"William's Star Fox FAQ" version 1.0 by William Matheson Published October 23rd, 2001 This entire FAQ Copyright (c) 2000 William Matheson All other things Star Fox are the property of Nintendo. Star Fox was published in America in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Star Fox is called 'Star Wing' in the United Kingdom. Go figure. William Matheson can be found on the World Wide Web at: http://www.willmatheson.com and the lastest version of this FAQ can be found either there or at GameFAQs. If you want to post this on your own website, go ahead, but don't make any alterations to it, and leave it intact. If you want to do anything else, contact me to ask permission. My e-mail address is starfoxfaq@willmatheson.com. Please do not ask me any questions about the game. If you can't find what you're looking for at first glance, I suggest you use the search function of your word proccessor and type in a word related to what you're having trouble with. E-mails that I DO want to pick up are ones that suggest corrections or perhaps ask for clairifications. Also, if you know something I don't about this game (which is very possible), then please don't hesitate to contact me; if your addition makes the FAQ, full credit will be given to you. And if you just want someone to talk to, that's okay too. "William's Star Fox FAQ" version 1.0 by William Matheson CONTENTS / FLIGHT OUTLINE: I - Introduction II - Training - Training: Planet IV - Corneria (the easy stage!) III - Level 1 Flythrough (same as a walkthrough, but that term seems inappropriate for this kind of game) - Stage 1: Planet IV - Corneria (daytime) - Stage 2: Asteroid Belt ... from here you can travel to: - Stage 3: The Awesome Black Hole ... or continue with the level: - Stage 3: The Andross Space Armada - Stage 4: Battle Base Meteor - Stage 5: Venom (space over Venom) - Stage 6: Planet I - Venom IV - Level 2 Flythrough - Stage 1: Planet IV - Corneria (daytime) - Stage 2: Sector X (space over Corneria) - Stage 3: Planet II - Titania - Stage 4: Sector Y - Stage 5: Venom (space over Venom) - Stage 6: Venom (sky tunnel) V - Level 3 Flythrough - Stage 1: Planet IV - Corneria (evening) - Stage 2: Asteroid Belt ... from here you can travel to: - Stage 3: Out Of This Dimension ... or continue with the level: - Stage 3: Planet V - Fortuna - Stage 4: Sector Z - Stage 5: Planet III - Macbeth - Stage 6: Venom (space over Venom) - Stage 7: Planet I - Venom VI - Codes, Cheats, and Tricks - Object Manipulation - Strange Music VII - Conclusion Note: Since I may sometimes make the game sound easy, I have to remember that this is really a difficult game. Getting through each level will take you many, many tries; please don't get discouraged. I am sure that you can do it! ================ I - Introduction ================ Finally, I say to myself. This will be the FAQ I can actually complete. Star Fox is a small enough game - at least compared to behemoths like Xenogears and Gran Turismo 2 for the PlayStation. I will also be able to brag that this is the best Star Fox FAQ by far available on the internet. Most other FAQs only review Level 1, the middle route to Venom from Corneria. Not so with this FAQ - here, you get the whole game. I can honestly suggest that this is the only file you'll need. Let's talk about the actual game now. Star Fox was an important milestone in video game history, for it was the first Super NES game to use polygons or real 3-D scaling. To accomplish this, a special kind of math coprocessor that was relatively cheap to construct and mass-produce was installed inside the cart. This chip was named the "Super FX chip." But what is a polygon? Well, all the games being developed now use polygons, but now it's commonplace to see tens of millions of polygons being used at once on your screen. New systems like the Sony PlayStation 2 use so many so well that sports games look like live TV, and RPGs now look like animated movies. Older games didn't use polygons much, because the processing power just wasn't there. Take an old game like Super Mario Bros., for instance. That particular game uses only bitmaps, so all of Mario's moves are part of an animation. For a game that only utilizes one or few points of view, though, polygons would be less useful anyway. The idea behind polygons is that you want the computer to be able to reconstruct the image you should be seeing no matter where you stand. Imagine how slow and how much of a disk hog Descent 3 would be if a new graphic had to be called up every time you move. Actually, it'd be next to impossible, wouldn't it? You can still do 3-D without scaling or polygons, though. Take Super Star Wars, for instance. Actually, it's fake 3-D - something called Mode 7 where the bitmap of the ground is flattened out and you can zip over it in any direction. You'll also see Mode 7 in games like Final Fantasy VI. Back to SSW, though, if you play the game you'll notice that all the things coming at you look flat, and when they approach and retreat, it doesn't happen very smoothly. That's because the game has to call up a new image for all the different distances away the object is supposed to be. Meanwhile, Star Fox uses the polygons (albeit hundreds and not millions, plus the shapes that are used are pretty basic - remember, this is the Super Nintendo) and the limits are suddenly gone. The scaling becomes nearly perfect. Objects can now rotate freely. It's a 3-D world! Mind, there's a long stretch of innovations that line the road between Star Fox and, say, Super Mario 64. (I'm not too keen on talking about Star Fox 64 - it's a good game, but I don't feel that it was very consistent with the story and world laid out in the Super NES game.) Anyway, enough about mathematical objects. The game lies before us. ============= II - Training ============= The training level allows you to get a feel for the controls and practice some advanced maneuvers. ------------------------------ Training: Planet IV - Corneria ------------------------------ Now, let's get the hang of the controls and have some fun. General Pepper says you should use control type a or b, and I think he's right. One might think that using c or d is better because you press up to fly up, and down to fly down - but it just doesn't work somehow. And this is besides the reality that a flight yoke on a real plane works the other way around - down means up and up means down. I thus recommend you go with Pepper on this one. Now there are two major things you can do in training mode. First, you can see how many rings you can fly through before missing one. You'll want to fire your retros (B button by default) after rings six and ten, and using the closer chase view (push SELECT) will also help. Flying through all 15 allows you to skip the manoeuvers training with your wingmen, and Pepper tells you he's sorry for doubting you. You can keep flying through rings on into next year if you like; I've flown through well over one hundred myself, and as far as I know Pepper doesn't say anything more. I think that first time players should learn to get through the set of 15 rings at least once - then you can be confident that you know the controls, and you won't be sending me e-mails about how you follow my suggestions but still can't make it past certain stages. If you can fly through a hundred rings you should be playing Level 3! You might want to miss some rings so you get a shot at flying alongside your teammates - plus you'll get a chance to play with some objects on the ground again. See that wire frame ship that appears in the middle? That's supposed to be you. Here's how to follow along: left, right, left, up, down, tilt left, tilt right, roll left, left, roll moving right, roll moving left, right. Using the close-up chase view probably isn't an advantage with this. If you can get the compliment from Slippy, it's time to play Level 3. Mastery of the L and R buttons to angle and roll is essential if you want Slippy to compliment you at the end. To see this, you can't let Peppy snap at you to stay in formation even once. If you're really awful, Falco will ask what's wrong with you. Rolling might seem like a useless thing to learn, but it isn't; rolling your ship lets you deflect laser blasts, and there's no way you'll be able to get through Level 2 and beyond without knowing how. To roll, you tap either the L or the R button twice really fast. You'll get it with time. Here it is again, in case you missed it: The most important maneuver in the game is the barrel roll. If you can master rolling and shooting at the same time, you'll blaze right through these stages: Asteroid Belts, Space Armada, Meteor, Sectors X and Z, Titania, Macbeth, and the space over Venom stages - to name a few. ======================== III - Level 1 Flythrough ======================== Pepper says that the last resort to thwart Andross is counter-attacking Venom. That makes sense; what doesn't make sense is how the course that takes you directly through Andross' fleet and runs you over a battle base turns out to be the easiest! Level 1 is still of interest even to veteran players as it is the way to get to the Awesome Black Hole, from which you can warp to the Level 1 Venom (space) stage, the Level 2 Sector Y stage, or the Level 3 Sector Z stage. That doesn't make the game any easier, though, only shorter. By skipping stages you'll miss out on points for defeating enemies, and therefore you'll get fewer or no continues. ------------------------------------------------ Level 1, Stage 1 - Planet IV: Corneria (daytime) ------------------------------------------------ Pepper calls it: CORNERIA - THE BASE Boss: Advance Scout Mother Ship ATTACK CARRIER I love the opening scenes to this game. First, of course, you see the Attack Carrier approaching Cornerian space. Better is the launch sequence out of the base and the check-ins from your wingmen. You can sense that this is going to be a cool game. Follow