Franchise: Star Fox

The Japanese text for Papetoon, the home planet of Fox McCloud, is "パペトゥーン". Amusingly, this is also the Japanese text for Puppetoons, a Hungarian-American puppet and cartoon series created by George Pal. As the Star Fox series was inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto's love of old puppet dramas such as the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson "supermarionation" television series "Thunderbirds", it could be said that this is a joke that Fox originated from this show.

According to former Nintendo character designer Takaya Imamura, Wolf O'Donnell was inspired by his grandfather, who he described as being a "bad man".

In a June 1997 Nintendo Dream interview with Shigeru Miyamoto regarding Star Fox 64, when asked if he would produce a sequel, Miyamoto responded with:


Funny enough, both of these ideas would come to fruition with future titles such as Star Fox: Assault, which hugely emphasized its multiplayer battle mode, and Star Fox Command, which revisited many of the real-time strategy elements that were previously experimented with in the then-unreleased Star Fox 2.

According to character designer Takaya Imamura, each of the original Star Fox team members were modeled after his fellow Nintendo staff members at the time:

•Fox was based on Shigeru Miyamoto, with Miyamoto said to have a fox-like face.
•Falco was based on Tsuyoshi Watanabe, as the development team laughed over how his nose stuck out like a beak.
•Peppy was based on Katsuya Eguchi, with Eguchi said to have a mouth like a hare.
•Slippy was based on Yoichi Yamada, with Yamada said to have large, round eyes.

Imamura has also stated that he based Andross on his "boss at the time". It remains unknown who at Nintendo he is specifically talking about, though it's been long rumored that Andross was intended as a caricature of then-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who was known for his cutthroat and ruthless ways. However, it's also been speculated that Imamura is referring to Hiroshi Ikeda, the then-manager of Nintendo R&D4 (later EAD) who was also Miyamoto's boss, though it's worth pointing out that Ikeda had stepped down from his position in 1992.

The development for Kid Icarus: Uprising began with a vague concept of a game conceived by Masahiro Sakurai that would switch between aerial and land combat. At the recommendation of then-Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, it was decided to incorporate a pre-existing Nintendo IP onto the concept, and Sakurai would ultimately land on Kid Icarus, as he was aware of its endearing popularity in the west and a desire from fans for a new installment, especially with its protagonist, Pit, being included as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Another IP that was briefly considered was the Star Fox franchise. However, Sakurai ultimately felt that the character of Pit and his universe were more flexible and fitting for the type of game he was creating with Uprising.

During the development of the original Star Fox, character designer Takaya Imamura originally wanted to make the characters generic humans and aliens, similar to his character designs from F-Zero. It was Shigeru Miyamoto who convinced him to instead make them anthropomorphic animals, as he wanted the game's aesthetic to stand out from every other science fiction property coming out at the time.

Fox in particular being a fox was inspired by the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine located near Nintendo's offices.

In a 2011 Nintendo Dream interview with the development staff of Star Fox 64 3D, Yusuke Amano joked that a future Star Fox game could be a dating simulator:

Barring the mistake with calling Fichina "Fortuna" in Star Fox 64, there is only one other main planet in all of the Star Fox series to have a slightly different English name from their original Japanese counterpart, that being Katina, which in Japan is called カタリナ, or Katarina.

In comparison, Katina directly translated into Japanese would be カティナ.

While Star Fox 64 would mark the debut of Star Wolf, the rival team of Star Fox, they were originally meant to debut in Star Fox 2, which was cancelled for twenty years before seeing an official release for the SNES Classic in 2017.

Something that's very peculiar in the final build of Star Fox 2, however, is how most of the mainstays of the Star Wolf team, such as Wolf O'Donnell, Pigma Dengar, and Leon Powalski, are present, all except for one: Andross' nephew, Andrew Oikonny. In his place is what appears to be a lemur character named "Algy", who is described by SF2's online manual as being rumoured to be "the most devious creature in the cosmos".

What makes this even more strange is the fact that Andrew actually was initially conceived for SF2, as a piece of concept art drawn by series' character designer Takaya Imamura portrays him along with Wolf, Leon and Pigma. In fact, there actually exists evidence that, by the time of Star Fox 2's gold build, Algy was still internally referred to as Andrew in the game's source code, which makes it all the more clear that Andrew was indeed planned to be in SF2 before being changed out for Algy.

