While the Brain Squids that float around in Krystal's opening prologue segment at Krazoa Palace are often thought to be the only common enemies in Star Fox Adventures that she can kill (as she is otherwise stripped of her staff and imprisoned at the top of the palace for the rest of the game), it's actually possible for her to kill a SharpClaw during this segment. The player will need to grab a barrel from the hallway before the flame jet room and place it on the pressure plate in the room after the jets, letting Krystal use the barrel generator in that room for a free barrel. After grabbing that barrel, the player will need to run over to the lift, and once they're in the next hallway, they'll have to go left to the watery barrier, opposite of the Krazoa head where the player normally deposits their Krazoa spirit. From there, if the player waits long enough, a SharpClaw will patrol right by on the other side of the barrier, and from there Krystal can throw her barrel on top of him, immediately destroying him.

The floating planetoid representing CloudRunner Fortress on the world map screen in Star Fox Adventures very clearly resembles its original, rockier iteration from the Nintendo 64 version of Dinosaur Planet, as opposed to its remodeled look in the final Star Fox Adventures.

A rendition of Star Fox 64's Area 6 theme can be listened to in Star Fox Adventures' sound test, despite it being otherwise unused in the final game. In a January 10th, 2003 edition of Rare's Scribes, composer David Wise explained that the Area 6 theme was temporarily used as the theme for the final confrontation against Andross, but was always intended to be replaced with the music that plays there now in the final game, which is a rendition of Andross' battle theme from Star Fox 64. According to Wise, this track was literally substituted in the final hours of development, and Rare did not have time to remove it from the final version.

Star Fox Adventures' Japanese localization marks the first and only instance of the Star Fox team's robotic operator, ROB 64, actually being referred to as such in-game (at least through the Japanese subtitles) by his teammates (ロブ), as opposed to by his usual Japanese name, NUS (ナウス). This also occurs in Farewell Beloved Falco, the Japan-only manga prologue to Star Fox Adventures.

The Farewell Beloved Falco manga introduces a new member of FREE AS A BIRD, a blue feline character named Kool. The climax seems to imply that Kool and Katt Monroe have romantic feelings for one another, with Falco Lombardi looking on in approval.

Kool wouldn't appear again after this, and Katt would go back to following Falco in certain story routes in Star Fox Command. When asked about Kool's whereabouts by Nintendo Dream staff in 2011, Takaya Imamura responded with:

Found within the files of Star Fox Adventures is an unused audio track for the WarpStone's introduction cutscene, which also includes verbal dialogue. This was clearly an earlier version before Rare had done a voice-acting retake.

Most notably, the music that plays in the background is a remnant from Dinosaur Planet, from the scene where Krystal first arrives in SwapStone Circle and thus meets her respective SwapStone, Rubble. In the final Star Fox Adventures, music performed by bagpipes is played instead in this particular cutscene.

One of the enemies Sabre and Krystal would encounter in Dinosaur Planet were these robotic Scorpion-like automatons, typically found in Krazoa-build strongholds such as the Force Point Temples and Cape Claw. While removed in the final Star Fox Adventures, they could still be found hidden within the E3 2002 kiosk version via hacking.

Star Fox Adventures was at one point called "Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet". This name referenced both original incarnations of the game, Rare's "Dinosaur Planet" and also Nintendo EAD's "Star Fox Adventures" that was in development around the same time; both ended up being merged into the same project, hence the original title, though sometime before release, the "Dinosaur Planet" subtitle was dropped, leaving the final game named as just Star Fox Adventures.

Curiously, when looking at Star Fox Adventures save data on a GCN memory card, it actually includes its original "Dinosaur Planet" subtitle. This also carries over to the Wii's GameCube data card management menu.

Found within the E3 2002 kiosk version of Star Fox Adventures is an unused cutscene of Fox talking with Tricky, Peppy and Slippy after placing presumably the final SpellStone. Various unused SFA voice clips sync up perfectly with this sequence, revealing the dialogue exchange to be:


This presents bit of a different story from what is presented in the final game. In the retail release, it's discovered that returning all of the SpellStones to the Force Point Temples does not single handily restore Dinosaur Planet to its original state, and that Fox also needs to return all of the Krazoa spirits to Krazoa Palace to fully stabilize the planet, in addition to freeing Krystal from Krazoa Palace.

Here, it does seem returning the SpellStones restores the planet, and collecting the Krazoa spirits is for a separate task, that being merely freeing Krystal.

What exists as LightFoot Village in Star Fox Adventures was originally merely a subarea in a greater location known as SwapStone Circle in Dinosaur Planet. This was essentially Krystal's equivalent to Sabre's SwapStone Hollow, acting as a hub for her adventure and thus connecting together her stages such as Cape Claw, BlackWater Canyon, Discovery Falls, Golden Plains and Moon Mountain Pass. It was also where she'd utilize her namesake SwapStone, Rubble, to transport to Warlock Mountain to deposit Krazoa spirits.

