Fox McCloud

Fox McCloud (フォックス・マクラウド, Fokkusu Makuraudo^?) is an anthropomorphic video game character from the Star Fox series. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and designed by Takaya Imamura. As his name implies, he is a fox and the main player character of the series. In each game the player controls Fox, either on the ground or in his Arwing. He is the leader of the Star Fox team, and is joined by his wingmates on various missions. In the English release of Star Fox 64, he was voiced by Mike West. In both the Japanese release of Star Fox 64 and Super Smash Bros. series, Fox's voices were done by Shinobu Satouchi. For English dialogue of Super Smash Bros. Melee and Star Fox Adventures, Fox's voice was done by Rare's Steve Malpass. In Star Fox: Assault, his voice was done by Jim Walker in the English release and by Kenji Nojima in the Japanese release.

Concept and creation

An Inari statue at Fushimi Inari-taisha in Kyoto, where Shigeru Miyamoto decided to use a fox for the main character.

In 1992, Argonaut Games and Nintendo collaborated to produce a 3D space shooter for the Super Nintendo, provisionally titled 'SnesGlider'.^[1] The development team, led by Shigeru Miyamoto, redesigned what had been a tech demo into a rail shooter, with Nintendo designing the game and Argonaut handling the technical aspects.^[2] However, without a story, it lacked incentives to play beyond flying and shooting. Miyamoto sketched out a fictional universe, but couldn't decide on a natural hero to convey a sense of an epic space battle. Names under consideration included Star Wolf, Star Sheep, Star Fox, Star Sparrow and Star Hawk.^[2] Miyamoto finally settled on having a fox as the main character after visiting Fushimi Inari-taisha in Kyoto, the head shrine of Inari, a Japanese kami associated with foxes. Inari is protrayed as being able to fly, and its shrines, particularly the one in Kyoto, are surrounded by red arches (torii), giving Miyamoto the idea of a fox that could fly through arches.^[3][2] Fox's face was modeled after Inari's, and always wears a red "scarf" around his neck, like the statue, with the exception of his design from Star Fox: Assault. Fox's personality is modelled after Miyamoto's, with the name 'Fox McCloud' being suggested by Dylan Cuthbert, one of the Argonaut team.^[2][1]

Characteristics

In the original Star Fox, Fox wears an orange suit with a flight jacket and metallic boots, along with a communication device on his head. In Star Fox 64, he wears a green suit and his jacket sleeves are rolled up to his elbows. In Super Smash Bros. and its sequel, Melee, Fox appears as he did in Star Fox 64. In Star Fox Adventures, he has a white vest instead of a jacket, his headgear is replaced with a device on his wrist, and wears a knee pad on his left leg. He also wears a large backpack for carrying items, such as Krystal's Staff and the CloudRunner Flute. In Star Fox: Assault, his appearance changes drastically. He wears a green and red jumpsuit, a white vest, pads on his knees and shoulders, and his boots are red and black instead of gray. As in Adventures, his communication device is on his wrist. In Star Fox Command, Fox has gone back to his Star Fox 64 attire, but without his sleeves rolled up. In the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Fox has a similar appearance of his Star Fox 64 and Command designs. In the 1993 Nintendo Power Star Fox comic, Fox had a romantic relationship with Fara Phoenix. While slightly ambiguous, it is obvious that they held mutual affections for each other, by the way they flirt and hold each other on several occasions throughout the comics. Still, the comics are considered non-canon, since Star Fox 64 replaced the original SNES Star Fox title.

Appearances

Star Fox

In the original SNES game, Fox's father, James McCloud had gone missing in 'The Awesome Black Hole', a result of Andross' experiments. Fox McCloud assembled a new Star Fox team, which includes Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad. They are hired by General Pepper to pilot the experimental Arwing spacefighter and stop the threat of Andross. With a choice of three routes, the player plays as Fox, fighting Andross' forces.^[4]

Star Fox 64

Star Fox 64 is a remake of Star Fox on the Nintendo 64, and adds new characters and ideas taken from the cancelled Star Fox 2. Fox McCloud's friendship with Bill Grey is depicted during the game, and he fights Wolf O'Donnell of the rival Star Wolf team. The Black Hole of the SNES game is absent, instead, James McCloud is supposed to have died at the hands of Andross himself. Once Star Fox reaches Venom, they fight through its defensive lines or Star Wolf to Andross's base, depending on which route the player takes. Despite the protests of his team, Fox faces Andross alone. If the player has chosen the hard route, Fox's father James appears to lead his son to safety when Andross' base explodes, disappearing when Fox escapes. Whether this was living James, a ghost or a figment of Fox's imagination is yet to be seen. Fox then leaves victorious as Andross' base explodes behind him. Back on Corneria, General Pepper offers to integrate them into the Cornerian army. Fox declines, saying that they "prefer doing things" their own way.^[5] An action figure of Fox McCloud armed with a missile launcher was produced to accompany the game, but never got beyond the prototype stage.^[6]