It's worth pointing out, however, that despite being the main character designer for the first Star Fox, as well as future games like Star Fox 64, Imamura actually had very little to do with Star Fox 2's development, outside of the aforementioned initial Star Wolf concept art and also play-testing and advising towards the end, being only listed as under SF2's "Special Thanks" credits. Another staff member at Nintendo, named Masanao Arimoto, took over his duties as character/sprite designer for SF2. Comparing his final spritework to the original concept art, one could see that Arimoto took a lot of creative liberties with Imamura's initial designs, the latter of which look more closer to how the Star Wolf characters would look in Star Fox 64, with the most glaring example being Andrew transformed into an effectively different character.

It's pretty obvious that when Takaya Imamura returned for Star Fox 64 as its art director, Algy was reverted back into Andrew Oikonny.

In Japan, Pigma Dengar's name is ピグマ・デンガー (Piguma Dengā).

His surname seems to come from the Kansai expression, デンガナマンガナー (Denganamanganā). In the Japanese version of Star Fox games, Pigma tends to speak in Kansai dialect like people from Osaka. In Japan, people from this region are characterized as rude, bad-mannered, and even criminal lowlifes, very befitting of Pigma.

It is worth pointing out, however, that this is considered an offensive stereotype of Kansai people, and they do not enjoy being characterized this way in Japanese media.

Across two interviews with two different Nintendo Dream issues in 2011, Takaya Imamura expressed quite a bit of interest in creating a prequel to Star Fox 64 starring James McCloud and the original Star Fox team, mentioning the idea three times, unprovoked. He also even suggested a future game could be a soft reboot set several years later with a new lead instead of Fox.

From the Star Fox 64 3D Developer interview in the September 2011 issue of Nintendo Dream:


Shortly aftwards, after being asked about the future of the Star Fox series:


In a later interview, Imamura says:


Unfortunately, nothing has ever come of this. All the Star Fox series has seen since then is the release of Star Fox Zero (a reimagining of Star Fox 64), Star Fox Guard (a tower defense game set around the same time), and an official release of the 20-year old game Star Fox 2. Takaya Imamura would retire from Nintendo in early 2021.

When asked about the canonicity of Star Fox Command in relation to its predecessors (those in particular being Star Fox 64, Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox: Assault) in a Reddit AMA, Dylan Cuthbert had this to say:


In turn, many within the Star Fox fandom figured that he was implying that the game itself was not canon to the previous installments. However, years later, Cuthbert would clarify on what he really meant by Command being an "alternate timeline kind of game":


In reality, it seems what Cuthbert really meant was that each playthrough and story path is meant to represent an alternate timeline, not that Command itself was in a separate timeline from 64, Adventures, and Assault. Nintendo Dream's guidebook for Star Fox 64 3D from 2011 would actually include an entire chronological timeline of the series up to that point, beginning with Star Fox 64 and ending with Star Fox Command.

Essentially, all of the game's branching story paths are canon and non-canon at the same time, as there's said to be no true ending as it's up to the players to decide how Command, and perhaps the entire series' chronology as it truly began in 1997, ends. A 2011 Nintendo Dream magazine interview with Dylan Cuthbert, as well as Takaya Imamura, would reiterate this sentiment.

The Aparoids are unique in Star Fox's rogue gallery in that they're the only main enemy forces, at least within the official game canon (which includes "Farewell Beloved Falco", the manga interlude between Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Adventures) to have absolutely no connections or ties to Andross whatsoever:

• In Farewell Beloved Falco, Captain Shears, despite being affiliated with the Cornerian army, was revealed to be a turncoat seeking to revive Andross through cloning.

• In Star Fox Adventures, General Scales and the SharpClaw were revealed to be the unwilling pawns of Andross' ghost, who manipulated them as well as Fox to revive himself using the power of the Krazoa.

• In Star Fox Command, the Emperor Anglar and his Anglar Army are revealed to be bioweapons created by Andross in secret within Venom's acidic oceans.

In particular, the Aparoid Queen is the only final boss in all of the Star Fox series to either not just be Andross again (Star Fox, Star Fox 2, Star Fox 64/Star Fox 64 3D, Star Fox Adventures, Star Fox Zero), nor a creation of his (Star Fox Command).

In a 2002 interview with Takaya Imamura regarding Star Fox Adventures, in which he explains his reasoning for having the characters age over the eight years since Star Fox 64, Imamura had this to say:


Funnily enough, four years later, the "Goodbye Fox" ending in Star Fox Command shows Fox McCloud and Krystal settling down and having a son named Marcus, who then goes on to form an all new Star Fox team, comprising of Slippy's son, Peppy's granddaughter, and even Falco Lombardi, who takes Peppy's place as the older mentor of this new team.

As it currently stands, barring Star Fox 64 3D, Macbeth is the only planet from Star Fox SNES and Star Fox 64 to not have reappeared in future games.

•Corneria, Fichina, Katina, and Fortuna would reappear in Star Fox Assault. Titania and Zoness would appear in Star Fox Assault's multiplayer mode as well.

