Franchise: Star Fox

According to Takaya Imamura in the Nintendo Dream magazine, before Star Fox became the name of the series, they thought of other names for the series, like 'Star Glider' and 'starcraft'. The idea for the 'Star Fox' title came from Star Wars' title 'Star', and the main protagonist Fox McCloud's 'Fox' race.

Star Fox was originally a 3D tech demo converted into a rail shooter. Fox's concept and the idea of flying through rings came from Shigeru Miyamoto visiting a shrine of Inari (a Japanese deity associated with foxes and also believed to fly) that is located right outside of Kyoto, Japan.

The Japanese name of the Star Fox series' main antagonist, Andross, is アンドルフ (Andorf).

According to Takaya Imamura in a 2002 Nintendo Dream magazine interview, the name was deprived from “Andromeda”, and his name was changed to Andross in the Western localizations because of fears that his original name had "Nazi overtones", presumably suggesting the name's spelling had similarities to dictator Adolf Hitler, as アンドルフ can also be anglicized as "Andolf".

F-Zero has several tie-ins with the Star Fox series. The character James McCloud shares the name of Fox's father from Star Fox, and the characters have many other similarities:
•They wear the same outfit.
•Both drive drive ships powered by G-Diffusers that were designed by a company named "Space Dynamics".
•F-Zero's James McCloud also is the squadron leader of a space combat team known as "Galaxy Dogs", a clear parody of Star Fox, and his partner, a man named O'Donnell, is a likely reference to Star Fox's Wolf O'Donnell.
•In F-Zero X, James McCloud even states the he "drives like a sly fox", furthering the connection.

According to Takaya Imamura in a 2011 Nintendo Dream magazine interview, frogs in the Lylat System are born as tadpoles and remain as such until they're a month old. He even explains that Slippy and Amanda's baby seen in the "Slippy's Resolve" ending in Star Fox Command was one month old already, hence why it appears as a frog. Imamura would later illustrate this fact in comic form to commemorate the release of Star Fox Zero.

Pigma Dengar's surname is a reference to people in Japan with a Kansai dialect. In the Japanese version of Star Fox 64, Pigma speaks with a Kansai dialect. People with the dialect tend to end their sentences with the word 'dengar'.

ROB 64 in Japan is called NUS (ナウス) 64 and is named after the Nintendo Ultra Sixty Four, the original name given to the Nintendo 64 console. NUS also appears in serial numbers of various Nintendo products.

Prior to Star Fox Zero, there were two attempts in previous installments to revitalize the concept of the Walker from Star Fox 2, or at least the idea of the Arwing transforming into a robot form, those specifically being Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Command, games that both aimed at preserving ideas from the then-long-lost Star Fox 2.

• For Star Fox 64, according to Shigeru Miyamoto in an interview at the end of the Star Fox 64 Official Player's Guide, he wanted to have the Arwing transform into "a human-type craft". This was rejected by other staff members of the SF64 development team. In response, Miyamoto told his team to come up with better ideas, and from there they created the Landmaster and Blue Marine for additional vehicles.

• For Star Fox Command, according to Takaya Imamura in an interview in 2007, the dev team experimented with having the Arwing and other spacecraft transform into robots, but this was ultimately dropped.

All of the Star Fox pilots have robotic legs. It is theorized that they had their legs amputated to prevent blood from rushing down to them in the high G-forces they would experience, causing them to pass out. Modern day pilots wear tight fitting clothing around their legs for the same reason.

According to Shigeru Miyamoto in an edition of Iwata Asks regarding Star Fox 64 3D, Yusuke Amano originally wanted to create an all new Star Fox title for the Nintendo 3DS. However, the higher ups at Nintendo wanted a game that could be released fast for the 3DS' launch window in 2011, whereas a fully original title would require at least three years to make. Thus the project was reduced into a simplistic remake of Star Fox 64. Miyamoto called upon Dylan Cuthbert and Q-Games, who previously had worked on Star Fox Command in for the Nintendo DS in 2006, to assist development.

The barrel roll as seen in Star Fox is not a barrel roll at all, but rather an aileron roll. It's only in Star Fox: Assault that you can actually perform a barrel roll.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 official Japanese Star Fox 64 guidebook reveals that Andrew Oikonny was essentially forced onto the Star Wolf team purely out of nepotism on Andross' part, and that he was actively disliked by his teammates due to his poor piloting skills and also massive ego in regards to his relationship with Andross. Effectively, the only reason Wolf put up with him during the events of Star Fox 64 was due to the fact that he was using said connections to Andross to provide his team with immeasurable technological and financial backup.

A timeline of events provided in Star Fox Command's official guidebook claims that after Andross' defeat at the end of SF64, the Star Wolf team moved away from the Venom army effective immediately and in turn kicked out Andrew, who no longer had the support of his now deceased uncle, hence why at the beginning of Star Fox: Assault, he's on his own trying to rebel against Corneria using the remnants of Andross' forces.

According to Takaya Imamura in a 2011 Nintendo Dream magazine interview, planet Papetoon, the homeworld of Fox McCloud as well as his father James and also Peppy Hare, actually exists outside of the Lylat System, approximately 10,000 light years away from it and Corneria. Imamura even states that the characters have to use warps to come and go.

This was alluded to in "The Curse of Pigma" ending in Star Fox Command, where Falco says:


For comparison's sake, in the Japanese script, he says:

According to the brochures distributed with Star Fox 64 3D in Japanese retail stores in 2011, it was Pigma Dengar who designed the Star Fox logo during his tenure with the original team, before he betrayed them.

In Japan, Andrew Oikonny's name is アンドリュー・オイッコニー (Andoryū Oikkonī).

His surname seems to be a pun on the Japanese word for nephew, 甥っ子 (Oi-kko). Obviously this is a pun/reference to the fact that Andross is canonically Andrew's uncle.