Unwilling or unable to face his former team, Fox has chosen to take on the entire Anglar armada by himself. Can he do it? Will the team put aside their differences and reunite? All Lylat waits for the answers...
— Opening narration
Star Fox Command is the direct sequel to Star Fox: Assault, published on Nintendo DS in 2006. For over a decade, it would be the last ever Star Fox sequel released, until Star Fox 2 in 2017 as a special game for the SNES Classic Edition.
At the end of the Lylat Wars, the planet Venom was put under strict quarantine. In the years since then, no one has set foot on it. Suddenly, a new military threat known as the Anglars - alien creatures native to the toxic seas on Venom - charged out of the planet's atmosphere, utterly devastating everything in their path and quickly subjugating the entire Lylat system.
After the events of Star Fox: Assault, Star Fox had disbanded. Each member was living a new life, and bringing them back together would be difficult. In addition, Fox had become concerned for Krystal's life, and decided to kick her off of Star Fox for her own protection. She took this very badly, and decided to join Star Wolf and begin a relationship with Panther to make Fox jealous for kicking her out.
Unlike the other games in the series, this game has Multiple Endings that are earned by following different possible story paths.
Tropes featured:
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- 11th-Hour Superpower: Near the end of some routes, Fox gets his Arwing II fitted with either Twin lasers or Plasma lasers, both of which deal more damage than his standard Single laser.
- Action Girl: By the end of one route, your team consists of Krystal, Katt Monroe, Lucy Hare, and Amanda, who get to defend planet Corneria. It leads to a big feast prepared for the guys while they're off on Venom.
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The bases may count, though they are mostly stationary.
- Always Accurate Attack: Charged shots always hit their mark, which is partly why they're so invaluable to the player.
- Amazon Brigade: One ending of the story results in a playable team consisting of Krystal, Katt, Lucy, and Amanda protecting their home while the guys are all attacking the enemy homeworld. Oddly for the usual approach to Multiple Endings, this squadron never becomes an official, separate squadron.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Averted: all character graphics in the briefing scenes can appear from their left or their right side, but have two separate graphics for each side — not only do asymmetrical features always appear on the proper side, but the cell shading always appears to come from the same lighting angle even for characters that would otherwise appear symmetrical.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: In some paths, the story shifts focus from one pilot to another, usually in a way that has some relevance to the plot. The only problem is that the game doesn't bother to explain why ROB and the Great Fox are suddenly commanded by someone else.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The Fog of War does not form over the vicinity of allied bases, nor does it hide the position of Anglar missiles in flight to the Great Fox.
- In a final mothership attack, you have infinite boost and will never have to worry about running out right at the moment you have to barrel roll for the final blow.
- You also have unlimited fuel (and thus no time limit) in the final boss battles against the Anglar Emperor himself.
- Anti-Rage Quitting: The now-defunct Nintendo WFC mode would show, in addition to your matches played, matches won, etc., a "Dropouts" counter, which increased every time you disconnected from a match (which caused the entire match to end for all players, by the way) for any reason.
- Arrange Mode: After beating the game for the first time, the player unlocks the ability to choose multiple paths.
- Asteroid Thicket: Sector Z and Asteroid Belt have asteroids that disrupt the player's path on the map.
- Attack Reflector: As is standard for a Star Fox game, performing a roll deflects laser shots from enemies. The main difference in Command, though, is that rolling expends the ship's boost gauge.
- Babies Ever After: Certain endings show the offspring of the team. Slippy and Amanda end up having at least six children (all unnamed) in Ending 7, while in Ending 2, Slippy's son ends up joining a possible future team composed of Fox and Krystal's son Marcus (the leader of said team), Peppy's granddaughter (presumably Lucy's daughter, father unknown), and elderly Falco.
- Balance, Power, Skill, Gimmick: Fox is balanced with single lasers, single lock, and a medium boost meter, but may become the gimmick in story mode because he can upgrade either his lock or lasers depending on your route. Falco is a Fragile Speedster, having a huge boost meter and multi-lock but low HP; Slippy is a Mighty Glacier, having a lot of HP and Plasma Lasers, but no lock at all and a very short boost meter. Krystal is balanced like Fox, but with twin lasers by default and no potential for upgrades.
