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Arwingpedia
General

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Well, go ahead and show me what you can do with that Arwing!
PeppySFZ

The Arwing is the personal super-high performance combat spacecraft used by members of the Star Fox Team. Developed by Space Dynamics Co., Ltd., the Arwing is equipped with the revolutionary G-Diffuser system, an anti-gravity device which allows the pilot to accelerate or decelerate instantaneously and perform a wide variety of high performance combat maneuvers. By executing an aileron or barrel roll, the Arwing can also generate an electromagnetic shield which will deflect most optically based weapons, such as laser beams. The Arwings used by the Star Fox Team are much different from any production versions as they have been extensively modified with improved armor and advanced weapon systems, such as Hyper Laser Homing Bolts and Smart Bombs. Despite numerous revisions and redesigns over the course of the team's history, the many models of Arwings have maintained the balance of speed, power and performance that they are credited for. The Arwing starfighter is the primary battle vehicle of the Star Fox Team, and is almost the symbol of their team.

Schematics

Developed by Space Dynamics under exclusive contract, the Arwing starfighter was designed and manufactured to be the most powerful air and space superiority fighter in the galaxy. Built with an avian-esque design, with advanced propulsion systems, on-board holographic imaging systems, spaceframe design and state-of-the-art G-diffuser system, would give the Arwing superior atmospheric and space flight capabilities in combat. The elegant craft's wings could sweep back automatically for high-speed cursing and deploy automatically for increased manoeuvrability in outer space and interplanetary environments. The Arwing's weaponry, a set of powerful laser cannons, Smart Bomb launcher and lock-on homing targeting systems represented the cutting edge in Cornerian military technology, giving this formidable fighter the equivalent firepower of a front-line space cruiser, allowing the Arwing to be capable of taking on multiple enemy targets simultaneously. The Arwing's revolutionary G-diffuser system generates a force field that protects the ship from enemy fire and from the stresses of high speed aerobatics.

Because of the complexity of its components, most notably the G-diffuser system, the Arwing was not yet slated for full production. At the time of the Androssian invasion of the Lylat System, four prototypes were made available and ready to the Star Fox team for flight and combat testing. Regardless, the Arwing was the most advanced ship of its time, years ahead of any other fighter in Lylat. Andross had originally used spacecraft which were inferior to the Arwing, but Cornerian intelligence rumoured that he was well on his way to developing a new starfighter to rival it. This came true when his new Wolfen class starfighters appeared during the Lylat Wars.

In "Star Fox 2" and "Zero", the Arwing could also shift into a Walker mode, resembling a bird slightly, where the Arwing's cockpit rises upwards to form the "head", the upper sections of the G-diffusers become "shoulders", and the lower sections become legs, with three sharp claws as "feet". The nose folds behind the Arwing to form the tail, and a turret appears from under the head.

In "Assault", the updated Arwing was mass produced to serve the basis for the redesigned version of Cornerian Fighter (albeit less advanced).

History

ArwingBPs

Blueprints of the Arwing.

Used by the original Star Fox team of James McCloud, Peppy Hare and Pigma Dengar, the trio flew their Arwings to Venom to recon investigate the reports of an upsurge of activity by exiled scientist, Dr. Andross. Upon arrival, the two discovered too late that Andross's forces were waiting an ambush for them as Pigma defected over to Andross's side, enabling an effective surprise attack on James and Peppy's Arwings, and they were shot down and imprisoned by Andross. However, despite massive damage and the loss of an entire wing, Peppy's Arwing survived the attack, and Peppy was somehow able to escape from captivity and fly the nearly destroyed fighter all the way back to Corneria - a testament to the ship's durability.

After the Lylat Wars began, General Pepper called the Star Fox team for immediate aid against the rising threat of Andross's Empire, motivating the Arwing starfighter to be used by Fox McCloud and his team of star pilots to save the Cornerian territories and the Lylat System from Andross's sudden attacks. The Arwing starfighter served as the main source of tactical service and backup support throughout the catastrophic war. The single-seated Arwing featured four advanced G-Diffusers engines as large blue structures atop and underneath each wing. A single-beam laser cannon (which could double as a Smart Bomb launcher) was located underneath the nose. Twin and Hyper laser upgrades instead utilized a pair of more powerful laser cannons between the wings, just below each G-Diffuser. The rear of the ship housed the engine exhaust, which would change color with the environment: red for in-atmosphere, and blue for space operations. According to Slippy, the Arwing was capable of surviving temperatures of up to 9000 degrees, which enabled the ship to operate in the sweltering conditions on Solar, but the shielding was slowly eaten up by the even higher heat from the deadly surface.

