people use this game as the definition for what is canon in the Star Fox universe. Star Fox 64 was considered the "test dummy" of what the Nintendo 64 could do and was, in simple terms, a remake of the original SNES game.

===Dinosaur Planet===
[[image:playingitsafe_dinosaurplanet_large.png|thumb|right|This is a small collection of the very few pieces of artwork made for ''Dinosaur Planet''. The top was to be the cartridge label, the bottom were character sketches. Krystal is portrayed here as an animé-ish character and Prince Tricky is present as well.]]
Started in late 1999, ''Dinosaur Planet'' was intended to be Rare's (a.k.a '''Rareware''') final project for Nintendo before moving on to the Gamecube which was called "Project Dolphin" at the time. This game was intended to push the limits of the N64's technology and Rare even had a back story for the game. In fact, they had kept it such a good secret that when they revealed it on the cover of the year 2000 E3 coverage issue of Nintendo Power, the game was closer to completion than many people thought despite the tidbits of information floating around. In fact, they planned to release it in the fourth quarter of 2000.

The game was a tremendous undertaking, having been put on full display at E3 2000 next to ''[[Conker's Bad Fur Day]]'', so people visiting the booth knew the game existed. It was slated to be the largest cartridge released for the N64 with a total size of 512Mb. Stores like Best Buy had already started taking pre-orders for the title.

As the game got closer to being released, people began to feel that something was wrong. There was no advertising for the game, no magazine articles, no previews, not a single thing. The game had more or less evaporated. And sure enough, much like ''Star Fox 2'', the game was at a stage of final bug testing when it was cancelled. It seemed that the main character had a resemblance very close to Fox McCloud, a major primary character in the Star Fox series. Also, around that same time Nintendo was working on an adventure game that was to take place on an unspecified planet in the Lylat System. The title wasn't decided and the game wasn't even playable yet so a lot was still in the air. Nintendo wanted to get the game out before the Gamecube was launched and unfortunately it appeared that it wasn't going to happen. In their attempts to get the game out, they began to look for complete or near-complete projects that they could convert into what they wanted. Since Rare was a second party, Nintendo had a considerable influence on them and convinced Rare to convert the game into what would later be called ''Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet''.

Unfortunately, the executives at Rare were torn on the decision. Half the company was for this conversion while half were against it. However, since Nintendo had pulled their title, they missed their launch window for that year and there was no feasible way to market their game in the next year because the GameCube was being released as the replacement for the Nintendo 64. ''Dinosaur Planet'' was thus officially canceled then, and the conversion process began.

===Star Fox Adventures===
[[image:SFAdventuresCover.png|frame|left|Case cover art for ''Star Fox Adventures''.]]
[[image:Space_Stage.png|right|thumb|Stages like this marked every transit point from level to level. The SF64 Arwing was streamlined in SFA.]]
Due to increasing stress between Nintendo and Rare at that point, Rare felt insulted that Nintendo hadn't put up any official advertisement effort into their last project: ''Conker's Bad Fur Day''. This was in part due to the fact that the game ran in total contrast to the image Nintendo wanted. Further, the game got little to no publicity because the game's main character was a protagonist who drank, cussed, and urinated in addition to making numerous sex jokes. This had soured relations with Nintendo a bit and proved to be a bumpy ride for fans everywhere.

Nintendo wanted the now renamed "Star Fox Adventures" to be a GameCube launch title, but it was already 2002 and the system had been out for at least six months. New games were getting hard to come by, just as with the Nintendo 64, and it was not a good image that was being projected.

There had been a few big guns prepared for the fall season which included ''Metroid Prime'' and ''The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker''. They chose to put ''Star Fox Adventures'' into this lineup, although there was a drawback to this kind of power play in that there was almost nothing of value that had been released so far that year except for ''Sonic Adventure 2: Battle''. With everything starting to hit at the same time, Nintendo was competing with itself and ''Wind Waker'' was delayed till 2003. The official reason given for the delay was "translation issues" although unofficially, people believed it was to avoid overshadowing the holiday season.
[[Image:KrystalSFA2.png|frame|left|Krystal is the game's damsel in distress. She was a playable character for only the introduction chapter.]]
[[Image:KrystalSFA.png|frame|right|Krystal is also rumored to have used her telepathic abilities to communicate with the inhabitants of Dinosaur Planet without a translator and to feel their pain, as seen here.]]

