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Video Game / Star Fox 64

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"Do a Barrel Roll!"
Peppy Hare

Released for the Nintendo 64 in 1997, Star Fox 64 (known in Australia and Europe as Lylat Wars) is the most successful game in the Star Fox franchise. It serves as a reboot and retool of the original Star Fox on the SNES. Star Fox 64 recycled most of its gameplay from Star Fox, and enhanced it with a number of ideas lifted from Star Fox 2.

As before, the story begins with Andross, a brilliant but immoral scientist whose extreme experiments gravely threaten Corneria, the fourth planet of the Lylat system. General Pepper of the Corneria Defense Force has him exiled to the frontier planet Venom. Five years later, Pepper notices strange activity coming from the supposedly barren world. The Star Fox team, consisting of James McCloud, Peppy Hare, and Pigma Dengar are hired to investigate. Unknown to the rest of the team, Pigma had been paid off by Andross to stifle their efforts: the moment they arrive, he opens fire, killing James. Peppy escapes and flees to Papetoon, where he informs James' son Fox McCloud about his father's fate.


At this point, the plot is Strictly Formula: in the few years since Andross's exile, he has amassed an impressive imperial force, declared war and invaded most of the Lylat system. With Andross's army advancing on the capital of Corneria, General Pepper has little option but to contact the new Star Fox team headed by Fox McCloud. Along with Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, Slippy Toad and ROB/NUS64, your skill will determine if Fox McCloud's name goes down in Lylat history as a champion of the people or a space rogue scoundrel.

Characters from the Star Fox universe also feature in the Super Smash Bros. series, which actually expanded significantly on their personalities in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Star Fox 64 3D is a Video Game Remake of Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo 3DS co-developed by Nintendo EAD and Q Games, which previously developed Star Fox Command. Also received a college theater adaptation titled Barrel Rolls and Broken Dreams.


"Location confirmed. Sending examples.":

  • 2-D Space: Sector Z is pretexted entirely on the Great Fox's inability to fly around a debris field or turn 90 degrees to the right. It gets even sillier in the 3D version of the game.
  • Actually a Doombot: Taking the easy route to defeat Andross. Instead of going One-Winged Angel
  • Alleged Lookalikes: On Katina, Slippy will say that it's "hard to tell the good guys from the bad". But allied and enemy fighters don't look particularly similar.
  • All There in the Manual: Several bits of information are only found in the Nintendo Player's Guide. Before the bosses' names gained Boss Subtitles in the remake, the guide gave their names. The same guide also had an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto himself regarding the series.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Bolse is extremely colorful in the original version until the force field generators making the light that reflects off the satellite's surface are destroyed. However, this element was removed in Star Fox 64 3D; the surface of the satellite appears silver/gray constantly in it.
  • Amusing Injuries: When you face Star Wolf on Venom, they (re)appear with new ships and somewhat altered looks; Leon gets a scouter over his right eye (and a full face plate in 3D), Pigma's eyes turn purple (and he gets a metallic head plate in 3D), Andrew gets a visor that looks like an electronic pet's, and Wolf... gets band-aids. Unlike the rematch with Star Wolf on Bolse (where only the members who haven't been shot down appear at all), this happens regardless of whether or not you faced them on Fortuna/Fichina earlier in the game.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: Dying gives you three bombs, which can be immensely helpful in getting medals and doing score attacks.
  • Arc Words: "Never give up. Trust your instincts."
  • Arch-Enemy: Star Wolf to Star Fox. The opposing teams' members always go after specific Star Fox members, and they are always fought at least once regardless of the path the player takes.
  • Artifact Title: The remake's title still contains "64" even though the Nintendo 3DS is a 32-bit system.
  • Artificial Brilliance: The dogfights with Star Wolf are quite brutal affairs, especially the final one on Venom (the hard way), where they are very clever and are easily the hardest fight in the game. The enemies will follow you around, but won't always fall for the simple tricks that work on easier enemies, and if you let one of your allies get shot down, you get double teamed in a very, very unpleasant way.
  • Asteroid Thicket: Meteo, the second level in the easy route, takes Star Fox through an asteroid field.
  • Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: If you shoot the switch during the boss battle on Macbeth:
    Train driver: Step on the gas!
    (Fox shoots the switch to change the tracks)
    Peppy: Good going, Fox!
    (The train derails towards the fuel bunker)
    Train driver: NO! Hit the brakes!!! I can't STOP IT! (The train crashes into the bunker)
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Most boss battles amount to this. Peppy Hare tells Fox what those weak points are, while Slippy gives the health bar and data analysis.
  • Background Music Override: Any time Star Wolf appears, whatever music is playing (if any) stops to make way for their theme. This is most prominent on Bolse; if you don't encounter them (due to downing all four of them on Fichina), the usual "large swarm of enemies" theme keeps playing, but if they show up, their theme music kicks in for the rest of the stage.
  • Backup from Otherworld: In the true ending, James shows up to guide Fox out of Venom as the planet self-destructs.
  • Battleship Raid:
    • Katina, where you battle a Independence Day-esque mothership and try to stop it from blowing up a Cornerian base.
    • Macbeth, where you attack a heavily defended train and try to crash it into a fuel bunker, but it will explode no matter what.
    • Bolse, where you attack a massive defense satellite protecting Venom.
    • Inverted with Sector Z, where you have to defend the Great Fox from Andross' forces.