The only times Fox did not use his Arwing was when diving into the abyss of Aquas with the use of Slippy's experimental Blue-Marine attack sub, and driving the Landmaster prototype tank while searching for Slippy on Titania and following the Forever Train on Macbeth.

With the efforts of the newly reformed Star Fox team's small, quick squadron, Corneria and Lylat were freed from Andross and his army. Despite offers to enter the Cornerian military, Star Fox and their Arwings remained a strictly professional mercenaries-for-hire unit only. No one is sure what the Star Fox team did with the money from the Lylat Wars, although the prize money was likely used to repay the immense loan used for building James McCloud's Great Fox.

Throughout the Four years after the Lylat Wars, the peaceful era made the Star Fox team's profession become obsolete as they started drifting Lylat in search of work. This meant the Arwings were unable to receive updates and repairs they required. After catching a distorted S.O.S Signal from Katt Monroe, Falco hurried off in his Arwing to rescue her at Titania, with Star Fox on his tail. Deception from a turncoat Cornerian officer named Captain Shears led to a serious dogfight between Fox and Falco, pitting Arwing against Arwing. At this point, Falco concluded that the Arwing is at its most vulnerable after the Barrel Roll technique has finished, for the pilot won't know where the enemy will be after making the distorting roll. Although Falco had lost his duel and yet managed to eventually repair his downed Arwing, he can't help but wonder if either he has gotten worse or Fox has become better than him.

Later on after dealing with Captain Shears and his team, Falco decided to have a temporary leave of absence, taking his Arwing with him. What became of Falco remained unheard of until four years later.

Due to the lack of funds in the possession of the Star Fox team during the Plight of Sauria, the Arwings owned by the Star Fox team were in serious disrepair, but able to get by. Even an ace pilot would have trouble keeping the ship together, due to the modifications made by Slippy; these included the stripping of the targeting computers in exchange for hard currency, as well as the bomb magazines restricted to only one at a time, and the charge ability was taken away, and laser power was poor. Although the navigational computer was still in working order, this model of the Arwing had the capacity of two crew members, one of which was the pilot (Fox), and under the belly of the ship was a small cargo holder in which small creatures such as Prince Tricky could stay in while the pilot flew the ship. the Arwing's engines suffered somewhat, making the ship harder to control, but that could be attributed to the fact that the nose had been elongated to allow for cargo space in which small creatures (Prince Tricky) could be transported in. Its able to use brakes and boost but last very shortly. The installation of retractable tripod landing gear was another asset, due to the fact that Arwings would have had to work independently from Great Fox for prolonged periods of time. To provide remote assistance ROB 64 would transmit Fuel Cells to power the Arwing, but these were commonly scattered about, leaving the team to search for them in unorthodox places. It was this stripped down, aging ship that was responsible for the final defeat of Andross.

After the Star Fox team was paid handsomely for their action during the Plight of Sauria, they opted to upgrade their weapons, armor, their mothership, the Great Fox and their Arwings. These new, feather-like ships boasted four G-diffusers which allowed for the ship to come to a complete stop, as well as make more advanced maneuvers repeatedly, such as loops and Immelmann turns. The ships however has no bombs present on board, but can equip them in flight, so as to keep the weight down. The flexible wings on the sides allow for easy transition from flight mode to all-range mode, and come equipped with a transponder to allow for these ships to be transmitted to the surface of a planet, similar to the upgraded Landmaster. These ships saw the team through the Aparoid Invasion, performing remarkably through the perils of this brutal war. In addition, the wings of the ships were also strengthened so as to withstand crashing them through the floor, as evidenced by Falco utilizing a maneuver when landing at the Fichina Climate control center to aid Fox where he had to flip and slice his wing on the floor to destroy the rest of the sentrybots without any apparent ill-effects to the wing. However, the initial blizzards on Fichina were unsuitable for the Arwings likely because of their intentional lightness for planetary environments, meaning only the heavy Landmaster could get the job done for the first act.

Following the Aparoid invasion, the Star Fox team was outfitted with new ships. Each pilot picked one for themselves.