- The Battlestar: Downplayed with the Great Fox; While it can fire long-range missiles that can destroy enemy units, it otherwise completely lacks defensive weaponry. As such, any enemy or missile that reaches it destroys it instantly and nets the player a game over.
- Big Bad: The Anglar Emperor.
- Big Damn Heroes: "Lucy and Krystal" sees Lucy almost have to fight alone against returning Anglar forces until Krystal, Katt, and Amanda show up to help.
- Bittersweet Ending: Most of Command's endings fall here; Endings 1 and 5 are the only endings that seem truly happy, and even then, 1 hints at Dash's Start of Darkness and 5 involves some reflection on Peppy's dead wife. Every other ending involves at least one teammate being separated from the team (whether by choice or fate), except for ending 6, which more explicitly shows Dash going evil. The most depressing would probably be Ending 4, which shows Krystal becoming a pariah despite helping to save the universe and being rejected/shunned everywhere, until she becomes a lonely Bounty Hunter whom not even Fox recognizes when they cross paths years later. The accompanying ending melody aids the tragic feeling of these endings.
- Boss Battle: There are several throughout the game that will appear at the end of specific maps once the player has destroyed every other enemy.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: In the Venom stages, some of the bases will only have one enemy ship piloted by an Anglar general: it functions as a mini-boss. There is no warning beforehand that this will happen, and the bases have no indication that they're inhabited by these mini-bosses, even in hindsight.
- Boss-Only Level: As said above, some bases in the Venom stages have a mini-boss as the only enemy at all.
- Breaking the Fellowship: At the start of the game, team Star Fox consists of only Fox and ROB 64. As the game progresses more characters join up, (and in some scenarios Fox is no longer part of the group,) but because of the interactive mission progression, which characters join your group varies from one playthrough to the next.
- Call-Back: While Fox uses an updated version of the traditional Arwing design and the other active members of Star Fox have acquired their own individualized Arwing designs, in routes where Peppy joins the fight, he is still using the Arwing design that appeared in Star Fox Assault.
- Captain Obvious: R.O.B. tells you how to take out an enemy mothership... every single time you encounter one... throughout the entire game.
- The Cavalry:
- In some missions, a new character can show up after a certain number of turns have passed, arriving in to provide backup.
- In the final mission leading to the "Lucy and Krystal" ending, triggered if Lucy decides to obey her father and stay on Corneria, she tries to call for help to help fight off a new wave of Anglar forces arriving on the planet, but was notified by ROB that no standard Cornerian forces can be quickly ready to save them. Then all the other female pilots in the game show up to give her a chance to send the Anglar forces packing, starting the mission prior.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: Some story routes focus on Fox and Krystal's strained relationship and the threat of the Anglars, while others are comedic side-stories to the main plot. A good example is Falco's solo route where he gets distracted by a revived Pigma while Star Fox and Star Wolf wipe out the Anglars off-screen.
- Character-Specific Dialogue: During the boss fight against Monarch Dodora, Andross's ghost normally commands the creature to destroy the player and expresses frustration when the player wins. If Monarch Dodora is fought with Andross's grandson Dash, Andross's ghost will instead (ineffectually) demand that the boss stop attacking and expresses pride when Dash defeats it.
- Charged Attack: Charged shots home in a locked-on enemy(ies). If the player keeps their reticle on an enemy while charging, then they'll increase the shot's power.
- Clip Its Wings: Averted with the player's ships; Unlike other Star Fox games, as they can't lose their wings no matter how much they get damaged.
- Collision Damage: Crashing into buildings, terrain, and enemies damages the player's ship.
- Cool Starship: As usual, the Great Fox carries the heroes' ships and enables them to be sent out for missions.
- Conflict Ball: Happens with both boss fights against Star Wolf, one which happens because Wolf thinks Fox is after the bounties on their heads, and the other happens just because Wolf wants to fight Fox.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Lylat system should look familiar to anyone who's played Star Fox 64, as that is where the locations come from, though a few are missing from 64. (With Bolse and Area 6, their absence is explained by the fact that they were artificial structures made to protect Andross's base, which was destroyed.)
