Fox McCloud

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is a fictional anthropomorphic fox from the Star Fox series of video games.  He was created by Takaya Imamura. As his name implies, he is a fox (although anthropomorphized), and the protagonist of the Star Fox series; despite confusion that he was originally understood to be a human whose name was Fox, Imamura has since made it clear that he is indeed a fox. According to Star Fox 64 Player's Guide, Fox's image was modeled after the Japanese god Inari's foxes (kitsune), though they are white while McCloud bears Red fox markings. Fox even wears a red "bib" around his neck, much like the statues at the Inari shrines.

Fox McCloud hails from the planet Corneria in the Lylat System and pilots the Arwing space ship as leader of the mercenary Star Fox team, summoned by General Pepper. He is the son of the James McCloud, founder of the Star Fox team. In Star Fox 64, his father was captured by his archnemesis Andross.

In Star Fox and Star Fox 64, Fox was around the age of eighteen, and was naturally still learning. Now he has become an expert pilot in his late twenties, and is much more confident, as evident in his appearance.

In Star Fox 64, he was voiced by Mike West (contrary to popular belief, Charles Martinet did not provide the voice for Fox, nor was he even involved with the game). In the 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 , his voice was done by Jim Walker in the English release and by Kenji Nojima in the Japanese release.

Physical appearance

Fox wears a flight jacket and a communications helmet in Star Fox, Star Fox 2, and Star Fox 64,. This can also be seen in the games Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee. In Adventures, his look was updated. He loses the helmet and puts on a red scarf and zips open his jacket. He also wears some hard metal boots and switches his pants color from gray to green. He also wears a knee pad on his left leg. In Star Fox: Assault, Fox wears all green and a white jacket, apparently lightly armored. He also wears more pads on his elbows and knees and has a communicator on his arm. He also has a back pack for carrying items, including rock candies and Krystal's staff in Adventures to weapons in Assault. In the most recent installment, Star Fox Command, Fox has gone back to wearing his flight jacket and communications helmet from the old Star Fox games.

History

Early life

Fox is the son of the Star Fox team's founder, James McCloud. His mother has never been mentioned in the actual games, but the Nintendo Power comic detailed her as Vixy Reinard, who was accidentally killed by Andross. Many fans, however, do not believe this to be part of the actual story, so his mother remains a mystery. James taught Fox under the lifestyle of not giving up; something that Fox recalls often. During his early teens, Fox was a member of the Cornerian flight academy, along with his friend Bill Grey. When James was captured (and assumedly killed) by Andross, Peppy Hare, member of Star Fox and close friend of James, flew to Corneria to inform Fox of his father's fate. Upon hearing this news, Fox dropped out of the academy to avenge his father's death, and Peppy took Fox under his wing and began to train him.

Star Fox

In the original game, Fox is still an amateur pilot and learning. His father has gone missing after pursuit of Andross, and was last seen around the Black Hole (a result of Andross' experiments) before his disappearance. Fox has decided to step up and take control of the Star Fox team. Soon, he and the rest of the Star Fox team are hired by General Pepper to stop the threat of Andross. Star Fox currently consists of Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad. With a strategic route in mind, they tackle Andross' forces until they reach the planet Venom. After several more hardships, Fox decides go to Andross' base alone at the last moment. He goes against Andross in the final battle alone, and successfully defeats him.

Star Fox 2

In this unreleased game, Andross returns, having survived the previous encounter, and is launching a much more head-on attack against Corneria. In this critical crisis, General Pepper again leads the Star Fox team, now with a mothership, custom Arwings, and two new members named Miyu and Fay, to stop Andross and save Corneria before he can succeed in his incoming invasion. Two members of Star Fox (the default is Fox and Falco) leave their mothership and devise tactics to slow down Andross' army. In an effort to liberate the planets and destroy enemy missiles, Star Fox runs into Star Wolf members individually in their ships, The Wolf Team, but they fail to stop Star Fox. After many successful operations by Star Fox, Wolf O'Donnell, leader of Star Wolf, shows himself to cease their advancement to Andross. He's defeated, but vows vengeance and barely escapes in his damaged ship. Andross is furious at his abandoning him, and Star Fox gets straight to him. He ends up defeated again, and escape from the explosions to their mothership. Reunited with the rest of the team, they head home to Corneria, unaware that some defeated enemies of the past were staring at them deep in space, including Star Wolf and Andross.