  • Fox acquired the Arwing II, a ship resembling the Arwing in Star Fox 64.
  • Slippy had the Bullfrog, a bigger ship. It has a thick nose with small wings. It is slow and difficult to maneuver, but makes up for this with its ability to use plasma cannons, the strongest primary weapon available. Unfortunately, the Bullfrog's cannons lack the ability to charge and lock on to enemies.
  • Falco had the Sky Claw. This ship resembled the Arwing II, but with wings directed forward, more round-shaped and with claws on the end. It has a pointed nose. Though it is equipped with the simple single laser, it is the fastest and most maneuverable ship in existence and has the ability to perform multiple somersaults and Immelmann turns. It also has the ability to lock on multiple enemies when charging its laser.
  • Krystal, because of her leaving from the Star Fox Team, flew a Cornerian Starfighter, but in some of the possible pathways of the game, she is seen to own a new ship - the Cloud Runner. The design resembles the CloudRunner tribe from Star Fox Adventures.
  • In addition, both Peppy and James, playable in two of the game's storylines, fly the original Arwing, which resembles the ones seen in the Aparoid Invasion.

In the comics

Star Fox comics

The original, twin G-Diffuser Arwings appear in the Comic book series created for Nintendo Power magazine, known as the newly-developed SFX Arwing.

Lylat Wars comic

In the manga created for Nintendo of Europe, the Arwings are the main vehicle of the Star Fox Team like they are in the games. Like the game, Slippy's dropout of the Cornerian Flight Academy took a heavy toll on his piloting skills, where he fails to read low fuel measurements and crashes onto Titania. Fox is unable to use the Arwing on Titania due to strange planetary conditions so he resorts to using the Landmaster brought by Slippy in order to search for him. Fox frees Slippy from Goras and makes an impulse level three boost to head back to the Great Fox, after learning never to ignore his low fuel warnings and keep a spare canister like Fox. Later after their mission on Aquas, an Octopus that latched onto the Blue-Marine sneaks towards the Arwings, planting timebombs on them. At Solar, the Arwing's armor is able to withstand up to 9,000 degrees, but Slippy scans the surface warning that the starfighter's shields may not be enough to repel the higher temperature of 13,000 below. After impaling Vulcain with a power strike, the timebombs go off on the G-Diffusers and Fox, Falco and Slippy start to lose their gravitational controls. Just as soon as they start to plummet, the Octopus from before appears as an all range infiltration craft piloted by the traitorous Pigma, intent on getting even with Star Fox, following his humilliation in front of Andross. But the trio are rescued by a tractor beam generated from Katt. Angered by their rescue, Pigma and Andrew attack the Cat's Paw, but they in turn are attacked and fired from the Star Wolf Team by Wolf himself for their disobedience. The Cat's Paw takes the crippled Arwings back to the Great Fox, at the price of a dinner for Katt by Falco. Later after the meltdown of Bolse, the elite acedevil fighters block the flight path to Venom, so Fox orders plan 9, a loop, allowing the team to make it to Venom's plains. Peppy and Slippy are both overpowered by the Venomian fighters and are forced to pull back, while Falco leads the remaining fighters away from Fox so he can reach Andross's Palace. Quickly impaling Golemech, Fox arrives and does battle with the Ape Emperor, dodging his telekinetic inhale and fist swipes until his hide breaks apart to reveal a robotic Andross. Fox's Arwing is then able to escape from the burning temple just before Venom self destructs. The triumphant Star Fox Team return home to Corneria where they politely decline promotional offers before going back to work.

Trivia

  • In many Star Fox games, the Arwing's G-Diffusers' bottom half will move downwards in order to reveal twin laser cannons once a laser upgrade is collected.
  • In regards to the naming of the Arwing, it was named by its triangle shape, A-Wing, according to Shigeru Miyamoto. In Japanese, the Arwing is pronounced similarly to "Irwin" - a human name. After the original game, the Arwing's title was altered to refer to its All-Range capabilities.
    • The western region name also fits by dropping the first two letters of "Starwing" (the PAL name of the 1993 Star Fox).
  • In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a figurine of the Arwing can be seen in Mario's bedroom, sitting on top of his TV.

Names in other languages

Language Name
Japanese アーウィン (Āwin) Arwing
Original:
(超高性能戦闘機 Ultrahigh Performance Fighter)
Revised:
(超高性能全領域戦闘機 Ultrahigh Performance All-Range Fighter)
Spanish La Nave Estelar Arala (Arwing ship)
Portuguese La Espaçonave Arala (Arwing ship) (Espaçonave means "starship")
Italian La Nave Stellare Arala

References

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