- Both stages with a Star Wolf boss battle take place on Fichina, the same planet where they can make their earliest appearance in 64.
- The events of Star Fox Assault are also addressed. Since the Great Fox was destroyed to disable the Aparoid homeworld's shield, ROB has commissioned an old carrier with a missile launcher to be its replacement. Andrew Oikonny, the first boss of Assault, was later discovered to have survived the initial Aparoid attack and is in league with the Anglar Empire in Fichina. And there are also a few story routes that end with a final showdown with Pigma, a former member of Star Wolf who was corrupted by the Aparoids and presumably killed by the Star Fox team in a boss fight. The team clearly recalls destroying him when they see him again in the form of a mysterious cube-like Puzzle Boss.
- Cool Plane: A given for a Star Fox game, for both the heroes and villains alike.
- Critical Annoyance:
- When your ship takes damage, an alarm will sound if at least half of your shield is gone, and a more frightening alarm will sound if your shields are critically low, followed by a message from an ally to warn you about it. Your ship will also flash red periodically while your shields are critical.
- When an enemy or missile is close to the Great Fox in the map, ROB will warn you and tell you to "shoot it down". He will also warn you when you only have two turns left. On your final turn, panicky music will start to play. Better take out a mothership or finish the mission, quick!
- Critical Existence Failure: Unlike other Star Fox games, this trope is in full effect as the player's ship can't lose its wings.
- A Day in the Limelight: Several of Command's branches follow characters other than Fox. Characters that benefit include Falco, Slippy, the whole of Star Wolf, and newcomer Lucy.
- Death from Above: The player can drop Smart Bombs from the sky onto enemies.
- Death or Glory Attack: The only way to bring down the mothership when attacking an Anglar base. You need to follow a particular flight path leading up to the mothership and quickly barrel roll right into it to destroy it in a single stroke. If you deviate from the flight path or fail to barrel roll in time, you'll lose a ship and will have to restart the base attack.
- Didn't Need Those Anyway!:
- Some enemies comprise of multiple parts that need to be destroyed to be vulnerable, such as the Spindle Fish.
- The Anglar Emperor's Arrowhead, which is the final boss of the first story playthrough and the first half of three other final boss encounters, comprises of multiple body segments that must all be destroyed before the head can truly be targeted. But once they're destroyed, they'll fall to the ground and occasionally fire deadly, slow-moving laser rings to pose as a stage hazard.
- Disproportionate Retribution: So, Fox kicked Krystal off the team because he feared for her safety? Krystal's response to this was to join Star Wolf and elaborate a plan that would destroy Fox's heart, his career, and set him up to die fighting against Pigma. Even Wolf felt sorry for him after going through with it.
- Distant Finale: A handful of endings tell of the next generation of Star Fox, or are set several years into the future.
- Do a Barrel Roll: A given being a Star Fox game.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- The way the Star Fox team treats Falco in the Pigma's Revenge ending, - from inviting Star Wolf to the final battle while ostracizing him, with Fox even saying that he they have no need of him anymore, even though he was in their team in the past and was pivotal in critical moments, and the Assault manual stating that Falco sees his team as his family, - has a depressing resemblance of family members abandoning another member of theirs because they are supposedly a failure or worse. Not helped that Falco never talks about his biological family, implying either a very complicated relationship with them, or he may have been orphaned at a young age. Outside of that, it also resembles a group of friends that ditch one of their own to pursue fame and glory with the popular, often mean, group.
- The Curse of Pigma ending describes Fox being so depressed that not only Falco's attempts to console him were proven futile, but he is unwilling to eat or sleep. However, the image of the scene has Fox holding a glass that makes it look like he is drowning out his grief.
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- Downer Ending: Five of them:
- The Anglar Emperor — Krystal abandons Fox to rejoin Star Wolf and be with Panther. This is the ending the player is forced to reach on their first playthrough.
- Star Wolf Returns — Star Wolf saves the Lylat system and are hailed as heroes. However, Krystal becomes a pariah due to her abandonment of Star Fox and flees to another galaxy, where she changes her name to Kursed and becomes a bounty hunter. When she encounters Fox again, he doesn't recognize her.