    • Sector Y and Area 6, where you tear through the Venomian fleet. The latter is even more intense, as the enemy is literally throwing everything they have at you to keep you away from Venom.
  • Big Bad: Andross is a Mad Scientist who was banished to the desolate planet of Venom as punishment for the dangerous experiments he conducted on Corneria. Thirsty for revenge, he recruits followers and develops bioweapons to wage war against the Lylat System. By the start of the game, Andross has most of it under his control, and is moving on to lay waste to Corneria itself.
  • Big Damn Fire Exit: After you defeat the True Final Boss, you must fly through the maze you entered to reach him in reverse order. You must constantly boost throughout this or you will be consumed by the fire chasing you, and you must follow the Arwing ahead of you because any path other than the one it takes will blow up and cause a dead end (resulting in you being consumed by said fire).
  • Big "NO!": Either Peppy, Falco, or Slippy shout this when Fox is taken down in the English version (in the Japanese version, it was Scream My Name instead).
  • Big "WHAT?!": Do well enough, and this will be General Pepper's reaction to the team's bill for their services.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: Fichina was mistranslated as Fortuna in the original English translation, causing confusion as to why a lush jungle planet's name is now used for one covered in ice. Later games corrected this, with Assault containing both Fortuna and Fichina and Star Fox Command making the correction more obvious by having the Lylat system laid out similarly to how it was in 64. Star Fox 64 3D and Star Fox Zero translate Fichina's name correctly, too.
  • Boring Return Journey: After Andross is defeated, Fox and co. evidently just set a course for Corneria and fly there slowly.
  • Boss Corridor:
    • The final path to Andross once you get past the one of the two Venom stages is this. On the easy Bolse path, it's a linear hall with plenty of powerups, a few Doors of Doom, and unfortunately, several electric streams (you can destroy the pylons they're coming from). Reaching this part of the game from Area 6, however, presents you with a choice of paths, each with a different line of powerups (keeping right all the way will get you nothing, though).
    • The last stretch of Titania rolls the Landmaster through a canyon while enemies are lobbing rocks at you. Four guns await at the end of the canyon, followed by two falling pillars with gold rings, then the boss, Boras, who's keeping Slippy captive.
    • The end of both Corneria paths goes through a valley. Also present in Aquas, with electric jellyfish, exploding starfish, and falling rocks. Only a few enemies remain between this canyon and the boss, Baccoon.
  • Boss-Only Level: If you take the hard route to Venom, you will immediately arrive at Andross's lair, and Star Wolf shows up to serve as your welcoming party. If you can conquer them, Fox goes on to the alternate Boss Corridor before the Andross fights.
  • Boss Subtitles: 64 3D adds these to each boss. Mechbeth's appears right when it appears, which is actually before the last few track switches, so its subtitle is seen even if the train it's tied to is crashed by Fox. However, it's averted with Spyborg. Interestingly, the Meteo Crusher has the same subtitle as the Rock Crusher from the original, although the Attack Carrier's original subtitle, Advance Scout Mothership, was changed to Interplanetary Warship.
  • Boring, but Practical: If you're doing a score attack of Macbeth (and only Macbeth), it's better to actually ignore the switches during the boss fight because you end up getting more points from all the enemies you can shoot down that way. Averted if you're doing a score attack run of the entire game, however, because doing so makes you miss the superior Area 6.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Obviously this applies to your lasers, but the Blue-Marine is notable in that its secondary weapon (torpedoes, as opposed to Smart Bombs for the other two vehicles you can use) has an infinite supply. This is mainly to make up for the Blue-Marine not having access to charged lasers, and additionally many enemies on Aquas can only be damaged by torpedoes.
  • Brain Monster: The Final Boss, Andross, is a giant monkey head with robotic hands that attacks the player's Arwing Space Fighter with telekinesis. After taking a certain amount of damage, the surface layer of the head explodes to reveal an equally giant brain with attached eyeballs.
  • Breaking the Fellowship: The original Star Fox team more or less disbanded after Pigma's betrayal, leaving Peppy Hare as the only surviving member (Pigma's still alive, but he's not exactly a member anymore, and James Mc Cloud isn't even alive).
  • Canon Immigrant: The planet Papetoon, which was previously only seen as a rocky frontier world in the comic and the Star Fox Mission File Printout, is mentioned in the backstory as Fox's home and is depicted as the green planet Peppy is flying back towards in the opening to tell him what happened to his father. The planet is only mentioned by name in the Japanese version (leading some fans to assume it was Corneria), but it is brought up again in one of the endings of Star Fox Command.
  • Casual Danger Dialog: If you face Star Wolf on Venom and Falco or Slippy are in trouble, they'll start talking about how impressed they are by the Wolfen II. Their help arrows point out the extreme danger they're in.
  • Catastrophic Countdown:
    • During the Fichina mission, Slippy notices several enemy craft leaving the captured base. ROB 64 informs the team that the enemy planted a bomb in the base; before anyone can defuse it, they must deal with an attack by Star Wolf. If you drag out the battle, you'll notice the base starting to spark and billow forth a few small explosions. Delay for too long, and Star Wolf will taunt you as the sparks explode and they flee victoriously.
    • In the Katina mission, Saucerer approaches the base and sends out the enemy craft through four hatches. If the four hatches are destroyed or if you drag it out for a bit, the core will appear. Delay for too long, and Saucerer will destroy the base.