Slippy through all those arches and you can collect a twin blaster powerup! Those things should be your best friend in the game, and I'll be sure to tell you where to collect them. After a while, Falco or perhaps another wingman will go after two fighters on his own. Let him. Get used to seeing this in nearly every stage of the game - all you have to do is keep your finger off the Y button for a few moments. Don't worry; anything a wingman shoots down adds to your percentage total at the end of the stage. After Falco burns the enemy fighters into grit, you'll fly through the city, which is very nice. See if you can angle yourself to fly between the buildings if you feel like it. Near the end of the city you'll see a row of red buldings along the right side of the corridor - fly to right of those to collect a nova bomb. You don't really need nova bombs most of the time, but they're fun to collect. Make sure to fly through the blue ring. Fly through those blue and yellow rings; they regenerate your shield, repair any wing damage (I'll discuss that in the flythrough for Level 1, Stage 3), and the blue ones work as continue points if you lose a ship. Soon after the blue ring, Peppy will fly out in front, being chased by an enemy fighter. Shoot down the enemy fighter! If you leave it too long, it fires on your wingman - and if they get hit too many times, they're out of the game! You don't want Fox to be alone during the ending, do you? Again, get used to this sort of thing as it happens in nearly every stage and you need to be ready for it. Hey, were you shooting down walkers through this stage? Shame on you! They're just doing their job! Oh, well. Bring on the boss. +++Advance Scout Mother Ship ATTACK CARRIER+++ This boss isn't exactly difficult. When the hangar doors open, shoot at them - if your aim is good you'll be able to fry the hangars before it can launch any fighters. Then the missle doors open on the left, and you shoot at those, preferably destroying them before it fires a missle at you, which you'll have to shoot down. After destroying the hangar and missle bays, the ship itself begins flying towards you, firing its plasma guns. Just roll your ship to deflect them while firing at the ship yourself. Then it will turn around, letting you just sit and fire into the back of it! Boom. Off to the Asteroid Field. -------------------------------- Level 1, Stage 2 - Asteroid Belt -------------------------------- Pepper calls it: ASTEROID BELT Boss: Asteroid Destroyer ROCK CRUSHER Sure, Andross wants to build a base in this area, but I think that the real purpose of the Rock Crusher is to clear a path so that the bulk of Andross' fleet can reach Corneria. Science note: I don't know about the Lylat System, but here at home in the Solar System our asteroid belt is far less dense. Remember those Voyager probes NASA sent out so we could take a peek at the gas giants? There are millions and millions and millions of asteroids, sure, but you have to remember that space is BIG and asteroids are pretty tiny. Anyway, the folks at NASA tried very hard, but never managed to create a flight plan that would allow one of those probes to get near even one asteroid. It would be hard to imagine an asteroid belt this dense being formed anywhere - where would you get the material? As soon as you fly into the level, your view is switched to cockpit mode. Boo-yah! My favorite! Now you have no excuse not to shoot down every last one of those pesky enemy fighters. When you see those long articulated things with the blue heads you can just shoot the heads to roast the entire creature at once. It saves time. You can shoot gold asteroids, but not silver ones. When Peppy heads out front to zap some fighters, you'll see a three gold asteroids lined up in a triangle. Fly through it and collect the twin blaster powerup! Now, if you were keen enough to keep your wings intact since you picked up the first twin blaster in Stage 1, you'll get the Photon Shot! Ka-pow! If you can hang onto these babies, you'll be saying "nova what?" +++How to enter the Black Hole+++ Okay, now here's the tricky part - if you're looking to enter the Black Hole. You'll encounter three spinning bars of silver asteroids with a gold asteroid in the middle, one after the other. What you need to do is get close to the middle of each bar before shooting the gold asteroid; then you want to cruise right through where you just shot at - right through the middle! - that's the key to the trick. Now, if you're fortunate, you'll see a smiling asteroid fly at you. Shoot it, it becomes the entrance to the Black Hole. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. Let's... do... the... time... warp... again... For those of you who decide to skip the black hole, let me assure you that the Andross Space Armada is an equally, if not more interesting stage that you won't want to miss. Anyway, you'll now fly past two big asteroids, and then some mines that fire at you. Be faster with your own laser. At the end of that, just before the boss, you'll encounter a tiny three-piece ship that fires at you - don't mix it up with a 1-up, just destroy it. +++Asteroid Destroyer ROCK CRUSHER+++ The deal with this sucker is you have to destroy the four laser turrets on both sides of the vessel before you can roast the whole thing. It's a pretty tame boss at this point because all it shoots at you are the lasers. When you destroy the last turret, be careful - the main bulk of the ship is then detached, and you don't want to fly into it. After that part safely passes you by, you can concentrate on the center bit between the two pads of the ship that fires lasers at you. Shoot at it repeatedly, but watch out for the missiles and plasma blasts - you need to shoot the missiles down. Overall, the Rock Crusher is a pretty easy kill, and before you know it, you'll make the jump to lightspeed and be off on a direct course to intercept Andross' fleet. To follow my narration, press PgDn a couple of times. ----------------------------------------- Level 1, Stage 3 - The Awesome Black Hole ----------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: THE AWESOME BLACK HOLE Boss: None, but you'll find the derelict hulls of a few of them. Really, I find the game just as entertaining without taking the shortcuts, but if you're pressed for time the Black Hole just might be the way to go. The reference to Fox's father harkens back to the time when Andross and Fox's father were friends, but Andross was in love with Fox Sr.'s girlfriend, and so he wanted to do away with Fox Sr. First, he rigged up a car bomb, but the wife got in the car! That was unfortunate, to be sure. His second attempt to get rid of Fox Sr. was more effective - Fox Sr. was sent on a mission out to the Asteroid Belt, but Andross placed a powerful bomb aboard his ship. Its explosion created the Black Hole. There isn't really a lot to do inside the Black Hole besides looking for the exits, which are gray rings. In order, the three exits lead to: 1. Level 2, Stage 4 - Sector Y 2. Level 3, Stage 4 - Sector Z 3. Level 1, Stage 5 - Venom (space over Venom) If you're a beginning player, the only likely way you'll beat the game is by taking the third exit to Venom. Going to Sector Y or Z is still a good choice, though, as it will give you a near-impossible challenge and allow you to see some far-out stages that you wouldn't normally see. Take Sector Z, for instance - it's way out in the boonies, and it's a pretty tough level. But if you're not an expert yet, but looking to complete Level 2 or 3, I suggest that you start those courses from the beginning. You'll complete more of the easier opening stages that way, and thus you'll earn more continues. You can find some powerups inside the blackhole, so you can go through the whole area more than once and reload everything. Only a few ships actually fire at you. At the start of the stage is a 1-up. After that comes a twin blaster powerup inside a cube with a circular door. You can skip the first ring, and inside another cube is a nova bomb. Then you can go past the second ring, and in the next cube is another nova bomb. Miss the third ring, and the stage starts all over again - but you don't get another shot at the 1-up (wouldn't that be nice, eh?). You can, however, get as many twin blaster and nova bomb powerups as you like - just remember to keep track of how many rings you've passed. You'll know you're back at the start of the stage when you fly through the cube with the twin blaster powerup. ------------------------------------------- Level 1, Stage 3 - The Andross Space Armada ------------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: THE ANDROSS SPACE ARMADA Boss: Planet Bomber ATOMIC CORE (ever seen Return of the Jedi?) Here we go - get set for one of the most entertaining stages in game. The goal is to destroy two of the picket ships and the large planet bomber ship at the end - good thing we're stopping these guys before they reach Corneria! Upon leaving hyperspace you'll be greeted by a missile and then one of those little blue ships that you can shoot to get the twin blaster powerup. Then you'll contend with three more missiles; then you see your first 1-up! Shoot the three pieces, then fly between them to collect it. You'll also notice one of the smaller capital ships. Shoot the area up top with the attennae, but watch out for the missiles! There will be more ships like this, and also a few where you destory the laser turrets to destroy the vessel. Soon you'll come up on the first picket ship. You can miss it if you like, but you'll just fly all the way back around again - you can't advance in the level without destroying the ships. Inside you'll do a few easy manoeuvers, pick up a power shield (see how long you can hang onto it - if you still have it in the next stage then you qualify as a good player), then destroy the energy core on board. Boom. Since you're experiencing