- Dash Makes a Choice — Dash forges a new empire on Venom. Several years later, he succumbs to corruption and declares war on Corneria like his grandfather before him.
- Pigma's Revenge — Falco, consumed by jealousy after Fox defeats the Anglar without him, forms a new mercenary squadron named Star Falco along with Katt and Dash.
- The Curse of Pigma — Despondent after Star Wolf takes both Krystal and the love of the Lylat System from him, Fox takes up Falco's advice to become G-Zero racers. Their time as part of Star Fox eventually fades to a distant memory.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Krystal hooks up with Panther for an Operation: Jealousy plot, but does begin to genuinely develop feelings for him, which for English speaking players may seem weird considering she clearly didn’t like him in the localized version of Assault. In the original Japanese version of said game, she actually reciprocated his casual flirting, and showed some interest in him, making her developing genuine feelings for him feel more feasible.
- Energy Weapon: All of the player's aircraft and most enemies shoot laser or plasma beams.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: If you fight the Monarch Dodora as Dash, "the ghost of Andross" will demand the boss stop fighting his grandson. Should Dash beat it, Andross expresses pride at his skill.
- Final Boss: Every route has its own final boss, although which one is fought depends on which route that the player is on.
- Flash of Pain: Enemies and the player's ships flash red when damaged.
- Flawless Victory: Destroying every enemy in an engagement will reward the player a missile for the Great Fox to fire at enemy units.
- Flunky Boss: The Solar Satellite sends fighters at the player constantly.
- Fog of War: You can scribble a bit of it away with the stylus, but it grows back in after the end of a turn. Fog won't form over allied bases or obscure the position of Anglar missiles.
- Fragile Speedster: The Sky Claw and the Black Rose have low shield bars but large boost bars, giving them more boost and barrel roll time.
- Game Over Men: Both Fox and Emperor Anglar, with the latter looking especially menacing.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Because the need to protect the Great Fox from missiles is a core part of the Turn-Based Strategy gameplay, it is present in all branches of the story, even when this doesn't make sense or would require it to be in two places at once. All story segments between levels take place onboard the Great Fox, and ROB 64 is always present and participant in these scenes.
- Giant Mook: Enemies like the aptly-named Giant Spindly Fish are huge and have a high Shield stat.
- Glass Cannon: Panther's Black Rose packs a devastating punch with a deadly zapper cannon that deals high damage, but can be easily shot down due to its low shielding.
- GPS Evidence: In Command, ROB is able to pinpoint Venom as the origin point of the Anglar army... because their ships are made out of a noncorroding metal, which means they can function in Venom's caustic seas. Kind of a leap of logic. Unless you notice that, in the opening blurb, the Anglar Emperor had already declared that he and his army were from the Venom sea. Fox must not be able to get cable news aboard the Great Fox.
- Graceful Loser: In the Former Rivals mission, after Fox beats Star Wolf, Panther tries to make an excuse as to why he lost. Wolf himself interrupts him and says, "Cram it, fuzzy! We all got whipped. Take it like a man."
- The Greatest Story Never Told: One of the first branches is simply "I wonder what Falco is up to?", which immediately shifts over to Falco's point of view, and continues in a linear path as Falco has his own set of adventures, leading him to a battle with Pigma. Unfortunately, this doesn't intersect with the main plot at all, which causes him much grief when he realizes he missed out on all the fun and glory.
- Guide Dang It!: Downplayed; While there's no route map showing which story choices will lead to what ending, the game will highlight choices that the player has already chosen in blue. On top of this, the game will put a star above choices on the top screen that will lead to an old ending.
- Happily Married: Fox and Krystal are this in one of the endings, and have one child. Slippy and Amanda end up like this in most of the endings, and have a whole lotta children. From what little we are told about Vivian - Peppy's deceased wife - suggests that they also fit the trope when she was alive.
- Happy Ending:
- Fox and Krystal — Fox and Krystal get back together, and Amanda joins the Star Fox team. Dash takes over Venom and begins the process of terraforming the planet.
