Star Fox: Assault

Star Fox Assault returns the Star Fox series to its space combat roots after the previous game in the series, Star Fox Adventures, took a more action-adventure approach. This game was also planned to have an arcade counterpart, but the idea was scrapped.

Prerelease Info

Unused Music#

An unused "game over" track, sounding a lot like the one used in Star Fox 64. The rest of SF64's Game Over track can be heard in the cutscene before Level 9 when the Star Fox team reaches the Aparoid Homeworld, thus leaving only the beginning unused.

An unused theme that sounds eerily similar to the theme for Aparoid City in multiplayer.

Unused Graphics#

Tricky Transmissions#

Whenever anyone speaks during a mission, their name appears above the message box. Curiously, when viewing the graphic with the full list of names, Tricky is included despite him only being present during a cutscene where subtitles are used instead. This suggests that he either spoke to you during the mission on Sauria, or that the cutscenes originally used transmission boxes instead of subtitles.

Unused Cutscene#

The ISO contains an unused movie file entitled "Dummy.sfd". It's a copy of the cutscene that plays after Mission 5 (The Aparoid Menace), in which General Pepper congratulates the team for their good work and Krystal senses a distress call from Planet Sauria. The cutscene uses the audio from the Japanese version of the game.

Unused Text#

All menu options have a brief description, except for the Start menu. Located around hex memory 81035D10 when viewing a menu screen, however, shows this screen also had additional text for each option.

Unused/Unfinished First Person Mode#

All versions of the game contain a scrapped first person mode. It is not fully complete but has nearly full functionality. This feature was originally shown off at the game's E3 reveal. Watch on YouTube

NA Version by Impromptunite

040779c0 60000000

040666a4 60000000

EU Version by Impromptunite

04078320 60000000

04067004 60000000

Multiplayer Leftovers#

Almost every stage from single-player is playable in multiplayer, but almost all of them have minor changes, such as areas of the stages being removed. However a few of these stages still have leftovers from the single-player versions.

Sargasso Hideout (Inside)#

The elevator only travels between the first and second floor of the Hideout, and the third floor has now been blocked off by a large door.

Despite this, the third floor is still fully modeled, and can be seen by moving the camera in an emulator.

Planet Sauria#

The cave under the first large temple is no longer accessible, as its entrances have been blocked with large boulders, but the entrances are still present and can be seen by moving the camera through the rocks.

While the cave itself has been removed, the Stalagmites, Stalactites and the pool of water are still present for some reason.

Unused Multiplayer Stages#

To do: Look into this a bit more and try to find a way to properly load the maps rather than force the map ID, so we can see what music they use. Also, attempt to reverse some of the multiplayer setup maps since there's probably some goodies leftover there in the various stages. Akso, get a screenshot in game.

There are 16 playable multiplayer maps in the game, but there's files for 17 different unique multiplayer maps leaving 2 of them unused (Inner and Outer Sargasso share the same map and files). By forcing the map being loaded when starting a match, they can be made to load in game.

Map07#

This map might look familiar, it's the boss fight arena from the first phase of the Aparoid Queen final boss fight. It features the same silvery liquid as the floor of the stage, though with an animation that isn't used during the boss fight in the campaign. The map functions perfectly well and has proper player starting and respawn points, as well as a unique multiplayer intro camera. Though there are no obstacles or powerups, making it a pretty boring if visually neat map. However, the map causes huge slowdowns even with just 2 players, which is probably why it was cut.

Map11#

Not much remains of this map. There is no visible terrain anywhere, just an eggshell white void as far as the eye can see. There are no spawn or respawn points setup, and the level boundaries don't seem to be defined, so it's impossible to move around if you load the map in vehicles while players just fall for a few seconds and die. The only thing of any note is the lens flare in the sky, so it's anyone's guess what this stage was.

Oddities#

Briefing Scene Oddity#

During briefing scenes, it's impossible to see any of the characters below the waist, so their models are cut off at the waist or knees.

However, by moving the camera in an emulator we can see that, despite this, Falco and R.O.B. are fully modeled during briefings.

There are also features on the backs of certain characters that are otherwise unseen by the player, since the models are only viewed from the front.

Examples include General Pepper's tail and the Space Dynamics logo on the back of Beltino's coat.

Internal File Name Oddities#

Examining the files within the ISO reveals some indication about features that might have been included, but were removed before the game's release.

Vs Mode Characters#

The folders containing sound files for Vs Mode jumps from “vs_chr5” (Peppy) to “vs_chr8” (Wolf), suggesting at some point there were two additional characters planned. When taking the order of the curtain call during the credits into account, it is most likely these characters were Panther and Leon.

Tutorials#

Within the list of assets are files called tutorial_1 and tutorial_2, hinting that there were once two levels/sets of menu screens dedicated to showing the ropes to the player. These files are empty and, when loaded, either cause a very incomplete version of the replaced level to appear (when used in single-player), no changes whatsoever (on a menu screen) or the game to crash (Vs Mode).

Regional Differences#

To do: Japanese version has an out of bounds glitch such as in mission 6. There is a significant difference between the Japanese and International versions, in the game’s final cutscene, depicting the destruction of the Aparoid Home World. More loading screen comparisons, perhaps?

Bonus Game#

Japan	International

On top of having Xevious as an unlockable extra, the Japanese version has Battle City and Star Luster unlockable as well. The latter two are still present in the international versions, but only accessible with cheat codes.

Title Screen#

Japan	International

In the Japanese version, there were two registered trademark symbols. The copyright info was updated in the international versions.

Loading Screens#

Japan	International (English)	International (Spanish)

The loading screen mission descriptions are presented in English in both the Japanese and International versions, but differ in wording and formatting. They are, however, translated into the different languages present in the European version.

'STARFOX' was given a space outside of Japan.

Also interesting to note is that the Japanese version keeps the name "Andross" rather than using his original name, Andorf.

Cutscenes#

In the cutscene after fighting Oikonny, when the strange Aparoid appears, it fires a beam at one of the characters. In the Japanese version, the dialogue shows the beam is fired at Slippy. In international versions, it is shown to be fired at Krystal instead.

Japan	International

This fixes an issue present in the former, as Krystal does not take damage during the stage and cannot retire. If Slippy retires during the stage in the Japanese version, the beam will be fired at nothing, though he will still react.

Japan

Briefings#

Watch on YouTube

Interestingly, in the Japanese version of the game, the characters are more facial and expressive to each conversation in the briefing scenes. They blink often and have much smoother motions similar to the pre-rendered cutscenes. In the international versions, all of it is removed and the characters are bland and expressionless. The reason for the removal is likely due to having the character's movements re-synced to their English dubbed voices.

References#