In the graphical position, ''Star Fox Adventures'' was a masterpiece. The Rare team managed to pull off "fur shading" which let characters have a colored wire frame fur that would react to the environment around them, such as sway in the wind and move their faces and tails, something which Microsoft claimed that only Xbox could do. It added a tremendous degree of realism and naturalness to the game that no other game of the time could manage. The cinematic scenes allowed the story to be fleshed out and were choreographed with the animators and musicians to create a movie-like level of quality and depth.

Most of the music for ''Star Fox Adventures'' was ported from the N64 version of ''Dinosaur Planet'' and enhanced in places to allow for the Gamecube's additional sound chip. The remaining music was newly composed to be streamed from the disc through live recordings during the cinematics. All of this was managed by David Wise of ''Donkey Kong Country'' fame. Gameplay was like a modified version of the N64 Zelda title ''Ocarina of Time''. Some people complained about that, but others enjoyed it. It was quite a departure from Rare's portfolio of games, which were mostly extensive yet well done item quests.

People wondered why Falco wasn't in the game until the very end of the story and some grew angry about it, demanding to know why he was missing in the first place. In the technical view, there wasn't enough time to work him into the main story, but from the creative standpoint a comic was released by Nintendo of Japan to cover Falco's lack of involvement and to bridge the gap between ''Star Fox 64'' and ''Star Fox Adventures'', which was meant to happen after the SF64 timeline. Unfortunately, it was released after the US version of ''Adventures'' had hit store shelves.

After the release of ''Star Fox Adventures'', Rare parted ways with Nintendo to work under Microsoft. Games using Rare's company logo have yet to be seen from them.

===Star Fox: Assault===
[[image:Starfox-3.png|thumb|right|Early screenshot of the Multiplayer mode.]]
[[image:SFAst.png|left|124px|thumb|The ''Star Fox: Assault'' case cover.]]
During a brief conflict with Rare over ''Star Fox Adventures'', Nintendo had been working on a new Gamecube title as a direct follow-up of the story from ''Star Fox 64''. They were not planning for the dispute with Rare to end with Nintendo winning the copyrights to Krystal, Tricky, and the other original cast for ''Star Fox Adventures'': this new game was going to be a single-player arcade version of ''Star Fox 64'', yet another remake. However, through luck and their legal department, this game project was scrapped and started over from the ground up. The result was that only one poster for the arcade game was released and only the multiplayer was available for review at E3 2003.

This time around, though, Nintendo contracted Namco to be the new home of Star Fox, and Namco started working on the newest chapter in Star Fox history. Since Nintendo had won the rights to the Star Fox Adventures characters, Namco was able to continue down the path that Rare had begun in Star Fox Adventures, including being able to use Krystal. This caused a setback in the development time and the game was pushed back by at least a year. The new game was to be a story-driven shooter that had ground-based missions thrown into the game's structure and design.
[[image:KrystalAssault.png|140px|thumb|left|Krystal makes a return appearance in Star Fox Assault as a pilot with a less revealing wardrobe.]]
[[image:300px-Assault_arwing.png|right|thumb|The Arwing also got a bit of a graphical improvement. Its capabilities now included the ability to hover at a dead stop for at least ten seconds.]]

The game's single-player debut made its appearance during the E3 2004 Media Press Conference, and was fully playable on the show floor the very next day. It was proof that Namco could bring the Star Fox franchise together and fans could continue on what is considered one of the longest running and most celebrated space shooters in gaming history. At the time though, the game didn't have a name and it was being simply called ''Star Fox Triforce''. A year afterward, the name was changed to ''Star Fox Armada'' since the game's major focus had been shifted into the story, but it was again renamed simply to ''Star Fox 2'' which was the name of the unreleased SNES predecessor. When fans became confused, it was clarified that this game and the unreleased SNES game had nothing in common except for the name. At E3 2004, the name changed again, this time to ''Star Fox - Coming This Fall''. It was a humorous name, but it conveyed to the fans that Nintendo had no clue what they were really going to call the game.

