__
/ /______ __ __ ______ __ __
/ //_ _// || \ | ___//\\ \ / /
/ /___| | / /||||\ \ | |__ / \\ \/ /
|___ || |/ /_||||_\ \ | _// /\ \\ /
/ /| || || | | | \ \/ // \
/ / | || /\ || /\ | | | \ // /\ \
/_/ |_||/ \||/ \| |_| \//_/ \_\
Star Fox guide/walkthrough version 1.01
22 April 2005
by darkgreen_orange
Note: This guide is meant to be viewed in a browser at 1024x768 resolution or
higher. Otherwise, some stuff will probably look weird.
+++++++++++++++++++
+TABLE OF CONTENTS+
+++++++++++++++++++
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
() ()
() +Table of Contents O_o ()
() +Introduction ()
() *About this Guide ()
() *About Me ()
() *Contact Information ()
() +Version History ()
() +Legal Information ()
() +About the Game ()
() *The Star Fox series ()
() *The Super Weekend Competition ()
() +Background Story: ()
() Origin of the Lylatian Conflict ()
() +Characters ()
() *The Star Fox Team ()
() -Fox McCloud ()
() -Falco Lombardi ()
() -Peppy Hare ()
() -Slippy Toad ()
() *Others ()
() -General Pepper ()
() -The Arwing ()
() -Andross ()
() -The Lylat System ()
() +Game Basics ()
() *Controls ()
() *The Screen ()
() *Items ()
() -Rings ()
() -Weapon-related items ()
() -Other Items ()
() *Score ()
() *Views ()
() *Weapons ()
() -Your Weapons ()
() -Enemy Weapons ()
() +Training ()
() +Miscellany ()
() *Frequently Asked Questions ()
() *Emulation Problems ()
() *General Pointers ()
() *Random Stuff ()
() +Choosing a Level ()
() *The Map ()
() ()
()==================================()
() -The Walkthrough- ()
() ()
() +Level 1 ()
() *Corneria ()
() *Asteroid Belt ()
() *Space Armada ()
() *Meteor ()
() *Venom (atmosphere) ()
() *Venom (surface) ()
() ()
() +Level 2 ()
() *Corneria ()
() *Sector X ()
() *Titania ()
() *Sector Y ()
() *Venom (atmosphere) ()
() *Venom (surface) ()
() ()
() +Level 3 ()
() *Corneria ()
() *Asteroid Belt ()
() *Fortuna ()
() *Sector Z ()
() *Macbeth ()
() *Venom (atmosphere) ()
() *Venom (surface) ()
() ()
() +Special Stages ()
() *Black Hole ()
() *Out of this Dimension ()
() ()
()==================================()
() ()
() +Ending Stuff ()
() *Acknowledgements ()
() *Feedback ()
() -Questions/Comments ()
() -Needed information ()
() -Contact ()
() *The End ()
() ()
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Wow, that was a lot longer than I expected it to be...
++++++++++++++
+INTRODUCTION+
++++++++++++++
******************
*ABOUT THIS GUIDE*
******************
Hello, and welcome to my Star Fox guide! The reason this guide came about is be
cause I just want to give something back to the gaming community and because I
love this game so much, even though it is also somewhat the product of boredom.
I have tried to be very detailed and accurate. This is the first walkthrough
I've written, but that doesn't mean it's not a good one. Whichever route you
take through the game, I hope I can give you the information you want about it.
Please enjoy it; it's taken a long while to finish and I really hope you like
it. If you would like to contact me about this guide or the game, refer to the
"Contact Information" section just below.
**********
*ABOUT ME*
**********
Hi there, darkgreen_orange/EarthBandDork here. I know you didn't come here to
hear about me, so I'll keep it short. Basically, I'm just a gamer who tends to
stick to the old-school stuff. The Super NES is my very favorite console. Games
like Star Fox actually aren't my specialty, role-playing games are. But I've
had Star Fox almost ever since it came out, and I've recently rediscovered this
awesome game, so I decided to write a walkthrough for it. It's as simple as
that, really.
*********************
*CONTACT INFORMATION*
*********************
The way to reach me is through my main email address, darkgreen <underscore>
orange <at> yahoo <dot> com. That's
[email protected]. I should reply
to anything you send me within 48 hours or so, as I check my email almost
daily. Please, feel free to email me about anything related to this
walkthrough...feedback, ideas for improvement, hate mail, anything. Certainly
email me if you wish to use this guide on your site. Or you could just email me
to tell me what a dork I am, or how stupid my screenname is, or how cool I am
for making a walkthrough for such an awesome game. Also, check the "Feedback"
section at the end of this walkthrough for more info.
+++++++++++++++++
+VERSION HISTORY+
+++++++++++++++++
version 1.00, 19 March 2005 - Completed the guide, submitted it to GameFAQs.
version 1.01, 22 April 2005 - Added Neoseeker to list of hosts, fixed a few
grammatical errors, edited Ascii.
+++++++++++++++++++
+LEGAL INFORMATION+
+++++++++++++++++++
This Star Fox guide/walkthrough is copyright © 2005 Adam Harris.
You probably know the drill by now, but if you don't, here it is: basically,
this guide is the intellectual property of myself, and you are not allowed to
reproduce any part or the whole of this guide on any website without my
permission. You are also not allowed to use this guide to make any kind profit.
If I find this guide anywhere it's not supposed to be, I will come after you
with my pack of rabid hyenas.
Sites that currently have permission to host this guide are:
GameFAQs (gamefaqs.com)
Neoseeker (neoseeker.com)
I would love for this guide to be hosted at other sites as well, but remember
that you must have my permission first. See "Feedback" at the end of this guide
for more information.
Star Fox and any related characters are the property of Nintendo. But you
already knew that.
++++++++++++++++
+ABOUT THE GAME+
++++++++++++++++
Console: Super NES
Japanese release: 21 February 1993
North American release: ?? March 1993
European release: 03 June 1993 (as "Starwing")
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo/Argonaut Software
In 1992, the Super Famicom (the Japanese version of the Super NES) was doing
quite well, and Nintendo had successfully thwarted Sega's attempt at getting a
good bite out of the video game industry. In America it was a slightly
different story. Sega and their Genesis had a higher percentage of the market
than in Japan, and in Europe it was even worse for Nintendo. The Big N already
had many staple games on the Super NES from their well-known series: the Mario
games (Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart), the Legend of Zelda series (A Link
to the Past), F-Zero, and soon their character Donkey Kong would appear in the
first of the Donkey Kong Country games. But Nintendo wanted more, they wanted
to be known for another exciting franchise; they wanted to push the SNES to its
limit. And so they created a 3D game on a 16-bit console.
How? They struck a deal with a company called Argonaut Software (a very
appropriate name in retrospect - the mythological ship "Argo" used to be a
giant constellation in the sky) to create the "Super FX" chip. The Super FX
chip was designed to help SNES games process many things faster, and to help it
to use pseudo-3D effects. And it was created to suit this game, Star Fox. While
the game Star Fox may be considered "pixellated", with very poor 3D graphics
today, it was the cutting edge of technology then. (And graphics don't matter
anyway, gameplay does.) Nintendo's advertising slogan for the game was "Why go
to the next level when you can light-years beyond?"
The game designer was Shigeru Miyamoto, the man best known as the level
designer (and heck, the creator) of the Mario and Legend of Zelda games. This
man is a legend, and if you don't know of him then you should.
I'm not sure exactly how many copies of the game were sold, but I know it sold
well. It has many long-time fans and is considered a classic by most. It is one
of the games I hold dear to my heart.
*********************
*THE STAR FOX SERIES*
*********************
This game is the first of the Star Fox series. Not too long afterward (about
1995), Nintendo had fully developed a sequel, and it was to be called "Star Fox
2". Very unfortunately, the project was scrapped, because Nintendo was already
working on a Star Fox game for their upcoming console, the Nintendo 64. A final
beta version somehow leaked onto the internet, and is now playable through
emulation. This game also used a more powerful chip called the "Super FX 2".
After that came Star Fox 64, a "retelling" of the original Star Fox. Now on a
platform that more easily supported 3D graphics, the game flowed much smoother.
However, this is by no means the same game as the original Star Fox; new
planets were added, the order of the planets were changed, a back-story was
added, several ideas from Star Fox 2 were carried over, and the characters
actually talked instead of...whatever you hear in the original Star Fox. In my
opinion, you can't beat Star Fox for Super NES, but this game comes very close.
In fact, you'll hear me quoting from it every now and then in this guide...
In the following years, the company Rare (known for the Donkey Kong Country
series, Banjo-Kazooie series, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Perfect Dark, and Goldeneye
007, among others) was developing a game called "Dinosaur Planet". It starred a
character named Krystal. Somewhere along the way, they bought a licence from
Nintendo to develop a Star Fox game. Instead of making a completely different
game, they renamed Dinosaur Planet to "Star Fox Adventures", and mixed Star Fox
elements into the game. The game is a third-person shooter, and is for Nintendo
GameCube. Very shortly after this game was released, Rare was bought out by
Microsoft.
Recently, Nintendo has worked jointly with Namco and released Star Fox Assault,
also for GameCube. I have not played this game, and I only know that about half
the levels are third-person shooter style, and half the levels are flying, like
in the original Star Fox. The development names were "Star Fox 2" (sort of
confusing, because this was the same name as Nintendo's unreleased SNES game)
and "Star Fox Armada".
*******************************
*THE SUPER WEEKEND COMPETITION*
*******************************
From April 30th to May 2nd, 1993, Nintendo held the "Super Star Fox Weekend
Competition". Every store that participated received a special cartridge that
said "Super Star Fox Weekend" on the box. It also said "not for resale" in the
upper right.
The purpose of the contest was, of course, to promote Nintendo's new flight
simulation game. Instead of the usual scoring system where you take the
percentage of enemies destroyed and multiply it by 100, this system was more
like a platformer: you get points for each enemy destroyed and for going
through rings.
The title screen said "Official Star Fox Competition", with the usual title
screen music. You were then allowed to select your control type as usual, but
as soon as you pressed START you did just that: start the game. You flew out of
the base at Corneria, and a timer beginning at four minutes and counting down
was displayed at the top right. The score was displayed at the top right. You
were not allowed to pause the game.
You would then play through this modified version of Level 1 Corneria. It had
the same enemies and buildings, just in different places. And the course was a
lot shorter; it only took about 30-40 seconds to get to the Attack Carrier.
When you beat him, you were given a percentage of the enemies destroyed, but
you were also given a bonus for how much shield you had left and how many Nova
Bombs you carried.
After you got through with that, you went to the Level 1 Asteroid Belt. It
started off the same, but it quickly changed enemy placements. There was even a
strange bird-like thing that gave you some yellow rings if you flew behind it.
Once again, after about 30-40 seconds, you met the Rock Crusher. He was exactly
the same as in the real game. After you beat him, your score was tallied in the
same manner as last time.
After that came the final stage. Instead of the Space Armada, you were given a
completely new course (though it did have the Space Armada music) with a bunch
of rings for you to fly through. It was sort of like training mode in the real
game, except a lot of the rings had enemies crawling around over the edges. You
went through this course (which wrapped around itself, I believe) until your
time ran out.
Then you would get a weird noise, and Slippy would appear on the screen telling
you your time was up. You would then see your final score.
Today, a Super Weekend Competition cartridge is extremely rare, certainly a
collector's item.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+BACKGROUND STORY: +
+ORIGIN OF THE LYLATIAN CONFLICT+
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(entire text from page 3 of the manual)
"The Lylat solar system, located near the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is
made up of several bountiful planets. No fewer than three of these worlds were
home to civilizations teeming with industrious inhabitants. The other planets
in the system provided boundless natural resources. The comfortable lifestyle
enjoyed by the Lylatians was the envy of the galaxy, until the coming of the
evil Emperor Andross.
Emperor Andross was once known as Doctor Andross, a scientific genius who
worked at an advanced lab on Corneria, the fourth planet in the Lylat system.
Ever since his childhood, Andross's brilliance outshone that of other children.
As an adult, Dr. Andross began developing a powerful engine based on
hyper-spatial energy. Selfish and blinded by ambition, he repeatedly conducted
dangerous experiments in the heart of Corneria's most populated city. After
many warnings from the planet's ruling council, he was finally banished from
the planet for endangering the inhabitants of Corneria.
Out of sight, out of mind. The inhabitants of Corneria soon forgot the menace
of "Dr. Andross." One day, however, Corneria's small defense force detected
some unusual happenings on Venom, the first planet in the Lylat system. Strange
unidentified flying objects were monitored maneuvering above the planet in
large numbers. It was not long before the self appointed Emperor Andross, who
had fled to Venom, declared war on Corneria.
The planet Venom had been completely remade by Emperor Andross into a gigantic
military base. Andross hoped that with his military power, he could soon
control all the planets in the Lylat system. General Pepper, the commanding
officer of Corneria's defense force, decided to dispatch the
super-high-performance combat ship ARWING to the defense of the planet, even
though it was in the prototype stage of development. Because of the urgency of
the threat to Corneria, however, he did not have time to train pilots for these
advanced fighters.
"We need the Star Fox Team!!"
This is the call sent out by General Pepper. You are Fox McCloud, leader of the
Star Fox team, a group of adventurers with outstanding combat skill. Your
mission is to penetrate the defenses of the planet Venom and defeat the forces
led by Emperor Andross. Your ability to maneuver the ARWING fighter will make
the difference between the return of peace to the Lylat system and the fall of
Corneria to the evil Emperor. As team leader, you are also responsible for the
safe return of your Star Fox teammates."
++++++++++++
+CHARACTERS+
++++++++++++
*******************
*THE STAR FOX TEAM*
*******************
-----------
Fox McCloud
-----------
From the manual: "Fox is the young leader of the Star Fox team. Always at the
forefront of the team's attack, he is an aggressive fighter who often must rely
on his skill to get his team out of trouble. Your skill will determine if his
name goes down in space history as a champion of the people or a space rogue
scoundrel."
From Fox's regular Super Smash Bros. Melee trophy: "Fox McCloud is the leader
of a band of adventurers-for-hire known as Star Fox. Fox and his fellow pilots
Peppy, Slippy, and Falco patrol the Lylat system in their mother ship, the
Great Fox. From the cockpit of his Arwing, Fox leads the ceaseless pursuit of
the evil scientist Andross, who doomed Fox's father."
Note: Great Fox first appeared in Star Fox 64, and does not appear in this
game.
--------------
Falco Lombardi
--------------
From the manual: "As a member of an avian race, Falco Lombardi is at home in
the skies or in space, where his piloting skill exceeds even that of Fox
McCloud. While his short temper may lead to arguments with Fox, the two remain
fast friends and loyal allies when it comes to combat."
From Falco's regular SSBM trophy: "A Star Fox team pilot, Falco's constant air
of casual indifference belies his precise piloting skills. He avoids discussion
of what he did before joining the team, but many consider it likely that his
past was filled with reckless behavior. He's not much for cooperation, but he
does respect those more skilled than he is."
----------
Peppy Hare
----------
From the manual: "Peppy is the moderating force on the Star Fox team. His
gentle character and wealth of knowledge make him and invaluable balence [sic]
to the chaotic chemistry of the other Star Fox Team members. His skill as a
pilot is an added plus."
From Peppy's SSBM trophy: "Peppy was a member of the original Star Fox team
with Fox's father James McCloud. Peppy was the sole survivor of the Battle of
Venom where a treacherous teammate named Pigma Dengar betrayed the team. Peppy
now rarely climbs into the cockpit of an Arwing, preferring instead an advisory
position in mission planning."
Note: Pigma first appeared in Star Fox 64, where a back-story was added before
the events of that game. And don't worry, Peppy is just as much of a Star Fox
member as the others in this game, the original Star Fox.
-----------
Slippy Toad
-----------
From the manual: "While Slippy may seem to be timid and passive at times, he
always keeps a positive mind set about things. The scrapes he gets himself in
may add some comic relief to the dangerous situations you find yourself in
during your mission."
From Slippy's SSBM trophy: "Slippy Toad is the mechanical genius behind most of
the Star Fox team's new weapons and technology, and just lately he's been
spending the bulk of his time in Research and Development. He's also a
competent pilot, but his enthusiasm tends to outweigh his technical flight
skills. He and Fox have been friends ever since their school days."
********
*OTHERS*
********
--------------
General Pepper
--------------
General Pepper is the leader of Corneria's small army, and the one who hired
you to battle Andross's forces. He gives you a bit of advice before each
course.
----------
The Arwing
----------
From the Arwing's SSBM trophy: "The Arwing is the symbol of Star Fox. Like an
F-Zero racer, it's equipped with an opposing-gravity device. It can barrel roll
and flip with ease thanks to its quick acceleration and flexible control. In
battle, the ship uses retractable wings for precise flying. Every Arwing has
smart bombs as its sub-weapons."
Note: Well, they only had "Smart Bombs" in Star Fox 64, where you could lock on
to a target. You do have Nova Bombs in this game, though.
-------
Andross
-------
From Andross's (Star Fox) SSBM trophy: "Star Fox's archenemy. Whether it's a
metallic manifestation of Andross or just a hologram is unknown, but from its
outward appearance, it's safe to assume that it's not the fiend's true form.
Andross occasionally sucks matter in and then violently exhales, sending out a
cloud of metal tiles. Its eyes are its weak points."
----------------
The Lylat system
----------------
The Lylat system is home to planets of varying climates and colors, and is also
the setting of the Star Fox universe (er...solar system). Actually, I'm a
little confused about the numbering of the planets...if you look at the manual,
the five planets are numbered in this order: Venom, Titania, Macbeth, Corneria,
Fortuna, which seems to follow no order at all, but whatever. It is Andross's
desire to control the entire Lylat system.