tight-quarters manoeuvering for the first time here, this might be a good time for me to deliver my lecture on wing damage. Here it is: Your wings act as shock absorbers (hits to the wing only count for half damage), they assist your flight stability, and they serve as mounts for the twin blasters if you have them. It's surprisingly easy to lose a wing - just bounce around in one of these ships a bit with your wings banging on the walls and you'll see what I mean pretty quickly. Now, you can just damage your wing like the rest of your ship, and if you fly through a blue or yellow ring it will be refreshed. You can also get Wing Damage, where your wing is destroyed and replaced by a little red stub. Once in that state, you repair your wings either by getting a twin blaster / wing gyro powerup (of course, you get the wing(s), not the laser... sob!) or by getting killed (this might be necessary in certain parts of Level 3 where you almost have to have twin blasters to defeat the bosses). After flying around for a bit outside, you enter the second ship - but here's a quick trick for the cruel people. If you want to see what the game is like without your wingmen, now's your chance; you can skip the second picket ship again and again until all your wingmen get shot down. Bummer. I don't recommend early players to try this, for losing your wingmen detracts from the enjoyment of the game, in my opinion. Anyway, you're on board the second ship now, and the moves you have to complete are a little trickier, but still not a big deal if you're careful. Just now I did an experiment to see if it was possible to get out of the ships without destroying the cores. It is - but you have to fly around again. Upon exiting the second ship you are swarmed by some tiny white and red capital ships that are as easy as anything to shoot down. Soon after that your autopilot kicks in and guides you inside the Planet Bomber. Inside, your cowardly wingmen decide to abandon you and head for open space if they haven't already. You do some trickier manoeuvers; pay attention to which way the arrows are pointed on those up-or-down doors that you have to shoot to open. Pretty soon the autopilot kicks in again and you greet the Atomic Core. +++Planet Bomber ATOMIC CORE+++ The first thing you must do is destroy the wall panels that draw energy out of the Atomic Core. Watch you don't get nailed by the energy streams, and you'll want to be careful not to smash your precious wings into the wall. There's also a tiny fighter pod that appears once in a while, so shoot him down. Once you destroy the panels, the core itself will open up, allowing you to roast the entire vessel with a few quick shots. If you're not fast enough, the core will close up, and you'll have to repeat the process with the wall panels again. After destroying the Planet Bomber, you head to Meteor. ----------------------------------------- Level 1, Stage 4 - The Battle Base Meteor ----------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: THE BATTLE BASE METEOR Boss: Spider Shaped Machine DANCING INSECTOR Science note: This place really shouldn't be called Meteor - meteors are those bright flashes you see in the sky when asteroids or other particles intercept the Earth and burn up in the upper atmosphere. This big chunk of rock is really an asteroid or even a planetoid. You have to be careful with your ship here because your visibility is severely reduced; you don't see obstacles and enemies until you're right on top of them. When you go through the pillared area, there's a twin blaster powerup along towards the right. After your first encounter with the helicopters, there's a 1-up to collect. After more misadventures, you run into the boss. +++Spider Shaped Machine DANCING INSECTOR+++ Slippy or another wingman will actually hang around and fire a few shots at the Insector, but he'll take off before any real damage is dealt. Sigh. The first thing to do is keep shooting the legs while the Insector dances; watch out for plasma bolts. After a while, it'll pull up its legs and spin around in the air. When this boss is in flight, it will approach to try and hit you; it will either fly in high or low - be ready. For all of the first spin, it's legs will still be blue and you can do very little damage. Then it'll dance again, but when it goes into a spin this time, the legs will be red. Start shooting off the legs. After a while, the Insector will begin to use its flame cannon, but it's pretty easy to avoid. Try to move in alternating directions to miss it. After downing all the legs, destroy the remaining central pod (how does it stay in the air?!). Boom. Hey, Venom's on the horizon! Off we go! ------------------------------------------- Level 1, Stage 5 - Venom (space over Venom) ------------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: VENOM - THE FINAL GOAL Boss: Special Close Orbit Robot PHANTRON This is basically just a fun shoot-em-up stage. Just keep your finger on that Y (fire) button. Soon after entering the level, you'll begin to see strange pods coming up from the planet. They're trying to crash into your ship, so shoot them down. With the Venom stages, the sooner you shoot something after seeing it, the better. A lot of innocuous-looking objects and enemies tend to explode or split up in your face if you let them get too close. There's a gray ring you can fly through to pick up some bombs. After that, be on the lookout for a twin blaster ship. Before you know it, the Phantron makes an appearance. +++Special Close Orbit Robot PHANTRON+++ When you first encounter this bugger, keep firing at it; you'll inflict some damage whenever it moves. Soon it will start spinning, and when it stops, you'll notice that there are three ships now. Only one is real, find it and shoot shoot shoot. Before you can destory it, though, the ship retreats back to the planet. The Star Fox team wisely decides to give chase. There's a chance that the Phantron will try and ram you just before it retreats, but it doesn't happen very often. ---------------------------------- Level 1, Stage 6 - Planet I: Venom ---------------------------------- Pepper calls it: You don't actually get to talk to Pepper again. Boss: Special Close Orbit Robot PHANTRON Wow! You've finally made it! There's some tricky flying to do on this planet, so be on your toes. Soon after arriving you'll notice a panel with a triangle pointing to the right on it. When you get up close to the panel, it will quickly rotate, becoming a large barrier on the right side of the screen that will bring you woe if you've foolishly decided to fly on that side of it. You can also fire on the triangle to change its direction, if you wish; you'll be needing to do that later to collect items and avoid getting seriously hurt. Get used to these things, you'll be seeing them a lot. Woah! Now some blocks are appearing out of nowhere! Fly low. Another set of those panels appears - you'll notice that one is pointing at a nova bomb and that you can fire at it to make it go the other way. Soon after, you'll see a panel way over to the left that's pointed right - be sure to correct it before flying by. Then you'll see one on the right pointed left; you know what to do. Now you're in for some fun. Pillars rising and sinking in the ground? It's more eye candy than anything else. After some time, you'll arrive at some red pillars that you can shoot if you like; then more pillars are cast down upright upon the ground so as to be in your way - avoid those. Then there's a fancy left, right, left (or the other way around), then another narrow pass through floating pillars. Now you're at the spot with the objects that fall to the ground if you fly under them. If you want to collect the nova bomb or the twin blasters, I suggest using the booster rockets. Fly underneath between the rows until you need to swing into a row to collect an item. Then you have more falling pillars, and then the Phantron comes back again. +++Special Close Orbit Robot PHANTRON+++ Just attack it the same way you did before, and you'll roast the thing in no time. This time it does the three-way split thing right away. After you extinguish it, it flies around in a circle again, and... Oh... my... God... Strategy for the new Phantron is easy - just fire at the head and avoid the missiles, lasers, and plasma blasts. It's easier said than done, though. You'll need to be very nimble to outlast the bugger. Try to shoot down as many missiles as you can, as a few of them leave yellow supply rings. The Phantron's other attacks include leaping at you, and also launching a leg towards you. Try to miss those. It can also split into three, and again you have to figure out which one to shoot at. It may take a long time, but you will be able to roast the thing for good eventually. After destroying Phantron, the autopilot kicks in and you end up inside Andross' fortress, where you do some manouevers in a corridor similar to the ones you executed in the Space Armada stage. Andross taunts you a bit, but he is truly a desparate fellow - you've made it this far, and you're not going to leave before utterly destroying the fellow. Near the end of the corridor, you'll need to roll onto one side and move to the left and the right very quickly. Roll to the left to squeeze through the left openings, and to the right for the right ones; you move back and forth faster that way. Now... it's rumble time! +++Psychic Energy Core TELEKINETIC AMPLIFIER+++ First, destroy the eyes. It will probably take a round or so of Andross spitting out the telekinetic particles and then sucking them in again for you to accomplish this. When each eye gets blown up, the whole face shatters, giving you a chance to fire directly at Andross' control cube. Fire fire fire! You probably won't destroy the cube in this first round (unless you're using the photon shot or a few nova bombs), so you'll soon see the face come back together again. Destroy