Star Fox (episode)

Star Fox is the fourth episode of Did You Know Gaming? and the first episode covering the Star Fox series.

Transcript
Did you know that there are multiple canceled Star Fox games? The first cancellation in the Star Fox series was a sequel to the original Super Nintendo game, simply named "Star Fox 2." A rom of Star Fox 2's alpha build was actually leaked online. The beta build of the game was also leaked in 2002, showing the game very close to completion. All of the gameplay elements were in place and besides a few minor bugs, it seemed ready for distribution. It's said that the game was shelved because Miyamoto wanted a fresh start on 3D Nintendo games using the N64, but there's never been an official statement as to why the game was canceled. One thing we'd like to point out, because it's a pretty cool and obscure reference: The game's title screen is paying homage to the original Star Fox beta title screen. The second Star Fox game to kick the bucket was Star Fox Virtual Boy. Star Fox Virtual Boy was shown as a tech demo, presumably because its space combat was a good demonstration of the Virtual Boy's 3D capabilities. The game was canceled obviously because of the incredibly poor sales of the Virtual Boy and the only people to ever see it were the attendees of E3 and the Winner Consumer Electronics Show of 1995. The footage you are watching right now is the only known footage of the game to exist. In some respect, the game lives on; Nintendo released their version of a 3D Star Fox game with Star Fox 64 3D on the 3DS. The last Star Fox game to be canceled was Star Fox Arcade. It was announced alongside Star Fox Assault for the GameCube. We've heard nothing more about the project since its announcement and it's assumed to be scrapped. This is the only image of the game released by Nintendo. The only image known to man.

Now this is a pretty interesting theory. Here you can see Fox McCloud. Duh, right? Well take a look at his legs. They're robotic. And so are all the legs of all the other pilots in the Star Fox universe. The theory goes their legs were amputated to stop blood rushing out of their upper body and into their lower legs under the intense g-forces. This would make sure they don't pass out from lack of blood flow to the brain. Modern fighter pilots in real life wear tight clothing around their legs, stopping the blood rushing into their legs and preventing them from fainting. So, this is a similar principle. There is an argument against this theory that the Arwings are actually equipped with a system called G-Diffusion that decreases the intensity of g-forces inside the ship. But this concept wasn't introduced to the Star Fox universe until Star Fox 64. This metal leg concept is also referenced in the Super Smash Brothers series, where Fox clearly has robotic legs. In the newer Star Fox games, Fox seems to have normal organic legs with big boots, but the modern design was remodeled by Rare, not Nintendo for Star Fox Adventures. It seems the original vision for the Star Fox pilots was a little darker than we all realized.

There's a hidden Star Fox reference in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Once you've collected all the masks on the second row of your inventory, you might notice something. The first mask is the Keaton Mask, a fox. The second mask is the Bremen Mask, a falcon. The third is the Bunny Hood, a rabbit or hare. And the fourth mask is the Don Gero Mask, a frog or a toad. The fifth mask is the Mask of Scents, a pig. In order, these represent the entire Star Fox team. In addition to Fox, Falco, Peppy, and Slippy, there's also Pigma, who used to be a part of the Star Fox team. He betrayed Fox's father James and joined forces with Andross. This isn't the first Star Fox reference in a Zelda game either. There's an enemy Arwing hidden in the code of Ocarina of Time. Though it's not presented naturally in the game environment, it can be accessed using cheat codes. In June 2011, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata interviewed some of Ocarina of Time's developers for his web series Iwata Asks. In honor of Ocarina of Time 3D's release, Satoshi Takizawa, who designed many enemies for the game, brought up the topic of the complexities of boss physics. He revealed that the movement patterns for the boss Volvagia were copied from how an enemy fighter tails an Arwing in Star Fox 64. The Arwing was inserted as a placeholder so the development team could mimic the enemy movement accurately, then simply switch out the model for Volvagia.

Well hey, that's all for today. But we'll be back with more Did You Know Gaming? soon, so make sure you subscribe, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and check out more gaming trivia at DidYouKnowGaming.com. And if you want some more in depth gaming analysis, eh go watch some Sequelitis. It's a good show, good show.

Games covered

 * Star Fox (SNES)
 * Star Fox 2 (SNES, cancelled)
 * Star Fox Virtual Boy (VB, cancelled)
 * Star Fox 64 (N64)
 * The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
 * The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)
 * Star Fox Adventures (GCN)
 * Star Fox Assault (GCN)
 * Star Fox Arcade (Arcade, cancelled)