+++++++++++++
+GAME BASICS+
+++++++++++++
**********
*CONTROLS*
**********
On the screen after the title screen and before the Map, you will be able to
select a control scheme that suits you best. They are lettered A, B, C, and D.
Use the SELECT button to choose one. During training General Pepper suggests
control A or B. I also recommend this, because they use the whole up is down
and down is up thing which is used in most flight simulation games. You can
test the settings out in the nifty little screen on the upper left.
A: Fire a Nova Bomb, press again to make it explode
B: Brake (Control A&C) or Fire your blaster (Control B&D)
X: Use your boost
Y: Fire your blaster (Control A&C) or Brake (Control B&D)
START: Pause
SELECT: Switch between viewpoints (2 on ground courses, 3 on aerial courses)
Up: Go down (Control A&B) or Go up (Control C&D)
Down: Go up (Control A&B) or Go down (Control C&D)
Left (D-pad): Go left
Right (D-pad): Go right
L: Turn sideways, tap twice to "Do a barrel roll!"
R: Turn sideways, tap twice to "Do a barrel roll!"
I always use Control B. And since I'm cool, you should too.
************
*THE SCREEN*
************
This is pretty much self-explanatory, but I'll go through it just in case.
+-----------------------------------------------+
| < x 2 _________________ |
| ENEMY|_________________||
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| SHIELD ()()() |
| _________ _________ |
||_________| |_________||
+-----------------------------------------------+
The bottom left bar is your Shield, or how much health you have left. If one of
your wings is hit, you only receive half the damage you would if the main body
was hit. Your shield refills after every finished course.
At the top left is how many ships you have left. Oh, and this is one of those
games where you have a "zero" life, if you know what I mean. You start off with
two (well, two as displayed; three in actuality).
At the bottom right is a purple bar. When you boost or use your brake, this bar
will start to empty, and when it completely empties itself, it will start to
fill back up. You cannot boost or brake again until the bar fills completely up
again. The whole process takes about 2.5 to 3 seconds.
Also at the bottom right is the number of Nova Bombs you are carrying. You
start off with three; you can carry up to five.
When you fight a boss at the end of a stage, you will be able to see how much
of its health is remaining in the top right corner.
Also, when you're using the first-person cockpit view in outer space, you will
have a green sight that helps you to aim.
*******
*ITEMS*
*******
-----
Rings
-----
There are three types of rings, all of which restore your health.
Yellow Ring/Small Energy Supply - The Small Energy Supply is a yellow ring that
can only be obtained from enemies. It restores about 1/6 of your health.
Enemies that will give you a yellow ring will blink yellow when you hit them. I
will refer to them as "yellow rings" in this guide.
Grey Ring - The grey ring restores half of your health. You'll find these
floating around every now and then. (It doesn't have an official name because
it isn't mentioned in the manual; it's grey, so I call it a grey ring. Simple
enough.)
Supply Ring - The Supply Ring is a blue ring that restores half of your health
and acts as a reference point if you lose a life after passing through it.
Meaning, you'll come back to it. Don't ever miss these. Every course has one,
except for Titania, which has none, and the Space Armada and Fortuna, which
have two.
--------------------
Weapon-related Items
--------------------
Nova Bomb - The Nova Bomb is your most powerful weapon. When you shoot one of
these, it will destroy or severely weaken all the enemies currently on your
screen. They are especially useful for boss battles. Of course, a direct hit
inflicts more damage. As attainable items, they are blue spheres with a ring
around them; when you fire them, they are blinking octagons. You can carry up
to five of these.
Twin Blaster/Wing Gyro - You begin with a single laser. If you get one of
these, you will upgrade to two of these lasers, known as Twin Blaster Type A.
If you happen to get another one, you will get more powerful and much cooler
looking dual lasers, Type B. These can be VERY useful. Unfortunately, if you
lose one of your wings or lose a life, you will go back to a single laser. If
you get this item with a damaged wing, you will get a "Wing Gyro", which
replaces it. If both your wings are damaged (which makes for a funny looking
Arwing), it replaces both of them at the same time. This item can be
free-floating, or (more commonly) can be obtained from a certain type of ship -
a red, white, and light blue one. (You'll know which one I'm talking about
because I'll tell you in the walkthrough). I consider this the most important
item in the game.
-----------
Other Items
-----------
Power Shield - The Power Shield gives you invulnerability for three hits - your
shield cannot be damaged. Your Arwing will be replaced by a wire frame. The
magnitude of the projectile or surface that contacts you doesn't matter.
However, the length of the hit on you does. Sometimes, you can get hit three
times in a row if you run into a bulky enemy or wall. This item is usually
free-floating, and looks like a cube within a cube. It can also be obtained
from a rare ship that looks like the one that gives you a Twin Blaster, except
it's black and several other colors.
Extra Ship - The Extra Ship is a "1-up" (probably the term I will use in this
guide). You have to earn it, though. You'll see three small red, white, and
blue objects arranged in a triangle. When you shoot one, they all start
spinning. When you have shot the second and third ones, an Arwing facing upward
will appear in the middle. Collect this item for an extra life. Take care not
to run into the small objects, or it will count as damage against you.
*******
*SCORE*
*******
At the end of each stage, you will see a percentage calculated, along with the
shields of your teammates. This percentage represents the amount of enemies in
a course you've defeated. This percentage is then multiplied by 100 and added
to your total score, which is seen at the bottom right of the map screen. When
your score reaches 10000, 30000, or 50000, you will get a "Continue", which
allows you to begin with three lives at the beginning of the course you were
on. You begin with zero Continues.
*******
*VIEWS*
*******
There are three different viewpoints that you can use throughout the game. Only
two of them can be used while on the surface of a planet. Use SELECT to switch
between them.
Cockpit - This gives you a first-person view from inside the cockpit, and is
the default view on courses in outer space. While using this viewpoint, you
will have a green sight to help you aim, as well as two triangles that
represent your wings. If you lose a wing, it will turn red. This view can only
be used in outer space.
Approach - This view is from just behind the Arwing, with the Arwing's
wingspan stretching across most of the screen.
Standard - This is the viewpoint farthest away from the Arwing. As the name
suggests, it is the default view for most courses on planets.
*********
*WEAPONS*
*********
------------
Your Weapons
------------
You use the single blaster, which can be upgraded to Twin Blaster Types A and
B. You also carry the special "Nova Bombs". For more information, look under
Items -> Weapon-related Items above.
-------------
Enemy Weapons
-------------
There are three degrees of damage that your Arwing can take, and several types
of enemy fire.
Regular Laser - low damage - This is the plain ol' yellow laser that you see
all the time. It does minimal damage to your ship.
Ring Laser - medium damage - This projectile isn't that common; it is only shot
by a certain blue fighter. It's a blinking blue and orange circle.
Plasma Ball - high damage - This, along with the Regular Laser, is the most
common enemy fire you'll see. Try your best to avoid these. It's sort of
similar to a homing missile, because if you move to avoid it, it will follow
you.
Missile - high damage - These projectiles are fired by bosses. They follow you
around like Plasma Balls, but can be shot down.
Oval Beam - high damage - This is much less common than the Plasma Ball and it
doesn't follow you, but it still hurts as much.
All of these except for the Missile can be deflected off of your ship by doing
a barrel roll. Some enemies (especially bosses) will use themselves as weapons
by running into you. This either causes medium or high damage. Running into
buildings, walls, etc. always causes high damage, unless only your wing is
touched.
++++++++++
+TRAINING+
++++++++++
There is a training mode selectable after you've chosen your control settings.
It's actually really hard to do everything correctly, so don't feel bad if you
can't do it right. The course wraps around itself, aka it repeats after a
certain point. Here's a quick runthrough of what happens:
General Pepper speaks to you, Peppy tells you to fly through the rings, Falco
complains as usual, and Slippy tells you to press START if you want to go back
to the menu. You'll see a little triangle thing that you can keep shooting over
and over. You'll see a few rings. The point of this training is to see how many
rings in a row you can fly through. The first five should be no problem, but
the sixth is off to the right. Get in the very left side of the ring and hit
your brake just as you fly through it. Hopefully, you will be able to make it
through the seventh ring way over on the left. Go through the eighth ring and
hug that building as close as you can (the brake might help again), and then
get back in the middle quickly for the ninth ring. The tenth ring should not
be hard, but you should hit your brake again as you have to go way up and to
the left to hit the eleventh one. Once you go through any ten rings in a row,
Pepper tells you that you've passed, but you can still fly around and see
many rings in a row you can get. You're going to have to do a lot of swerving
to get the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth rings. I applaud you if you can
get the thirteenth ring; to this day I haven't been able to get it. Depending
on where you are, you will either have to boost or brake to avoid the door and
get the fifteenth ring.
After this, your three teammates will appear, and you'll do a bunch of
pointless formation stuff. A wire frame appears where you should be. I've never
gotten even close to being good at this, and I really don't see the point.
Anyway, after that you will see three more of those triangles for you to play
around with, and then three more stacked on top of each other. After awhile,
the course will wrap back around and you will see the first ring again. Your
ring total from last time is carried over.
Sort of a pointless training mode in my opinion, you don't even shoot any
enemies. Oh well, at least the rings can be a challenge.
++++++++++++
+MISCELLANY+
++++++++++++
****************************
*FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS*
****************************
Q: How do I get to the secret stages in Star Fox?
A: There are two secret stages in this game: the "Black Hole" and "Out of this
Dimension". The former can be accessed through Level 1, and the latter can be
accessed through Level 3. See "Choosing a Level" below.
Q: What is the highest score possible?
A: I really don't know, to tell you the truth. But I do know that you would
have to go through Level 3 to get the highest score, since it contains one more
stage than the other levels.
Q: What is the highest average percentage possible?
A: I have actually gotten 100% for my average percentage, and the funny thing
is I wasn't even really going for it. Once upon a time, I took Level 1, and
took the Black Hole to Venom on Level 1. So all I really did was just do really
good on the few courses that it counted (Corneria, Venom's atmosphere, Venom's
surface).
Q: Does Star Fox contain any subtle references to other games like a lot of
Nintendo games do?
A: Not that I can think of. The only thing I can think of at the moment is that
the Monarch Dodora lays eggs that look like yellow Yoshi eggs.
Q: What's a Rock Crusher doing in Sector X?
A: No idea.
Q: Why doesn't your guide have lettered and numbered headings?
A: Because I just didn't feel like it. But that table of contents seems so big,
maybe I will in a future version.
Q: Can I host this guide on my site?
A: Probably, but you need to email me and get my approval first.
Q: I have a question about [fill in the blank].
A: Do you now? That was a statement, actually. See, it ended in a period. To
answer your...statement, you can email me and I will answer your question the
best that I can.
********************
*EMULATION PROBLEMS*
********************
Please note that I do not endorse emulation or possession of ROMs. However, as
I try to contribute most of my knowledge about this game, I feel that I should
include reports of emulation bugs.
-I have heard of many cases of the game running too fast both in ZSNES and
SNES9x. The music runs at normal speed, but everything flies past you quicker
than playing it from a cartridge. For example, the intro doesn't let the music
play all the way, or you reach the end of the credits before the music gets to
the end.
-I have also heard reports of the Power Shield not working in some courses. The
way it is supposed to work is that your shield meter turns blue, your Arwing is
replaced by a wire frame, and you are invulnerable for three hits. However, in
some cases I have heard of all of that happening, except you still take damage
while the shield is up.
******************
*GENERAL POINTERS*
******************
Here are a few tips to keep in mind while playing the game:
-Your shield refills after each course. However, your teammates' shields do not
increase between courses.
-There are three sections of the Arwing: the main body and the two wings. If
only one of your wings is hit, you only receive half damage. However, your
wings can only take so much; if one of them gets hit too much in one stage, you
will lose whatever level of Twin Blasters you have (because they're fired from
the wings) and you will lose the wing itself, which will be replaced by a
small, funny-looking, red, stunted wing. The only way to replace it is to get
the Twin Blaster power up, which will give you a Wing Gyro (see Items ->
Weapon-related Items for more information). The damage your wing takes is
replaced between courses; however, if you lose a wing, it will not be replaced.
-You have three teammates. They're not very helpful, and mostly are only good
for being chased. However, if you're one of those people with what I like to
call a conscience, you'll help them out. If you let them be chased with out
killing the chaser, they will lose one-fourth of their shield. If you continue
to ignore them, they will lose another fourth, and after that it will stop. If
you do lose a teammate, he is gone for good. And keep in mind that their shield
meters do not refill like yours in between courses.
-You start out with three powerful weapons called "Nova Bombs". You can collect
these, and can carry up to five. Usually I would suggest saving these for
bosses, but in some cases earlier in a course they can be a big help. See
Items -> Weapon-related items for more info.
-Have fun playing! I know some of the courses can be tough, but the point of
playing such a great game is having fun!
**************
*RANDOM STUFF*
**************
Here's some random stuff which you may or may not know:
-The title of this game is "Star Fox". I know that this and its succeeding
games' box art logos make it look like one word, but it's not.
-In Europe, Star Fox was released as "Starwing" due to someone else owning the
name "Star Fox". Star Fox 64 was released as "Lylat Wars". By the time Star Fox
Adventures came around, Nintendo had purchased the rights to the name in
Europe, and so it and the following games were released under the same names in
Europe.
-There was a contest in 1993 used to promote Star Fox; it even used a separate
cartridge. See About the Game -> The "Super Weekend Edition".
-There was an obscure, completely unrelated game for the Atari 2600 named "Star
Fox".
-If you lose all your lives but have a Continue, you'll be asked if you wish to
continue. You can also fool around with the Arwing on the screen by using
different buttons. Here are the controls:
Up: Move nose down
Down: Move nose up
Left (D-pad): Move nose left (counter-clockwise)
Right (D-pad): Move nose right (clockwise)
A: Makes lines like a mouse cursor tail as long as you hold the button down
B: Nothing
X: Stops all movement
Y: Nothing
L: Zoom in
R: Zoom out
All buttons on the second controller do nothing except for:
B: Change object
Y: Change object
Cool huh?
-The game sometimes calls the three levels "courses". However, the manual, the
boss viewer at the end of the game, and the map screen all refer to them as
"levels", so that's what I used while writing this guide.
-There is a person in the credits under the name "Ben Cheese".
-If you wait for a while on the map screen, you'll see a little star fall from
the upper right to the lower left of the screen.
Hey, I just noticed something! The light side of the planets moves very slowly.
When the little star moves past them, you can see the light moving to face it.
That's really neat.
++++++++++++++++++
+CHOOSING A LEVEL+
++++++++++++++++++
Before you get started, you will have the choice of three different ways to get
from Corneria to Venom. They are numbered according to difficulty.
Level 1 will take you through these 6 courses:
Corneria
Asteroid Belt
Space Armada
Meteor
Venom (atmosphere)
Venom (surface)
Level 2 will take you through these 6 courses:
Corneria
Sector X
Titania
Sector Y
Venom (atmosphere)
Venom (surface)
Level 3 will take you through these 7 courses:
Corneria
Asteroid Belt
Fortuna
Sector Z
Macbeth
Venom (atmosphere)
Venom (surface)
Note that there are 2 hidden courses. The Black Hole, visible on the map, can
take you to different worlds, so you can alter your course somewhat. (You'll
still be headed for Venom) It is accessible through the Asteroid Belt in Level
1. Also, there is Out of this Dimension, which is not visible on the map. It is
somewhat of a secret ending to the game that has nothing to do with Andross or
Venom. It is accessible through the Asteroid Belt in Level 3.
Choosing a level determines what kind of gameplay experience you have, and is
one of the most important parts of the game.
Level 1 may seem to be for beginners, but experts can perfect their game here.
I still play Level 1 as many times as the other two levels. If this is your
first time playing the game, I suggest you take this course - not because I
think you suck, but because it gives you the best feel for the game.
Level 2 is not that much harder than Level 1, in my opinion. It provides a fun
experience while not being too hard.
Level 3 is for the best pilots. It contains the hardest levels in the game, and
you also pass through one more course than if you were on Level 1 or 2. If you
want a challenge, try to make it all the way through Level 3.
*********
*THE MAP*
*********
+------------------------------------------------------+
| _______________ |
|||\/| A |]| | SECTOR Y ______________ |
||| |/ \| | | ______ | VENOM | |
||---------+ | | * __*| | ___ | |
|| | ____|* /_ 7|________| / \ | |
||______________|/ |<> *\>| | / \ | |
| / |______| | \ / | |
| ___ / | \___/ | |
| / \/ | | |
| / \BLACK HOLE | | |
| \ / ______ |______________| |
| / \___/ | /__\ | SPACE ARMADA | | |
| / TITANIA |// \\| ______ ______ ___ |
| | |/ (_//| | /--\| | _-- | / \ |
| | |______| | _\_ /| | / || / \ |
| SECTOR X ___|(_) | |_| \__/ | \ / |
| ______ / |______| |______| \___/ |
| | * *| ASTEROID / FORTUNA METEOR MACBETH |
| |* * | ______ / ___ ______ | |
| |* * | | () * |/ / \ SECTOR Z|| **|| | |
| |______| |() * | / \_________|| <> ||/ |
| | /| ()() | /\ / ||* _|| |
| CORNERIA/ |______| / \___/ |______| |
| ___ / ______ / |
| / \ | () * | |
| / \____|() * | |
| \ / | ()() | ASTEROID |
| \___/ |______| |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------+
You know you love the Ascii. Ph33r the hexagonal planets.