the eyes like before (it won't take as long), and then utterly fry the control cube - the damage you inflicted in the previous round(s) is still there. And then Andross blows apart. Your autopilot gets you out of the fortress before it's too late. Once on the surface, you check in with your wingmen. They're still okay, and they're glad to have fought with you. You all set course for Corneria. In space, you call Corneria. Pepper picks up the transmission, and congratulates you on your successful mission. You confirm that you're headed back to Corneria. Now you get to watch clips of all the bosses you fought on the way to defeat Andross. After that come the end credits. Congratulations, you've beaten Level 1, and you're well on your way to becoming a good Star Fox player. Now it's time to try Level 2! ======================= IV - Level 2 Flythrough ======================= Level 2 is initialy presented as a counter-attack on Venom like Level 1. Level 2, though, is a great deal more complex to the point that it makes Level 1 seem simplistic. While Level 2 isn't the roundabout / insane choice of routes that Level 3 is, it is less of a direct counter by the time you reach Venom. The last stage of Level 2 is one of my favourite stages in the game. ------------------------------------------------ Level 2, Stage 1 - Planet IV: Corneria (daytime) ------------------------------------------------ Pepper calls it: CORNERIA - THE BASE Boss: Advance Scout Mother Ship ATTACK CARRIER This stage is similar to the Level 1 Corneria in appearance, but it's a little tougher. Slippy doesn't show you how to fly through the arches, but you can do it yourself and collect a twin blaster powerup. Be careful when you're going through the first arch because the timing will be such that one of your wingmen is being attacked while you're hunting down your extra guns. You need to have razor-sharp aim here if you want to both collect the twin blaster and let your wingman escape without being hit. Going through the city is slightly tricker, and there are more enemies in the stage; but if you've beaten Level 1 (or even if you haven't) you will have no problems here. The boss shows up before you know it. +++Advance Scout Mother Ship ATTACK CARRIER+++ This is exactly the same boss that you faced in Level 1, Stage 1. Not to worry, the remainder of Level 2 is almost entirely original. ------------------------------------------------- Level 2, Stage 2 - Sector X (space over Corneria) ------------------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: SECTOR X Boss: Asteroid Destroyer ROCK CRUSHER Soaring over Corneria's upper atmosphere, you reach an area densely packed with girders, pillars, and construction equipment. Uh-oh... think Andross wants to build a base here? Watch for a 1-up just after one of your wingmen goes after some fighters on his own. Proceed through the following area tilted over to one side. After coming past the first outpost, you'll see one of those ships that you can shoot for a twin blaster! Later you'll find a power shield - don't miss it, because you're going to need it. You hit the blue supply ring, then fly through the second outpost. You'll run into a vertical line of four ships that are really hard to blow up. The only time that they can be hit is when they turn to face you. After, you do some more easy fly-bys of more rotating objects - then you run into something horrible! Pillars everywhere, headed in all directions! How do you escape without being hit? Well, that's hard. I would suggest that the key is not overcompensating when avoiding one pillar so that you won't run into another one; and not bothering with the retros or the boosters Alternatively, you can fly over to the extreme left or right, and you'll avoid most of the pillars, but plasma spewing mines will rain down from above instead. So unless you're really good at rolling to deflect stuff, I'd suggest just picking your way through the mess of pillars. After the pillars, those hard-to-roast ships show up again. Then comes the boss. +++Asteroid Destroyer ROCK CRUSHER+++ Wow, what's this thing doing here? My guess is that it's filling in for a different kind of capital ship, and to make do they upgraded their battle tactics. The basic strategy from Level 1, Stage 2 also applies here, but there's a few new twists. First of all, the ship is now far more reluctant to open its laser turrets and allow you to blow it up. Also, once you destroy all the turrets on one side, it will begin firing missiles every time it turns another side towards you. Ouch! Be careful. ------------------------------------- Level 2, Stage 3 - Planet II: Titania ------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: THE PLANET TITANIA Boss: Master Computer PROFESSOR HANGAR Now this is a fun level. Titania is Corneria's resource world, and the bad guys have come in and taken over. They've even shut down the weather control - Brrr! The enemies on this level are mostly stuff you've seen before - but watch out for the big crab-like robots. To destroy or disable them, you'll have to shoot at the tiny flashing blue areas where their legs join onto the body. Watch out you don't crash into them, because you usually have to get pretty close to score a hit. Of course, you can just forget about the crabs, but they'll fire at you from behind, so be sure to do a barrel roll. When you reach the area with three sliding doors, the weather control is on the right, and you need to trip it to continue on in the stage. If you like, though, you can reload; there's a twin blaster powerup inside the center door. There's nothing inside the left door. Continuing on with the stage, there isn't much to speak of; just lots and lots of things to shoot. Try and keep your energy up. Eventually you approach a large fortress that appears to serve as some kind of indoor air hangar. A robot appears in the entrance corridor and tells you "BYE BYE!" on its screen as you fire upon it again and again. How menacing. You then enter the hangar itself. +++Master Computer PROFESSOR HANGAR+++ I imagine that Professor Hangar was once a kind and peaceful computer that simply guided ships in and out of the Titanian Spaceport; but Andross' forces must have reprogrammed it, and now you have no choice but to blow the computer and its robotic body to smithereens. The trick to beating this guy is through skimming along very close to the ground, swinging right and left, firing like mad. There are these winged creatures that keep coming out of the ground, and you want to destroy as many as you can while they're near the surface and not careening through the air towards your ship. Keep firing at the computer, and you'll soon destroy it. It has a special Shadow Thruster attack, but you'll see that coming when the robot splits into three and you'll know to get out of the way. More likely, you'll blow the thing up long before it has the chance to use it. --------------------------- Level 2, Stage 4 - Sector Y --------------------------- Pepper calls it: SECTOR Y Boss: Hydrogen Harvester PLASMA HYDRA This is one of the strangest stages in the game, second only to Out Of This Dimension. If you can buy the idea of sea creatures floating through space, you'll have a lot of peaceful fun with it. See, there are only a very few enemy fighters in this level. What you need to worry about are the sea creatures - notably the squid and the small stingrays. You need to shoot the squid repeatedly until they make a noise and turn blue, and you need to shoot the stingrays once to turn them from red to blue. If you miss any, they will crash into you, and you won't get to see the special bonus bit at the end of the level. There are also amoebas. If one clings to your ship, do a barrel roll (L or R twice) to get rid of it. The last item of note is the big stingray. Don't shoot it, and stay out of its way. If you fail in this, then you miss the bonus. Getting the bonus is very important - keep it in mind above all else in this level. As soon as you enter the stage, get youself into cockpit view - those red stingrays are hard to hit. There's a 1-up amongst the cluster of amoebas. Then those three missiles that you saw jet off into the distance near the beginning come back to greet you; then you'll see one of those twin blaster ships. Enter the big stingray. Remember; stay out of his way. One of your wingmen will come on and shoot some enemies, so you don't even have to risk firing any shots. If you're good, you'll get the bonus at the end of the stage. First you'll hear the call of whale; and then the whale will swim out in front of you, leaving a tremendous trail of power-ups behind it. Nova bombs. Power shield. Twin blasters. Blue rings. You'll need it all for the enemy that shows up as the whale leaves you. +++Hydrogen Harvester PLASMA HYDRA+++ The crew of this harvester must be working for Andross, because they are not very friendly. To inflict damage on the Hydra, you have to fire on the hydrogen collectors at the ends of its arms. Once you get a lock, don't let up. The Hydra's moves include staring you down and firing missiles, spinning around and firing missiles and plasma shots (watch those arms!), and sitting on an angle to you with it's collector in your face, allowing you to pump laser into its miserable chassis, while firing more missiles at you. Once you take out the arms, the Hydra begins to spin eratically - keep shooting the central component. It may sprout one long tail with a spiked wrecking ball on the end, and you should do your best not to get smacked with it. Finally, once you've defeated the Hydra, it may make a kamikaze- like lunge for you, so get out of the way immeadiately after its energy meter is fully depleted. If you miss the final attack, or are fortunate enough to survive it, you take off for Venom. Hang on! ------------------------------------------- Level 2, Stage 5 - Venom (space over