•Corneria, Fichina, Katina, Solar, Aquas, Titania and Venom would reappear once again in Star Fox Command.

•Corneria, Fortuna, Fichina, Zoness, Titania and Venom would also reappear in Star Fox Zero.

According to the official Japanese Star Fox 64 guidebook, the main driving point for Wolf O'Donnell's rivalry with Fox McCloud is the fact that Wolf was previously rivals with his father, James. This is alluded to in-game with various voice clips from Wolf across Star Fox 64, Star Fox Assault and Star Fox Zero, and it's also reiterated in the timeline of events provided in Star Fox Command's official Japanese guidebook.

The English manual and prologue for Star Fox Adventures implies a bigger backstory for Krystal, in that she's the sole remaining survivor of her doomed home planet, "Cerinia", and that she's been roaming the galaxy in search of answers for the truth of her family's death, until she receives a distress call from Dinosaur Planet. With how the manual states that Krystal "may finally be drawing closer to the truth" behind her parents' and planet's destruction, it seems Rare was loosely implying that Andross, who turns out to be the real villain of Star Fox Adventures and thus the culprit behind Dinosaur Planet's woes, was responsible for Cerinia's destruction. Krystal even says "It's you!" right before Andross imprisons her in the crystal at the top of Krazoa Palace.

However, it would seem the Japanese localization for Star Fox Adventures would completely eschew this backstory, removing all mention of Cerinia and as well as Krystal's dead parents. The Japanese prologue was even heavily simplified to this:


The Japanese website even states that "it is not known what her purpose is", which flies directly in the face of Rare's original story for her, that explicitly states that she was searching for the truth of Cerinia's destruction. To add more insult to injury, there isn't even any Japanese subtitle presented when Krystal gets knocked into the crystal by Andross in Krazoa Palace.

Curiously, the Japanese localization of Star Fox Adventures also heavily emphasizes Krystal having telepathic abilities, much more so than in the English version. This is noteworthy because neither Star Fox Assault or Star Fox Command, the next two story follows up to Star Fox Adventures that were developed and written in Japan, made any sort of mention of Cerinia. Star Fox Assault however would hugely emphasize her telepathic abilities, and its manual even describe Krystal the same way the Japanese version of Star Fox Adventures does, just as "a mysterious telepathic woman". This also applies to her trophies in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U that once again make no reference to Cerinia. It's very clear that the developers and writers behind Assault, Command and Smash Bros. in Japan were using the Japanese version of Star Fox Adventures as a reference, as opposed to the English version.

All in all, it would seem Nintendo of Japan had their own differing vision of what Krystal's character was from Rare, that being mostly just as a telepathic woman with a mysterious background, as opposed to Rare's original backstory of her being the lone survivor of her kind.

After the release of Star Fox 64 3D, Dylan Cuthbert and Q-Games had pitched doing a similar style of remake for the original SNES Star Fox title. However, this was turned down by Nintendo.

All in all, it would seem that the entire Star Fox chronology, at least as it was presented from Star Fox 64 to Star Fox Command, spans roughly 20 years.

Star Fox 64's whole backstory take place across 10 years, beginning with Andross' banishment to Venom and then James' death/betrayal on Venom five years later, and the events of Star Fox 64 taking place another five years later after that. The Japan-only "Farewell Beloved Falco" Manga, the canonical manga follow up to Star Fox 64 and prelude to Star Fox Adventures, would take place four years later, and SFA would take place another four years later after that. Star Fox Assault takes place one year after the events of SFA, and Star Fox Command was said to take place a vague 2-3 years after the events of Assault. This would amount to overall roughly 21-22 years.

Prior to his days as Star Fox's ace pilot, Falco Lombardi was originally a member of a space gang known as "FREE AS A BIRD". Katt Monroe was part of this gang as well. In a 2011 Nintendo Dream interview, Takaya Imamura revealed that when Fox was forming his new Star Fox team in the wake of James' death, he heard stories about how good a pilot Falco was as apart of FREE AS A BIRD, and visited him multiple times to try to convince him to join his new team, as he wanted to have an experienced partner due to still being unsure of himself as a leader.

Though originally mentioned in the background lore for the Japanese version of Star Fox 64, FREE AS A BIRD in its entirety would physically appear in "Farewell Beloved Falco", a canonical manga interquel set between Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Adventures that was never localized outside of Japan.

The name "FREE AS A BIRD" is a reference to the song of the same name composed by English rock band The Beatles. This adds up as both Takaya Imamura and Shigeru Miyamoto were reportedly big fans of the band, with General Pepper's design and name also being a reference to their album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".