Level 1 is the path in the middle, Level 2 is the path on top, and Level 3 is
the path on the bottom.
============================================================================
And now, without further rambling on and such...
___
| |
| |_ _
| | | |_|
| | | |__
\ / | | | |
\ / _ | | _|_ |_ _ _ _ |_
\ / / | | |_/ | | | | | | | | | | | | |
\_/\_/ |_| | | \ | | | | |_| |_| |_| | |
|
_|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+STAR FOX| +
+--------+ _____ +
+ | | +
+ |__ | +
+ _ ____ _ __ ____ _ | | +
+ | | | __| | | / / | __| | | | | +
+ | | | |_ | | / / | |_ | | | | +
+ | | | _| | | / / | _| | | | | +
+ | |__ | |__ | |/ / | |__ | |__ | | +
+ |____| |____| |___/ |____| |____| |__| +
+ +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Stage 1:
*******************************************
* __ __ __ __ ___ *
* / /\ | ) |\ | | | ) | ^ *
* ( ( ) |-( | \ | |- |-( | /_\ *
* \__ \/ | \ | \| |__ | \ _|_ / \ *
* *
* THE BASE *
* *
*******************************************
From the manual (Under the heading "Planet IV: Corneria"): "The fourth planet
in the Lylat system, Corneria, is known as the "bread basket" of the system. It
is a fertile farming world with a variety of climates and terrains. Most of the
inhabitants live in the shelter of the mountain ranges, where the most
productive farming soil can be found. Corneria is a peaceful planet with only
the smallest of defense forces. Most of its starships are designed for
exploration and transportation. When Andross's invasion fleet threatened the
planet, it was up to General Pepper to improvise some kind of planetary
defense. He hired the Star Fox Team to pilot the experimental Arwing fighters."
General Pepper tells you: "Star Fox Team, our last resort is to counter attack
Venom!! Good Luck!!"
My two cents: Welcome to Level 1! This first stage is fittingly one of the
easiest in the game. You'd almost have to try in order to lose a life here.
We begin with the opening cutscene of the Star Fox team exiting the base on
Corneria and thus beginning its mission. As you leave you check everyone's
status, and they all tell you they're good to go. You will be greeted by a
couple of fighters, take them down. Slippy then tries to show off by flying
through the arches on the ground. If you follow him through the arches, you
will be rewarded with a twin blaster. Shoot down the next two fighters, the
last of which gives you a yellow ring. If you went through the arches, the
twin blaster power up should be under the large blue archway. Next you will
see the little thingy on the ground that fires Plasma Balls at you. I don't
believe these count towards your percentage at the end, but they are sort of
annoying so you might want to get it out of the way. Next up is a formation of
three fighters. The one in the middle gives you a yellow ring. After that, you
can shoot down the tower in the middle, but I suggest going after the blue
smoking missile things, as they head straight for you and can be hard to target
when they get close to you. You can fire at the two mechas carrying the beam,
they only take two shots to kill, but take care not to run into the beam as it
falls. Falco will be going after an enemy fighter. If you want to make him
angry, shoot it before he can. Continue along, shoot the round enemy on the
ground for a Nova Bomb. You will now go through a section of the "city"
(doesn't remind me of a city but whatever). Swerve and avoid the buildings, and
take care of those blue fighters up above. Continue, and fly low to avoid the
falling blue pillars on either side of you. There will now be more mechas
carrying pillars. Peppy will be chased by a fighter that takes 3 or so hits to
destroy; take care of him quickly, or he will fly out of your range and inflict
damage upon Peppy. Now fly through the Supply Ring (the blue one that acts as a
save point).
Fire at the large spinning ship at the top of the screen and eventually he will
give you a yellow ring. There are a few more ground robots. Now the ground area
should start to clear of buildings. Take care of the solitary mecha, and you
will be ready to fight the first boss.
------------------------------------------
Advance Scout Mother Ship "ATTACK CARRIER"
------------------------------------------
Weapon: Missile Blaster
Size: H70 x W100 x D150
First things first; make sure not to fly towards the top of the screen when
this thing comes in or he will run into you. When he turns around, you might
want to start shooting at him just to see where exactly you're aiming. He will
open up a rectangular area on your right and fire missiles at you. Shoot this
red-and-yellow blinking area to damage him. He will then close this area
(provided you didn't kill this part already, which is not hard to do) and move
around a little bit. He will now open up two triangular-shaped areas, shoot
these as well. If you're good, you can get both of them down before they close.
He repeats all this until you shoot all the parts down and they fall off; you
will now have him down to half his energy. Now comes the main part of the ship.
He will come toward you and fire annoying Plasma Balls at you. Avoid them as
best you can while firing at him. He will turn around, fly away (this is your
real chance to hurt him, he doesn't attack you), turn around, fire Plasma
Balls. He will continue this cycle until you defeat him. It shouldn't take you
that long. Watch as he plummets toward the ground and does the trademark
circular explosion thing. That wasn't all that hard, was it?
As a side note, the Attack Carrier also appeared in the Corneria stage of Star
Fox 64.
Stage 2:
************************************************************
* __ ___ __ __ ___ _ __ __ ___ *
* ^ ( | | | ) /\ | | \ | ) | | | *
* /_\ \ | |- |-( ( ) | | ) |-( |- | | *
* / \ __) | |__ | \ \/ ___ |_/ |__) |__ |__ | *
* *
************************************************************
From the manual (under the heading "Asteroid Field"): "There are two asteroid
fields, consisting of thousands of small planetoids, surrounding Corneria. The
swarming chunks of rocks form a dangerous natural barrier to invasion of the
planet, as they must be carefully navigated through. However, Andross has
developed a powerful new battleship, known as the Rock Crusher, which is
capable of reducing planetoids to cosmic dust. It is up to the Star Fox Team to
destroy these Rock Crushers before they can clear the way for Andross's main
battle armada."
General Pepper tells you: "Andross's forces intend to build a base in this
area!! Destroy their Rock Crusher!!"
My two cents: Another easy course. If you want a real challenge, try the
Asteroid Belt on Level 3. From this course, you can access the Black Hole,
which is why many people come here.
As you begin, you will automatically be switched to the cockpit view. To switch
back to the third-person perspective, press SELECT. A couple of medium-sized
fighters will fire at you, take them down separately with one shot. You will
get three yellow ships on your left and then three on your right. The large
caterpillar-like enemy will disband itself if you shoot it anywhere but the
head. If you do manage to get the head, you will receive a yellow ring. Coming
up now are some asteroids. You can obliterate the gold ones but not the grey
ones. Slippy will get in trouble; destroy the fighter chasing him quickly.
Another caterpillar, a few more asteroids. Presently some ships will appear out
of nowhere, fire at you, and disappear as quickly as they came. The one on the
left holds a yellow ring. Two more materialize; the top one holds another ring.
Some more asteroids, Peppy chases two ships, and another caterpillar. Get the
Nova Bomb if you wish. Now, things start to clear out.
IF YOU WANT TO GET TO THE BLACK HOLE, HERE'S THE SPOT. The Black Hole can
transport you to Sector Y (Level 2), Sector Z (Level 3), or Venom (Level 1). If
you're not interested and just want to continue to the Space Armada, just
ignore these comments. Okay, you will see a kite-like object, followed by 5
asteroids spinning around (one gold in the middle the other four grey). Shoot
the gold one in the middle, and the grey ones will disperse. You must now fly
through exactly where you shot the gold one. I suggest waiting until you are
close to it since you might lose the spot from far away, having no point of
reference. It doesn't matter if you collide with some of the grey asteroids,
just make sure you fly where the gold one was. But don't wait too long to fire
at the gold one. You will now see some kites and some round things that shoot
Oval Beams at you; ignore them. Now you will see another set of spinning
asteroids. Fly through where you shoot the gold one, just like last time. You
will see one last set of spinning asteroids; do the same. If you went through
all three sets correctly, you will see a grey asteroid with a face in the lower
left corner of the screen. Shoot it a few times, and it will turn into a warp
thingy. Now just fly into it and you're on your way to the Black Hole. Check
out the Black Hole section towards the end of this walkthrough. If you don't
see anything in the lower left corner, just the supply ring, then you didn't
quite get it right. It's hard to do. You must fly through all three perfectly.
Anyway, if you still want to go to the Black Hole you must lose a life and try
again. DO NOT fly through the supply ring, since when you start over you want
to start from the beginning.
Continuing on from the supply ring, you will see Peppy again, except this time
he's the one being chased. The enemy chasing him stays on the screen for a
while, so he should be easy to get rid of. You will pass by a couple of large
asteroids. The ship that comes out of nowhere gives you a yellow ring. The
first kite also gives you a yellow ring. Things get quiet for a while ("Too
quiet"..) and then all of a sudden the sky is littered with yellow round things
that shoot Plasma Balls at you. Avoid them as best you can. You will now see
the fun triangular...er, thing that shoots Plasma Balls at you. Shoot it 3
times to destroy it. Now you're ready to face the Rock Crusher.
---------------------------------
Asteroid Destroyer "ROCK CRUSHER"
---------------------------------
Weapon: Laser
Size: H60 x W86 x D45
This guy isn't the hardest boss to face, but don't take the second part too
lightly. This thing begins with two panels having four diamonds each. It
rotates back and forth, shooting lasers at you when it's open. Once you have
destroyed all eight diamonds, swerve to one side of the screen so the large
middle section doesn't hit you when he releases it. He will now start shooting
Plasma Balls at you from the middle. He will also start to shoot missiles at
you from the antennae at each end. It is only vulnerable in the middle,
blinking section. This might be a good time to use a Nova if you need to. Soon
you should be done with him, and jumping to light speed! (or whatever. It looks
like when light speed is reached in Star Wars...)
Stage 3:
***************************************************************
* *
* THE ANDROSS *
* __ _ __ __ __ _ *
* ( |_) ^ / | ^ | ) |\ /| ^ | \ ^ *
* \ | /_\ ( |- /_\ |-( | v | /_\ | ) /_\ *
* __) | / \ \__ |__ / \ | \ | | / \ |_/ / \ *
* *
***************************************************************
General Pepper tells you: "The Space Armada consists of powerful battleships!!
Destroy their energy cores!!"
Pepper sure does like using two exclamation marks in a row, doesn't he?
My two cents: This is one of my most favorite courses. Basically you are going
to destroy two large ships and one REALLY big ship, flying out of each one just
as the whole thing explodes, a la Star Wars. This stage also has some neat
music.
As you come out of light speed, the aforementioned awesome music will start and
you will be greeted by a single missile and a bunch of grey things in the
background. The grey things are actually large ships, part of the armada. Shoot
down the missile, and one of those ships that give you a twin blaster power up
will appear. SHOOT IT, but make sure that it's not too far to any side of the
screen or the power up will be out of your range. Three more missiles will
come, but they're the kind that shoot at you. After this, you will encounter a
chance to get a 1-up. After this, you will see a few large very polygonal ships
that fire a bunch of regular lasers at you. To defeat them, shoot the two
antennae at the top. It will take a lot of shots with a single laser, but it
should be no problem with the twin lasers. You will also encounter a few of
those blue ships that shoot Ring Lasers at you. These do medium damage,
in-between a regular laser and a Plasma Ball. Soon you will be heading straight
for a large ship. One of your teammates tells you to go in, do it. You can veer
off to the side and choose not to, but you can't progress through the course if
you don't go in these large ships. Inside, you'll be in close quarters, so take
care not to run into the left or right walls. This first ship is easy. Make
sure to hold L or R while flying through the two vertical bars. Be aware that
two yellow beams raise up and you have to fly under them. Get the Power Shield,
and you will become invulnerable for three hits (including running into walls).
Not only that, but your Arwing looks really cool and transparent afterwards.
(If you look, you can see that your shadow is even made of broken lines. How
cool is that?) Shoot the circle before you run into it, and fire like mad at
the diamond core. You probably won't be able to see it since your Arwing is in
the way, just shoot toward the middle. You will fly out of the ship as it is
being destroyed. Now, Slippy will be in trouble, shooting down his pursuer
should be no problem. Just watch out for the round thing that shoots the Plasma
Ball at you. Various ships will attack you, and you will start to be in the
company of a different kind of large ship. You can start firing at the three
triangles on the large white ship on the left before you fly through the Supply
Ring, but do make sure you make it through the ring.
You will be attacked by a few more various ships, and now you will see another
large ship that you can fly into. Go in (still have your shield?), and shoot
the arrow doors to make them move out of the way. Avoid the horizontal bars,
and fly low when you get to the moving yellow and black bar. Now you'll have a
few more doors, and then a few enemies to greet you, just fire straight ahead.
A Nova Bomb is on your left, you will have to veer slightly to the left to get
it if all you've been pushing inside this ship is up and down. Just like last
time, shoot the circle to make it open and fire away at the core. After you're
out, don't go after the large white ship moving to the right side of the
screen, you will run into it even though it looks like you won't. See the large
grey ship at the bottom of the screen? That's where you'll eventually end up,
but don't worry about that now. A few ships similar to that white one will come
after you, you can shoot them down if you wish, but avoid the Plasma Balls. Now
you will see a second Supply Ring, make sure and fly through it.
You'll have to deal with a few more of those blue ships that fire Ring Lasers
at you and one more round thing that shoots a Plasma Ball. After that, you will
automatically start to head down towards the big uber ship. Don't veer off to
the edges unless you just want to get hit by one of those lasers. Okay, once
inside, you will encounter a door with three arrows. The way they are pointing
(down or up) is the direction they will slide when you get close to them. You
reverse the direction when you shoot them. I suggest just not shooting these
doors at all, allowing yourself more time to think about it. Avoiding the
horizontal bars should be easy, just go up and down and up and down etc., and
after that you will have more arrow doors. After that, a few more enemies will
appear, just fire straight ahead like last time. Now shoot the doors out of the
way, and the autopilot will kick in, taking you through really freaky colored
and shaped corridors, which sort of makes me wonder what the point of all that
is. After a few seconds, you will enter a room and fight one of the coolest
bosses in the game...
---------------------------
Planet Bomber "ATOMIC CORE"
---------------------------
Weapon: Laser
Size: H600 x W850 x D1200 (wow, that's big...)
Okay, so you will be in a spinning room with three with three
Electricity-Plasma Things™. You will want to get rid of these, because they can
run into you, and also you will be able to harm the actual core once you get
rid of all three. To get rid of them, shoot the places where they come out of
the wall (triangular blinking areas). It can be hard to do this without getting
hit and it can also be hard to target these spots while the room is spinning,
so be patient...it can take a little practice. Every now and then the core will
send out this little guy in a tiny ship toward you, just take care of him
quickly, he shouldn't be much of a problem. Okay, as soon as you get rid of
those three things protecting the core, the actual core in the middle will open
up, and it will start shooting Plasma Balls at you. Aim for the core, and fry
the thing. If you only have a single laser (or even maybe the twin laser Type
A), you might want to throw a Nova Bomb out there, because if you leave it for
too long, it will close back up again and you'll have to go the whole process
again. Its energy bar isn't that big, so if you've got moderate skill you
should be able to destroy it in one go. Now watch the end of this stage as you
fly out of the uber ship just as it explodes, and you head to the next stage.
Stage 4:
*******************************
* *
* THE BATTLE BASE *
* __ ___ __ __ *
* |\ /| | | | /\ | ) *
* | v | |- | |- ( ) |-( *
* | | |__ | |__ \/ | \ *
* *
*******************************
From the manual: "This giant planetoid is actually an artificial asteroid that
was created to be a great amusement facility called 'Meteor Land'. The evil
Emperor Andross, however, turned it into his advance base, leaving it a mere
shadow of its former self. This well stocked military depot is hurtling towards
Corneria behind the Space Armada of Andross."
Hmmm, interesting backstory.
General Pepper tells you: "Be sure to use your retros if you're going too
fast!! Be careful with my Arwings!!"
Easy for him to say, while you're the one on the brink of entering Venom's
atmosphere and he's sitting in his comfortable chair back on Corneria.
My two cents: Ugh, we go from one of my favorite courses to one of my least
favorites. Not only is this a dull, brown planetoid, it also a place that
doesn't allow you to see very far ahead of you at all. Take Pepper's advice and
use the B button (or Y button, if you're like me) to fire your retro rockets to
slow you down a bit.
As you start this stage, two two-legged robots will come in on your right. You
will see a lot of these around. Get rid of them. Immediately afterward two
Plasma Balls will come at you out of nowhere from the left and right, be ready
for them. Only afterward can you see who shot them at you. See what I mean
about limited visibility? You will now see a few ground vehicles who shoot Oval
Beams at you. You will see a lot of these as well. The ones that blink yellow
will give you a yellow ring (this goes for all enemies in the game; it's just
more obvious with this one). Either Falco or Peppy will get in trouble, save
them while still concentrating on the ground fighters. Now you will come upon 9
sets of pillars that you have to pass through. This might be a good time to use
your retros. If you stick to the right side of the screen, you can get a twin
blaster power-up on the 6th set of pillars, in between the two pillars farthest
to the right. You will now see a large rock; whether you go left or right
around it, there will be one of those robots waiting for you as you go around.
Might want to use the retros again. You will pass through a small canyon with
more enemies that you've already seen. After that, you will see a new enemy - a
smoking helicopter thing. They don't fire at you, they try to ram you. It takes
them a while though, so you can ignore them for a few seconds while
concentrating on other things. Now ignore the enemies on the left side and go
for the 1-up on the right side. As you are doing this, Either Falco or Peppy
(whichever wasn't attacked earlier) will get attacked towards the middle of the
screen, so do your best to rid him of the problem. Three ground vehicles will
come from the left and face you; the one on the left holds a yellow ring. After
dodging a few more Plasma Balls, you will see a brown door just as one of your
teammates goes after some aerial fighters. Shoot it to open it (but don't shoot
it too soon, it will close again), and go through the Supply Ring.