Venom) ------------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: VENOM - THE FINAL GOAL Boss: Super Gravity Powered METAL SMASHER Oh, this is exciting! Going in through the rear, you gotta love it. I guess those lines on the map aren't arbitrary after all. This is another shoot-em-up stage similar to the Level 1 Venom, but here the enemies are a little tougher. For instance, there are now exploding grey drums to contend with - either shoot them from a distance, or move far to the other side as you pass by. And of course the interception buoys are being launched from the surface again. To top it off, plasma mines rain down on you if you decide to veer too far over to one side. During one of the altercations you'll have with a group of enemy fighters near the end of the stage, a strange little brown wire-framed ship will appear. If you shoot it, a power shield will appear; but it's nearly impossible to collect since the little ship rarely comes near your flight path, and so when you destroy it, the powerup remains out of reach. Your only choice, then, would be to shoot it the instant it appears, for it appears in the middle between four enemy fighters. You'll fly past some grey drums again, facing two more wings of enemy fighters. Then you'll run into the creator of the drums. +++Super Gravity Powered METAL SMASHER+++ Oh, did I ever go into mental breakdowns over this machine. Peppy told me to fire my retros - I fired my retros, and I was still getting smacked when the two halves of the machine came together. But why?! "I'm nowhere near the thing!" I'd shout to my TV. The video game magazines, your wingmen, other FAQs (mostly because they don't cover anything besides Level 1); all fail to tell you why the Metal Smasher continues to kick your butt. Or, more likely, why it continued to lay waste to me - I never noticed that when the two halves of the Smasher split up, it releases a whole lot of steel drums - and they hunt you down! If you don't shoot them before they're underway towards you from between the halves, you're as good as dead. And that's the key to it. If you can vaporize the flying drums, you have what it takes to beat the Metal Smasher. The Metal Smasher introduces itself with a leap and bound out of the distance, then opens itself up in to two halves and stops - letting you fly towards it at high speed. The enemy wants you to be trapped between the two halves when they come together. First though, worry about all those floating drums in the middle and behind to the sides. Then, if you have time, get a few licks in on a side of the Smasher - it doesn't matter which. Then, fire your retros and get out of the way! The best time to fire them is either right when Pippy says to do it, or just two whole seconds before the rig seems to be on top of you. Also, it might help to manouever in the perpindicular direction to the Smasher's orientation - meaning, if it's pointed up and down, you go right, and so on. But that's not as important as when you fire the retro rockets. You'll repeat this approach and retreat process several times. Every couple of rounds, the Smasher will sit back and fire an arc of ring bolts at you instead of trying to crush you. Again, get out of the way. After a while, you'll blow up half of the Smasher. Instead of continuing the fight, though, the Smasher just self-destructs as a shuttle departs from its bay. The Star Fox team takes off in hot pursuit. ------------------------------------- Level 2, Stage 6 - Venom (sky tunnel) ------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: No, there's still no pause between stages to talk. Boss: Central Guard Machines GALACTIC RIDERS (more importantly, the shuttle that carries the things) Ah! So this is the rear entrance to Andross' domain! Woah! I love this stage, and I hope you do too. This stage is really pretty simple. As long as you remember not to overcompensate when you manouever, you'll be fine. Also be careful when you're flying with your ship tilted sideways - you don't want to get your wing destroyed this late in the game. Ships will come onto the corridor from your left, so you should stay on the right where it's safer. The ships that flash yellow when you hit them will leave yellow rings behind. Don't get too close to the sides of those silver vehicles that just spin around on the runway; they'll try to hit you, and you could end up with massive wing damage (or destruction), but little or no shield damage - if you're lucky enough to get away with damage, start looking for a yellow ring to refresh your wing. When you come through the area where the road splits (you see a nova bomb on the right), go to the right. Yes, the platforms fall on you, but there's a blue ring at the end, and if you save your booster for near the end of the section, you might not be hit anyway. Shortly after the blue ring, you'll see some more ships coming on. Some will just try to get in your way, some will delibratley hit the wall and bounce around in front of you; the ones you really need to worry about are the ones that sort of float in and sit still, then take off again - they're dropping ring laser mines! If you see one of those little cone things on the floor, just get out of the way! After a while, four bikers show up. You need to destroy them to go on with the stage. Fire your retros if there's one right by you, then you'll be behind it, and in firing position. They'll also destroy themselves once in a while. When all are roasted, that shuttle that escaped from the Metal Smasher shows up! Stay on the right! +++Central Guard Machines GALACTIC RIDERS+++ I'm pretty sure that the title refers to the bikers and not to the shuttle carrying them - but in any case, the shuttle will be the vehicle you'll have the problems with. It's simply much too big a ship to be flying inside this corridor, and the fact that it will intentionally try to ram you doesn't help. The shuttle actually has no weapons, it can only launch bikes and mines. Also, the only way to destory it is by firing inside its bay when its ramp opens. The shuttle's first launch will be bikes. If you have twin blasters, you can bring its energy meter down below half - forget the bikes until the shuttle has completely closed its door. After you destroy the bikes, the shuttle will try to ram you. When it seems to have you nearly pinned, fire your retros and head over to the other side before it completes the ram. After a while, the shuttle will pull back and open up its ramp again. Be careful this time, though, it might launch a mine instead of the relatively harmless bikes. (well, harmless in that they don't fire at you; as I write this one of those buggers destroyed my left wing!) Your chances of getting a mine improve dramatically if the shuttle didn't get you while attempting the rams. It may also launch a mine while you battle the bikes. If you do not have twin blasters, I would suggest using bombs here. You might not be able to survive more than one round of ramming, so the quicker you can destroy the shuttle, the better. Once you do destroy the shuttle, you find the end of the corridor. It becomes a very neat-looking but tricky passageway to Andross. It's moments like this I wish there was no autopilot. Your ship sails into the brown-colored approach corridor of Andross' Telekinetic Amplifier. He taunts you a bit while you make some manoeuvers and collect a nova bomb and a twin blaster powerup. Again, use your retros to give you time to weave up and down, and when you're making the narrow squeezes to the left and right, tilt your ship over in the direction that you want to travel. You reach the end of the tunnel and emerge in a swarm of dark colours. +++Psychic Energy Core TELEKINETIC AMPLIFIER+++ This is more or less the same battle that you fought at the end of Level 1, but the control cube is tougher here, and it will probably take you more than one round to destroy. This time the cube is lined with a color triangular piece on two ends, giving you a color indication of how much damage you've inflicted! For those who didn't read my Level 1 Flythrough, you shoot the eyes, then you shoot the cube. Boom. Then you leave, using the regular route this time. You get the same great ending again, but be proud of yourself - you just finished Level 2, and most people back in 1993 when this game was the hot title at the rental stores took the better part of a week to beat Level 1! ====================== V - Level 3 Flythrough ====================== Ah! If you're looking for a challenge, look no further. This truly is the hard way to go; hence Andross not expecting you to travel this route. Along the way, you'll see some interesting sights; Fortuna with all it's deadly plants and animals, Sector Z, and of course the Out Of This Dimension stage. ------------------------------------------------ Level 3, Stage 1 - Planet IV: Corneria (evening) ------------------------------------------------ Pepper calls it: CORNERIA - THE BASE Boss: Ground Supremacy Vehicle DESTRUCTOR, though the Attack Carrier also makes an appearance. This is by far the most interesting Corneria stage. There's more city to fly through, and you get the feeling that you're sneaking out before nightfall. Some good things never change, though - you can still fly through all the arches at the beginning to collect a twin blaster powerup. When you finally reach the last small arch, shoot the ship going after your wingman and swing into the left building to pick it up. You'll most likely have to fire your retros or boosters to escape without damage. When you get to the first set of collapsing blue pillars, I suggest you either fly high and shoot them, then zip down to ride through the double sets; or fly low close to one side, perhaps using your boosters near the end. In the second cluster of buildings, slow yourself down and tilt to one side to cruise through a small opening to collect a nova bomb. Then fly a little lower - there are more collapsing pillars. In