After one last name change, Namco finally released ''Star Fox: Assault'' to store shelves in February of 2005. It was intended to be released Christmas of 2004, but they had a delay due to fan requests that the game have a LAN mode. This required a total overhaul of the multiplayer engine and thus the option never saw the light of day. Fans had been waiting long enough for the next flight adventure, and Namco was not willing to risk negative publicity and another E3 showoff since there were already two such showings under that game's belt; thus it hit the shelves without the LAN ability. However, some interesting notes about the game point out that the main enemy presence in the story resembles that of the [[MemoryAlpha:Borg|Borg]] from Star Trek. It was a humorous similarity in demeanor and goals.

== Characters ==
These are the named characters from the Star Fox series. Although some had fairly limited roles, they each had a part in shaping the storyline, and in some cases, the gameplay.

{{spoiler}}

=== Team Star Fox ===
* '''James McCloud:''' James is rarely seen in the games and is Fox's father as clarified in ''Star Fox 64''. He was presumed killed by Andross, and this death is what motivates Fox during portions of the game. In the SNES comics, James was killed during the creation of a black hole by the premature detonation of a bomb which Andross made, while in ''Star Fox 64'', James was captured and tortured to death by Andross's minions. At the end of ''Star Fox 64'', James' phantom guides Fox out of Andross's exploding base, thus saving him from certain death. He makes an appearance in ''Star Fox: Assault'', with his voice being manipulated by the Aparoid Queen.
* '''[[Fox McCloud]]:''' The main character in the series. Fox is the chief pilot of the mercenary group called Star Fox. He takes his father's death very personally and at times it drives him into irrational fits of rage. When he's not in such a fit, he is a highly skilled pilot and calls the shots for the team.
* '''Falco Lombardi:''' A hotheaded blue falcon who was almost kicked out of the Cornerian Air Force. He's brash, cocky, and speaks with a Brooklyn accent. He is also Fox's best friend and leaves the military to fly with him. He also believes himself to be the best pilot in the system and often tries to one-up Fox, which sometimes backfires and lands him in trouble.
* '''Slippy Toad:''' Slippy is the mechanic of the team, and also the most trouble-prone. His piloting skills are lacking and he gets enemies on his tail quite often because of his ineptitude at dog fighting. Most incarnations of him make him appear whiney and irritating, a subject for the fans' occasional comments that he be thrown out an airlock and forgotten. At one point his gender was questioned and a [[VG Cats]] comic was released to make light of it. In ''Star Fox Assault'' however, he takes on a more masculine voice and becomes less whiny, a respite that was welcomed.
* '''Peppy Hare:''' A middle-aged hare which serves as the team's eldest and wisest member. He is the common sense of the Star Fox team and tempers their skill into something useful. After Star Fox 64, he retires from flying to be a mapmaker and consultant advisor.
* '''[[Krystal]]:''' Originally the Damsel in Distress from ''Star Fox Adventures'', she joined the team after her rescue and became a pilot. Her telepathic abilities were used as a plot device in ''Star Fox Assault'' and it was hinted through the cutscenes of ''Star Fox Adventures'' and ''Star Fox Assault'' that she and Fox are attracted to each other in a romance, though it is only directly mentioned once in ''Assault'' in one cutscene where Tricky and Fox argue over it, much to Krystal's amusement.
* '''Myuu:''' Not much is known about this character except for the possibility of being a bobcat. She is also one of two female characters that joined the Star Fox team in the ''Star Fox 2'' plot. Neither she nor Faye are seen in any other games aside from the SNES ''Star Fox 2''.
* '''Faye:''' Not much is known about this character except for being a poodle. She is also one of two female characters that joined the Star Fox team in the ''Star Fox 2'' plot. Neither she nor Myuu are seen in any other games aside from the SNES ''Star Fox 2''.