Now you can tick your teammate off by stealing their chance at actually doing
something productive if you want to. You will now see a strange vehicle that
follows in front of you and shoots missiles at you. It takes a lot of shots to
kill, so twin blasters help a lot. I wouldn't suggest using a Nova though; it's
not that important. After this you'll see another two helicopters and another
two brown doors; the left one contains a Nova Bomb, the right one contains
nothing. Now a teammate gets in trouble again...this is getting tedious. Save
him and now concentrate on the second vehicle that shoots missiles at you.
After this you will have a couple of helicopters to deal with, and before you
can even get them out of the way you encounter the...
----------------------------------------
Spider Shaped Machine "DANCING INSECTOR"
----------------------------------------
Weapon: Fire Blaster
Size: H120 x W87 x D72
Right. I consider this one of the cooler bosses in the game, and of mediocre
difficulty. He will start shooting Plasma Balls at you, but only one at a time.
His vulnerable spots are his legs. As you shoot them, they begin to raise up.
Once you've gotten all of them, he will float in the air, burn off one of his
legs, and start spinning around. Now watch out; you're going to have to dodge
when he tries to cut you with his spinning legs. He either goes up or down, so
all you have to do is anticipate it. Now he goes back to "dancing" on the
ground; do the same as you did before, and he will go airborne again, burning
off another one of his legs. This time he turns orange, meaning that the six
legs that are left are now vulnerable. Shoot them while avoiding his swoops at
you and the Plasmas. Shortly, he will also start using his fire attack; he
shoots fire at the ground, and then it comes toward wherever your position is.
It will do this twice per attack. Just swerve and move around to avoid it. This
is the hardest part of the battle. Once you get rid of all his legs he will
have a little more than half his health left, and will keep spinning around
using the Plasmas and the fire attack, but you don't have to worry about him
ramming you. However, he still does the swooping motion; I usually fire a Nova
Bomb when he's really close to get a direct hit on him.
He can be a tough boss and it may take you a few tries, but you'll get him.
Now, on to Venom! (heh, I completely didn't notice that rhyming. Well, it sort
of rhymes.)
Stage 5 (or 4, if you came here via the Black Hole):
******************************
* __ *
* \ / | |\ | /\ |\ /| *
* \ / |- | \ | ( ) | v | *
* v |__ | \| \/ | | *
* *
* THE FINAL GOAL *
* *
******************************
From the manual (under the heading "Planet I: Venom"): "When Andross was driven
out by Director General Pepper, he occupied this planet as his base. While it
used to be known as the "evergreen planet", and boasted beauty second only to
Corneria's, Andross has re-made it into a dark, polluted world of military
machines. The natives, who were not advanced, were enslaved by Andross and
drafted into his military machine. Though they serve Andross, they inwardly
hope that the forces of Corneria can win a victory and liberate the Lylat
system."
Wow, I hope it wasn't named "Venom" before Andross took it over.
General Pepper tells you: "Andross is hiding on Venom!! Fox, you must find his
core brain and destroy it!!"
My two cents: Well, here you are at Venom. All three Venom courses at the end
of each level are actually divided into two different courses: one above the
planet, and one on the planet. I've more or less put them in to one section in
this walkthrough. They are both challenging, even here at Level 1.
As soon as you begin, you'll start off with two blue fighters who shoot Ring
Lasers and two grey fighters that are hard to target because they only hold
still for about half a second, then move quickly to another spot. Peppy will
get in trouble right off the bat. A few more blue fighters come, and then you
will be introduced to the red triangles. The red triangles are some of the most
annoying enemies in the game, because there are so many of them. They come from
the planet, and if you miss one, it's hard to get it not to run into you. Plus,
you have other things to concentrate on. Anyway, after that you will see a
cross-shaped ship that shoots regular lasers. Every now and then one of them
will give you a yellow ring. You will encounter another couple of new enemies;
one of them is transparent and you can only hurt it when it materializes, the
other is a large missile that splits into 5 smaller missiles unless you shoot
it before it can deploy. You will soon see a grey ring that is actually
composed of things you can shoot. Instead, don't shoot any of them, and when
you go through the middle of the ring you will be rewarded with not one but
two Nova Bombs. You will now encounter a flat ship that shoots regular lasers
at you. This ship is funny because occasionally when you destroy it, the pilot
will come careening out of the thing towards you, but he can't hurt you at all.
Now you will see a ship that will give you the twin blaster; shoot it quickly,
for the triangles are coming right after it. You will also have to save Peppy
as the triangles come flying at you, and after you save him he conveniently
gets right in your way while you're trying to hit them. When you're nearly done
with the red triangles, you will see the Supply Ring; navigate your way through
it even if it means running into a triangle or two.
Immediately you will see the the invisible ships again. Followed by...more
triangles. This is a challenging part, because you probably won't be able to
get rid of the transparent ships firing at you before the triangles come at
you. On top of that, you have to deal with a large missile that splits into the
smaller ones. On top of THAT, you have to save Slippy as he gets in trouble...
what fun. After a lot more flat ships, blue ships, triangles, and what not, you
will be met by a little thing I like to call...
------------------------------------
Special Close Orbit Robot "PHANTRON"
------------------------------------
Weapon: Laser
Size: H25 x W22 x D31
This little guy just so happens to be the coolest boss in the game. Not just
"in my opinion". He just...is. Why? Because he has the coolest moves. And he
has the coolest boss music (I actually have it burned onto a CD with a bunch of
other SNES music). But the REAL reason he's the coolest boss is because...he
has the coolest name. Try saying it. "Phantron". Cool, huh? Say it again.
"Phantron". Such awesomeness packed into eight small letters. Okay, that's
enough of my rambling.
Now let's see what this guy's all about. First off, he doesn't have that much
health, but at the beginning he is only vulnerable when he is moving from one
spot to another, at which point he also fires a missile at you. Then he'll
start firing a bunch of regular lasers at you. When his health gets low, he'll
move in a circle, spiraling around and around, and then...there are three of
them all of a sudden! He also has restored about half of his health. Now you
must find which one is the correct one by the noise that it makes. Fire at it
until he starts to return, damaged, to the planet, at which point you've won...
for now.
Your score is tallied, and without going to the map, you start...
Stage 6 (or 5, if you came via the Black Hole):
*****************
*Venom (surface)*
*****************
Pretty evil looking, eh? Andross has sure messed up this planet, and if you
don't defeat him, he'll do the same to Corneria! Let's go get him.
You start off seeing a few floating blocks. You'll see a LOT of these, Venom is
famous for them. Now, about the large brown thing with the large blinking
arrow: it's just the same as those things in the Space Armada, they go
whichever direction they're pointing. Now some blocks will randomly appear out
of some places, they're easy to avoid. You'll have three yellow fighters that
each give you yellow rings for hitting them, so take advantage if you've
already been hit. While this is going on though, Slippy is being chased again
and guess what? You have to save him again. A few Plasma Balls will be shot
your way. You will see a few more brown arrow things; change the direction of
the second one to get the Nova Bomb next to it. Now, the next few arrow things
you HAVE to change the direction of, otherwise they're going to take up most of
the screen and you'll run right into them. Let's see...more floating blocks,
and now some things that come out of the ground in perfect rows. Just fly
between them in one of the empty spaces. Someone else will get into trouble;
it should be no problem saving him. Dodge the Plasmas coming at you from both
sides. Now you will see a bunch of brownish-orange pillars, just weave through
them and...oh wait, here come some flying from behind you. If you've got Type B
twin blasters *thumbs up* you'll have enough firepower to just shoot the ones
that pop out in front of you. Now here come some more pillars, you must weave
in between these. You will see two grey rings surrounding a Supply Ring.
Obviously fly through the Supply ring.
Now here come some MORE pillars, horizontally and vertically. Good luck evading
them. Once you're past those, you will be under some blocks as they're about to
fall. If you want the Twin Blasters or the Nova Bomb without getting hurt, you
must use your thrusters to boost through before the blocks fall on you. Now
some more vertical pillars will come from behind. Once you're past those, you
find the Phantron again, and he might just have a new trick up his sleeve.
------------------------------------
Special Close Orbit Robot "PHANTRON"
------------------------------------
Weapon: Laser
Size: H25 x W22 x D31
He's back, but he was an easy boss, right? Let's see. This time he immediately
decides to split into three and use his old tricks. But watch as you've gotten
his health bar down to almost nothing. Watch as his health bar DOUBLES in size,
and watch as he starts to...wow, that can't be good. Well, okay, now you've got
a new and improved Phantron to deal with. His weak spot is small: the little
blue thing on the main body. His attacks are somewhat cyclic, just memorize the
stance and position he takes on the screen for each one. Here are his attacks:
he just stands there, firing Plasmas and missiles at you. Then he starts
jumping around. After that he will take a large leap; watch his shadow or he
will squash you. He'll jump back, and split into three again, and he'll stay
that way for a while. Sometimes he will stick his leg out at you and fire it at
you, try your best to move out of the way, because it hurts. My advice: get as
much damage as you can on him while he's just one (while trying to take minimal
damage yourself), because you're going to have trouble inflicting damage when
he's split into three. Sometimes you can get to a position where the missiles
won't hit you (usually around the middle of the screen), and so you can fire at
him and barrel roll like crazy to dodge the other projectiles. Good luck with
him. Do your best, because you'll fight Andross with whatever health you have
left.
You will enter Andross's base, which you conveniently arrive at just as you
finish off the Phantron (no matter how long that takes - doesn't make sense,
but whatever). He will actually talk to you trying to taunt you. Stay in the
middle for the first part. Grab the grey ring, and then when you see the small
silver bars on each side, get out of the way, because the one that is a little
larger is going to open up and take up its half of the corridor. What I'm
saying is, move toward the smaller bar. He actually gives you a twin blaster on
the way...pretty nice for the guy that's trying to take over the Lylat system.
Soon, you will exit the corridor and be in a weird open space. Now it's time to
take on Andross himself.
(By the way, if you die fighting Andross, you will start at the beginning of
his base, so don't worry...that is, if you have another life to spare.)
----------
Andross...
----------
Weapon: Telekinesis
Size: H100 x W80 x D30
Alright, a number of small shiny rectangles will come together to form a giant
mirror-like object, which turns into a giant face! Immediately start shooting
the eyes, which are shooting tiles at you. Soon Andross will start sucking in
all the tiles and the he will spit them all back out at you. This is his main
attack. His eyes will become invulnerable for a few seconds while you're
dodging tiles. You can start shooting them (the eyes) again when they start
blinking again. When you defeat one of the eyes, it goes dark. Andross will
continue this process until you shoot both the eyes out.
When both eyes are gone, the face will explode and reveal a floating box with
Andross's face on it. Give it everything you've got! Shoot any Novas you might
have left, and hit it as many times as you can. If you do happen to get a
direct hit in with a Nova, he's as good as dead. If you don't kill him this
time, the face will come back together and you'll have to start the whole
process over again, even though the box will still have all the damage you've
previously inflicted on it.
When you've hit the box enough times, it will explode, and you will high-tail
it out of there before the whole place explodes. (Why the place explodes is
beyond me, but it does make a cool little scene, I guess.) You get out of the
place just in time, and check in with all your teammates. Congratulations, you
have beaten Level 1!
Above the planet, you'll see your final percentages and score, and you actually
get to hear a few real voice samples (a rarity in 1993). You head back for
Corneria. Enjoy the boss viewer and the credits. I hope you enjoyed this game
as much as I have.
Now go beat Level 2!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+STAR FOX| ________ +
+--------+ \ \ +
+ \____ ) +
+ / / +
+ _ ____ _ __ ____ _ / / +
+ | | | __| | | / / | __| | | / / +
+ | | | |_ | | / / | |_ | | / / +
+ | | | _| | | / / | _| | | / /____ +
+ | |__ | |__ | |/ / | |__ | |__ / | +
+ |____| |____| |___/ |____| |____| (_________| +
+ +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Stage 1:
*******************************************
* __ __ __ __ ___ *
* / /\ | ) |\ | | | ) | ^ *
* ( ( ) |-( | \ | |- |-( | /_\ *
* \__ \/ | \ | \| |__ | \ _|_ / \ *
* *
* THE BASE *
* *
*******************************************
From the manual (Under the heading "Planet IV: Corneria"): "The fourth planet
in the Lylat system, Corneria, is known as the "bread basket" of the system. It
is a fertile farming world with a variety of climates and terrains. Most of the
inhabitants live in the shelter of the mountain ranges, where the most
productive farming soil can be found. Corneria is a peaceful planet with only
the smallest of defense forces. Most of its starships are designed for
exploration and transportation. When Andross's invasion fleet threatened the
planet, it was up to General Pepper to improvise some kind of planetary
defense. He hired the Star Fox Team to pilot the experimental Arwing fighters."
General Pepper tells you: "Star Fox Team, our last resort is to counter attack
Venom!! Good Luck!!"
My two cents: Welcome to Level 2! This is probably my favorite level, because
put quite simply, Level 1 is too easy (while still enjoyable) and Level 3 is
sometimes such a challenge that you can't have any fun with it. Get ready to
have a good time travelling these distinct courses. Okay, first up, as usual,
is Corneria. It's a different course, and the difficulty has been raised a
little, but just watch your health meter and do your thing and you should be
fine.
Again the Star Fox Team leaves the base, and you are on your way. You will have
four fighters to deal with. Get rid of them before they face you and start
firing at you. Guess what? Slippy is in trouble already, so he can't go through
the arcs and show off like in Level 1 Corneria. However, if you go through
them, you will still be awarded with a Twin Blaster powerup. The catch is, you
have to save Slippy at the same time or he's already lost half his health, so I
suggest trying to take care of Slippy as soon as possible, and then hurry over
to the first arc. It can be hard to do; you might even have to shoot through
the arcs sometimes if you miss. Also, you'll have to watch out for the mechas,
as they're right in your way as you try to go through some of the arcs. Try to
shoot them before you run into them. Now if you went through all the arcs, the
power up will be on the left behind the opening and closing doors. Fire your
RETROS, not your boosters, and claim the prize. There will now be a few more
ground things and fighters. Once you get to some of the buildings, fire at the
large ship at the top, he will give you a yellow ring...but watch out for the
little parachuting guys. After passing a few more buildings, you will see a
formation of 5 ships; the second and fourth ones will give you a yellow ring.
They will attack once, flip around, and attack again. Someone else will get in
trouble, saving them should be no problem - he's right in front of you. Go
through the arc and then the grey ring. Pass over the two short buildings (or
if you want to be all cool and all, go between them holding L or R), and you
will see blue pillars on either side of you. As the distance between them gets
narrower and narrower, just fly close to the ground to prevent them from
falling on you, and go up at the last second to fly through the Supply Ring.
Hold L or R and get the Nova Bomb. You will see another formation of 5, but the
only one that gives you a ring is in the middle. Now fly low, because it's
already time to fight...
------------------------------------------
Advance Scout Mother Ship "ATTACK CARRIER"
------------------------------------------
Weapon: Missile Blaster
Size: H70 x W100 x D150
Yep, he's back. Thing is, he's just about as easy. He just shoots missiles out
a little faster. You probably know what to do, but if not...aim for the
blinking areas and shoot them until they fall off. When all three of his
peripherals have fallen, he will come after you. Shoot him while avoiding his
Plasma Balls. He'll turn around; keep firing at him. You should be done with
him in no time. Watch him fall to the ground and explode. On to the next
course!
Stage 2:
*************************************
* __ __ __ ___ __ *
* ( | / | /\ | ) \ / *
* \ |- ( | ( ) |-( x *
* __) |__ \__ | \/ | \ / \ *
* *
*************************************
General Pepper tells you: "Andross's forces intend to build a base in this
area!! Destroy their Rock Crusher!!"
Hmmm...you probably remember the Rock Crusher from the Level 1 Asteroid Belt.
Don't worry though, all the bosses past here are unique to Level 2.
My two cents: This short course can be pretty fun, even though the end of the
course can be challenging...you'll see what I mean. Also, what planet is that
down there? Corneria? But this is a separate place on the map...
You'll be switched to the default view for open space courses, the first-person
cockpit view. To switch back, press SELECT. Falco announces, "Here they come!",
and you'll be met by a few medium-sized fighters, take them down. Soon Falco
will get in trouble. Save him, after which he will tell you to mind your own
business. Jerk. Anyway, after that you will see all the fun beams. Shoot the
guy on top, and then go through the middle. The guy at the end provides a
yellow ring, but do NOT fly too low trying to shoot him or get the ring, or you
will be hit by multiple bars, and it will hurt. A teammate will go after two
regular fighters. Try to get the 1-up while avoiding the spinning bar. Now you
get to go through the middle of a bunch of vertical pillars, followed by some
spinning ones. It's a pretty cool feeling. Pick up the Nova Bomb if you wish.
You will see two ships that appear out of nowhere, and then two more. Only the
one on the left gives you a yellow ring. Now you will see the ship that gives
you a Twin Blaster, don't miss it! Four more appearing ships come up, the
top-right one gives you a ring. Dodge a few more enemies and the nasty
cross-shaped spinning thing, and you will come upon a Power Shield. GET IT, you
will need it later. Which brings up another point, save it for as long as you
can, because if you can hold it until the insanity at the end, it will be a big
help. Now avoid the regular lasers as best you can and make your way through
the Supply Ring.