  • Cave Behind the Falls: If Falco is helped on Corneria and the player passes through all the stone arches, then Falco finds one that leads to Corneria's main boss.
  • Combat Tentacles: The Gorgon has three, which must be destroyed to reveal the core.
  • Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Falco makes ungrateful and sarcastic remarks, since he doesn't like having to be saved from the occasional enemy pursuer. Often after asking for help.
    Falco: Gee, I've been saved by Fox! How swell!
  • Continuing Is Painful: If you die, your laser reverts to the single laser and your bomb stock is reset to three. This can lead to Unstable Equilibrium if you end up having to restart without a powered-up laser or a large reserve of bombs on a stage where having them is important, e.g. some of the later stages in Expert Mode.
  • Continuity Reboot: The Arwings are created by and property of Star Fox this time. They also have a mobile base (the Great Fox). Much of the Star Fox universe is based on this as opposed to the original game. Star Fox Zero resets the universe again.
  • Convection Schmonvection: Brutally subverted on Solar, where it's so hot just being there causes you to constantly take damage. While you can't die from the ambient heat alone, it can still reduce you to 1 hp, meaning hitting the lava or taking any damage from an enemy is instant death. To make matters worse, at one point there is a huge wave of lava you can only avoid by flying up to the top of the screen and hoping for the best.
  • Cool Shades: Twice. Fox wears them as a reward for playing in Expert Mode, resulting in him looking an awful lot like his father James (at least as he appeared in the flashback in the game's opening sequence), and the ghost (or whatever) of James McCloud himself wears them while helping you escape Andross's lair.
  • Credits Running Sequence: The Team Shot running sequence starts after the Starfox team returns and gets invited to join the regular army. Near the end of said sequence, the Great Fox carrier takes off in the background, with a cut to the Great Fox being escorted by the four fighters.
  • Critical Annoyance: If you're low on health, you will hear constant beeping, and you will hear loud and increasingly shrill beeps if you take damage. This is most apparent on Solar, as you are constantly taking the heat badly.
  • Death World:
    • Titania is perhaps the most dangerous planet in the Lylat System, with Everything Trying to Kill You, and General Pepper strongly advises Star Fox against going down to the surface. Fox simply has to, as Slippy is trapped there if the boss in the previous mission wasn't destroyed in time.
    • Zoness was turned into this by the pollution. On the 3DS version, the water looks more like it's oil.
  • Developers' Foresight: If Peppy is in for repairs when you first fight Star Wolf, Pigma's line changes from taunting him to talking about how much they're getting paid. Additionally, Fox makes a comment about seeing them again if you fight them on Fichina, fail to beat them, then encounter them on Bolse.
  • Difficulty Spike: If you take the hardest route, then Aquas is where things really start to get difficult, with the enemies being more numerous, more aggressive, and often having area-of-effect attacks instead of (or in addition to) beam attacks.
  • Disney Death: In the Downer Ending for Katina, Bill is apparently killed along with the rest of the Cornerian army. The next mission, he shows up to provide backup, to Fox's surprise.
  • Do Well, but Not Perfect: You get one additional point for each kill you rack up with the splash damage of the charge shot. If you want gold medals in the 3DS' score attack mode, you better get used to doing this.
  • Downer Ending:
    • Take the easy route to Venom, and it turns out you didn't destroy Andross after all, as he reveals by popping up in the last second of the ending.
    • Some levels can end this way if you don't meet the objective. For example, Fichina may end with the Star Fox team losing against Star Wolf and failing to defuse the bomb, destroying the base; Katina may end with Saucerer wiping out the military base and the Cornerian army; and Sector Z can end with the Great Fox getting damaged by a Copperhead missile. Failing Sector Z leads straight to the above-mentioned downer ending for the game itself, as successfully fending off the Copperhead missiles takes the player to Area 6 while failing leads to Bolse. You can get up to two of these in one playthrough, given that the first two (which only one is possible to reach) direct the player to Sector X, which allows the player to warp to Sector Z.
  • The End... Or Is It?: If you take the "easy" route (i.e. going to Venom from Bolse instead of Area 6) and kill the Andross-bot at the end of the game, the Great Fox flies off into the cloudy sunset... which promptly morphs into Andross's cackling face. In the remake, this doesn't happen right then. Instead, after the credits specific to that version are shown after the game shows the original version's credits, Andross, now animated in 3D, is in the background of the screen that shows one's final score.
  • Enemy Chatter: Area 6 starts with one of Andross's commanders, Caiman, reporting that there are "no problems," only for him to be proven wrong when the Star Fox team shoots down one of his ships. Within the level itself, you hear the enemy commanders organize the defenses you're in the middle of breaking through. As you get further along in the level, decimating their forces, they become increasingly desperate and horrified. After breaching the last line, the commander brings out the final defense, which is much tougher than the rest.
  • Enter Eponymous: The title of the Corneria level is "Enter Star Fox". Similarly, the title of the Fichina level is "Enter Star Wolf".
  • Epic Flail: When he's nearly destroyed, the boss of Zoness, the Sarumarine, will try to use a gigantic ball and chain in his last effort to destroy you. On Expert mode, it's essentially a One-Hit Kill. The submarine also uses the morning star as soon as he surfaces for the first time, and if he dives down to retrieve a piece of his ship, he'll send the ball out (you can destroy the periscope to hinder his attacks; he'll fire regardless, but start shooting blind).
  • Every 10,000 Points: At the end of each stage, you get an extra life for every 100 points added to your running score tally.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: Andross has a very sinister robot-like voice in the original version.