- Goodbye, Fox — With the Lylat system saved, Star Fox disbands and Fox retires to a quiet life with Krystal. Their son Marcus follows in Fox's footsteps and eventually forms a new Star Fox with Slippy's son, Peppy's granddaughter, and Falco Lombardi.
- Lucy and Krystal — The ladies save Lylat. Peppy and Lucy bond over memories of Lucy's mother, and Krystal confesses her love to Fox and rejoins Star Fox.
- Hero of Another Story:
- In a few endings, the player's fighters don't take down the Anglars themselves; instead, Star Wolf and/or the Star Fox members you don't follow do it.
- Speaking of Star Wolf, the route leading to ending 3 has Krystal reveal that they managed to destroy the Anglar headquarters on Venom (although the Emperor survived and acts as the Final Boss).
- Homing Projectile: Charging a ship's laser (if it's capable of doing so) makes it home in on a locked-on target.
- Infodump: The beginning of the story recaps 64's and Assault's plots while also explaining how the Star Fox team disbanded afterwards.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Fox's concern over Krystal's safety is what causes him to kick her off Star Fox prior to the events of the game. She doesn't take it well.
- Jack of All Stats: Fox's Arwing is well balanced across speed, shields, and firepower.
- Jumpscare: Bosses are introduced with a flashing red "WARNING" sign and a loud alarm sound.
- Justified Tutorial: At the start of the game, as stated by ROB, Fox hasn't been in combat for a while. As such, ROB offers him (and thus, the player) to do four training missions to get used to the controls and learn about mechanics like the time limit.
- Kill Enemies to Open: An interesting variation exists with enemy bases, where the player must shoot down all enemies with cores before they can destroy the mother ship.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: Both this game and Star Fox Zero have control-schemes that are very different from the older games (Star Fox 64 3D can also count with its gyro controls, although those are optional). With Command, every action that isn't shooting is done with the DS touch pad, including steering, rolling, and boosting. As a consequence, every button on the DS is used solely for shooting.
- Legacy Character: The game actually features three generations of the McCloud family in one. Fox is, of course, the main character, but James also makes a brief appearance, and one of the endings features Marcus, the son of Fox and Krystal, leading a future Star Fox team. Said team is also made up of Slippy's son (one of many children according to another ending) and Peppy's granddaughter, with Falco seemingly taking the same role that Peppy used to as team mentor and is not implied to have a child (or children) of his own.
- Lethal Lava Land: Solar, which had previously been implied to be a star, appears now as a lava planet with some landmass.
- Life Meter: The shields meter that each ship has.
- Made of Explodium: Regular enemies explode upon their health bar being depleted. Downplayed with bosses, who just suffer a Post-Defeat Explosion Chain while falling.
- Mana Meter: Once again there is a "boost meter" which slowly regenerates over time. This time it's not only used for braking and speed-boosting, but is also consumed by the laser-deflecting barrel roll.
- Mighty Glacier: The Bullfrog has a pitiful boost bar but a large shield bar that lets it take tons of damage.
- Mook Chivalry: Averted when going into combat, as enemies can fire at or even fly into the player's ship before they even have control.
- Mook Maker: Enemy bases do this in intervals.
- Multiple Endings: No less than nine:
- 1 — Fox and Krystal — Fox and Krystal get back together, and Amanda joins the Star Fox team. Dash takes over Venom and begins the process of terraforming the planet.
- 2 — Goodbye, Fox — With the Lylat system saved, Star Fox disbands and Fox retires to a quiet life with Krystal. Their son Marcus follows in Fox's footsteps and eventually forms a new Star Fox with Slippy's son, Peppy's granddaughter, and Falco Lombardi.
- 3 — The Anglar Emperor — Krystal abandons Fox to rejoin Star Wolf and be with Panther. This is the ending the player is forced to reach on their first playthrough.
- 4 — Star Wolf Returns — Star Wolf saves the Lylat system and are hailed as heroes. However, Krystal becomes a pariah due to her abandonment of Star Fox and flees to another galaxy, where she changes her name to Kursed and becomes a bounty hunter. When she encounters Fox again, he doesn't recognize her.