(One small note: If you die and come back to this point, you will be switched
to the cockpit view. If you're like me and you like the away from the Arwing
view, wait before pressing SELECT or you will run right into the middle of the
spinning thing I'm about to mention.)
After a bit, you will encounter another one of those plus-shaped beams. Avoid
it as best you can. Peppy will get in trouble, saving him should be a breeze.
Now you will get four small flat things that you can only hit while they're
turned around facing you. If you leave any alive, then make sure they don't run
into you as they fly off. The bottom one gives you a ring. You will pass
several different-shaped beams. And after that...you will get the
aforementioned insanity, namely moving beams coming at you vertically and
horizontally. Even though they flinch when you shoot them, you can't destroy
them, so all you can do is just swerve like crazy. Towards the end (about the
time the triangle-thing appears), it will be nearly impossible not to get hit
by one of the beams. Good luck. Once you're done with that, one of your
teammates gets in trouble. He'll probably have lost a quarter of his shield by
the time you save him, because you were too busy dodging beams. Destroy the
triangle by hitting him three times, and you might want to go after those four
small flat ships again, but I wouldn't bother at this point, just concentrate
on not getting hit. With what shield you have left, you'll face...
---------------------------------
Asteroid Destroyer "ROCK CRUSHER"
---------------------------------
Weapon: Laser
Size: H60 x W86 x D45
Well, this guy's a good bit harder then when you fought the one in the Level 1
Asteroid Belt. Difference is, this guy's a pansy and opens his diamonds for
much less time (but still enough time to get a few shots at you). Furthermore,
when you've destroyed all the diamonds on one side, he shoots two missiles at
you from his antennae each time he turns around. When you do get rid of all the
diamonds, watch out as he lets go of the bulk of his ship (just stay to one
side of the screen) and you will be in the second phase of the battle. He will
have half his shield left. His vulnerable spot is the little blinking thing
right in the middle. This part is pretty much the same as the last one you
fought, I think it just takes a few more shots to kill him. Avoid the missiles
and Plasmas, and you'll be on your way to the next stage.
By they way, do you wonder what this guy is doing here? I sure do. He's
supposed to destroy asteroids, and there's another Asteroid Belt on Level 3
that doesn't have a Rock Crusher. Maybe he's here to destroy all those beams,
or maybe he just got lost. Actually, you see a few asteroids after you destroy
him, so maybe part of the Asteroid Belt used to be here. I dunno. Anyway...
Stage 3:
*************************************
* *
* THE PLANET *
* ___ ___ ___ ___ *
* | | | ^ |\ | | ^ *
* | | | /_\ | \ | | /_\ *
* | ___ | / \ | \| ___ / \ *
* *
*************************************
From the manual (under the heading "Planet II: Titania"): "Titania has no
indigenous creatures and is nearly always wrapped in a dense fog. The planet is
known as a treasure world because of the large deposits of raw materials that
can be found there. While it has not been as hard hit by Andross's invasion
fleet as some planets have, it is occupied by a large garrison of his troops.
The resources here are extremely valuable to Andross's plans of future
conquest."
General Pepper tells you: "Corneria's resource world has been overrun!! You
must re-take the weather control unit!!"
Titania is also the name of Uranus's fourteenth and largest moon, maybe what
this planet was named after. That moon was in turn named after a character in
William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
My two cents: This course is quite short, so short that it doesn't even have a
Supply Ring in the middle. And like Meteor, it goes by fast, so you might want
to fire your retro rockets some, especially at the beginning when you are in
close quarters. At the beginning, it will be snowing, and hard to see somewhat.
But about one-third of the way through the course, you will encounter the
"weather control unit", which will turn everything back to normal so you will
be able to see a lot better.
You will start out in the snow, and will pass three gateway things, just pass
under the middle one. You might want to go ahead and use your retros so you get
a good shot at that spinning thing that shoots Plasma Balls at you. You'll see
a lot of them. Shoot the two-legged robot, and immediately after that hang
either a left or a right around the large rock. To the right is nothing, to the
left is another robot with a yellow ring and a Nova Bomb. Now watch out for
another spinning thing, and go around the gateway if you can, but if you can't,
just shoot it and hope that you can make it through without getting hit. Shoot
the next two robots, who sometimes give you yellow rings, and now you will see
a few things on the ground which you might be able to shoot before they launch
a projectile at you. Someone will get in trouble, just fire at the enemy
fighter as he heads toward the right side of your screen. You will now come
upon a large insect-like thing that shoots Oval Beams at you. Make sure you
disable at least one of his legs, otherwise he will fire at you from behind. If
you do happen to not disable any of his legs (and this goes for all of these in
this course, there are a lot of them), roll like crazy (press L or R twice) for
the next five seconds so you can hopefully deflect his shots. Okay, next are
two more spinning things, just fly low so the Plasmas miss you (or deflect
them). Now you have a decision to make. You will see three doors. Behind door
number 1 (the one on the left) is nothing, so ignore it. Behind door number 3
(the door on the right) is the weather control device, which you must hit in
order to progress through the course. However, behind door number 2 (middle) is
a twin blaster power-up. I suggest going through this door, because the course
just wraps around if you don't go through the right door and getting this
power-up can be very important. In fact, if you only have a single laser, you
can go through the middle door a second time and the power-up will still be
there, enabling you to have Twin Blaster Type B! When you're ready, go through
door number 3 and it will stop snowing.
Various enemies will attack you, and someone will get in trouble. Save whoever
it is, and take down the helicopters as well as the ground vehicles. As a rule
of thumb for this course, ground vehicles on the left and right give you rings.
If there's one in the middle, he won't give you one. Behind the first gateway
on the left is a Nova Bomb, shoot it and fly through to the Nova. Falco (or
someone) will be followed by someone now, follow the enemy fighter as he
travels toward the right side of your screen again. It might be a hassle to
save him, because you will be concentrating on dodging enemy fire and those
gateways. Now all that will be left will be the insect things and those stupid
spinning machines, until you fight a couple of blue regular fighters. About
this time, you should see a large wicked-looking building dead ahead, and your
autopilot should take you in there.
----------------------------------
Master Computer "PROFESSOR HANGAR"
----------------------------------
Weapon: Shadow Thruster
Size: H25 x W18 x D30
Ah yes, Professor Hangar. (Even though the boss viewer at the end of the game
calls him "Professor Hanger") Notice the cool music as you fly into the
building. He comes up to you just to say "BYE BYE!!". Oooookay. If you want to
shoot him just for fun here, you can, but you won't inflict any damage.
Presently he will go away and you will be in a different, strange looking room.
(Or is it even a room?) Various enemies will pop out of the water, shoot them
when they're above the water. Once you get rid of all of them, the Professor
will show up again and you will see the enemy boss health meter. Shoot him as
he approaches, as you are able to hurt him now. He will release two bird-like
things, swerve to avoid them while still firing at him. He will do this several
times in a row. My strategy has always been to go to one side, we'll say the
left, and then when he releases them swerve way over to the right, then to the
left, right, left, etc. After a while, he will split into three; this is his
"Shadow Thruster". MOVE TO ONE SIDE OF THE SCREEN before he runs into you. Now
he will go away and if you haven't defeated him yet, the lesser enemies come
back. Just keep dodging those bird things and you should be fine. He explodes
just like any other boss and you head out the right side of the screen.
Stage 4:
*************************************
* __ __ __ ___ __ *
* ( | / | /\ | ) \ / *
* \ |- ( | ( ) |-( Y *
* __) |__ \__ | \/ | \ | *
* *
*************************************
General Pepper tells you: "How are the Arwings handling? If an amoeba clings to
your ship, use L or R to get rid of it."
My two cents: Well now, this is a neat little course. Whether you've come from
Titania or the Black Hole, you're in for a small treat. This course is like the
ocean, complete with squids, schools of fish, a whale, and giant stingrays. The
music fits quite nicely too. The course is of moderate difficulty, but the boss
at the end is pretty rough. A couple words of advice: shoot the yellow
stingrays and the squids, because if you miss they will ram into you and
there's no way you can avoid them. Also, at the beginning of the course you
will encounter some amoebas. Take Pepper's advice and press L or R twice to
shake them off.
You will start out by seeing a school of fish. These are not your enemies;
they're just there for added effect. If you fire into the middle of them, they
will open up and close again. You should see two yellow stingrays and a squid
on your right and one stingray on your left, shoot them. The squid will take a
few hits before he starts smoking. Three missiles will be shot from behind you
and will come toward you and start firing at you. Someone is being chased, save
them quickly. Two more squid will come, one from each side of the screen.
You'll see two more fighters, and after that you will enter a field of amoebas
(or whatever they are). Dodging most of them shouldn't be that much of a
problem. Don't shoot them however, or they will come after you in the manner of
a Plasma Ball. If they do latch on to you, they will start sucking away your
health; roll over by pressing L or R twice. In the middle of the field is a
1-up, it's worth getting even if one of them does latch on to you for a second.
Three more missiles will shoot at you. You will then see the ship that gives
you a twin blaster, make sure and get it. (unless you have Type B already ;-))
Just...make sure you don't shoot the BIG stingray that has just invaded your
screen. He's not like the little stingrays; if you shoot him all it does is
tick him off and he comes after you. He will appear again shortly with some
regular fighters; do your best not to hit him. After not too long you will see
the Supply Ring in the middle of the screen; go through it as usual.
Some of the blue ships that shoot Ring Lasers (the round blinking ones) at you
will come. Then the big stingray comes again. This time you must shoot the
little stingrays and squid while avoiding the big stingray. Two big stingrays,
actually. Good luck. Shortly after, someone will get in trouble, so take care
of it. Now sometimes, I've noticed a whale coming in from the top right side of
the screen. To tell you the truth, I'm not exactly sure what triggers it. If I
had to guess I would say that it is a reward for getting a certain percentage.
Or maybe for getting rid of all the yellow stingrays and squids. If someone
who's sure could email me and let me know what causes you to get the whale,
that would be great. You will be credited of course. Anyway, if you do see the
whale, then GET BEHIND IT, because he drops about every power-up imaginable...
nova bombs, twin lasers, power shields, and grey rings. Pretty cool. Once
you're done with all that, get ready to face...
---------------------------------
Hydrogen Harvester "PLASMA HYDRA"
---------------------------------
Weapon: Plasma Spewer
Size: H96 x W280 x D55
Let me be the one to tell you that this guy is not very friendly. It's hard to
get him to where he's vulnerable. He'll shoot Plasmas (surprise) and missiles
all the while, so be wary. Some of the missiles give you yellow rings. He'll
start by spinning around quickly. Don't worry about shooting him just yet, it
won't do any good. Dodge the arms as he tries to swing them at you. Now, when
he starts to slow down, shoot the ends of the arms. This is how you harm him.
You'll know you're hurting him when he makes that...noise. C'mon, you know the
one I'm talking about. As you shoot the end of an arm, it will start to fall
apart, so avoid the debris. However, he will regenerate and grow it back. Keep
doing this until you have him down to about 2/3 (two-thirds) of his initial
energy, at which point he will lose all of one arm and half of the other. Now
he will use the remaining half an arm to swing around at you and hit you, still
while firing missiles. He will even grow a spiked ball on the end...not cool.
Just avoid it like you did the arms earlier. Also, his main body is now
vulnerable, so feel free to shoot any Novas. The faster you kill him, the
better. Also note that he actually has a final desperation attack; once you get
his health all the way down, he will try to ram you. I've found that swerving
works better than retros; use both. If you survived that, you're on your way to
Venom.
Stage 5:
******************************
* __ *
* \ / | |\ | /\ |\ /| *
* \ / |- | \ | ( ) | v | *
* v |__ | \| \/ | | *
* *
* THE FINAL GOAL *
* *
******************************
From the manual (under the heading "Planet I: Venom"): "When Andross was driven
out by Director General Pepper, he occupied this planet as his base. While it
used to be known as the "evergreen planet", and boasted beauty second only to
Corneria's, Andross has re-made it into a dark, polluted world of military
machines. The natives, who were not advanced, were enslaved by Andross and
drafted into his military machine. Though they serve Andross, they inwardly
hope that the forces of Corneria can win a victory and liberate the Lylat
system."
General Pepper tells you: "Is everyone all right, Fox?!! You're on course to
sneak into Venom's back door!!"
Woah, gettin' a little advanced on us there, General...a question mark and two
exclamation marks.
My two cents: Well well, you've managed to reach Venom. But you've still got
two courses to go: Above the planet and on the planet. What takes place above
Venom is much like what happened on Level 1; however, the course on the surface
is quite different. If you've never played up to there before, you're in for a
little surprise.
Okay, we start with two formations of three ships each. The ones in the middle
give you a ring in case you are hit. Three more will come and start shooting
Ring Lasers at you. Someone will get in trouble, but it shouldn't be a problem
since you're not worried about anything else right now, right? Okay, now let me
introduce you these annoying little things coming up next. They come at you
from the surface, just like those evil red triangles, and if you don't shoot
them before they get near you, they split up into a bunch of little things that
you must now shoot. Well, if you don't want to get hit, at least. They can be
dodged, but they're annoying. After a few of these you will get some of the
famous Evil Red Triangles of Doom. Some give you rings. Now you will get a few
regular fighters who do this weird formation thingy. After that, you will get
more annoying things that split up. If Falco is alive, he will help you now,
and you may even get a Twin Blaster and a Nova Bomb! Now fly through the Supply
Ring and try not to get hit by the little annoying things.
Continue to fight the annoying things, and someone will get in trouble again.
Try to shoot that fighter that's chasing your comrade before he makes it to the
top of the screen. Now you will find a bunch of different types of ships. Get
rid of as many as you can (some are at the extreme sides and bottom of the
screen). Then more triangles will come (having fun yet?). Someone else should
be chased, it won't be that hard to rid them of their problem this time. During
the course of fighting the triangles, you will see two bigger yellow ships that
shoot an array of regular lasers. Just barrel roll while continuing to shoot.
Four more fighters will come (shoot in the middle as they cross paths; you
might hit one or two of them). Now here comes an interesting little ship; it's
like the one that gives you the Twin Blaster powerup, but the colors are all
weird. It actually gives you a Power Shield instead (cool). Now you will see a
few different fighters and a bunch of different annoying things in patterns;
this time they don't come toward you, and if you don't go near them, they won't
split up. Three last blue fighters have a shot at you, and after that, it's
time to face...
-------------------------------------
Super Gravity Powered "METAL SMASHER"
-------------------------------------
Weapon: Crush Attack
Size: H17 x W20 x D38
Yeah, this guy doesn't like you very much. But then again, he is sort of a
boss, so that's his job. He's made of two parts, here's what he does: he will
immediately open up and start sucking you toward him. He will also send some of
those annoying things at you, so try to shoot them before you get too close to
him. Now, his large blinking spots are where he's vulnerable. Concentrate your
fire on just one of the two. Now, when you get really close to him, fire your
retros! Because he's about to squish you like a little bug. It's hard to
explain exactly when to fire the retro rockets, just go with your gut instinct.
Now, he will turn vertical. If you shot at the left section earlier, shoot at
the bottom one now. If you shot at the right one, shoot at the top one. He will
send more things at you again, and he will try to use that nasty crush attack
again. He will repeat a third and fourth time, and then the fifth time he'll
send a bunch of Ring Lasers your way (vertically), just move around so they'll
miss you. He'll do it again the sixth time (horizontally). Now, he'll repeat
the entire process until you've defeated him. The good news is, you only have
to defeat one of the sections. Think about it; with only one section he can't
crush you or make little annoying things. So after you destroy one, the other
will explode as well, but not before an escape pod is launched toward the
planet.
That marks the end of this stage, and now we're going to go after that thing.
You fly down to the planet surface and begin...
Stage 6:
*****************
*Venom (surface)*
*****************
Well, looks like it's time for more dodging pillars and randomly falling...wait
a second, what is this? It's some sort of highway, nothing like the Venom of
Level 1. And it's one of the most unique courses in the game!
First off, a couple of general pointers for this course. The left side is open,
but on your right is a wall, so watch out for that. There are a few pillars
here and there in the middle of the road. As usual, enemies that blink yellow
when you hit them will give you a yellow ring.
Okay, we start off with a truck-like vehicle right in front of you, and one to
your left. Don't hesitate to start shooting them, they take a few hits to kill.
You will encounter some flat airborne vehicles coming in from the left. After
you get rid of them, quickly move to the right side to avoid the pillars. Now
go left, right, and left to avoid more pillars. More aerial vehicles will come.
Next there are a few trucks, a couple of them swerving all over the road.
Apparently Andross doesn't mind if his minions drink and drive. After that, go
right to avoid two more trucks and get the Nova Bomb, and go through the Supply
Ring. This course is going by fast, isn't it?
Bunches of aerial vehicles will come from the right. If you keep them alive for
too long, they will drop something that shoots some strange ring things upward
on the ground. If you fly over it, you'll lose a good bit of your shield. Watch
out for the ones that crash into the wall for no apparent reason. After this,
you will encounter some more pillars and a few "air bikers" from the right.
They will try to run into you, and some will even come from behind. Make sure
and use your retros here to avoid them and get a shot at them. After you get
rid of all of them (there are four or five of them) you'll come upon the escape
pod that managed to get away from the Metal Smasher before it exploded.