  • Evil Is Visceral: Andross is reduced to a giant brain in his final stage.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Bolse Defense Outpost. Along with Area 6, it defends Venom's airspace, and it apparently is an outpost for Venom troops, as enemy fighters do come from within the satellite in retaliation to the destruction of the satellite's shield.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: On Katina, it turns out Peppy can also screw up the "not shooting down Cornerians" part:
    Peppy: Enemy down...wait, that was one of ours!
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look closely in the background after beating Andross on the hard path, you'll see a shooting star before it fades to the end credits. It can be believed that the star was James McCloud.
  • Frickin' Laser Beams: All over the place, befitting the sci-fi setting, but a special mention goes to the Gorgon superweapon, which is armed with a huge laser that can pierce the crust of a planet.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: After beating Star Wolf on the hard path at Venom, if you're in just the right position and facing just the right angle after defeating them, you'll circle around the entrance indefinitely since your ship doesn't have a tight enough turning radius to reach it.
  • Glad He's on Our Side: If you destroy the boss of Katina and none of Bill's allies are shot down, you'll be treated to a special piece of dialogue:
    Bill: "I'm glad we're on the same team, Fox."
    Fox: "You owe me one."
  • Godzilla Threshold: Implied with the crew of Area 6 and Gorgon, the stage's boss. They seem really reluctant to launch it at you.
    General: "Dang! DEPLOY IT NOW!"
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: The boss of Sector X is Spyborg, a robot superweapon created by Andross' forces that turned against them and trashed the place looking for its creator (a'la the V'ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture). When the Star Fox team arrives, the base is already in ruins after Spyborg's rampage.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: "Dang!" and "Shoot!" are quite common interjections here.
  • Grimy Water: The entire surface of Zoness, which is completely covered with water like the nearby planet of Aquas, only with far worse pollution.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Bill and Katt help out the Star Fox team on Katina and Zoness, respectively. Once the levels are completed, they show up to help in the next level and their ship flies along with the Arwings during the end credits. Note that you can only get one of them on a single playthrough, as to reach Zoness, you must go to Aquas instead of Katina for the third level.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: The pilot of the Shogun at the end of Sector Y, who spends most of the battle yelling at the team when he's shot at.
  • Hard Mode Perks: On Expert mode, there are more enemies, which of course makes survival harder, but since the medal requirement scores are still the same, it's significantly easier to obtain medals now.
  • High-Speed Train Reroute: Used as both a game mechanic and mission objective in the MacBeth level, which requires Fox to use the Landmaster Tank to shoot all 8 rail switches, in order to reroute the enemy supply train into their own depot. Failure to do so results in an Optional Boss fight.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The well-deserved fate of the boss of Macbeth — he spends the whole level staying ahead of you with his annoying armored train, taunting you all the while, and concludes it with his secret flying weapon, chained right to the main engine. Fortunately, if you happen to trigger all 8 junction switches and the final switch, you can skip fighting the boss altogether and sit back and relax as the train goes speeding out of control into a fuel bunker, dragging the cocky engineer to his explosive doom. Alternatively, if you manage to kill the butterfly-esque Mechbeth, it will come crashing down and land on the main engine, killing the conductor.
  • Hollywood Science: The Blue Marine is armed with blasters that are specially engineered to fire underwater.note 
  • Humongous Mecha: Used in significant numbers by the enemy in Sector Y. The bosses of the area all have shields, with the commander docking into the ship to heal up.
  • Improbable Age: Fox, Falco, and Slippy are all expert Arwing pilots and they're not even in their twenties yet.
  • Incoming!: This game loves this line.
    Slippy: Incoming!
    Peppy: Incoming!
    Falco: Here they come!
    Slippy: Incoming enemy missile!
    Caiman: The last line has been breached!
  • Interrogation Flashback: The promo video is that agents working for Nintendo's competitors at the time kidnap two Nintendo employees and interrogate them for information regarding the game. Gameplay footage is shown while the employees talk about the game.
  • Invisible Wall: Leaving the battlefield during all-range mode sections causes the Arwing to turn around automatically.
  • I Surrender, Suckers:
    • The pilot of the Meteo Crusher feigns surrender when almost all of his health is gone, then turns his ship around and resumes his attacks in a final stand (you only have to destroy two more targets to make him lose for real). If Falco's there, he sees through the ruse.
    • Spyborg appears to lose all of its health when it reaches halfway. It collapses, Slippy celebrates, then it revives and (if you're too slow) slaps Slippy's ship away.
  • It's Personal: Fox takes the mission partly to avenge the death of his father at Andross's hand. When the team finally reaches Venom, Fox orders his teammates to stay out of it while he faces Andross personally.
  • It's a Wonderful Failure: Failing the secondary objective in certain stages will show you the consequences of your actions, though downplayed in that these don't result in a Game Over:
    • If Star Wolf is not defeated on Fichina within the time limit, the camera shows the base being blown up by the bomb inside.
    • If you don't destroy the Interplanetary Warship on Katina before time runs out, Bill orders you to evacuate the area as the mothership looms over the base and vaporizes it completely with its Wave Motion Gun. The usual "mission clear" theme is replaced by a somber track as Fox mulls over his failure.
    • If Spyborg's second phase in Sector X drags on for too long, Slippy will attempt to help out, only to get smacked away, with the camera panning to show his ship hurtling towards Titania.
