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Arwingpedia
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Great Commander is a large robot comprised of three ships that combine together. It is encountered in the Level 3 Venom orbital and planet-side areas.

Battleship Type[]

Great Commander starts off in three sections which will combine to form a single ship. The sections will fire lasers and mines at you, but these are easy to avoid. Once the combining sequence is complete, Great commander flies underneath you. Your Arwing will automatically turn around 180 degrees, as will Great Commander, allowing you to make a strafing run on the boss while it in turn shoots back at you with lasers. The rest of the battle then consists of strafing runs and automatic 180 degree turns repeated over and over, until either you defeat the boss or you are defeated yourself. Note: do not switch your view mode at this point, as doing so can glitch your camera view and make the remainder of the boss fight nearly unplayable.

To damage Great Commander, you must shoot at six small panels on its top side. They are rather difficult to hit, but the best way seems to be to approach low, on the same level as Great Commander, and fire away, but be sure to pull up before colliding with it! The timing of each cycle also makes it such that the panels may not be open at the moment you pass over Great Commander, but by hitting the brakes twice per cycle you can alter this timing so that you can more consistently arrive over Great Commander while the panels are open.

When three of the six panels are destroyed, Great Commander will start shooting plasma balls at you. It can be fairly difficult to avoid the plasma balls while trying to set up a good strafing run on Great Commander, so at this point you may want to use bombs on the remaining panels. A well-aimed bomb can destroy two or more panels if they are open, which can end the fight quickly (for this reason you probably want to have saved as many bombs as possible for this boss fight). If you have no bombs however, then try to dodge or reflect the plasma balls and hope for the best as you try to shoot the remaining panels. When all six are destroyed, Great Commander will plummet down towards Venom's surface and you will emerge victorious.

Robot Type[]

When Great Commander approaches Fox a second time, it will transform into a R.O.B-esque robot form. In this mode, Great Commander's weak spot is a square panel that opens and closes on the bottom component. Shoot at this square panel while dodging the iron balls fired at you, and be quick about it. If you are lucky, you'll be able to destroy this weak point without the worst of this boss battle ever occurring. If you are not lucky, then Great Commander will start firing iron balls at a very rapid rate, and this barrage is very difficult to dodge. Watch the balls' trajectory and use a lot of fancy flying to avoid them; up, down, left, right, use brakes, whatever it takes to stay alive. You can try shooting at the square panel at this point in the hopes of finishing it off and ending the barrage, but doing so is difficult without getting hit. Eventually though the barrage will end, Great Commander goes back to slow-fire mode, and you'll have another chance at destroying the panel amidst the relative calm.

When the panel is destroyed, so is the bottom portion of Great Commander. The "head" segment will fly around while the "torso" whirls its arms around. The remainder of this fight will be pretty easy, as all you have to do is shoot at the orbiting head while avoiding the arms and the strange bomb projectiles that are dropped onto the ground and roll towards you (the projectiles can be destroyed by laser fire too). When the head is destroyed, Great Commander will be finished.

Names in Other Languages[]

Language Name
Japanese (グレートコマンダー)
(合体戦艦 Combining Battleship)

References[]

  • Star Fox (End Credits)
  • Star Fox 1993; Instruction Booklet
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