Considering Star Fox 64 came out back in 1997, you'd think that its potential to surprise would become somewhat diminished over the years.
Nevertheless, recently on Twitter, we stumbled across an interesting post from a game developer called Benjigamedev, talking about a hidden mode inside Star Fox 64 that some players never even knew about. This is referring to a special on-foot mode where players can control bazooka-toting versions of Slippy, Fox, Peppy, and Falco in multiplayer and even pit them against vehicles like Arwings and Landmasters.
It was unlockable in the original game by collecting all the medals on every mission and then doing the same on Expert Mode (though some sources like IGN suggest you only need to collect a medal on Venom on Expert Mode). This explains why only a small subset of Star Fox 64 players were ever able to see it.
In his original post, Benjigamedev uploaded a video of the mode in question, along with the following caption:
"Just thinking of that time when Nintendo locked Slippy Toad On-Foot Bazooka Mode behind one of the hardest challenges on the N64, meaning most of us never even saw it."
This then prompted a significant amount of people to express their surprise that they'd never heard about it before, while one person even questioned whether it was a fake mockup that BenjiGameDev had made himself.
The mode, however, is very real and even appeared in the Star Fox Nintendo Power Official Strategy Guide, as well as in EGM2 Issue 37 (albeit with the unlock conditions slightly incorrect according to one reader's letter in issue 40). There are even some YouTube videos of the mode online, including this one from 2009.
Here's our question to you, then: did you already know about this? Better yet, did you manage to unlock it back in the day? If so, now is your time to boast about it.
Did you know about Star Fox 64's "On-Foot" mode? (241 votes)
- Yes
- No
[source twitter.com]
Comments 10
I didn't know. Is it in 3D? What a mistake to hide this mode, but that's just what devs did back then.
I did, but never unlocked it myself. A mate who was far, far better than me at Lylat Wars and score chased it over and over unlocked it back in high school and again on Wii VC years later; think we all read about it in a magazine (N64 Magazine probably?). I might dig it out some copies and see if I can find the issue, edit the comment!
i played this mode at a friend's house and never knew it was hidden or elusive! Today I Learned.
I did know about this I was addicted to the games at one point I unlocked every gold medal over the course of a couple of weeks after school. It was a period where I got very good at quite a few N64 games I had pretty much memorised the enemy patterns and waves and racked up some pretty high scores even some of my friends were envious of at the time. I went back a couple of years ago and I don't think I have it in me to unlock it all again since old age is setting in and my reflexes aren't as good as they once were.
I would hope you check gamefaqs in future one of the best site for cheats.I Unlocked this all years ago you only need the medal on Venom on Expert Mode, Venom 2 was pretty easy to do. Getting all the medal on Expert Mode gives you the alternative title screen.
Always funny when some young punk makes a "discovery" about a game we all knew about back in the day. Then I remember that the world now belongs to said punks.
I may have read about it at the time but forgot about it over the years. Quite a surprise to learn about it again!
Yeah I spent endless hours in multiplayer on StarFox 64 with the Arwing, tank, and on foot characters. I remember the on foot option being hard because you were so slow compared to the vehicles and once they found you, you were a sitting duck. But you were so small sometimes you could take out the other player before they could figure out where the shots were coming from.
I was really bummed when the 3DS version released without this feature.
It seemed to be pretty common knowledge back in the day. It was in all the guides and publications and game cheat sites. Everyone I knew that owned the game, had it unlocked and ready to play when I visited. I guess a younger person wouldn’t know about this unless they went to Game FAQs, which maybe isnt common for young people to do? I still use the site when going through old cartridge era games, to see what cool stuff is available.
Weird, I thought this was fairly common knowledge, at least back when the game was new(ish). It's like the recent "discovery" of the alternate GameCube startup jingles, all over again.
And it's true: you do only need to get the Venom medal in Expert mode. Not sure I would have been able to unlock this feature, otherwise!
Yeah, I knew, because I unlocked it. Quite the challenge to earn this reward. I remember having 3 friends over, and we'd play this game 4 player splitscreen, and I was on foot wrecking them. Good times.
Wonder if I have the skill to do it all over again on a fresh save file.
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