    • If you allow any of the six missiles in Sector Z to reach the Great Fox, you get to watch as it blows off one of the wings, with ROB informing you that with the ship damaged, you'll have to change course to Bolse.
  • It's Quiet... Too Quiet: Peppy will say this just before Fox is swarmed by enemies in the opening of the Asteroid Belt.
  • Just for Pun: "Only I have the brains to rule Lylat!" At this point, all of Andross that's left is his brain and eyes. After his eyes are destroyed, he may have the BRAINS to rule Lylat, but he lacks... the VISION.
  • Keep the Reward: Downplayed. Star Fox takes the monetary reward, but denies the offer to formally join the Cornerian army.
  • Kill Sat: The Bolse defense station and Gorgon. The former is an enormous base station armed with enough weapons to thwart an attack by an enemy fleet. The latter is a very powerful automated weapon with mechanical tentacles, missiles, drone fighters, and a superlaser strong enough to punch a hole in a planet.
  • Kill Steal: Occasionally, your wingmen will go after enemies. You can take out their targets for them, but doing so causes them to complain about it. The opposite also applies: your wingmen can shoot down enemies you were after. Unfortunately, you do not take credit for whatever they kill. On Sector Z, your wingmen will fire away at the missiles, causing you to miss out on points if you fail to get in the killing shot.
  • Large Ham: Peppy. Almost everything he says, he screams.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Slippy in Sector X, if you take too long to kill the boss after destroying its head.
    Slippy: Let me handle this!
    Peppy: Slippy, get back here!
    (the boss smacks Slippy's Arwing away)
    Slippy: Fox!!!!
    Fox: Slippy!!!
  • Leitmotif: The Star Fox and Star Wolf teams both have their own, as do Bill and Katt during their appearances. The teams' are significantly longer than the ones for individual characters. The music for Titania and Macbeth might as well be one for the Landmaster — it only plays on those planets, with both being the only Landmaster levels.
  • Legacy Boss Battle: The alternate boss of Corneria is the original Attack Carrier boss from the Corneria stage (Easy/Medium route) in the original game. To fight it, you need to save Falco then fly under the arches in the lake area of the stage. This takes you to Sector Y.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Solar, which is either a molten planet or a freaking star, depending on the source.note  Either way, nothing was expected to be able to survive the extreme heat, but the bioweapon there, Vulcain, apparently didn't get the memo, and neither did the birds there that serve as enemy fighters.
  • Life Meter: Your fighter's shields are visible as a green bar. The fact that you can also see the Bosses' health is explained; Slippy analyzes the enemy's shields. If he is absent, either due to being shot down or Fox being alone to fight Andross, the boss meter will not show up.
  • Lighter and Softer: Star Fox 64 has a much lighter tone than its predecessors, Star Fox and Star Fox 2. In Star Fox, wingmates could be permanently killed in normal gameplay. In Star Fox 2, this extended to Fox himself, and after the Star Wolf mercenaries fought Star Fox in their fighters, Wolf himself was the only surviving pilot out of his whole team. The overall presentation in the previous games was darker too: there was little humor, and the music was generally more foreboding in tone, especially before boss battles. By contrast, in Star Fox 64, wingmen who are shot down are only taken out of action temporarily, and Star Wolf pilots simply don't die, no matter what happens to them. Star Fox: Assault experimented with making the series more intense, but never got as dark as the original continuity, and Star Fox Zero went back to the lighter tone of Star Fox 64.
  • The Load: In most missions, at least one of your wingmen will beg for help while being chased by some enemy and offer little to no help. That is not to say they are completely useless baits, but most of the time they are not very helpful. Peppy provides some advice that is redundant for experienced players, Slippy spends more time screeching than providing shield analysis, and Falco's main purpose is to help you unlock Sector Y (and otherwise insult you and drop the eventual Backhanded Compliment).
  • Long Song, Short Scene
    • Venom, despite being the location of two levels, only has its level music actually play on the path from Bolse. When going there from Area 6, a fight with Star Wolf happens as soon as Star Fox arrives (during which the former's own music plays), after which Fox heads for Andross. In contrast, on both paths, the music that plays during Fox's solo portions in which he heads for and confronts Andross or at least a robotic decoy that looks like him is the same.
    • There are two songs used with Andross (not counting the brain battle). One is used in both fights against Andross, but there is a special one used when the Andross-bot appears. Evidently, if you fought the real Andross, this song is not used.
    • The first two boss themes have sped-up versions that play at the climax of a few battles that use them. These versions aren't used for every battle that uses the normal version, and aren't in the sound test (which only has the regular versions). The first boss theme itself may also count depending on which levels are visited, since most of its uses are on the easy (blue) path (Corneria's hard (red) path boss uses the second one) aside from Sarumarine using it on Zoness on the hard path.
    • Bolse's theme doesn't really get played for very long, since the boss theme overrides it as soon as the force field generators are destroyed... and then, Star Wolf's theme overrides the boss theme if you never fought them or failed to defeat them at Fichina.
  • Luck-Based Mission: Getting a gold medal in Sector Z can be this, since your wingmates also attack the Copperhead missiles. If one of them gets the final shot on the missile, then you don't get any hits added onto your tally, even if you did 99% of the damage yourself.
  • Maniac Monkeys: Andross and his nephew Andrew, as well as several of the former's troops.