Star Fox 64

The story is now revised in this game. Star Fox is once again called upon to stop Andross and save the Lylat System. Fox inherited the leadership of Star Fox after its former leader, James McCloud (Fox's father), was captured after being betrayed by his friend Pigma Dengar. Fox leads Star Fox throughout the battles in the Lylat System, running into allies and enemies alike. His friendship with Bill Grey is revealed during one of these missions, and he also goes toe-to-toe with Wolf O'Donnell of Star Wolf in others. Once Star Fox reaches Venom, they fight through its defensive lines all the way to Andross's base. Despite the protests of his team, Fox enters alone. Fearlessly, he defeats Andross one on one but Andross refuses to fall alone and attempts to take Fox with him. Fox is then shocked to hear his father's voice intone 'Don't ever give up, my son' and follows what appears to be his father's Arwing as Andross' base explodes behind him. It is unclear whether James was actually alive or whether this was some sort of ghost or other apparition; but one can see a beam of light (be it a spirit or an actual arwing) flying away in the distance as the team congratulates Fox for a job well done.

Star Fox Adventures

In Star Fox Adventures, set eight years after the events of Star Fox 64, a cockier Fox McCloud calmed the conflict on Sauria(known in the game as Dinosaur Planet) by teaming with Prince Tricky of the Earthwalker tribe and returning the SpellStones to their rightful positions in two of the planet's temples, freeing an imprisoned Krystal (who is seven years his junior) by returning the five remaining Krazoa Spirits to their rightful positions, and defeating a reawakened Andross, who was behind the troubles on Sauria. After that, he returned to Great Fox, and General Pepper paid him for saving Sauria. He and Falco Lombardi were reunited, and Krystal joined the Star Fox team. Immediately afterwards, the Star Fox team used the money that Fox received to repair the Great Fox.

Star Fox: Assault

In , Star Fox is called upon by General Pepper to assist in crushing Andrew Oikonny's rebellion against Corneria. However, during the fight with Oikonny, an descends upon the battle and destroys Oikonny in a single blast. After its defeat, Star Fox learns of the new menacing threat caused by the Aparoids. Thus Fox and company trek across Lylat to battle the Aparoids and defend the system from complete "assimiliation." However, during one of these missions, Pigma steals the Core Memory of an Aparoid and flees. Fox tracks him down to a space station belonging to none other than Wolf O'Donnell. Star Fox and Star Wolf have yet another battle, resulting in Star Wolf's defeat. Fox's continue pursuit of Pigma eventually leads him to the Asteroid belt where he confronts the infected Pigma in a final battle, Pigma is then killed by Fox (it is not certain that this was actully Pigma he was confronting due to the fact that Pigma's mind was taken over by the Aparoids and mutated/fused with a spacestation)

While en route to Corneria, Krystal senses the Sauria is under attack. Worried about Tricky, Fox and Krystal go to Sauria's surface to battle the Aparoids. Afterwards, the Aparoids appear to be too much for Cornerian forces and eventually invade Corneria. Fox goes to the planet to help, but eventually gets surrounded on all sides. He is surprisingly saved by Wolf, who then assists him in defeating an infected General Pepper. Fox and Wolf temporarily put aside their differences in this war with the Aparoids. Wolf comes to Fox's aid once again while defending a Gate from Aparoid missiles.

Fox played a crucial role in defeating the Aparoids, firing the final shot to bring down the Aparoid Queen. Due to the Aparoid threat, Fox and his team joined forces with their rivals, Star Wolf, to defeat the Aparoids. Something interesting to note is that this is the first Star Fox game where the rest of Star Fox joins Fox in the final battle.