In the transition to Star Fox Adventures, when it was decided to scrap Krystal's co-protagonist role, thus leaving Fox as the only playable character outside of the prologue, Krystal's stages were either removed entirely or given to and reworked for Fox. SwapStone Circle as such would be heavily revamped, expunging the SwapStone element and heavily expanding the LightFoot Village mini-area into its own full distinct location. Similarly to Dinosaur Planet, the area would link to Cape Claw. It's worth noting that within the game files, LightFoot Village is internally called "SwapCircle", as ThornTail Hollow is similarly internally called "SwapHol", referencing their original names.

In Dinosaur Planet, Krystal and Kyte were tasked by the LightFoot to lit their ancient beacons that had gone out. Doing this in turn would reward them access to Discovery Falls. This quest would appear in the final Star Fox Adventures, but re-contextualized as the ThornTails in ThornTail Hollow asking for Fox and Tricky for help in reigniting their beacons, and doing so rewards them a key that let them access Moon Mountain Pass, as well as the Volcano Force Point Temple.

What exists as ThornTail Hollow in Star Fox Adventures was originally called SwapStone Hollow in Dinosaur Planet. It more or less functioned the same as it does in SFA, serving as the hub for Sabre's adventure, connecting his stages such as SnowHorn Wastes, Walled City, Diamond Bay, Willow Grove and Dragon Rock. It was where he'd utilize his namesake SwapStone, Rocky, to transport to Warlock Mountain to deposit Krazoa spirits.

ThornTail Hollow retains most of the same layout, but has noticeable differences: the shop that was originally situated underneath the SwapStone (now WarpStone, as the character swapping mechanic was dropped with Krystal's co-protagonist role scrapped) is now its own distinct establishment settled in the middle of the map. The winding series of tunnels right by the Swap/WarpStone has been replaced by the Mother ThornTail egg mini-game. The areas it was originally connected to such as Willow Grove, Walled City, Diamond Bay and Dragon Rock were either entirely removed or split off the mainland Dinosaur Planet in orbit. ThornTail Hollow also now leads into Moon Mountain Pass on the right side of the area, and what originally led to Willow Grove in the bottom left now leads into LightFoot Village.

Golden Plains was another of Krystal's stages in Dinosaur Planet that was cut in the transition to Star Fox Adventures. It was an open desert area that Krystal and Kyte would have to trek through in order to reach the Desert Force Point Temple. It would be home to other interests, such as the spell page for the Portal ability required to open the way into the Desert Force Point, another jetbike race, and as well as Krystal's final Krazoa shrine test, the Test of Knowledge.

Golden Plains featured a unique mechanic in that Krystal's energy would be drained by visiting this area during the day because of the extreme heat, hence why the SpellStone guardian previously encountered at CloudRunner Fortress (who appears in Star Fox Adventures under the name of "Gradabug") warns her to instead travel at night when the sun is gone.

Golden Plains was removed in the final Star Fox Adventures, but some of its elements would remain: the Desert Force Point Temple was reworked into the Ocean Force Point Temple and would be now accessed through Cape Claw. The Ocean Force Point would even inherent Golden Plain's original background music. The Test of Knowledge would be moved over to the top of the temple in the Walled City and fittingly enough would be Fox's final true Krazoa test, although one more was planned in place of the General Scales "boss fight" in Krazoa Palace.

One of Krystal's many areas from Dinosaur Planet that got scrapped in the transition to Star Fox Adventures was Discovery Falls, which consisted of a massive series of waterfalls and hidden caves. This was the first area that Krystal was meant to visit after rescuing Princess Kyte from the SharpClaw within Cape Claw, and was also home to her first Krazoa shrine test, the Test of Combat. Other notable characters encountered here include a member of the HighTop tribe (a race of sauropods), a friendly SharpClaw that teaches Krystal the Foodbag mechanic, and a mysterious mole creature that Krystal must feed in order to to help her dig additional tunnels within one of the caverns. This mole creature, internally referred to as "DFmole" in the game files, has been affectionately named "Capy" (short for "capybara") by some within the Dinosaur Planet community. This area was also where Krystal would eventually acquire an artifact of the Krazoa that would let her access more areas previously barred off in Cape Claw.

As mentioned before, this area would be scrapped entirely in the final Star Fox Adventures game, but some elements of it would live on elsewhere, namely the Test of Combat (which now exists in Moon Mountain Pass, fittingly as Fox's first test) and its background music, which now plays in Cape Claw, and was also remixed in romantic saxophone form as Krystal's theme.