- 5 — Lucy and Krystal — The ladies save Lylat. Peppy and Lucy bond over memories of Lucy's mother, and Krystal confesses her love to Fox and rejoins Star Fox.
- 6 — Dash Makes a Choice — Dash forges a new empire on Venom. Several years later, he succumbs to corruption and declares war on Corneria like his grandfather before him.
- 7 — Slippy's Resolve — Slippy retires to Aquas with Amanda and becomes a family man. He regales his children with tales of his days in Star Fox, and wonders if they are still fighting the good fight in his old age.
- 8 — Pigma's Revenge — Falco, consumed by jealousy after Fox defeats the Anglar without him, forms a new mercenary squadron named Star Falco along with Katt and Dash.
- 9 — The Curse of Pigma — Despondent after Star Wolf takes both Krystal and the love of the Lylat system from him, Fox takes up Falco's advice to become G-Zero racers. Their time as part of Star Fox eventually fades to a distant memory.
N-Z
- No-Sell:
- Bombs won't work on some enemies, and you can't use them when fighting the Anglar Emperor.
- You can't shoot down Anglar missiles with your ship missiles.
- Old Soldier: Peppy is still quite capable of flying an Arwing despite his age.
- One-Hit Kill:
- The Great Fox's missiles instantly destroy any enemy on the map.
- Charged shots, the Black Rose's laser, and Smart Bombs are this to enemies with smaller health bars.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: If even a single enemy or missile reaches the new Great Fox, it is destroyed, meaning instant mission failure.
- Operation: Jealousy: Why Krystal joins up with Star Wolf and begins a relationship with Panther to get back at Fox for kicking her off Star Fox.
- Parrying Bullets: The wings of your fighter can deflect small laser bolts if you barrel roll (with boost to spare).
- Permadeath: If you're out of extra ships, any pilots that run out of fuel or shields will be down and out for the rest of the current mission.
- Promoted to Playable: Almost every single named pilot from Star Fox 64 to Star Fox: Assault becomes playable in Command. Yes, that includes James McCloud.
- Protection Mission: Every single mission requires you to protect the Great Fox from incoming enemies and missiles.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Pigma. They're off doing their own thing, but are basically a minor side story compared to the Anglar Empire. The two endings that involve him as the final boss means that your characters end up missing out on defeating the Anglar Empire.
- Putting the Band Back Together: The game starts with Star Fox more or less disbanded with Fox on his own and a good amount of the plot involves getting the band back together in different ways.
- Ramming Always Works: Specifically, in order to destroy enemy mother ships, the player must ram into them by flying through a set of beacons while rolling.
- Remember the New Guy?:
- Lucy, Peppy's daughter, is introduced. You would think that she would have been mentioned in previous games...
- Same with Dash Bowman. Aside from Andrew Oikonny, the previous games never implied that Andross had any other family, and certainly not children or grandchildren of his own.
- Remixed Level: The first level changes whenever you visit the level again.
- Reused Character Design: Octoman from F-Zero appears as a boss. The Octoman here has pretty much nothing in common with the original, being loud, delusional, and violent while his counterpart was shy, intelligent, and friendly. Even the name itself is a misnomer, as he has only half as many limbs, which is pointed out in one of the paths.
- Rivals Team Up: Happens in the handful of missions where Star Fox and Star Wolf members fight the Anglars together.
- Route Boss: Several bosses are unique to one story route.
- Rule of Three:
- The Great Fox can carry only three missiles at a time.
- The maximum amount of Smart Bombs that a ship can carry is three (exclusive to Slippy's Bull Frog).
- Schrödinger's Gun: Krystal’s current location and role vary depending on what route you take, none of which are really compatible with each other. In the default route, and several others, she’s joined up with Star Wolf, who are currently wanted fugitives. In some other routes, she’s joined Corneria’s army. Lastly, in the Goodbye Fox route, it’s revealed she returned to Sauria after Star Fox disbanded, and was spending the whole game hiding there.
- Secret Character: For the first and only time in the series, you can play as James McCloud in the final mission leading to the ending "Dash Makes a Choice".