  • Market-Based Title: Like the SNES game, it was re-titled in Europe to avoid conflicts with George Lucas and Star Wars, this time to Lylat Wars (which got accepted as the name of the event as of Star Fox Zero).
  • Meaningful Name: Area 6 is the sixth area visited if a path with Bolse isn't taken instead.
  • Mind Screw: After beating the True Final Boss, James appears and helps Fox escape the base as it collapses. Is Fox hallucinating? Or is it James's ghost?
  • Mirror Boss: The Star Wolf team fights on Wolfens and has the same basic moveset as the player, except for Smart Bombs and Charged Shots, which they themselves are immune to.
  • Mook Horror Show: The Enemy Chatter in Area 6 shows them getting increasingly desperate as Star Fox plows their way through the Venomian fleet. In the end, they decide to send their planet-busting mothership after Fox personally. This would be "There Is No Kill Like Overkill", except Fox destroys it anyway.
    Caiman: The last line has been breached!
    General: These guys are crazy!
  • Mouth Flaps: In the Japanese version, the character's mouths only spoke what was in their dialogue boxes, so the characters' voices often spoke far longer than their given dialogue, leading to greatly mismatched mouth flaps. The English version actually fixed this (mouth flaps matched both voices and dialogue). In addition, the audio used for English was far clearer and less grainy than the Japanese version.
  • Multiplayer-Only Item: Bazookas, if you do well enough in Singleplayer to earn them for Multiplayer.
  • Musicalis Interruptus: If Star Wolf is fought on Bolse, which occurs if they weren't previously fought on Fichina (or if you did fight them and didn't manage to defeat them all — in which case only the ones you didn't take out show up), they appear after the satellite's force field generators are destroyed and their theme interrupts the boss music that starts up when the satellite's core is exposed and plays for the rest of the mission.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The Attack Carrier is back from the original Star Fox as the alternate boss of Corneria.
    • In 64 3D, the Meteo Crusher's Boss Subtitles, Asteroid Destroyer, was previously used by the Rock Crusher, its counterpart from the original. Averted with the Attack Carrier, though, which got new subtitles.
  • No Name Given: Except for Caiman and Granga, most of Andross's troops aren't given a name. The latter is considered the pilot by the Nintendo Power writers, but the name of his mech is the one listed in Japanese strategy guides and 64 3D.
  • Non-Dubbed Grunts: In Star Fox 64, Andross's grunts, laughter, and screams provided by Daisuke Gori were left undubbed. It's averted in 64 3D, where all of his grunts, screams, and laughter are dubbed.
  • No One Gets Left Behind: The reason why Fox takes a detour to Titania after the Sector X boss knocks Slippy there (that is, if you take too long to destroy him). Although, due to the game allowing the choice of the alternate route if the player obtains a "Mission Accomplished" rather than a "Mission Complete" on a level, Slippy will end up stranded on Titania anyway for no clear reason.
  • Oh, Crap!: The arrogant boss of Macbeth goes into a crazed panic if you shoot all the switches and divert the path of his train right into his own supply depot. All he can do is shout in terror as he careens towards his imminent demise.
    Train driver: I can't STOP IT! *BOOM*
  • One-Hit KO: If you take too long to destroy the boss of Macbeth he'll instantly destroy your ship. Even hacking the game can't save you.
  • Opening Monologue: 64 3D does this in the style of the iconic opening crawl text in Star Wars.
  • Pacifist Run: Though impossible to completely pull off without using outside tools to make your wingmates score boss kills, you can get an absurdly low score by using the warps, failing objectives, and waiting for bonus hits to drop to one on bosses. Notably, Pepper doesn't even make a comment on the bill at the end if your score is low enough.
  • Pirate: The pilot of the Sarumarine talks like one (down to a "Ar ha ha ha har!" laugh when he uses a weapon) and is piloting a captured Cornerian ship, with the Boss Subtitle in the remake pointing out that the Sarumarine was illegally obtained.
  • Phallic Weapon: Granga has a pair of *ahem* laser cannons mounted on the groin area. Makes you wonder what the developers were thinking when you see them firing.
  • [Popular Saying], But...: The tagline "Out of the Frying Pan..." is given to Solar, since the level is an oven.
  • Precursor Heroes: The original Star Fox team: James, Peppy and (at first) Pigma.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: After defeating the Meteo Crusher in the Meteo mission.
    Meteo Crusher: I can't believe I lost to this scum!!
    Fox: Sorry to jet, but I'm in a hurry!
  • "Psycho" Strings: Present in the remake's version of the third boss theme (which is simply labeled "Boss Battle 3" in that version's sound test). This particular track is used for fights against a large swarm of enemies. Usually, there's also an urgent need to win, such as when Saucerer threatens to destroy the base on Katina or Copperhead missiles are headed for the Great Fox in Sector Z, though that isn't always the case, as with Bolse's core and the accompanying enemies (provided Star Wolf doesn't end up appearing; see above).
  • Psycho for Hire: Leon and Pigma's intros. Both times during the Bolse level.
  • Punny Name
    • Mechbeth is a mechanical weapon fought on Macbeth.
    • Pigma Dengar's last name is an anglicized version of a sentence particle in the Kansai dialect of Japanese, which Pigma himself speaks with in the Japanese version (Dengar would be pronounced similarly to said sentence particle when spoken with a non-rhotic English accent). Shigeru Miyamoto, who worked on the game and pointed out the reason for the name in the Nintendo Power Player's Guide's interview with him, happens to be from Kansai himself and probably chose the name as sort of a dialectal in-joke.