----------------------------------------
Central Guard Machines "GALACTIC RIDERS"
----------------------------------------
Weapon: Air Bikers
Size: H80 x W61 x D25
He's back, and he doesn't take kindly to people that destroy his fun smashing
machine. First thing, get over in the right lane, because he comes from behind
on the left. The first thing he will do is open his hatch; fire like mad inside
there because that's the only time he's vulnerable. Shoot a Nova, even. He will
release two air bikers. Watch out for the thing sticking out on the right of
the road (the arrows warn you of this). He will also drop one of those weird
things that shoot rings at you. After that, he will try to run right into you.
Swerve left and right and try to miss him, and fire those retros right before
he makes contact with you (it comes sooner than you think). After a bit of
that, he will release two bikers again. He will repeat this short process until
you defeat him. Once again, the only time you can harm him is when his hatch is
open. Once you do defeat him, stay out of his way because he will crash and you
don't want to die right here. He was pretty lame for the last regular boss of
Level 2 if you ask me; I found the second form of the Phantron to be much
harder.
On first guess I would say that the name "Galactic Riders" (the given name from
the manual) refers to the bikers because it is plural and there are people
riding on the bikes, and so the escape pod would just be a part of the Metal
Smasher. However, the boss viewer at the end (which you will hopefully see
soon) gives the name as "Galactic Rider", and that would seem to denote the
escape pod. Also, it says its weapons are the "Air Bikers", referring to them
as a separate entity, and the size given is certainly too big to be a little
bike. Just thought I'd point all that out. Anyway...
The highway ends and turns into a corridor of some sort, where you will do some
fun flipping around and such. (If you die facing Andross, you will start back
here if you have another life.) Andross talks to you and tries to mock you. Fly
through the grey ring in the middle. Avoid the horizontal bars that come
together - this could be difficult, so try to be prepared for them. Now avoid
the platforms that come out of the walls. Grab the Twin Blaster and avoid that
last platform. Now the corridor will end, and you will be in an open space. Get
ready, cause you're about to face the main man himself!
----------
Andross...
----------
Weapon: Telekinesis
Size: H100 x W80 x D30
For those of you who defeated Andross in Level 1, this should be familiar; it's
the same idea, just a little harder. Some blocks will come together to form a
mirror-like object, and then that turns into a giant polygonal face.
Concentrate your fire toward one of the eyes. The eyes will shoot tiles at you
which split apart if you shoot them enough. After a few seconds, the eyes will
become orange (they are now invulnerable) and Andross will start to suck in a
bunch of tiles. He will then spit them out at you; you have to be wary, there
are more than there were in Level 1. Soon the eyes will become blue again, so
shoot them while trying your best to avoid the tiles. When you've shot out one
of the eyes, it goes black; fire at the other one until it goes black as well.
When you've gotten both of them, the face will disassemble, and you will see a
cube with Andross's face on it. Thing is, you can now only hit four sides
instead of six; there are two blue triangles guarding two of the sides and your
shots bounce off of them. Fire any Novas you've got left. After not very long,
the face will come back together and you will have to shoot out both of the
eyes again, and after you've done this the "Andross Box" will appear again. The
only way to truly damage Andross is to hit the cube, so fire at it like mad
when it appears. When its damage is halfway depleted, the blue triangles on the
cube will turn orange. Good luck.
Once you have defeated him, he will split apart and explode. You fly out of
there and escape just as the place crumbles to nothing. You check with your
teammates to see if they're okay, and you fly up into Venom's atmosphere. The
screen will rotate around you, and you will then be shown your percentages from
each stage as well as your total score and average percentage. You'll then hear
Fox and General Pepper having a short conversation over the radio, and you fly
home. You'll see the boss viewer, and then the credits. Enjoy them, you've
earned it.
Congratulations on making it through Level 2! Wasn't that fun? If you want a
tougher challenge, then try out Level 3 sometime!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+STAR FOX| ________ +
+--------+ \ \ +
+ \____ ) +
+ / / +
+ _ ____ _ __ ____ _ / / +
+ | | | __| | | / / | __| | | ( ( +
+ | | | |_ | | / / | |_ | | \ \ +
+ | | | _| | | / / | _| | | ___\ \ +
+ | |__ | |__ | |/ / | |__ | |__ / ) +
+ |____| |____| |___/ |____| |____| /_______/ +
+ +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Stage 1:
*******************************************
* __ __ __ __ ___ *
* / /\ | ) |\ | | | ) | ^ *
* ( ( ) |-( | \ | |- |-( | /_\ *
* \__ \/ | \ | \| |__ | \ _|_ / \ *
* *
* THE BASE *
* *
*******************************************
From the manual (Under the heading "Planet IV: Corneria"): "The fourth planet
in the Lylat system, Corneria, is known as the "bread basket" of the system. It
is a fertile farming world with a variety of climates and terrains. Most of the
inhabitants live in the shelter of the mountain ranges, where the most
productive farming soil can be found. Corneria is a peaceful planet with only
the smallest of defense forces. Most of its starships are designed for
exploration and transportation. When Andross's invasion fleet threatened the
planet, it was up to General Pepper to improvise some kind of planetary
defense. He hired the Star Fox Team to pilot the experimental Arwing fighters."
"Corneria" is also the name of the first town you encounter in the NES game
Final Fantasy I, but this has also been translated as "Cornelia", since the r
and l sounds are almost exactly the same in Japanese.
General Pepper tells you: "You've chosen course three... a good choice to take
Venom by surprise!!"
Hmm...different text this time.
My two cents: Welcome to Level 3! Are you ready to get started? Of course you
are, or you wouldn't be reading this! Okay, first up as usual is Corneria. But
this time, it's a little different...the sky is red (I assume it's supposed to
depict a sunset) and you actually might just fight a different boss than the
Attack Carrier. This course sets the stage for the entire level: Difficult when
compared to Levels 1 and 2.
First off, you see the familiar scene of the Arwings leaving the base. Once
again, you check your fellow pilots' statuses (stati?) and they tell you
they're good to go. Take down those first few fighters. Even though Slippy
doesn't tell you anything, go through the arches anyway. Someone on your team
will be chased, take care of that. If you went through all the arches you will
get an early Twin Blaster if you go through to left door. Then there's more
stuff you've already seen before. After a little bit, you will see a bunch of
blue pillars...the kind that fall on you. Don't worry about shooting them, just
maneuver low and on either side, and then go through the middle of the two
pairs of pillars. After that you'll see the familiar formation of five that
will come at you twice; the second and fourth ones will give you yellow rings.
Weave around a few of the buildings, and shoot the ship that appears right
after you come out of them. Someone will get chased, shoot the one chasing as
he moves from the left to the right of the screen. You'll encounter a few
mechas and some of those ground robots. You'll then see some more buildings;
fly sideways through the middle if you're just dying to have another Nova Bomb,
then fly low as the blue pillars fall again. Falco goes off and says he will
take care of the Attack Carrier; we'll see. Maneuver through a few more
buildings, and then go through all the arches. When they split, take the ones
on the left and go through the Supply Ring at the end.
You will then see mechas carrying parts of the Attack Carrier; either they're
about to put it together, or Falco destroyed it really quickly. Fly low through
these last buildings. You must avoid the hidden pillars that fall on either
side of that small building in the middle; fly just over the top of it. Of
course, after that you're not going to fight the Attack Carrier but the...
-------------------------------------
Ground Supremacy Vehicle "DESTRUCTOR"
-------------------------------------
Weapon: Plasma
Size: H45 x W150 x D90
In my opinion, this guy is what really welcomes you to Level 3, because he can
be pretty hard. Some people have no problem with him; I usually can make it,
but sometimes he'll sneak up on you and be hard all of a sudden.
Anyway, the concept to beating him is fairly simple. He comes from the side,
and when he faces you, then he will release three triangular floating things.
Only one of them faces you at a time, allowing you to shoot at it. Below these
three triangles are three turrets attached to the vehicle. Don't shoot them
now; because the triangles will soon dock and replace any turrets you shot
down. All the while, the turrets are shooting Plasma Balls at you. When you
have destroyed two triangles, the last one will actually come toward you; shoot
it down quickly before it rams you. Now you have the turrets to deal with, as
well as the missiles that are now coming from the axle in the middle. You can
only damage the turrets when they are facing you. I find barrel rolling to be
useful. Once you have defeated the last one, the Destructor falls apart. You've
started the (relatively) long road to Venom.
Stage 2:
************************************************************
* __ ___ __ __ ___ _ __ __ ___ *
* ^ ( | | | ) /\ | | \ | ) | | | *
* /_\ \ | |- |-( ( ) | | ) |-( |- | | *
* / \ __) | |__ | \ \/ ___ |_/ |__) |__ |__ | *
* *
************************************************************
From the manual (under the heading "Asteroid Field"): "There are two asteroid
fields, consisting of thousands of small planetoids, surrounding Corneria. The
swarming chunks of rocks form a dangerous natural barrier to invasion of the
planet, as they must be carefully navigated through. However, Andross has
developed a powerful new battleship, known as the Rock Crusher, which is
capable of reducing planetoids to cosmic dust. It is up to the Star Fox Team
to destroy these Rock Crushers before they can clear the way for Andross's main
battle armada."
General Pepper tells you: "Use the L or R Button to escape the tractor beam of
the enemy battleship!! You can do it, Fox!!"
He is referring to the boss at the end. You'll see when you get there.
My two cents: This course can be quite challenging, and is worthy to be a Level
3 course. Good luck with it. Some people come here because it provides a portal
to Out of This Dimension, an alternate ending to the game.
Okay, first off are five yellow fighter things. You can't destroy them all,
except with a Nova. Don't...use a Nova. Next up will be some small things
spinning around. You will learn that this course has some of the nastiest
enemies in the game. This is one of them; he will shoot one Plasma Ball at you,
but when you kill him, he will automatically fire another one. Yeah. So it's
really not worth going after them, just swerve and miss the Plasmas or barrel
roll. You'll see a few asteroids, and then someone will get in trouble. Save
him while avoiding the Plasmas. You'll see a few more of those little spinning
enemies, and then you will come upon two large asteroids.
IF YOU WANT TO GO TO OUT OF THIS DIMENSION, LISTEN UP. First off I must warn
you if you do go there to be aware that it is tangent to the rest of the
game...you won't be able to go back to any of the other courses. It's a
separate, hidden ending. Just ignore all this if you want to continue on Level
3. Okay, when you see the second large asteroid (the one on the right), start
firing at it like mad. Novas don't help, but Twin Blasters do. If you hit it
enough times, an egg should pop out of it. (If you look closely, it looks like
a yellow Yoshi egg.) A large bird will pop out of it and start flying toward
you. Ignore everything else, including your friend getting in trouble. What you
have to do is this: when it gets very close to you, you must make it to where
it flies right into your Arwing. The wings don't count; you must make your ship
hits it right in the middle. It always ends up being right about at the center
of the screen, just a little off. If you miss, then nothing will happen, and if
you want to try again, you'll have to lose a life. (You probably don't have a
life anyway if you're playing a game that's been around for 12 years ;-)) If
you do hit it just right, the colors and sound will go all whack and you'll be
brought to a secret area on the map that previously wasn't visible. Check out
my "Out of this Dimension" section towards the end of this guide.
If you didn't opt to do all that, then let's take it back from the large
asteroids. You will pass them, and then you will see more little spinning
things, except this time they shoot FIVE Plasma Balls at you at one time, and
do the same if you kill them. Plus, one of your teammates is in trouble again.
He will be chased from the bottom to the top of your screen. Then you'll get
two more that just shoot one at you, and after that you will see three gold
asteroids arranged in a triangle. Go through the middle without shooting any of
them, and then get the Nova bomb. You will see the ship that gives you the Twin
Blaster power up, ignore everything else and get it! After that, some of those
yellow sphere-like things that shoot Plasmas at you appear. After a bunch of
those, there's one more ship that shoots five Plasmas at you, and then you get
a Supply Ring.
Next up are a bunch of enemies you haven't seen on this course yet. You'll
recognize them from the other levels: the cross-shaped one, the annoying
rotating triangle, and the caterpillar. There will also be someone else who
gets in trouble. It's annoying, I know. You will pass in between two large
structures, and then you will get a chance at a 1-up. Another triangle will
come, and then you will see some more grey asteroids...except they're upside
down. A ship whips around and starts shooting at you. If you kill it, the
asteroid will come hurtling straight backwards. What you must do is shoot them
from an angle to avoid getting hit by them. A few of these annoying things, and
then a few things that shoot Plasmas at you. ("There's just no end to these
guys!") Peppy will start to chase someone. You'll see a single fighter, and if
you're too concentrated on him, you might not notice the asteroids with faces
coming after you. Yes, that's right, asteroids with faces. Now's when you have
to dodge like crazy, because a whole array of upside down asteroids, ones with
faces, and little spinning things are next. Don't worry about firing; just do a
bunch of barrel rolling and especially dodging asteroids. If you can make it
past all that, you'll see two last little spinning things, and then it's
finally time for the boss. It's no Rock Crusher, it's the...
-----------------------------
Space Station "BLADE BARRIER"
-----------------------------
Weapon: Web Attack
Size: H90 x W90 x D65
This is one mean boss. He's pretty wicked looking, don't you think? He comes in
spinning his thing on the front around, as he likes to do, and shoots some
missiles at you. Target the three open appendages that jut out of the main
body. Soon he will start spinning again; STOP SHOOTING. I learned the hard way
that those strange blue-looking lasers he was shooting at me were actually my
own being reflected back at me. (Well, unless you've got Type B Twin Blasters,
heheheh.) He will then fire this weird triangle thing at you; swerve and dodge
it as best you can. If he hits you with it, it will stick to you and he will
start sucking you in until you get it off...not cool. The way to get it off is
to barrel roll like crazy. (Hit L or R frantically in a manner that would make
people look at you in funny ways.) After this, he stops spinning and opens up
his other three appendages. Dodge the missiles, and fire at the appendages as
much as you can, because he doesn't give you long. Then he runs the same cycle
over again, and again, and again, until you destroy him. When you do destroy
him, get way over to the side because he's going to break off that front
three-pronged thing and it's going to come flying at you. Good luck with this
one; he can be a tough cookie. Mmmm, cookies.
Stage 3:
**************************************
* *
* THE PLANET *
* __ __ ___ *
* | /\ | ) | | | |\ | ^ *
* |- ( ) |-( | | | | \ | /_\ *
* | \/ | \ | |__| | \| / \ *
* *
**************************************
From the manual (under the heading "Planet V: Fortuna"): "Fortuna is also known
as the Dinosaur Planet and is prowled by many untamed and brutal creatures.
Andross has fed and gained control of these brutes and plans to turn them into
living weapons. The giant dragon, Monarch Dodora, is the living spirit of this
planet and has powers exceeding state-of-the-art weapons. His name is feared
throughout the Lylat system."
Ironically, the setting of the GameCube game Star Fox Adventures is a planet
called the Dinosaur Planet. This is purely coincidence though; "Dinosaur
Planet" was the name that Rare was going to give to their game before it had
anything to do with the Star Fox series.
Fortuna is also the name of a large asteroid (19 Fortuna). This was named after
the Roman goddess of luck (fortune).
General Pepper tells you: "Andross has taken control of the huge creatures who
live on Fortuna!! Take care, Fox!!"
My two cents: Well, this is an interesting course. It's divided into three
sections: land, water, and land again. As you probably guessed, you'll fight
mostly animalian enemies here. This planet can be tough, especially considering
the boss.
You will actually start with the "Approach" view here (the closest third-person
view), so if you're annoyed with it like me feel free to press SELECT to scoot
the screen back a little. You will first see some weird flowers that bloom out
of nowhere, just dodge them. Your first enemies are some kind of bug-like
things. It takes quite a few shots to take them down. You'll also see a
dragonfly. One of your teammates has already found himself in trouble, so save
him first. But if you don't hit the dragonflies enough, they'll come for your
Arwing and there will be no way to dodge them. Dodge a few more plants growing
sideways and shoot some bugs and you'll be at the first Supply Ring.
After flying through that, the ground will end and you will be over water. Some
fish will be jumping up and down, try to shoot them in the air before they can
reach you. After that, some flying fish (or are they some strange type of
bird?) will come out of the water right toward you, so take care of them
quickly. Some birds come from the side of the screen who make funny noises when
you shoot them. Someone will be chased, it shouldn't be a problem to save them.
Now here comes the fun part. You'll be coming upon some sea...things. Long,
snake-like things, and you will soon learn that they like to breathe fire at
you. See that Power Shield on the lower right under the arching sea snake? Go
for it, even if you get hit; it'll be somewhat useful. Now the things start
shooting rays of fire out of their mouths. You can shoot their heads (the only
way to kill them), but I wouldn't take the time to unless you've got Type B
lasers...I suggest worrying about dodging the fire, and their ugly polygonal
heads. Don't be afraid to use your boost, or a Nova Bomb or even two. After a
little bit you'll see a 1-up, but one of those things pops up behind it. It
might be to your advantage to get it, because even if you make it to the next
Supply Ring, you might have to start over because of the nasty boss. You'll
see one last sea creature, then a few more birds. You'll get quite a few of
them, too, so watch out. On top of that, Slippy (or someone) will get into
trouble. If you can make it through all that, then fly in the middle of the
screen and go through the second Supply Ring.
Thank goodness, you're back over land again, and you're almost to the boss.
Watch for the first few spontaneously-growing flowers, including the one right
in the middle. Some of those round ground things that shoot Plasma Balls at you
will appear, except they're blue. You can get a yellow ring from every one of
them. Besides them, the flowers and plants are the only thing you need to worry
about. Get the Twin Blaster power-up if you need it. After a few more plants
you're up for a tough boss fight.