one of the more dramatic moments of the stage, Falco announces that he'll destroy the Attack Carrier, then he jets off into the distance. Amazing. After exiting the city, you'll fly through a series of arches. When you come to the junction, you can either go left for a blue ring, or right for a nova bomb. The next section of city is a little tricky, because there are blue pillars that fall on you between the buildings. When you get to the segment where your way along the ground is blocked, you'll have to just nudge yourself up only as much as necessary, then fire your booster, then zip back down again. As you exit the final archway, you notice a walker go by carrying the Attack Carrier! Does that mean Falco managed to disable it? It's anyone's guess. +++Ground Supremacy Vehicle DESTRUCTOR+++ This stage differs from the other Cornerias in that you've allowed Andross' forces - brought in by the Attack Carrier - more time to unload all their arsenal, including this wonderfully powerful battle tank. When the Destructor enters, it will launch the shields that cover the plasma turrets into the air; so you'll be able to fire on the turrets themselves and inflict some damage. When a shield becomes pointed in your direction, fire at it instead; the turrets may regenerate if you allow the shield associated with it to land on the Destructor again. By the end of the second or third round, you'll probably have the shields destroyed, and you hopefully wouldn't have allowed them the time to launch a kamikaze-style attack on you. All that remains now are turrets, plus the Destructor itself is firing missiles at you. You will also notice that the turrets will sometimes move around 180 degrees, preventing you from destroying them. They'll come back around though, and you'll finish them off and leave for the Asteroid Belt. -------------------------------- Level 3, Stage 2 - Asteroid Belt -------------------------------- Pepper calls it: ASTEROID BELT Boss: Space Station BLADE BARRIER This edition of the Asteroid Belt is considerably more difficult, simply because there are more enemies and more asteroids in this far-flung region. You'll also find a lot of mines in this stage; the first ones you'll see shoot plasma balls at you, or become a plasma ball when you shoot them. Shoot them early and get out of the way. There's also a blue variant that shoots five at a time. Ouch. You'll fly past a big asteroid on the right, and then you'll see one to the lower left. ++How to leave the dimension+++ Shoot at the second big asteroid until it explodes. If you look closely, you'll see an egg fly out of it and come back around again from the left; shoot the egg and a bird will hatch. Fly into the bird's breast area to be taken right out of the Lylat System. For those of you who choose not to ignore the task at hand - defeating Andross - simply continue your forward flight. After passing some more plasma mines, you'll come to a set of three gold asteroids lined up in a triangle. Fly through the middle to collect a nova bomb, then you'll get a shot at one of those twin blaster ships. Very cool. The next section can hardly be called fun, unless you've perfected the barrel roll. Use it. Soon you'll come to a blue ring between two large asteroids. After battling some enemy fighters, you'll fly through a base. Watch for a 1-up at the end of it. Now you're going to encounter some problems. See the silver asteroids? Well, now they're being intercepted by enemy robots that will fire some laser blasts at you, or just try to ram you with the asteroid after holding it back from you. When you shoot the robots, get out of the way! The asteroid returns to its natural course, which often means a collision course with your ship. When one of your wingmen goes out to shoot some enemies, you'll encounter a batch of smiling asteroids. They're indestructible like the silver asteroids, but they also try to crash into your ship! Do what you have to do - you'll be travelling back and forth from left to right and so on often from here to the end of the stage. And don't forget about the interceptor robots - be careful or they'll pile up in front of you. +++Space Station BLADE BARRIER+++ If you play like I do, you'll be on Death's door by the time you arrive at the space station. Fortunately, you can beat it without getting hit if you're careful. When you first encounter the Blade Barrier, its blades will be spinning. Unless you want to get hit by your own blaster bolts, don't bother firing on it at these times. Then the blades will stop, which means that three missiles will be headed towards you. I wouldn't reccomend trying to shoot them down - that's too risky, really - and I would suggest that you be in the middle of the flightpath when the missiles are launched so that you can retreat to either the extreme left or extreme right. When the missiles pass you by, you need to get back and shoot at the turrets they were launched from. You'll have to be quick, because you won't have a lot of time before the blades start spinning again. Now you'll get to see the most interesting attack the space station has to offer. It will launch a tractor beam towards you. Getting caught in it would be a bad idea, because when you finally tap L or R enough times to get out of it, you'll be a very ripe target for those three missiles I mentioned earlier. Avoid the tractor beam by flying away from it as it comes at you; it shouldn't be too hard to avoid. Overall, be patient. If you try to go all out in firing at the missile turrets, you'll probably get killed before you blow up the space station. However long it does take you, be careful at the end - the station will launch the blade in your direction when you blow it up. Flying around that, you'll be off to Fortuna. ---------------------------------------- Level 3, Stage 3 - Out Of This Dimension ---------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: OUT OF THIS DIMENSION Boss: One Armed Bandit SLOT MACHINE Yeah, the heck with your wingmen, the heck with Andross - we're going to get lost in space! You can use the backdrop as an indicator to how much of the stage you still have to complete. As you get closer to the end, the image becomes steadier; when you see the purple and blue smiling moons again, the boss will show up. The onslaught is made up of paper airplanes, which you can shoot down. Later you'll see airplanes that explode into smaller bits of paper going far off into the distance, then floating down into your flight path - shoot them before they become a real problem, transforming into new paper airplanes one after the other and quickly finishing you off. There will be a lot of these eventually, and you might want to launch a nova bomb or two to clear them out. If you survive all this, you'll encounter one of the strangest Enemy Force Commanders in the game. +++One Armed Bandit SLOT MACHINE+++ This is... fun. Play the slots by shooting the arm. You can also stop a slot from spinning by shooting the panel below it if it's flashing. Be careful about doing that, though, because it's very easy to accidentily stop the wrong slot. Here is a breakdown of the results you can get: Fruits, stars, etc.: Three of something will get you coins; cherries will always get you a coin - unless you get one or more Androsses. Bar: Often causes the panels you can shoot to stop the slots to be activated. Andross: Avoid this! When the machine turns around, it will fire three waves of missiles instead of those wonderful shield-regenerating coins. While it's firing at you, I suggest you move back and forth to deke the missiles out. 7: One is good; three is better - getting three sevens will cause the machine to explode after giving you a whole lot of coins, thus allowing you to see the game's secret ending. Sometimes you'll get three sevens after thirty minutes or more of playing the slots; sometimes you'll get it on the second spin. At any rate, when you defeat the machine, the credits to the game will appear - even though you're still in flight! The background will be nice and solid now so you can read them clearly. Slowing down or speeding up won't affect the speed of the credits - they're part of the background. You can still travel to the extremities of your autopilot, though, and only see parts of the presentation. When the credits are over, you'll notice that the words "THE END" will appear - but the letters aren't oriented properly. Firing on a letter will cause it to fly off into the distance and come back oriented differently - hopefully the right way. You'll also have to watch out for enemy fighters and missile boats that will show up and interfere - possibly causing your correct letters to revert again! Good aim is essential here. Also, if you have twin blasters, tilt yourself over onto one side to make it easier to hit only one letter at a time. When you get all the letters lined up right, some music plays and the letters fly off again. Then, they come back, giving you the opportunity to do the same thing again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. How long does this last, you ask? Until you get killed, then you start over from the beginning of the stage. Aren't you glad you came here? ------------------------------------ Level 3, Stage 3 - Planet V: Fortuna ------------------------------------ Pepper calls it: THE PLANET FORTUNA Boss: Primitive Dinosaur MONARCH DODORA You'd think that a planet without any significant enemy installations would be fairly easy to fly over. Ha-ha. Of course, to be fair, Andross took over the animals here; they're not this mean on their own. Sounds like Sector Y. There are three main sections to this level. The first is a grassland, the second is ocean, and the third is prarie. In the grassland section, your visibility is somewhat impared, so fly carefully, and make sure to avoid the giant blooming flowers. Fly low when you get to the area where the flowers are on top of stems. You'll