Nugget of the day: Star Fox had metal legs?
Anyone remember this classic Nintendo Power issue? It’s pretty old – all the way back from April 1993.
At first glace, you may not pick up on anything particularly noteworthy. Upon closer inspection of the cover, however, you’ll notice that Fox’s legs appear to be made of metal… and he apparently lacks feet/legs.
Here’s where things get really interesting. Check out this blurb regarding legless pilots:
“Legless pilots can handle more Gs than their legged bretherin. When gravity forces blood from the brain to lower extremities, it causes the pilot to black out. But if you have no legs to force blood to, more blood can stay in the brain, and it’s easier for the heart to pump blood back to the brain.
“Their legs were probably voluntarily amputated as these are all trained pilots. Their futuristic society allows for prosthetics that allows them to walk and run normally so there’s no loss in performing these amputations.”
I will mention here that other titles in the series, such as Star Fox Command, make it seem as though the characters are wearing boots – see this picture for example.
So in the SNES game, the Star Fox unit’s legs were amputated so that they’d be more effective in the cockpit? With Nintendo, you never know! I’m not ready to believe this theory just yet, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Perhaps Nintendo was thinking about having the Star Fox crew lack feet/legs early on in the series, but later changed the “metal legs” to boots.
Thanks to Jake for the tip!