- Sequential Boss: In each of the Venom missions, the boss is the Arrow Head, the Anglar Emperor's ship—although unlike when its fought in the Asteroid Belt, the Emperor survives his ship's destruction and a fight against him personally ensues.
- Series Continuity Error: The Arwing models seem to have been mixed up in this game. Fox pilots the Arwing II, however, the design of said ship resembles the original Arwing model seen in Star Fox 64. Meanwhile, Peppy and James both pilot a ship simply named Arwing, but it has a design more akin to the new model seen in Star Fox Assault.
- Shifting Sand Land: Titania, a desert planet where Andross' ghost resides and where he hid the device that can detoxify Venom's oceans. As such, it's only traveled to in the late-game of some story routes.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Your ship vs. an Anglar Mothership at the end of a base attack. You win if you follow the flight path and barrel roll into the mothership. The mothership wins if you fail to do either.
- Songs in the Key of Panic: The map theme music changes to a panicky song when the player has only one turn left to capture an enemy base and/or destroy all enemies.
- Speaking Simlish: And you can make your own!
- Space Zone: Asteroid Belt, as well as Sector X, Y, and Z.
- Start of Darkness: The "Dash Makes A Choice" ending shows Dash make Venom a lush and prosperous world—to the point where, years later, he declares its supremacy over Corneria and a war soon follows, with a shot of an elder Dash now looking a lot like his grandfather and a furious crowd behind him. Ending 1 does end on the note of Dash reforming Venom into a safe place to live while accompanying this with a somewhat intimidating image of the ape◊ which could be rather ominous only due to the knowledge of how that other ending goes, but it doesn't outright imply anything is wrong or will go wrong.
- Stone Wall: The Rainbow Delta is an interesting variant; It has a large shield gauge but can't fire normal lasers and can only fire charged shots. However, it charges said shots almost instantly and can target several onscreen enemies.
- Story Branching: Between missions the player is given choices about what to do next, and the choices made affect the characters that join the group and the direction the plot moves, eventually leading to one of ten different endings. After completing the game once and receiving a relatively mundane ending (The third ending), the game unlocks alternate story paths the player may select after completing each mission — these progress through different areas (with different party members), branching and interleaving to yield a total of nine distinct Multiple Endings.
- Tennis Boss: After you destroy Emperor Anglar's three spike balls in the final boss battle in the depths of Venom, if he had more than half health remaining, he will unleash a powerful blast of energy that you must bounce back and forth with your barrel roll to temporarily disable his shield for a chance to damage him.
- Theme Music Power-Up: Fox, Falco, and Slippy all get a unique battle theme whenever they take on an enemy base, with Fox's being an arrangement of Area 6.
- Timed Boss: Every single boss except for Emperor Anglar on Venom since your ships have limited fuel.
- Timed Mission: The game has a timer for combat in general (fuel) and a turn limit for each mission.
- Turn-Based Strategy, Real Time Combat: Gameplay is divided into a "movement phase", where the player positions the fighters around the overworld for engaging enemies or refueling their ships, and a "combat phase", which plays like your standard all-range mode Star Fox mission. While this game is said to borrow the idea of a strategy element from Star Fox 2, the actual gameplay is utterly different in practice: Star Fox 2 has NO Fog of War, and also uses a Real-Time Strategy instead of any turn based system.
- Underwater Ruins: Venom has these.
- Variable Mix: Drums get added to a map's music when there's an enemy missile(s) on the field, and the drums fade out once said missile(s) is shot down.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Which planet/area fulfills this role depends on which ending you're gunning for—though it's worth noting that each of the 4 missions that take place at Venom are ending missions.
- Violation of Common Sense: Since deflecting enemy fire adds time to the player's timer, it can actually be a good idea to deliberately fly into enemy fire while rolling to gain more time.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Star Wolf, the very first boss the player will ever encounter (due to them being locked on that path for their first playthrough). It's a 3-against-1 fight that, unlike the first Star Wolf fight in 64, cannot be skipped.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Of the four Anglar generals, Zoldge is strangely not present for a rematch on Venom.
- White And Black Morality: Team Star Fox versus the Anglar Empire.
