In Japan, Slippy Toad's father, Beltino, is called ベルツィーノ(Berutsīno) which comes from ベルツノガエル (Berutsunogaeru), meaning Bert's frog or Belted frog. This is also the Japanese name for the Argentine horned frog, better known as a Pacman frog. Funny enough, after being alluded to on the Japanese Star Fox 64 website, Beltino would go on to have a major role in Star Fox: Assault, which was developed by Namco, the creators of Pac-Man.

The Aparoids, the main enemy forces of Star Fox: Assault, are in some ways a homage to the Galaxians from the Galaxian/Galaga franchise, a fixed shooter series about fighting off invading alien insects that was originally created by Namco (now Bandai Namco), who also developed Star Fox: Assault. One of Assault's producers from Namco, Tsuyoshi Kobayashi, admitted to this in an interview with Nintendo Official Magazine.


One could say that Star Fox: Assault's story of the Aparoids (which more or less act as expys of the Galaxians) invading the Lylat System could be a meta reference to the fact that this game was a Nintendo x Namco crossover and collaboration, which is also emphasized with the collectable Special Flags (which have appeared in several Namco developed games) found throughout Assault's campaign, as well as there being unlockable old Namco arcade games like Xevious, Battle City, and Star Luster, at least in the Japanese version (only Xevious was available in the western versions of the game).

The subtitle of Star Fox: Assault was suggested by Nintendo of America. Initially, there were legal concerns as Namco had already trademarked the name "Assault" for their 1988 arcade game of the same name. Fortunately for Nintendo, the trademark was only valid within Japan, and Namco, who were already the developers for Star Fox: Assault, had granted them permission to use the title.

Star Fox: Assault is notable for including three unlockable Famicom/NES games originally created by Namco:

• Xevious
• Battle City
• Star Luster

As explained by the development team in an issue of Nintendo Dream, this was done to highlight Star Fox: Assault being a collaboration between Nintendo and Namco, with the latter being its primary developer. With the Star Fox franchise being a sci-fi shooter series, Tsuyoshi Kobayashi and Takaya Imamura had carefully decided on which classic Namco games would fit the best with that vibe. There were considerations to also include Nintendo created Famicom/NES games (one person, for example, had suggested including Balloon Fight), but ultimately Imamura and Kobayashi couldn't come up with any games that would have fit the Star Fox world and atmosphere.

Unfortunately, as the Famicom versions of Battle City and Star Luster had never been released in Western territories, they in turn were excluded from all Western versions of Star Fox: Assault, leaving Xevious as the only unlockable Namco game outside of Japan.

Some lines in the opening prologue stage for Star Fox: Assault contain allusions towards dialogue from Area 6, one of Star Fox 64's final stages. In the latter, Caiman says near the end that "The last line has been breached!", and the Area 6 commander will respond with "These guys are crazy!". In the Japanese version of Star Fox 64, the latter instead says "こいつら、化け物か！" (These guys are monsters!)

In Star Fox: Assault's prologue, one of the ape soldiers apart of Oikonny's rebellion will similarly shout that "Our final line of defense has been penetrated!". Oikonny in response says "Is this guy some kind of demon?". In the Japanese version of Assault, he instead says "コイツら化け物か？" (Are these guys monsters?), which makes it much more clear that it's meant to be a callback to Area 6's dialogue. This intention was confirmed by producer Takaya Imamura in a 2005 Nintendo Dream interview with Star Fox: Assault's development team.