-----------------------------------
Primitive Dinosaur "MONARCH DODORA"
-----------------------------------
Weapon: Fire Breath (rawr)
Size: H85 x W160 x D200
Hey, it's that Monarch Dodora you've been hearing about! Remember? The one
"whose name is feared throughout the Lylat system"? Yeah, and now you have to
fight him! First off, he will be directly ahead of you, but going much slower.
Hit your brake to avoid his main body. Now fly low to avoid his heads, and high
(or extremely low) to avoid his tail as he spins around. He will start to
waddle away from you. Fire at his tail, which makes it shorter. When it's down
to just about nothing, he will blink blue and orange which means he's
vulnerable. He will lay yellow Yoshi eggs, and if you shoot them, out comes one
of those flying fish/bird things. He will then turn around and start coming
toward you. Shoot both of the heads, with the same idea in mind...when they get
down to almost nothing, he becomes vulnerable and you can hit him anywhere (and
it looks really funny). Every now and then, he will jump backwards, so you will
have to watch out for that and swerve so that he misses you. Also, if you leave
him alive for too long, he will start to breathe fire at you that hits the
ground and then comes toward your current position. You can continue to shoot
the heads, but I would worry about dodging the fire because he can fire it at
you (heh, pun) even when he's vulnerable. He'll do it for a good while, too.
After that he will just waddle away from you like before, and turn around and
come at you again. Twin Blasters help a whole lot in this battle because you
can kill him before you even have to worry about the fire breath. Eventually
you'll get him though. He'll explode like any other boss, and you'll be headed
to...
Stage 4:
*************************************
* __ __ __ ___ __ ___ *
* ( | / | /\ | ) / *
* \ |- ( | ( ) |-( / *
* __) |__ \__ | \/ | \ /__ *
* *
*************************************
General Pepper tells you: "Your team is doing well, Fox!! I hope you're taking
good care of my Arwings!! Go for Macbeth!!"
My two cents: Welcome to Sector Z, the last and most difficult of the lettered
"Sectors"...and a big hello to all of you coming from the Black Hole, even
though I must tell you that you took the cheap way here; everyone else had to
fight through three hard stages to get here! Well, regardless of how you
arrived, let's focus on what's up ahead. This is a tough course, and another
one worthy to be placed on Level 3. I consider it one of the top three hardest
in the game. Not only are there the usual menacing enemies, there are a bunch
of blocks to avoid like in Sector X, and they can be a real pain. This course
is the halfway point of Level 3 (both Venom stages included).
Immediately you'll be confronted by about 5 different types of enemies: yellow
ships, blue ships, round ships, [insert Dr. Seuss rhyme here], etc. Someone (it
seems to be Slippy all the time...he really can't take care of himself) will be
chased from the left to the right side of your screen. You'll notice another
thing; the aforementioned blocks are transparent. You can't go through them,
though...on the contrary, you'll want to avoid them altogether. You'll also
notice some opaque bars with arrows on the ends. If you shoot the direction
opposite of what it's going, it will stop; if you shoot the direction it's
already going in, it will go faster, so don't do that! Watch out for all the
Plasmas and the big missile that splits into five smaller missiles. The plus
sign-shaped ship will give you a yellow ring. After him, you'll get a bunch of
transparent bars - one horizontal, one spinning, one horizontal, one spinning
etc., then one vertical, one spinning etc. Have fun with that! Only get the
Twin Blaster if you really need to (you really might). Thankfully, at the end
of all that the game designers throw you a bone by giving you a grey ring
(restores half your health). Next up, you'll fly in between a bunch of opaque
bars. Watch the enemies on your sides (barrel rolling is suggested), and watch
your wings too; you don't want to lose any Twin Blasters you might have. After
that are a bunch of random floating see-through and non-see-through bars, some
arranged in boxes (you'll probably encounter some slowdown; there are so many
spinning bars and what not that even the SFX chip can't handle it all at a
normal rate). Of course, there are enemies here too, so you need to do your
best. After a while there will be a Power Shield inside a box; GET IT. Now
you'll have even more bars and such to handle. Watch for the Supply Ring on the
right side of the screen inside a small box and make your way through it.
Now's when things get REALLY fun. Not only will you encounter spinning bars,
but they'll be moving in all sorts of directions. Just "never give up, follow
your instincts!". After that, you'll get some of the bars with arrows, and one
of your teammates will be running away from an enemy fighter, so shoot it
(sometimes the enemy will hit a bar and explode anyway, though your teammate
still thanks you for killing it (unless it's Falco, who tells you to mind your
own business, the jerk)). And then some more transparent spinning bars will
come. You'll even hear some of them striking the bars with arrows, but that
shouldn't be a problem. If you can make it through that, you'll be confronted
by two enemies that shoot Plasmas at you. Three randomly-appearing enemies will
materialize; the right-most two give you yellow rings, which you probably need.
Soon you will see your destination: the enemy base, and the music will change.
However, you're not done outside yet. You'll encounter one last set of about
eight spinning bars. Well, some are not spinning at all, and some are spinning
faster than others, to make things harder. If you managed to make it through
ALL that, you'll head inside. Yes, there are transparent bars in here too. When
you get to the vertical bars, turn sideways by holding L or R and dodge that
one in the middle. Then release the button and dodge the horizontal bar in the
middle. You'll get one enemy that practically gives you a free yellow ring, and
then you'll encounter a door with three arrows. Shoot it, and the arrows
change; the direction they're pointing is the direction the door will open when
you approach it. Now there are a bunch of doors with large, single arrows on
them; just shoot them to get them out of the way. Two more enemies give you two
more yellow rings (you have to go to the right to get the second one) and then
there are more doors which you have to shoot. Go DOWN to avoid the yellow and
black bar, and shoot another couple of doors, and with what shield you have
left you will immediately be in a room with...
---------------------------------------
Invasion Troop Carrier "ATOMIC BASE II"
---------------------------------------
Weapon: Laser
Size: H92 x W90 x D1100
Remember the boss from the Space Armada in Level 1? This is his big brother
(little actually, if you compare the sizes). You will use basically the same
strategy against him, except that he has twice as much shield and likes to
close up faster. He spins pretty fast, too. For those who for some odd reason
never fought the other one - shoot the triangular ends of the weird horizontal
energy (on the wall). Every now and then, he will send out a little dude in a
small ship; just shoot him quickly and he won't be a problem. Also, if you
shoot down an energy thing but don't get the other two quickly enough, he will
restart it. When you get all three of them, the core will open up and start
shooting Plasmas at you. Barrel roll and QUICKLY fire into the core (use Novas
if necessary), because he stays open for maybe five seconds. Once that's done
with, he'll restart the energy things and repeat the cycle. Not a complicated
boss, but don't underestimate him and don't leave him alive for too long. Don't
lose here, because you will go all the way back to the Supply Ring if you do.
After you've cooked him thoroughly, he will explode along with the entire base
(which looks strangely flat from the outside), and you will fly towards Macbeth
(which looks strangely like a cookie from the outside). Pat yourself on the
back, you just made it through a very difficult stage.
It's interesting to note the use of the name "Atomic Base II", when the
original was called "Atomic Core".
Stage 5:
**************************************
* *
* THE PLANET *
* __ __ __ ___ *
* |\ /| ^ / | ) | | | | *
* | v | /_\ ( |-( |- | |--| *
* | | / \ \__ |__) |__ | | | *
* *
**************************************
From the manual (under the heading "Planet III: Macbeth"): "Macbeth has a long
history of geological disasters which have changed its very shape. In a unique
geological occurence, the core of the planet shrank while the crust remained
the same size, making much of the planet hollow. Andross has used this to his
advantage, stockpiling the world with weapons, ammunition and spare ships. As a
result of the amount of weaponry stored there, the planet is a gigantic bomb
waiting to explode."
General Pepper tells you: "The hollow interior of Macbeth is ideal for a base!!
Prevent Andross from building here!!"
"Macbeth" is also the name of one of Shakespeare's tragic plays.
My two cents: This shouldn't be quite as hard as the last course, but it still
poses a challenge. The fight with the boss isn't exactly a walk in the park
either. In this course, you are inside the planet, so you can be attacked from
the ground and sometimes the ceiling. This course goes by very quickly.
Once again, the "Approach" view is used; change it if you want with SELECT. You
get a free Nova Bomb, and after that comes a two-legged robot quickly from
behind a rock. Shortly after, a Plasma Ball will be heading toward you without
much space to dodge it; barrel roll and kill the spinning thing that shot it at
you. After a little bit you'll see a large rock. It doesn't matter which way
you go around it. Next are some vehicles that fire Oval Beams at you; they will
give you a yellow ring. Someone will get in trouble, save them. Next are some
more spinning things that shoot Plasmas at you, including one on the ceiling.
If you shoot that one, it falls before exploding on the ground, so make sure to
shoot it from far away. After this, you will encounter some weird things on the
ground that fire missiles at you. Of course, you always want to destroy as many
enemies as possible, but for now I suggest just concentrating on the missiles
before they hit you. All the Oval Beam shooting vehicles here give you yellow
rings. A single spinning thing fires a Plasma at you. Now, see that cube in the
middle (on the ground)? If you pass it and then swerve inward quickly, you
might can get the Twin Blaster that's behind it. Now watch out for the things
on the ceiling, which drop molten balls of fire directly below them. Shortly
after is a volcano who shoots the same things at you, and for some odd reason
they come at you like a Plasma Ball. You can shoot them to get rid of them. Go
for the Power Shield on the lower right side of the volcano. For the next few
seconds, you'll be fighting the usual Plasmas, missiles, and balls of fire.
After that is a Supply Ring right in the middle, so go through it.
Now missiles will continually come at you from three directions: the left, the
right, and the ceiling. After this, a teammate (probably Slippy) will get in
trouble again, so go do your thing again, while avoiding the Oval Beams from
above. After this, you will be greeted by a SLEW of spinning things. Beware the
ones on the ceiling. Hopefully you will have gotten past that with minimal
damage. After all that there is one more volcano to dodge, five more spinning
things, and one more vehicle on the ceiling. As he's running away, a huge cloud
of smoke will approach you. This can only mean one thing: the boss!
--------------------------------------
Light Speed Revolution "SPINNING CORE"
--------------------------------------
Weapon: Laser
Size: H63 x W52 x D45
Well, look who thinks he's all big and bad, coming up in a cloud of smoke like
that. Dodge the Plasmas that he fires as soon as he gets there. (You don't have
much time to dodge them, so you might want to barrel roll.) Fire at the four
orange extensions in the middle, so that they stop firing at you. After you
destroy two of the extensions, he will start to spin faster, and shoot missiles
at you. Every now and then one of these will give you a yellow ring if you're
lucky, but it's not all that common. When you've destroyed all four extensions,
he will jump in the air and attempt to land on you, so get out of the way by
using your retro rockets just before he lands. Now his weak point is his base.
Unfortunately, he starts to make four metal balls revolve around him that are
difficult to avoid - not cool. When he gets close to you, use the retros again
(swerving up and down helps too). Also, he will fire an array of regular
lasers; barrel roll to avoid them. Keep firing at the base, and I would
encourage using Nova Bombs here unless you're doing really well. When he's down
to negligible health, he will lose his top half, and will fire a bunch of
regular lasers at you in desperation. Finish him off, and you'll be done with
this place.
Whew, you still with me? Good! Don't give up now...on to Venom!
Stage 6:
******************************
* __ *
* \ / | |\ | /\ |\ /| *
* \ / |- | \ | ( ) | v | *
* v |__ | \| \/ | | *
* *
* THE FINAL GOAL *
* *
******************************
From the manual (under the heading "Planet I: Venom"): "When Andross was driven
out by Director General Pepper, he occupied this planet as his base. While it
used to be known as the "evergreen planet", and boasted beauty second only to
Corneria's, Andross has re-made it into a dark, polluted world of military
machines. The natives, who were not advanced, were enslaved by Andross and
drafted into his military machine. Though they serve Andross, they inwardly
hope that the forces of Corneria can win a victory and liberate the Lylat
system."
General Pepper tells you: "You've made it this far... it's your fate to destroy
Andross!! We're counting on you, Fox!!"
My two cents: Well, you're here, but you've got to pass through the atmosphere
first. This stage is mostly the same thing, just with a bunch of different
types of enemy ships. The surface...well, let's just say I hope you have a
bunch of lives and a lot of skill.
To begin, you'll immediately be confronted by a bunch of large missiles that
split into smaller ones. (The jerks. They don't even give you time to switch
views.) After you deal with these, you will encounter the familiar "Evil Red
Triangles of Death" (or whatever I called them earlier in this guide). You'll
also get some ships that come straight up from the surface and explode into
five Oval Beams if you leave them around too long. (You probably won't even
have to deal with that...they're easy to target.) Watch out for the blue ships,
they take a few hits to destroy, even with Type B lasers. They will try to ram
you. You'll keep getting all different kinds of ships - blue ones that shoot
Ring Lasers, yellow ones in formation, and that stupid triangle thing, plus the
usual red triangles. Someone will be chased right in front of you, so kill the
chaser as quickly as possible so you can concentrate on other things. After a
while you will see a cross-shaped ship, shoot it for a ring (maybe). You will
then see six enemies with a Nova Bomb in the middle of them, and they all start
firing at you! How do you get past them? Barrel rolling of course, since the
Plasma Balls will hit you at almost the same time. Now stay in the middle for a
free Power Shield and Twin Blaster! Awesome. Now Falco (or whoever) will be
chased, so save him before you have to worry about anything else, but DON'T
MISS the Supply Ring that quickly appears on your left. With that shield and
twin blaster, and having gone through the Supply Ring, you should be doing
fine.
If you didn't save Falco before you went through the ring, do so quickly.
Joining the list of new ships encountered on this level are the ones that have
a shield of their own. They appear and are able to be hit only for a second or
so. They also take this time to fire at you, so it can be hard to keep your own
shield. They might give you a ring. Also there is a flat, yellow ship that
fires an array of regular lasers at you. And after this, it's just more and
more of the same thing all the way until the boss, so I can't really give you
much strategy. Oh, there are those small things that you can only hit one side
of, and they only turn around for a second to let you shoot them. They don't
stick around for long though. Mostly it'll just be red triangles and those
ships that come straight up from the surface. Just get the yellow rings from
the triangles that are nice enough to give them to you. After a bunch of
monotonous (but not boring) fighting, you'll kill the last red triangle and
come upon the boss of this stage.
----------------------------------
Final Battleship "GREAT COMMANDER"
----------------------------------
Weapon: Laser
Size: H73 x W97 x D250
Oooh, cool names. "Final Battleship", "Great Commander". Sounds tough, but he
really isn't that bad. (Well, at least not for now.) At the beginning, he
thinks he's all cool by putting his different parts together. Barrel roll when
he shoots regular lasers (unless you've still got the shield, of course, in
which case avoid them as best as possible), and fire at the little triangle
things. He will fly under you, shoot the little blinking things. Now you will
automatically be turned around to face him again. (We might not have All-range
Mode in this game, but we can sure as heck simulate it!) And of course the cool
music starts up, as is the case for every Venom boss. Now dodge his fire, and
aim for the blinking cannons again, but don't fly too low or you will run into
him and it will hurt. There are three cannons on each side, for six total. The
catch is, the cannons open and close while he's passing you, so you have to
anticipate which ones will open next. You also have to aim well, because they
are quite small. Of course, you could be cheap and use a Nova, which instantly
kills any of them that are open. When you have destroyed three of them, he will
start smoking, and will also start shooting Plasmas at you. Yeah, that's all
you have to do, just shoot the six thingys. (thingies?) This battle isn't
tough, just annoying. After you've finally destroyed all six of them, he will
fly, injured, back down to the planet, in typical Venom boss style. Your score
is tallied, and you chase him down to the surface.
Stage 7:
*****************
*Venom (surface)*
*****************
Get ready, the final stage of the game is a tough one. You plummet down and fly
between pillars, just like you did if you played Level 1. But this is a much
harder Venom. See those nasty swaying pillars? Yeah. Your instincts might tell
you to fly sideways, don't. Instead, get as close to the ground as possible and
dodge as best you can. I've always had more luck with the right side. Luckily
the buildings clear out in a little bit, so you can move further over once
you're past those. Now you'll see a Power Shield, but obviously you're going
to get hit by one of the falling things. I suggest using your boost (do not use
your brake) just before you get it, and then use it again as soon as you can if
you're about to go under another one. The best I've managed is to get out of
there with one hit, but maybe you can get out of there with your shield fully
intact. Then come the familiar red pillars. If you have Type B lasers, you can
shoot both the stationary and mobile ones to get them out of your way.
Otherwise just dodge as best as you can. I prefer straight-up flying and
weaving in between them, but you can fly sideways too if you think that's
better. Watch out for the ones that fall (use your boost again). After this,
someone will get in trouble. At this point in the game, if he has full or 3/4
shield, you can just not worry about him and he'll probably still make it out
alive in the end. The first ground vehicle gives you a ring, the other two do
not. Look out for the randomly-appearing blue stuff. After this you will see a
brown structure with a large arrow. Shoot it to change the direction (left or
right); the way it's pointing is the way it will open shortly, so move in the
opposite directions. The next couple of ones you will have to shoot once (or
thrice, if you're clumsy like me), otherwise they will take up most of the
screen when they open up. Presently you'll see a lone pillar and a brown thing
with a blue arrow that moves on its own! That can't be good. What you must do
is shoot it when it is facing the direction you want it to go. Shoot the next
brown thing once, and the next, if you want the Twin Blaster. Next up are three
more blue-arrowed brown structures. Do your best! Try to get the first one to
open to the left, the second one to the right, and the third one to the left.