    • Sarumarine's was Lost in Translation as the guide didn't explain its name as with Pigma's last name, but is a combination of saru (monkey in Japanese; referring to the primate piloting it) and submarine.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The members of Andross's army that aren't primates are reptiles.
  • Riding into the Sunset: In the end credits, The Great Fox and the Arwings are shown flying into the sunset.
  • Same Language Dub: 64 3D has one for both the Japanese and English versions, as the ones for the original would sound too grainy on the new system. The Japanese version has a brand new cast, while the English version has most of the original cast reprising their N64 roles.
  • Scenery Porn:
    • Zoness in 64 3D. Sure, the water's extremely polluted, but damn, did they make it look pretty!
    • The backgrounds of most of the space levels in 64 3D certainly qualify given that the 3DS's graphical power eclipses that of the N64. Meteo in particular is so filled with nebulae and dust clouds that you have to wonder if the Cornerians have poor night vision.
    • Solar's background in 64 3D is just plain trippy, as well as being brightly colored.
  • The Scream: You have to take out the missiles in Area 6 before they can hit you, or Slippy will scream like a girl. If Fox dies when none of his wingmen are around during the final boss battle, he will also scream.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Titania's landscape is a barren desert, and the planet is plagued by constant sandstorms.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The theme music is very similar in style to the theme of The Thunderbirds, which were a major inspiration for Star Fox.
    • Katina is basically Independence Day, down to the mothership's main weapon and weakspot and Bill Grey, who first appears in this level (and only appears in Solar or Sector X if the team went to Katina), being named after General William Grey. Some of the starfighters seen in Sector X and Area 6 are also nearly identical in shape to the starfighters from the movie. A more subtle reference was made on Bolse, where Slippy is chasing one of the Bolse fighters while the force field is still up, and Slippy tells him that he has the enemy now, and then says "Those ships have shields, too!". The official strategy guide, when describing the Saucerer, mentions that Andross likely stole the design from an alien race that lives far from the Lylat system.
    • Sector Y has Star Fox defend the armada against a squad of Gundam...including a red Shogun that is 3x faster than the ordinary models. The homage goes as deep as the sound effect used for their weapons!
    • Macbeth and Titania's names are references to characters from William Shakespeare's works. The Player's Guide (as mentioned under All There in the Manual) states that Andross cleared away Birnam Wood to build his weapons factory on Macbeth, further supporting the reference to the Shakespearean play.
    • After beating the True Final Boss, Fox escapes in his ship from the exploding base. Along the help from the Spirit Advisor (maybe).
    • When you enter Meteo, the way the Great Fox enters the asteroid field, blasting asteroids out of its way, is very similar to The Empire Strikes Back. It's the same level where Peppy exclaims it's a trap, too.
    • Spyborg is searching for "The Creator". Also, after Spyborg reveals that it's still going to function, it waves its index finger and shakes its head in a manner similar to that of the T-1000 when Sarah Connor runs out of ammo before she could deliver the coup de grace on it in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • Sigil Spam: Giant posters of General Pepper are everywhere, leading some to conclude that he's a Big Brother-esque military dictator. It's also shown on Andross's soldiers and bases, although in their case, the part of them being a Big Brother-esque military dictatorship is all but confirmed.
  • Skippable Boss:
    • Entering a warp zone in a particular stage will additionally skip the stage's boss.
    • The Mechbeth weapon tied to the supply train on Macbeth, which goes down if the train it's tied to does.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: While we see very little of Fichina, the battle that takes place there is for a base at the peak of a snowy mountain.
  • Smug Snake: The Meteo Crusher boss's lines are tinted with arrogance, and in the end, he yells that he "can't believe (he) lost to this scum!"
  • Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb: Happens halfway through Fichina. Defusing the bomb is not a problem for Fox though, but Star Wolf is likely to not make it easy.
  • Space Friction: The Arwings handle exactly the same in space as they do in atmosphere. At least the maneuvering flaps on their wings are locked in zero-gravity.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Star Wolf's first canonical appearance was in Star Fox 2. In that game, every single member of Star Wolf was killed in combat, except Wolf. Thanks to Star Fox 64 being Lighter and Softer than the original two games, they all escape the Lylat Wars alive.
  • Sphere of Destruction: The 64 version depicts most boss explosions as a massive, slowly expanding sphere - a tradition that began in Star Fox and continued in Star Fox 2. This was the last game in the series to use that trope.
  • Spider Tank: Some of these appear on Titania.
  • Spin to Deflect Stuff: As in the previous games, spinning the Arwing will deflect enemy weapons fire. Thanks to a particular line from Peppy, this trope has been effectively immortalized.note 
  • Spirit Advisor: James McCloud appears to Fox to guide him out of Andross's Collapsing Lair.
    "Never give up. Trust your instincts."
  • Splash Damage Abuse: The best way to rack up Hits is not by shooting enemies directly, but rather by using the blast radius of the charge shots.
  • The Stinger: After the credits and ranking in at the end of the game, there is a cut to an invoice for services rendered — and General Pepper's reaction to the bill, 64 credits for each point in your score. If you have about 900 to 1,200 kills, he will remark that it's expensive but Worth It, but if you have over 1,200 points, he will give a Big "WHAT?!".
  • Suddenly Speaking: Even though Star Fox 64 was the first Nintendo game to be fully voiced, the tutor in Training Mode wasn't voiced in the original version of the game. He finally got a voice actor in Star Fox 64 3D - it turns out that he sounds like a mix between Barry White and Tychus Findlay.