Found within the files of the E3 2002 kiosk of Star Fox Adventures is a file called STORYBOARD.bin which reveals a set of storyboard images pertaining to a cut subplot in Dinosaur Planet's CloudRunner Fortress that would have dealt with Princess Kyte's traitorous uncle.

It seemed for two centuries, Kyte's uncle had been cast out by his tribe and now was seeking vengeance by allying himself with General Scales and the SharpClaw. It appears that Krystal and Kyte would combat and defeat this evil uncle, resulting in General Scales betraying him, and in retaliation, Kyte's uncle would attempt to perform a kamikaze attack on Scales and thus sacrifice himself.

While the storyboards otherwise are mostly similar to what is presented in the Dinosaur Planet condensed story and also leaked December 2000 build, there are some notable differences, just to name a few: as Krystal and Kyte enter CloudRunner Fortress, they witness a CloudRunner soldier get killed by one of the SharpClaw's spaceships (presumably provided to them by Drakor). The imprisoned SpellStone guardian, presented as a pachycephalosaurid type dinosaur from the BoneHead tribe in the leaked Dinosaur Planet build (who also appears in Star Fox Adventures with the name "Gradabug") is illustrated as more of a strange stegosaurid type of dinosaur here.

It's rather apparent that these storyboards were meant to pertain to a subarea within CloudRunner Fortress that had already been scrapped by the time of the condensed Dinosaur Planet story and also leaked build: the Trap Rooms, which would of featured an extra set of puzzles and challenges Krystal had to solve before acquiring the area's SpellStone. The storyboards show that the Trap Rooms were to be accessed through the underwater passage in the Fortress' main courtyard, which in the leaked build, instead leads to the jetbike race (in the final Star Fox Adventures, Fox accesses it through the CloudRunner's treasure rooms. Funny enough, Adventures' CloudRunner Fortress also has a scrapped area found beyond the Fortress' flooded courtyard pathway). It is worth pointing out that the March 1999 level list includes "CloudRunner - Treasure", "Dungeon", and "TrapRooms", but doesn't feature "CloudRunner - Race", which makes it all the more apparent the latter replaced the Trap Rooms in the December 2000 build, which would then carry over into Star Fox Adventures.

The original Dinosaur Planet storyline had Sauria, the namesake Dinosaur Planet, a part a group of eight planets dubbed the "Majestic Eight". Said to be the first planets created when the universe began, the seven other were, as described by the Krazoa:

• Animus, the home world of Sabre, Krystal and Randorn
• Aleminach, the home world of the Krazoa
• Eridal, the home world of Drakor's race, the Kamerians
• Nibiru, the home world of the "Nephilim", and "a land of giants"
• Earth, the home world of the "newest universe members, a very evil race, the humans"
• Melqua, a planet of water with rings of gold
• Selaf, the home world of the "Anunnaki"

Interestingly, in place of Animus, the voice lines for the Krazoa in Warlock Mountain instead mention Corneria. Obviously, this was to accommodate the presence of Fox McCloud in the leaked December 2000 build of Dinosaur Planet, as it was beginning to transition into Star Fox Adventures.

Some of these reference actual myths and conspiracies, such as the Nibiru Cataclysm, a doomsday theory that states that Earth will catastrophically collide with another planet, typically believed to be an object known as "Planet X" or Nibiru. The "Annunaki" are a group of deities in ancient Sumerian myths that are theorized by some as aliens from a planet called Nibiru that came to Earth to harvest gold, and also were reptilian humanoids. The myths surrounding the "Nephilim" tend to vary: some say they were giants (as mentioned by the Krazoa in DP) while others say that they were fallen angels or the offspring of humans and angels.

Each of the eight spirits Sabre and Krystal were told to collect by the Krazoa during their adventures were meant to represent these eight planets. The ultimate endgame of the Krazoa in Dinosaur Planet's original narrative was to align these Majestic Eight worlds by reuniting the eight spirits of Quan Ata Lachu (a deity the Krazoa worship) at Warlock Mountain in order to revive their people and bring "peace" to the universe. In reality, as Drakor describes it, this will result in the most deadly weapon in the universe, as the alignment of the Majestic Eight gives the Quan Ata Lachu (described by Drakor as being "a rare lifeform of pure evil") the opportunity to utilize the immense powerful energy that this will produce, and it will be focused through Warlock Mountain, creating the ultimate weapon of destruction that will allow the Krazoa to remold the universe into their image/liking, spreading disease, terror and chaos as they please. This is why Drakor has come to Sauria to revive the Kamerian war dragon that fell in battle against the Krazoa at the beginning of the universe, to prevent this from happening and exact revenge against the Krazoa.