see insects in this area, and they'll attack you, unless you shoot them to make them turn blue. Unfortunatley, they just turn yellow or red again, so you'll end up having to kill them. Later you'll see dragonflies, which you also have to shoot down. And as if you didn't have enough to contend with, you'll also encounter enemy plasma mines along the ground. If you're good, you'll make it to the blue ring without losing a wing or getting killed. As you pass through the blue ring, you pass onto the ocean. Here you'll have to deal with flying fish and seabirds. You'll fly through a school of flying fish first, destroy them before they start taking off directly beside your ship. Soon you'll encounter flying fish that fly at you (shoot them), and some seabirds. Shoot the seabirds so that they crash into the water, as they'll also try to hurt you. Later you'll encounter some sea monsters. If you want to kill them, you have to aim for their heads. This might be a good idea for when you have fly past dozens of them poking their heads up above water, all using their fire breath on you. Before you get to that, though, you'll see a power shield - get it! Among the fire ordeal, you'll find a 1-up - directly in front of a sea monster. Watch yourself. After the dragons you'll encounter the seabirds and flying fish again. Hopefully you'll make it to the second blue ring before getting killed. As you pass through the second ring, the ocean turns to prarie. You'll face mostly flowers and plasma mines. Again, be careful, and be sure to fire your retros if you have to. The mines leave behind yellow rings when you destroy them, so take full advantage of this. Along the way, you'll find a twin blaster. You cannot afford to miss it. After passing the last of the flowers, you hear a strange thumping noise. +++Primitive Dinosaur MONARCH DODORA+++ Your goal here is to fire at the heads or the end of the tail as much as possible. Your wingmen might hang around and complain, or they might just abandon you. Argh. You'll first encounter the two-headed dragon from the rear. When it turns to face you head-on, get yourself in the middle between where the tail was and where the necks are going to be if you want to avoid getting hit. Once in a while the dragon will suddenly halt in its place when you're behind it. Fire your retros and veer away! Getting a lot of licks in on either the tail (watch for the seabirds that hatch from the eggs) or the heads and necks (spread your fire over the two heads so that they are shortened to the body at more or less the same time) will cause the dragon to turn orange - this is good! Keep on firing. If you're nimble, you'll put the dragon behind you and be off to Sector Z. --------------------------- Level 3, Stage 4 - Sector Z --------------------------- Pepper calls it: SECTOR Z Boss: Invasion Troop Carrier ATOMIC BASE II Welcome to the sticks! Here the idea is to blast your way into Base II and destroy it, along with a large deployable garrison of troops. Now is a good time to master the barrel roll, if you haven't already. You need to be able to do one at any time. It's possible to cruise through this stage and the next two taking very nearly no damage if you have the photon shot, and you're able to roll and shoot constantly. It's hard on your hand, sure, but the stages seem to just fly by this way. You'll notice that some of the pillars are transparent here, and that doesn't make them any less deadly. When you get to the second enemy installation with all the spinning pillars between the stationary ones, your best bet is to hang a little to the left or to the right. Not too far, though, or some plasma mines will rain down on you. You'll see a twin blaster powerup along to the right in the middle of this section. When you get to the area with the rectangles that you can fly through, look out for a power shield. It will prove its value to you in a moment. After you fly through the last of the rectangles, the chaos truly begins. Floating pillars, headed in all directions, everywhere. If you're feeling really lucky, you could just fly through a little off of the middle of your flightpath and avoid as many as you can - but the only safe thing to do is make a dive for, say, the extreme lower right of your flight path. If a plasma mine rains down on you; well, you know how to do a barrel roll. After you pass the first big wash of pillars, there is a second, smaller round of them shortly after, so be ready. When the troop carrier is in sight, consider heading to the left or right of the spinning pillars that block the entrance. Your autopilot will guide you inside anyway. Once inside, you'll do well to fly sideways in certain sections to avoid slamming your wings into the pillars that portrude from the walls. Overall, though, the area isn't too difficult. At the end of the corridor, you'll greet the base's atomic core. +++Invasion Troop Carrier ATOMIC BASE II+++ This atomic core is quite similar to the one that you faced in Level 1, Stage 3, but this one is a little tricker. You'll need to be quicker about destroying the energy receptors on the walls, because they will regenerate before you can knock all three and get at the core if you're not fast. The core will also close up again if you can't destroy it right away, then you need to knock out the energy receptors again. Good aim helps here. Other than that, you have little new to worry about, and you'll be off to Macbeth before you know it. -------------------------------------- Level 3, Stage 5 - Planet III: Macbeth -------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: THE PLANET MACBETH Boss: Light Speed Revolution SPINNING CORE This level is truly insane. Supposedly Andross wants to build a base here. Well, that's not all you have to worry about though; this planet is fairly difficult to navigate. There is a beauty to it all though; it's a facinating, yet brutal level. All underground, to boot - the planet has a hollow area between the outer core and the surface crust. Your first task will be to navigate a canyon. Upon emerging, one of your wingmen will get into trouble, so you'll experience the strange sounds other aircraft make inside the hollow core of this planet. You'll pass some enemy guns, then through an area of buildings that come up from the floor and down from the ceiling. You'll pass a set with a plasma turret behind it, then you'll fly through an empty area before you reach the next set of buildings. Hang a right, shoot the walker, fire your retros, and swing in to the left to collect a twin blaster powerup. Now you'll pass through an area with lava vents mounted on the ceiling. Don't fly directly under a vent; you'll get rained on with hot rocks. Coming up ahead, you have a serious choice to make. A huge lava vent lies on the floor. To the right of it is a power shield. So, do you swoop down, boosters blazing, risking it all to collect the powerup; or do you hang an extreme right and attempt to avoid the whole mess altogether? Your choice, but you'll be better off going for the shield since it can be even harder to avoid the rocks if you stray from your flightpath. After the rocks, you'll fly past some more ceiling vents, then through a blue ring. After the ring, you'll be up against a plethora of diamond missiles, but they're not that hard to shoot down if you concentrate on it. You'll then encounter many surface and ceiling plasma turrets. Watch that the ceiling turrets don't fall on top of you - blow them up first. Again, barrel roll your way to success. Soon you'll see a vehicle on the ceiling that shoots oval lasers at you. Kill it before a really dangerous vehicle shows up, if you can. It's hard. +++Light Speed Revolution SPINNING CORE+++ This rig might seem to be the kingpin of unfriendlies. It is not an easy boss; it is so tough sometimes that if you were to die, you'd rather go back to the beginning of the stage instead of the midway point so that you get another try with the twin blasters. The first thing you want to do is shoot down all the plasma turrets on the outside of the Core. Watch out for the plasma shots. If you want to down the turrets quickly, aim your shots just to the right of the Core so that you can keep getting in licks as the turrets turn around towards the other side. When there's only a few turrets left, the top will open up. Watch out for missiles. Whern there's no turrets left, the entire machine will leap into the air. Now, see that shadow on the ground? You don't want to be on top of it! Fire your retros and get out of the way as the Spinning Core returns to the floor. The Core will now close its top and open up its bottom, and this is the tricky part. You have to shoot the sensitive firing membrane of the core while avoiding the black balls that revolve around it. At times, the core will spread the balls out wide, giving you a chance to swing in and stay inside the circle as long as you can, trying to destroy the membrane. Wait until the balls get out wide before going in, though - premature action will probably cost you your ship as ball after ball slams into your hull. Look for your opportunities, and keep on firing. Somehow, you'll defeat the Spinning Core, and it will be time to leave for Venom. ------------------------------------------- Level 3, Stage 6 - Venom (space over Venom) ------------------------------------------- Pepper calls it: VENOM - THE FINAL GOAL Boss: Final Battleship GREAT COMMANDER Well... this is it. How has this FAQ been treating you so far? Crappy? Okay, I gotcha. But this is hard, eh? Anyway, you didn't download this file to read my rants, so let's get on with it. Coming into the level, you'll encounter some rocket boats (shoot them), then some of those interceptor buoys (shoot them), then some starfighters (shoot them). I really like this level. Eventually you'll come to deadly-looking circle of plasma mines with a nova bomb in the middle. Do a few barrel rolls and