Now shoot the last two brown things once to get them out of the way, and go
through the final and much-appreciated Supply Ring.
A teammate will be in trouble right in front of you, so save him quickly.
Destroy the ground vehicle. You'll see some Stonehenge-like structures and a
little thing firing on top of some of them. You can go after them, but you'll
probably run into the top of the structure so you're better off dodging in my
opinion. Now you'll see some familiar old enemies, the tall spinning thing on
the ground and the two-legged robot. Someone will get in trouble, but be ready
to dodge the randomly-occurring blocks; they are very hard to miss. I suggest
staying to the right side, and I mean the farthest right. After a little bit
the person chasing your teammate will be right above you, allowing you to fire
at him just before he takes another quarter off your teammate's health. Or if
you stayed to the right side, you can shoot at him anyway while still dodging
the blocks. Avoid the few more Plasma Balls coming at you. Now see all those
flat things? They're about to open up vertically. Fly low to the ground and in
between two of them. After this you will see a formation of three fighters, the
first one will give you a yellow ring. As they start to move away to the left,
fly low, because your friend the Great Commander is back!
----------------------------------
Final Battleship "GREAT COMMANDER"
----------------------------------
Weapon: Iron Balls
Size: H73 x W97 x D250
Well, he's back and this time he's not fooling around...he transforms into a
giant robot-thing! Dodge the iron balls he initially shoots off. Okay, now see
that little opening and closing thing that's on the slowly-spinning base?
That's where he's vulnerable. Pump him full of whatever laser type you have
(hopefully Type B). Use any Novas you have, unless you want to save one for
Andross. He will continue to shoot iron balls at you; you can't shoot them, so
the only way to not get hit by them is to evade them. He'll fire some missiles
at you too. Now when he starts spinning his upper part around, don't even worry
about firing at him. Worry about dodging the barrage of iron balls he's about
to send at you. When he begins, swerve diagonally across the screen, and when
you reach the edge just go in the safest direction you can think of. In
reality, my advice doesn't amount to a pile of beans; you really just have to
"Trust your instincts!" Good luck; it's almost impossible to survive if you're
not very good at it like me. If you somehow make it through that, he'll
continue to fire missiles at you and he'll also shoot three iron balls in a
row, just try your best to get out of the way when they land. He'll continue to
do this until you've got his shield all the way down, at which point he'll
explo...just kidding! That was only half the fun!
Now his shield bar is COMPLETELY refilled, and he'll start spinning around,
trying to hit you with his arms. Dodge him like you would the Dancing Insector;
fly up and down and when he lunges for you just fly the opposite direction. He
also will drop some things that roll on the ground and make a funny noise. When
they hit the ground, they will roll and bounce toward your current position.
You can dodge them by moving left and right, and you can also shoot them down.
So where is he vulnerable? Oh that's right, the little satellite he's got going
around him that you can only easily shoot when it's in front of him. Forget
Andross, if you've got any Nova Bombs left, fire them now, and try your best to
score a direct hit on the satellite, even though that's difficult. He will
continue spinning and firing bouncy things and what not until you've completely
cooked him. When you've got all his health down, he will break apart, so take
care not to get hit by the various parts that fly out of the explosion.
Man, wasn't that tough? If you made it through that battle with at least half
your shield left, then I salute you, you did better than I have ever done.
Well, there's only one thing to, and that's to FINALLY go get Andross for the
last time! You fly into his wicked-looking base. And as a side note...if you
die while fighting Andross (or on the way there) from here on out, you'll come
back to this point with a full shield and three Nova Bombs if you've got any
more lives left. If you've got "< x 0" displayed in the top left of your
screen, then you're going to need all the luck in the world, because you're
going to have to face Andross with what (probably little) shield you have left,
and you will only get one shot.
Okay, here we go! Just fly through the grey ring in the middle. Dodge the bar
that closes in on the bottom, and then the one on the top. Andross will start
insulting your father, just ignore the moron. Grab a Nova Bomb (yay) and dodge
the bars on the top and then bottom. Now get ready, because this part is very
hard. Use your brake as many times as you can. Fly very low, and then (if you
can) right in between the two bars that come out. Now IMMEDIATELY fly low as a
whole bunch of bars open up everywhere on the right. Stay low, as the ones open
up on the left. Stay low for the one in the middle (hit your brake now!), then
very quickly get in the middle to hopefully dodge the ones on top and bottom.
Whether you got hit or not, IMMEDIATELY hit L or R to fly sideways, and come
very close to that thing on the right. Now go to the opposite side, still
sideways, to dodge the door about to come on your right. Keep doing this going
back and forth to the best of your ability. Make sure you get the Twin Blaster,
or maybe a Wing Gyro if you lost a wing in all that. If you somehow made it
through ALL that, you will enter an open space, just as Andross tells you that
this will be the McClouds' last battle. We'll see about that!
----------
Andross...
----------
Weapon: Telekinesis
Size: H100 x W80 x D30
This is the final final boss of Star Fox, Andross on Level 3. I wish you the
best of luck. It starts off just like any other Andross battle; shoot the eyes,
and dodge the tiles. He will suck a lot of tiles in, dodge them as he spits
them out at you. Continue firing at one of the eyes until it is burnt out, and
fire at the other one. When you have gotten both of them, the face will split
apart to reveal a box, which you must fire at. Of course, like the Level 2
Andross, you can only hit it on four sides instead of six. If you happened to
ignore me earlier and you've actually got a Nova Bomb left, shoot it, and it
would be really good if you could hit the box directly when he gets close. He
does get a lot closer and stay there for a while, allowing you to hit him. The
two solid triangular sides of the box should start out silver-colored. When
they turn blue, you've got him down to 2/3 of his health. Now the face comes
back together, and this time it turns into...a giant dog face? I'm not sure
what it is or what it's supposed to be, but I do know one thing: everything
starts going freaking insane. He is constantly shooting tiles at you from his
mouth, and now his eyes shoot Plasma Balls! So I suggest you strategically
barrel roll so that you can dodge the Plasma Ball coming from each eye in one
roll. The way to beat him is the same: shoot out the eyes. But there's so much
happening, it's hard. I always just ignore the tiles; if one hits you, it hits
you, because if you take time to dodge them then you probably are going to get
hit by a Plasma Ball and it's just wasting time. Just fire everything you've
got. (If Nova Bombs don't damage the eyes, then they at least stop the Plasma
Balls, so use them if you've got nearly nothing left on your shield bar.) If
you make it to shooting both of the eyes until they explode again, the face
will split apart to reveal the box again. Fire like mad at the thing! When the
two invulnerable panels on the box turn yellow/orange, you're almost there,
you've got him down to 1/3 of his health. If you're good, you can kill him this
second time that he comes out of his shell. If not, you'll have to suffer the
wrath of the dog-thing again. If you make it through that, then you should be
able to kill the box the third time it shows up. When you've got all his health
down, he will explode.
You can now slump back in your chair and take a HUGE deep breath as you watch
your Arwing fly out of the place just as it explodes. You check on your
teammates' statuses, and you fly away, back toward Corneria, your mission
having been accomplished.
Sir/Ma'am, I salute you for accomplishing what I consider to be one of the
greatest feats in all of videogaming. Many attempt Level 3; few make it to
Venom and very few can make it all the way. So after you see your final score
and percentage, I must repeat General Pepper's words: congratulations on a job
well done!
Enjoy the boss viewer in all its awesomeness, and then you will get to see the
credits. Pat yourself on the back, you've completed a difficult task. Well,
this is the end. Thank you for using my guide. I hope you've enjoyed playing
Star Fox. And one last time, congratulations on beating the game on Level 3!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+STAR FOX| ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _ +
+--------+ | _| | | | _| | _| | | | | | | +
+ | |_ | | | | |_ | | | | | | | | | +
+ |_ | | _| | _| | | | | | _ | | | +
+ _| | | | | |_ | |_ | | || || | |_ +
+ |___| |_| |___| |___| |___| || || |___| +
+ ____ _____ _____ _____ ____ ____ +
+ | __| |_ _| | _ | | ___| | __| | __| +
+ | |__ | | | |_| | | | _ | |_ | |__ +
+ |__ | | | | _ | | | | | | _| |__ | +
+ __| | | | | | | | | |_| | | |__ __| | +
+ |____| |_| |_| |_| |_____| |____| |____| +
+ +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(Level 1,) Stage 3:
************************************************
* *
* THE AWESOME *
* __ __ __ *
* | ) | ^ / | / | | /\ | | *
* |-( | /_\ ( |< |--| ( ) | |- *
* |__) |__ / \ \__ | \ | | \/ |__ |__ *
* *
************************************************
(cue weird music)
General Pepper tells you: "This space grave yard, created by Andross's
experiments, is where your father vanished, Fox!!"
My two cents: Welcome to the Black Hole, the Lylat system's greatest
attraction! (get it? It's a black hole, it attr...oh never mind) Does everyone
have an exit buddy? Great! Now be sure you know your exit number, you don't
want to end up on the wrong side of the Lylat system, do you?
Oooo...colors. Okay, you'll see a lot of random enemies (even bosses) floating
around. Don't freak out, hardly anything fires at you in here. In fact, you can
kill all the randomly floating stuff with one shot. This course has three
exits, and if you don't take any of them, it just wraps back around. This is a
good thing, since if you only have a single laser at this point, you can get
the Twin Blaster power up twice to get Type B blasters! Unfortunately, the 1-up
only comes around the first time.
Actually, the 1-up is the first item you encounter. It's right next to the
Attack Carrier, heh. Something randomly fires a Plasma Ball at you. Now shoot
the black and yellow circle and go through it for a Twin Blaster. Okay, see
that first spinning ring? That's going to take you to Sector Y, in Level 2 if
you go through it. So if you want to go see the ocean in space, go through it.
If not, then read on.
Something else fires a Plasma at you. You'll see a few of those blue things
that latch on to you, so don't get near them or shoot them. Shoot the circle
for a Nova Bomb. Okay, the next ring coming up here will take you to Sector Z,
in Level 3. If you want a real challenge filled with painful invisible blocks,
or if for some strange reason that appeals to you, then um...go through that
ring.
So if you didn't go through that ring, just keep reading. This time the circle
gives you another Nova Bomb. Well, there's the last ring, and it will take you
to the Venom of Level 1, in the atmosphere. So if you just want to get straight
down to business, take this ring.
Well, if you didn't take that ring, you can shoot the first circle again for
another Twin Blaster power up. Remember, the order of the rings is: Sector Y,
Sector Z, and Venom (Level 1, atmosphere). Alphabetical order.
Thank you for visiting the Black Hole. Have a nice day!
(Level 3,) Stage 3:
***********************************************
* *
* OUT OF THIS *
* _ ___ __ __ ___ *
* | \ | |\ /| | |\ | ( | /\ |\ | *
* | ) | | v | |- | \ | \ | ( ) | \ | *
* |_/ _|_ | | |__ | \| __) _|_ \/ | \| *
* *
***********************************************
(cue weird music again)
General Pepper tells you: "Come in, Arwings!! Fox, where are you?!! We need you
to protect Corneria!!"
My two cents: G'day, mate! Welcome to the land of wtf!
Well, the first thing you'll notice will certainly be the background. Yeah, I
really wonder where they come up with these things. Probably the second thing
you will notice will be the BGM...it's one of Johann Strauss's waltzes, but I
can't remember the name of it at the moment. The third thing you'll notice is
that you're fighting a piece of paper that folds itself into a paper airplane.
Yes, that's right, you'll be fighting paper airplanes in this course. Just
shoot at them like any other enemy, they take a few shots to kill with a single
laser. After a few of those, a piece of paper will float freely from the top of
the screen. Shoot it before it can do anything. You'll then see a bar with two
arrows on it. Just don't fool around with it and dodge it. You'll see two more
pieces of paper. The one after that doesn't fold itself into a paper airplane -
don't shoot it. Instead it's one of those little things you put in your hand
and make it look like it's talking. You'll know what I'm talking about. Or
maybe you won't. Well anyway, don't shoot it. If you do, it will split into a
bunch of pieces of paper and they will all fall from the sky and it's just
annoying to shoot them all down. If you didn't shoot it, it will try to run
into you. After you shoot another few pieces of paper and another two bars with
arrows, you'll see another one that you shouldn't shoot. Not too long after
that, you'll get three of them in a row, so refrain from shooting. Lalala, more
paper airplanes, and then oh wait what's that? That's definitely...different...
---------------------------
Hey! It's the Slot Machine!
---------------------------
Weapon: Annoyance
Size: 13 and a half
Yes, that's right folks. As the boss of this stage, you'll be "fighting" a slot
machine! Why?
..Why not?
The only problem is, you have to rely completely on luck to beat him. The way
you beat him is to get three 7's in a row! No, I'm not kidding. You'll
recognize the music as "When the Saints Go Marching In" and some other
children's song.
He comes up and does his little dance, and...you guessed it, you have to shoot
the arm to pull it down. So the slots roll, and here's how it plays out. If you
get a cherry, the machine will flip over, and give you some coins. Go collect
them to restore your health. Gold ones are worth more than silver ones. If you
get an Andross (which overrides any cherries you might have), the machine will
flip over and you will get some enemies. Just some missiles and a single laser,
nothing too bad. If you get two cherries or Androsses, the amount of whatever
you get increases. "BAR"s, watermelons, and stars do nothing. 7's do nothing,
unless of course you get three 7's, which is the only way to beat him.
Every now and then, you will get a chance to keep one of the slots, good or
bad. This is indicated by the triangle below the respective slot flashing blue.
If you want to keep that one, then shoot it, and it will freeze the slot for
one turn. I'm pretty sure these things appear at random. One thing to note is
that if you aim too high for the triangles, you'll hit the slots themselves,
which the machine interprets a pulling the arm...so you won't get to keep that
one. Another something to note is that when the machine is upside down and you
are shooting at the missiles it's firing at you, sometimes you'll accidentally
hit a triangle, which may be undesired.
The problem with this boss is that it can take forever to beat him. Sometimes
I've just given up. Other times, by a stroke of luck, I've gotten three 7's the
second time I pulled the arm. It just all depends, man, it all depends.
So you're probably wondering what happens after you beat him. I'd rather you
find out for yourself, but since I want this guide to be complete and all, I'll
throw this last part in here. As soon as you get three 7's, the machine will
start blinking, flip over, and give you a bunch of coins. He will then explode.
After that, the background will stabilize, and you will start to see the
credits. They're the same ones you see at the end of the game, except that here
you're actually flying in front of them. So, fool around for a while, laugh at
Ben Cheese, and wait for the credits to end.
When the credits are done, you'll see the letters "THE END", but they're all
messed up. What you must do is shoot them until they all line up. Letters
placed correctly will be orange. The problem is once you start shooting the
letters, a few enemies show up. And guess what they do? The shoot at your
letters that you worked so hard to place, and mess them up. Not cool. So what
you must do is work quickly, and try to shoot around the letters to destroy the
enemies. Once you've finally got them all in line at the same time, they'll do
a little dance for you...and then they'll be placed randomly again. This time,
the music changes back to when you confronted the slot machine. Put the letters
in order again, if you can. After that, try to do it again. And then do it
again. And again. And again.
Yes, you guessed it again (you're a good guesser!), it goes on forever. I
sometimes wonder why they would do something like this, but then I remember
that we're talking about video games here (certainly no insult meant). It
doesn't really need to have a reason. You see, things like this can always be
answered with two simple questions: Why?
..Why not?
============================================================================
++++++++++++++
+ENDING STUFF+
++++++++++++++
******************
*ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS*
******************
I would like to thank the following people for kindly contributing to this
walkthrough:
-Well, since this is the first version of this guide, no one yet.
I would also like to thank Nintendo for making such a great game, and for
continuing to be the best video game developer out there.
A big thank you to GameFAQs for hosting this, and CJayC for running this
awesome site for so many years.
**********
*FEEDBACK*
**********
------------------
Questions/Comments
------------------
If you enjoyed my guide and/or found it useful, I would very much appreciate it
if you sent a short email my way letting me know. If you have any questions
about Star Fox, this guide, or Oreo cookies, then you can reach me at the email
address below. Also, if you find any mistakes (there must be some) or think
something should be added, drop me a line. If it makes it into the guide,
you'll be credited here at the end of it.
------------------
Needed information
------------------
If you have any information about the following, I would love to include it in
this guide. You will be credited, of course.
-How exactly to get the whale at the end of Sector Y
-Any emulation bugs I haven't listed (under Miscellany -> Emulation Problems)
-Any information regarding the Super Weekend Competition
-The exact release date of Star Fox in North America, as in the day
-------
Contact
-------
Drop me a line at:
darkgreen <underscore> orange <at> yahoo <dot> com
(
[email protected])
*********
*THE END*
*********
Thanks for using my guide! This is darkgreen_orange, signing out.
__ ____ ___ ___ _ _ _
/__\ /__ //\ // // /\ /__//__//| //\\ |\\_ \ \
// //// /// _\ // //__ / _\ /_7 /_7 / |// \\| \ _\ \ /
//_////=////\\ //// //_7///\\ //_ //_ //| / \ |\\ _\ _\ \
/___/// //// \\// \\/___/// \\/__//__/// |/ \| \\\_ \\_ / _
___ ____ ______ _ _ _
/_ //\ /__ //| //// /__/\__\ \\ \\ _
///// _\ // /// |////__ /_7 \_\ _ \ \ |
//////\\ //=////| ///_7///_ _\\\ _\\\ \ = /
/__/// \\// //// |//___//__/ \__\\ __\ | \ \ \ \