=== Friendly characters ===
* '''General Pepper:''' The head of the Cornerian Defense Force. He's a hound dog with a good many years in his name and wisdom to go with it. In some comics he was James McCloud's friend and had to be the bearer of bad news. In Assault, he becomes a victim of the game's main enemy and is used as a literal weapon against Star Fox.
* '''Beltino Toad:''' Slippy's father and the major designer of the Arwing, Star Fox's primary vehicle. He is the head CEO of Aerospace Dynamics (sometimes called Arspace Dynamics) and made his appearance as an advisor briefly in ''Star Fox Assault''; he personally ran the Orbital Gate jump gate facility. He was the designer of the destruct virus Star Fox used to vanquish the Aparoid Queen on its home world.
* '''Bill Grey:''' One of Fox's friends in ''Star Fox 64''. Bill Grey is a greyhound and an elite pilot of the Cornerian Air Force. He was assigned as the captain of the Katina Defense Force and crosses paths with Fox on Katina during the attack on Katina, and again during the Solar mission or alternatively during the Sector X mission, depending on the path the player takes.
* '''Katt Monroe:''' Kat Munroe is a pink feline that has a crush on Falco Lombardi. Seen only in ''Star Fox 64'', she assists the team on Zoness in her own customized stolen Invader III space fighter, Sector Z, and alternatively on Macbeth depending on the path the player takes.
* '''Tricky:''' Tricky is the dinosaur prince from ''Star Fox Adventures''. Fox is convinced early on to bring him along for much of the game, though there are several areas where Tricky cannot follow. He proves to be a rather useful assistant.

=== Enemy characters ===
* '''Andross Oikonny:''' The major final boss for most of the Star Fox titles. He is an ape that was kicked out of the Cornerian Defense Force's Research and Development division when his experiments turned monstrous and dangerous. His sanity was questioned and when he finally snapped, they banished him to the barren planet named Venom, where he raised an army and attempted to take over the Lylat System. Fox McCloud and Star Fox were hired by General Pepper in the first two released games to take him down, and in ''Star Fox Adventures'', Fox ran into Andross again when he revealed himself to the younger pilot atop the Krazoa Palace.
* '''Wolf O'Donnell:''' The lead pilot of the Star Wolf mercenary team. He is the elemental opposite to Fox. Where Fox is water, Wolf is fire. Rumors from fan fiction stories state that he used to be Fox's friend in the Cornerian Flight Academy, but it went sour as they became rivals and Wolf left the academy for better things. He is hired by Andross to be a countermeasure to the Star Fox team and given the Wolfen star fighter which was meant to be superior to Star Fox's ships.
* '''Leon Powalski:''' A chameleon with a grudge. He is Falco's counterpart in almost every way. Some stories place Leon as the sadistic monster of the group: cold-hearted as well as cold-blooded, and putting his dark desires to see people reduced to gutted bloody corpses above most everything else.
* '''Pigma Dengar:''' Pigma is Peppy's own personal nemesis. He used to be a wing mate in the Star Fox team until Pigma sold them out to Andross, allowing James and Peppy to be captured in the Star Fox 64 storyline. He is a very greedy swine whose love of money is exceeded only in his care for his own life. In short, his greed and selfishness make him unreliable. In ''Star Fox Assault'' Pigma is a storyline plot device used to progress the story until he is turned into a boss and killed by Star Fox in an asteroid belt.
* '''Andrew Oikonny:''' Andrew is Slippy's counterpart, weak and simple-minded. His comments have more bark than his lasers have bite. While he may not be nearly as whiny or weak as Slippy, he is still a pushover. In ''Star Fox Assault'', he manages to gain control of the remnants of Andross's army and names himself Emperor of the Lylat System just before he is killed by a plasma beam from an unknown alien from above.
* '''Panther Caroso:''' Pigma's replacement after he left Star Wolf. Panther is naturally a Panther, but he is also a hopeless womanizer. His only appearance is in ''Star Fox Assault'' mostly due to his ruthlessness and murderous motives. He was quoted saying that "All who see my rose meet death", which means to imply that the rose is his calling card at various murder scenes.
* '''General Scales:''' The main villain of ''Star Fox Adventures''. He was manipulated by Andross at one point to give Fox the Krazoa spirit he held. Before that point though, he was the unquestioned tyrant who sought to rule Dinosaur Planet with fear and his literal iron claw. He even meets Fox a few times and interferes with Fox's attempts to restore the planet to its whole form. Although the needed stones were put in place, the Krazoa spirits were needed to put the planet back together; this is where Scales interfered by capturing a spirit, which resulted in Andross's intervention.

==References==
* http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=4209 - Main history article. Most of this WikiFur article was written with that one as a base.

== See also ==
* [[LylatRPG]] IRC RPG taking place in the Star Fox 64 world.
* [[Starfox MUSH]]
* [[wikipedia:Star Fox|Star Fox]] on Wikipedia.
* [[wikipedia:Star_Fox_Series|Star Fox Series]] on Wikipedia.

[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Japan]]
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