pick up the bomb. You'll then be able to collect a power shield and a twin blaster powerup! After the powerups comes the blue ring, and you might have trouble timing the ring with a wingman that will get in trouble there. Fly through the ring first, then track your lasers to the right to destroy the pursuing enemy ship. If I had a criticism to make about this level, it would be that it's over too quickly. If you have the twin blasters, it's an utter rout. But good times often go by so fast, don't they? +++Final Battleship GREAT COMMANDER+++ Alright, now we're going to deal with some serious firepower. Forget Andross, this ship and the Spinning Core are the toughest bosses in the game if you ask me. You'll first be treated to a segueway of the three segments of the Great Commander coming together. Watch out for lasers and steel barrels. You can fly low and to the right to avoid the whole mess, if you like. When it's finished, you'll see what needs to be done. Your autopilot will bring you about again to face the vessel, and you have to destroy every one of the turrets - there are six of them. Get as low as you can on each pass and keep shooting. When you start inflicting some damage on the vessel, it will begin to smoke and fire plasma balls at you while you make your little strafing run, so be sure to use your barrel roll. Don't hesitate to use a bomb if you need to finish off one or two remaining turrets. The bombs don't compensate for firepower, though, they compensate for aim. It's too bad the game forces you out of cockpit view for this battle. When you finally destroy the last turret, the ship will fly away from you when your autopilot brings you back around. It will spiral down into the atmosphere. Care to chase it? Oh yeah! ---------------------------------- Level 3, Stage 7 - Planet I: Venom ---------------------------------- Pepper calls it: Coneria? Come in! Coneria? Ah, he's just too far away. Boss: Final Battleship GREAT COMMANDER Wow, it seems like a while since you've been here, doesn't it? As you might expect, the final stage in the game is slightly difficult; but if you were able to survive Fortuna and Macbeth, you'll be able to handle this. After setting down into your flightpath, fly up as far as you can, and dead center over the moving pillars. The last pillar doesn't move, though, so get out of its way at the very end. You'll then fly under a plethora of falling objects. As in the Level 1 version of this stage, try to snake your way through so that you don't fly underneath any of them, and use your boosters when you have to. There's a power shield to get, too. Later you'll encounter pillars that are being thrown down and errected in front of your flightpath. You can shoot them. Later, you find ones that actually fall when you shoot them instead of just being vaporized. Fly low here. Soon, you'll encounter those rotating rectangles again. See the arrows? You want them to be pointed out of your flightpath, so shoot them if you need to. If you fly past one in the direction of its arrow - ouch. You'll have to shoot the first few, then you'll come to one with a blue arrow that keeps changing direction. Here, you shoot the arrow when it finds a direction you like. Yeah! A Twin Blaster! And more rectangles. Be quick. Here's an idea: don't pause the game in the middle of them and go have dinner. I was quickly killed upon resuming the game. After the blue ring, you'll work your way through some Stonehenge-esque artifacts. I guess this passes for a town on Venom. Upon leaving, you'll have lots of things to shoot at, and then obstacles will be generated in front of you. After a while, you'll arrive at a wall of rotating flat panels. Find an empty space towards the ground and fly through. You'll fight off some more enemy starfighters, and then the mothership will arrive. +++Final Battleship GREAT COMMANDER+++ The Great Commander glides down over your head, turns around, and then becomes a piece of utter horror. Okay, see that door on the lower section that keeps opening and closing? That's where you need to shoot. Oh, and watch out for the steel balls that rain down off the ends of the 'arms,' and also the occiasional missile. The ship also has a spinning move, where steel balls will continually be launched in your direction. You'll have a harder time getting your licks in here. When you fire off a shot, don't wait for it to hit; keep moving. When the Commander finally stops spinning, you'll be able to get lots of hits in. Watch out for missiles again, and, more importantly, the single arms that will be raised to launch a straight stream of steel balls. They're pretty easy to avoid, though. Soon, you'll face a brutal ring laser attack from the head. You'll need to avoid the shots. Shoot down the missiles when you can - there's a chance they'll leave behind yellow rings. Of course, if you have razor-sharp aim and a steady trigger finger, you can speed up the destruction of the Great Commander significantly. After destroying the bottom segment, two more will remain. The bridge section will begin to fly around the main body, and there's nothing special here - just destroy it with your laser. Of course, the main body will try to spin into your ship, and it will also launch some very odd-looking probes. Once you destroy the bridge, the rest of the ship simply destructs in front of you. You'll then fly into Andross' fortress. Andross will remark that your choice of routes took him by surprise. Yay! He'll also say a few words about your father. Meanwhile, you'll preform some amazing maunoeuvers in which your retros will be your best friend. Coming through to the end of the corridor, you'll have to really squeeze through between the closing doors and the wall - thoughtfully, they left a panel where you just flew through in the earlier levels. There is still enough space, though. Make sure you collect the twin blaster before exiting the corridor into the dark-colored abyss. +++Psychic Energy Core TELEKINETIC AMPLIFIER+++ A british gaming magazine once reviewed Star Wing, and next to the photo of the second face of the Telekinetic Amplifier read the caption: "This is it! The final level of Tetris from Hell!" Ha-ha. You're probably already a little familiar with the procedure here. Shoot the eyes until they explode, then go for the core. The core is a tad tougher to destroy this time, though; and when the face reforms it will be in a different shape, and the eyes will shoot plasma balls at you. Ouch. Shoot the eyes and stay away from the plasma. Otherwise, all is the same as before. When the core is in front of you for the second time, consider launching some bombs in addition to your laser assault. When you finally eliminate Andross, you'll fly out of the collapsing fortress and meet up with your wingmen. Congratulations, you did it! You are now the best Star Fox player on your street. ============================== VI - Codes, Cheats, and Tricks ============================== There really aren't any codes or cheats for this game, but I'll tell you what I do know. You'll use neither of these tricks in gameplay, though. +++Object Manipulation+++ Having at least one credit, lose all your extra ships. On the continue screen, you'll see Fox McCloud standing next to an arwing superimposed on a grid. Here's how you can play around: Controller 1: D-pad: Rotate an object in any direction. Holding down the buttons increases speed in a given direction. You can also stop the ship again by tapping in an opposite direction. L: Zoom in. R: Zoom out. X: Stops any rotation. A: Hold down to stop the grid from refreshing when you move the ship, so that you get a frame-by-frame afterimage left of your movements. You can use this to make some interesting images. Controller 2: D-pad, Start, Select, Y, B: Changes the object shown on the grid. You can see and play with all kinds of neat stuff! At least it puts some fun into getting your butt kicked. +++Strange Music+++ After beating the game on any Level, leave your system turned on for a really long time. Eventually, you'll hear a few bars of the main theme, but only through one instrument. This isn't a trick you'll get much mileage out of. Now, there must be someone out there who knows some codes or something. And are there any more secret stages? Everyone knows about the Black Hole and Out Of This Dimension stages - is there a secret stage in Level 2 as well? Or is this all there is? ================ VII - Conclusion ================ Well, that's all for today. I hope you've enjoyed my little FAQ. I'm gonna put all the legal stuff in again, because a lot of people expect to see it at the bottom. Published October 23rd, 2001 This entire FAQ Copyright (c) 2000 William Matheson All other things Star Fox are the property of Nintendo. Star Fox was published in America in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Star Fox is called 'Star Wing' in Europe. Go figure. William Matheson can be found on the World Wide Web at: http://www.willmatheson.com and the lastest version of this FAQ can be found either there or at GameFAQs. If you want to post this on your own website, go ahead, but don't make any alterations to it, and leave it intact. If you want to do anything else, contact me to ask permission. My e-mail address is starfoxfaq@willmatheson.com. Please do not ask me any questions about the game. If you can't find what you're looking for at first glance, I suggest you use the search function of your word proccessor and type in a word related to what you're having trouble with. E-mails that I DO want to pick up are ones that suggest corrections or perhaps ask for clairifications. Also, if you know something I don't about this game (which is very possible), then please don't hesitate to contact me; if your addition makes the FAQ, full credit will be given to you. And if you just want someone to talk to, that's okay too. "William's Star Fox FAQ" version 1.0 by William Matheson