Star Fox Command

Little is currently known of the plot of Star Fox Command. Once again, the Lylat System falls under peril, this time under a new foe. It is up to Fox McCloud to save the galaxy once more. He appears to have swapped his Assault outfit for his original outfit.

Super Smash Bros. series

Fox McCloud is also one of the characters in the original Super Smash Bros. game for the Nintendo 64 and its GameCube sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee. He wears his Star Fox 64 outfit in the Super Smash Bros. series. He is a fast, fierce character with an extremely powerful up smash. His "Fire Fox" special move is a fire attack which he can use to gain altitude; his "Reflector" returns enemy projectile attacks and also damages opponents if the player can hit them with it; and he also uses his rapid-fire blaster. Super Smash Bros. Melee makes him lighter and adds a "Fox Illusion" dash attack. Falco Lombardi, added for SSBM, plays far more similarly to the N64 Fox. The competitive Smash community considers Fox a top-tier character, second only to Princess Zelda in Shiek form, due to his unmatched speed and agility, as well as his devastating combo capabilities. He is also the most exploitable character glitch-wise, with many advanced tecniques involving wavedashing combos.

Love life

In the 1993 Nintendo Power Star Fox comic, Fox had what fans considered to be a romantic relationship with Fara Phoenix. However, the comics never confirm that Fox and Fara have any real feelings for each other. Also, many believe that the comics were not official canon, and that the character of Fara Phoenix did not really exist because she never appears in the games.

In Star Fox Adventures, it was hinted that there was a relationship growing when he met Krystal (referring to her as "beautiful" and staring at her for several minutes before Peppy contacts him, telling him to stop goofing off and to get back to the mission), and there was some mutual interest shown in Krystal. According to some [unused audio] in Adventures, Fox and Krystal originally were going to have a much deeper relationship, but this was ultimately scrapped for unknown reasons.

In Star Fox: Assault, Krystal and Fox's relationship is advanced (though not a major part of the story). Krystal's affection for Fox can been seen in her constant desire to help Fox, and the way she flirtatiously tells Fox that they "finally have a mission together" during Sauria's invasion. Fox is quite shy about anything personal between the two, stammering if Krystal flirts with him. Fox's affection for Krystal can be most notably seen during the cutscene after the Sauria mission. When Tricky tells Fox to bring Krystal to Sauria on their honeymoon, Fox frantically tells Tricky that "we're not yet..." and he continues to stutter with his tongue tied. Tricky playfully pointed out that Fox just said "not yet," resulting in Fox trying to change the subject. Krystal giggled to herself during their conversation, showing that she is entertained and not bothered by this exchange. With these signals, many believe that they are falling in love with each other.

In the upcoming Star Fox Command, It is said in Nintendo Power that Krystal and Fox broke up because Fox didn't want to put Krystal in danger. A translation reveals that Krystal's whereabouts are unknown to Fox.

Appearance in games

Fox McCloud has been featured in several games, beginning with the original Star Fox for the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom:

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• Star Fox (Scrolling shooter, 1993, SNES)
• Star Fox 2 (Unreleased scrolling shooter, 1995, SNES)
• Star Fox 64 (Scrolling shooter, 1997, Nintendo 64)
• Super Smash Bros. (Fighting game, 1999, N64)
• Super Smash Bros. Melee (Fighting game, 2001, Nintendo GameCube)
• Star Fox Adventures (Adventure game, 2002, GCN)
• (Action/adventure game, Action, 2005, GCN)
• Star Fox Command (Scrolling shooter, 2006, Nintendo DS)

Fox also has small cameos in other games, notably Stunt Race FX, where a portrait of him can be found in track-side billboards. In F-Zero GX, a Fox McCloud custom paint job can be applied to the vehicles. Another cameo is in where his Arwing can be seen on a crate.

 

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