  • Super Title 64 Advance: Like many games released at this time, the reason 64 was added to the title is because it's on the Nintendo 64 game system, not because the number 64 has anything to do with the actual content of game. This goes double for the Nintendo 3DS remake, Starfox 64 3D, since it has the 64 from the original title and the 3D commonly found in the titles of 3DS games. That and, as mentioned above, the 3DS is actually 32-bit.
  • Sycophantic Servant: Andrew Oikonny and Granga are both really dedicated to Andross.
  • Tactical Suicide Boss:
    • The Shogun's greatest strength is that it's small and maneuverable, and therefore difficult to hit. Every so often though, it decides to land on its mothership and stand still, allowing you to line up a perfect strafing run.
    • Gorgon: It has a hardened outer shell which is immune to laser what does it do? It opens up the shell and lets you shoot away at its vulnerable insides. If for some reason its core needs to open up to radiate away waste heat or something, well there's no reason why it has to do that right in front of the enemy when it can warp away and do it at a safe distance.
  • Taking You with Me: Andross at the end of the red path, word for word.
    Andross: If I go down, I'm taking you with me!
  • Tempting Fate: Caiman reports a lack of problems in the vicinity in the intro for Area 6, only for Star Fox to shoot down one of his ships upon entry.
  • That Makes Me Feel Angry: The boss of Sector Y, who is already easily angered, has a tendency to say, "You're making me mad!" in the 3DS version.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Before the fight against Andross, Fox says "I'll go it alone from here." and go to face Andross himself. If his team are on Venom, they will yell Fox's name, or if he's alone, he will say "It's all coming down to this..."
  • Time-Limit Boss: While every boss is technically on a timer, that timer only influences how many bonus points you get for killing the boss. However, several bosses also have time limits that trigger a Mission Complete instead of a Mission Accomplished, or worse, a life loss if you let the timer run out:
    • When Star Wolf appears on Fichina, you have to kill them before the bomb inside the base detonates.
    • On Katina, when the mothership's core appears, you have one minute to destroy it before it vaporizes the base.
    • If Spyborg's second phase isn't destroyed fast enough, Slippy will attempt to help, only to get swatted off to Titania. The battle will continue, but you'll be one wingman short at the end of the stage (and if you were going for a medal, it's gone now as a result) and you'll be rerouted to Titania unless you retry the stage.
    • If you take too long to destroy Mechbeth, he declares "You're too slow. Time to end this!" and kills you instantly.
    • Taking too long while fighting the Golemech results in you plowing through several walls, a guaranteed kill if you're not using cheats. However, it takes a while to occur, even with the perpetual boost cheat, so it's highly unlikely that you'll ever see it unless you're trying to.
  • Too Fast to Stop: The train on Macbeth keeps a steady pace to stay ahead of you, but it backfires tremendously if you manage to change the train's course....
  • True Companions: Fox's teammates are also definitely his friends.
  • Under the Sea: Aquas is the only underwater level in the game. It must be traversed in the Blue Marine.
  • Unflinching Walk: Macbeth's ending if you kill the boss correctly. The Landmaster calmly strolls away from what's left of the fuel bunker as it explodes.
  • Unique Enemy: The two-legged Hop Bot that jumps up and down on an asteroid in Meteo, shooting lasers at you, is the only one in the game.
  • Unwanted Assistance: Your wingmen will complain if you shoot down enemies they're after. Falco in particular is pretty bad with this, as he does the same if you rescue him from an enemy attacking him.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • You can shoot down your own allies and force them to retire in the original version, but the remake's easy mode limits the amount of damage they can receive from friendly fire, thus making it impossible for anyone other than an enemy to actually shoot them down. However, it's quite easy to actually kill Bill's troops on Katina in either version (Bill himself doesn't take damage from friendly fire in easy mode). Bill doesn't hesitate to let Fox know if he shoots down an ally.
    • In both versions, you forfeit your opportunity for a medal if any of your wingmen are shot down (either by you or the enemy), so don't go thinking this is an easy way to boost your score, either.
    • Kill Stealing from your wingmen, as doing so elicits complaints from them.
  • Voice of the Legion: Andross' voice has a reverberating effect added to it. It's more pronounced in the remake.
  • Warmup Boss: Regardless of which path you take, the end of Corneria has an easy boss at the end. Granga can be taken down in a few seconds if you're good enough. At the other route, the Attack Carrier, which is a Call-Back to the first game, can easily be shot down in no time.
  • We Can Rebuild Him: Even though it only makes sense when taking specific routes, it is implied that the altered appearance of the Star Wolf team on Venom is a result of most of them needing cybernetic implants after injuries sustained when they were shot down in Fortuna/Fichina, Wolf managing to make it out only needing bandaids. 3D takes this a step further by adding more prominent metallic plates to Pigma's and Leon's heads in addition to their altered eyes.
  • We've Got Company: Invoked by Falco when he sees the last of the searchlights on Zoness and after the energy field disappears on Bolse.
  • Who Are You?
    Attack Carrier Pilot: Who are you guys?
    Fox: We're Star Fox!
  • You Owe Me:
    • The alternate ending in Katina if you don't kill any Red Shirts.
    • Katt to Falco at the end of Sector Z, if you succeed.

Alternative Title(s): Star Fox 643 D


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