Star Fox Adventures

In Star Fox Adventures, a GameCube game set eight years after Star Fox 64, Fox McCloud is hired to stop Dinosaur Planet breaking apart. Fox rescues Prince Tricky, a young dinosaur of the EarthWalker tribe, from the Sharpclaw tribe. The villain of the game, General Scales, plans to conquer the planet piece by piece. The two find four Spell Stones, magical objects that hold the planet together, returning them to their rightful positions, and free Krystal, an imprisoned fox girl. Fox then defeats a resurrected Andross, who was the real villain behind the troubles on Dinosaur Planet. McCloud then returns to the Great Fox, and General Pepper pays him for saving the planet. Falco Lombardi, who had been absent for the majority of the game, is reunited with the team.^[7] Star Fox Adventures was originally intended for release on the Nintendo 64 as Dinosaur Planet, an action adventure starring Krystal and a fox character named Sabre. Created by developers Rare, the game was essentially complete, and was ready for release in the forth quarter of 2000. The game was shown off at the E3 video game trade show in May that year, but cancelled shortly afterwards.^[8] Nintendo had noticed the similarity between Fox McCloud and Sabre, and decided to convert the game into Star Fox Adventures. In an interview with IGN at the 2000 E3, Shigeru Miyamoto commented on the similarity between the two characters, jokingly suggesting he should call the development team about it.^[9]

Star Fox: Assault

A year after the events of Star Fox Adventures, Fox and his team are hired to defeat Andrew Oikonny, the nephew of the late Andross, who has started a rebellion against Corneria with the remnants of Andross's forces. Team Star Fox manages to corner Oikonny on the planet Fortuna, when Oikonny is suddenly shot down by a creature known as an Aparoid; strange, bug-like organisms with the ability to assimilate things living or not. On planet Katina, the team runs into Pigma Dengar, who sent out an S.O.S. signal to lure them. Pigma steals the core memory of a defeated Aparoid, which the team needs in order to locate the homeworld of the race and destroy the Aparoid Queen; the Aparoid leader. Star Fox then encounters and gets into a brief skirmish with the Star Wolf team while searching for Pigma. After defeating Pigma, the stolen core memory is obtained. After freeing planet Sauria from the Aparoids, Fox then learns that Corneria has been heavily assaulted by the enemy. Star Wolf then comes to their aid when saving Corneria. Fox and crew finally reach the Aparoid homeworld, where the Queen is destroyed along with the home planet itself, once again with help from Star Wolf.^[10]

Star Fox Command

Once again, the Lylat System falls under peril in Star Fox Command, this time under attack by a new foe known as the Anglars, who originated from Venom's acidic oceans. It is up to Fox McCloud to save the galaxy once more by slowly liberating invaded territory and arriving at Venom to defeat the Anglar Emperor. This time, he begins the battle with only ROB 64 at his side, as the team has been disbanded for various reasons. Along the way, other characters will join Fox and the team becomes whole again. ^[11] As Command has nine different outcomes, it is uncertain which is the true path Fox and crew take; but the developers have suggested that any sequel might ignore the endings and pick up the story from the middle.^[12] In this game, Takaya Imamura gave Fox a cartoonish appearance, compared to the more realistic look of Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox Assault. According to Imamura, realistic fur was unpopular with players.^[12]

Super Smash Bros. series

Fox McCloud has appeared in every Super Smash Bros. game to date. He wears his Star Fox 64 outfit in the series. He is a fast, light-weight character, utilizing speed and agility. His special moves include a Blaster, his projectile weapon, the Fire Fox, his recovery move, is a fire attack that engulfs him in flames and sends him flying a limited distance in the direction of the analog stick on the controller. The Reflector, also known as the "Shine", or "Deflector"^[13] is a blue hexagonal structure that briefly electrocutes foes when first activated, and reflects enemy projectiles. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, he is lighter than previously established, although he falls more quickly. Super Smash Bros. Melee adds a dash attack, called Fox Illusion. His Blaster is also sped up, and has rapid-fire capabilities, but enemies don't flinch at the impacts of its shots. He was confirmed on November 3, 2006 at the Nintendo World Tour to be in the upcoming part of the series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Fox's outfit in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is similar to, though not completely the same as, his Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Command designs. Additions include a holster for his gun, a green lens over his right eye, and his Reflector device is now visibly hung on his belt.^[14] His headset's microphone also appears on the right side of his face instead of the left, which was the case for all of its previous appearances. His Final Smash has been revealed to be the Landmaster Tank, which can hover, barrel roll and shoot powerful shots from the cannon. Fox has also been seen in the game's story mode, the Subspace Emissary, initially seen as his Arwing is shot down by the Halberd^[15] and sent crashing into the edge of a jungle, where he frees Diddy Kong from Rayquaza.^[16] He is also seen encountering Bowser, who attacks both Fox and Diddy with some kind of strange weapon. ^[17]

Other appearances

Fox has small cameos in other games, notably Stunt Race FX, where a portrait of him can be found in track-side billboards.^[18] In F-Zero GX, a character named James McCloud is a playable racer, bearing the name of Fox's father. He has a similar appearance to Fox, with his hair looking like ears, and wears sunglasses as well. His profile describes his "wife and son both of whom need his support".^[19]

References

External links

• Star Fox official site