This plotline would be revised and ultimately dropped in the final Star Fox Adventures game, as Dinosaur Planet is said to just simply exist in the Lylat System, and Krystal's home planet was renamed to Cerinia and was said to be mysteriously destroyed, hence why she's searching the galaxy for the truth of the death of her family (though this was omitted in the Japanese version). The plotline of Fox collecting the Krazoa spirits in promise of something good (in this case, saving Krystal from the top of Krazoa Palace and ultimately putting Dinosaur Planet back together) would in someway remain, but would instead result in Andross reviving himself as the true final boss of Star Fox Adventures.

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.

Many fans today recognize Star Fox Adventure's Shopkeeper's name as "Shabunga". However, the game's development team never intended the Shopkeeper character to have a name, even as far back when it was still Dinosaur Planet.

"Shabunga" was initially the name of a cut NPC character from Dinosaur Planet, a mutant creature that Sabre/Fox and Tricky would come across in an area known as Willow Grove, the bridge between SwapStone Hollow (ThornTail Hollow in SFA) and Dragon Rock, which was becoming a strange and mutated land as a result of General Scales' and Drakor's actions within the latter area, which was also mutating its inhabitants. As such, Shabunga, and supposedly other mutants according to the Dinosaur Planet condensed story (though none appear in the leaked December 2000 build) were cast off and sealed away within Willow Grove by the ThornTails that lived in SwapStone Hollow, frightened by their now warped appearances.

This mutant character was said to be an alchemist and also one of the SpellStone guardians, and thus was required to revitalize General Scales' Kamerian Belt (or "Krazoa Star" as Shabunga puts it), to allow Sabre and Tricky to enter the mutated wasteland Dragon Rock unharmed, and would later be required activate the SpellStone acquired from defeating Dragon Rock's boss, the Kamerian Heart.

With Willow Grove removed in the final game, Shabunga would appear in SFA as an enemy type known as the "FireCrawler" that appears in Moon Mountain Pass and also all over Dragon Rock. His role as the SpellStone GateKeeper of Dragon Rock would then be given to a generic quiet ThornTail that resides in ThornTail Hollow.

Curiously, SFA's Nintendo Power guidebook and also official English website would both re-appropriate the mutant's name to the Shopkeeper, claiming his name to be "Shabunga", despite the actual game just merely referring to him as the Shopkeeper. It turns out there's a reason for this: looking at the Japanese localization for Star Fox Adventures, it appears that NCL did indeed repurpose the "Shabunga" name behind Rare's back for the Shopkeeper as he's called that both in-game and also all over its ancillary material. For example, in the Japanese version of SFA, the ThornTail Store is renamed to シャブンガの店 (Shabunga no mise), which translates to Shabunga's Shop in English.

Another notable example is when Fox is talking to the Blue SnowHorn in SnowHorn Wastes; in the English version, the latter has this to say:


Retranslating the Japanese subtitles in the Japanese version of the game, however, reveals:


It would seem that whoever wrote the Nintendo Power SFA guide was given the memo about this.

Star Fox Adventures began development as Dinosaur Planet, which originally began development as a direct sequel to Diddy Kong Racing, starring Timber the Tiger (who himself was intended as the main character of DKR when it was Pro-Am 64, before Donkey Kong characters were incorporated into it). It was pitched as an adventure/racing hybrid where Timber, equipped with a rucksack, little fingerless gloves, and a baseball cap would go back in time and team up with a younger version of Tricky, a boss from the first DKR. Wizpig, the main antagonist and final boss of the first Diddy Kong Racing, was also involved. It would seem a working title for this iteration of the game was "Dino Island", going by several posts on former Rare employee Ed Bryan's Twitter account.

Eventually it was decided to rework the concept into an entirely new original IP with no story connections to DKR and two new main characters, named Sabre and Krystal, and also make it a full-on action-adventure game directly inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. DP/SFA's various racing segments are said to be remnants of the original DKR successor concept, and while he retained the name of the DKR boss (something Rare seems to regret), Tricky would wind up becoming his own distinct character. Several files within DP/SFA's data also mention Timber, obviously a remnant from when he was the star.

Sabre and Krystal were in turn eventually replaced by Fox McCloud as the main playable character when the game was rebranded into what we know today as Star Fox Adventures, though Tricky would remain as his sidekick and Krystal would remain as a main character.

Since Star Fox Adventures was in development at the same time as Melee, the cast of that game would voice Fox (Steve Malpass), Falco (Ben Cullum), and Peppy and Slippy (Chris Seavor) within the English versions of the Corneria and Venom stages, despite both of them being based on Star Fox 64.

Concept artwork for the ShopKeeper, Shabunga, shows him to be more corpulent than compared to how he appears in the final game.