The Laser is the main form of weaponry found within handheld arnaments or large laser cannons found on starships in the Star Fox series.
Lasers are a form of energy used by the laser cannons found on the Arwing, Wolfen, Blue Marine, Landmaster, Cornerian Fighters, and many more vehicles. One can use the Laser by repeatedly pressing the Attack button, or they can charge the Laser by holding the Attack button. Once charged, it can also lock on to the opponent with the use of Targeting Computer, providing the ship has one. In Star Fox Command, however, some personal craft can't charge their Laser. Many enemy units and bosses also use lasers of their own against the player.
In Star Fox, the Laser upgrade would give you the Twin Blasters. The Twin Blasters fire two lasers at once; for every one shot with such blasters, it would sound like two shots firing from the single blaster. Collecting another one of these would upgrade your blaster further so that it fires plasma bolts. You lose the Twin Blasters when you die or one of your wings break. The Laser upgrade is relatively rare. Collecting one with a broken wing will send a Wing Gyro your way for your wings to be repaired.
Blaster[]
- “This Laser Cannon, equipped in the nose of the Arwing, fires a powerful laser beam.”
- —Star Fox 1993; Instruction Booklet
Twin Blaster[]
- “By collecting the Twin Blaster item, you can fire two laser beam Blasters simultaneously, one from each wing. When one or both of your wings are destroyed, you will revert back to a single Blaster firing out of your ship's nose.”
- —Star Fox 1993; Instruction Booklet
Twin Blaster or Wing Gyro[]
- “The effect of this item on your ship will depend on your ship's condition. If your wings are intact and you collect it, it will allow you to fire two Blaster beams simultaneously (Twin Blaster Type A). If one of your wings is damaged and you collect it, a Wing Gyro will appear and repair your wing. (Note: If your wing is damaged, this item will only repair your wing, it will not not give you a Twin Blaster.) If you collect a second Twin Blaster/ Wing Gyro item after you already have Twin Blasters, the power of your blasters will be improved (Twin Blaster Type B).”
- —Star Fox 1993; Instruction Booklet
In Star Fox 64/3D, the Laser power up must be collected once to transform Single Laser into Twin Lasers and again to upgrade to Hyper Laser. They are significantly more common in this game than in the original game. When the Communications Channel icon appears on-screen, ROB 64 will send a Supply Container which may or may not contain a Laser Upgrade, replaced instantly by a Wing-Gyro if the wings break before its collection.
The Star Fox Team's mothership, the Great Fox is armed with Laser Cannons which are used in battle at Area 6 and clearing pathways in the Meteo Asteroid Belts, however it will not enter battle at Area 6 if ROB's C>>> Icon is unanswered.
The Laser upgrade also appears in the N64 VS Mode, where it will upgrade the laser of whichever vehicle picks one up. A laser pickup will upgrade Arwing lasers from single to twin as well as both Landmasters and Pilots firepower and transform their fire rates from single laser fire to a spiralling twin laser bolts.
Instruction booklet references[]
- “Laser: The single laser will change to the twin laser, and the twin will change to hyper laser. The powered up laser can be carried over to the next area.”
- —Star Fox 64; Instruction Booklet
Strategy Guide references[]
Hyper Laser[]
- “Your ship comes off the assembly line with a single laser cannon, but Laser Upgrades will increase its power. Collect one upgrade to change the single laser to a twin laser. Collect a second upgrade to change them into hyper lasers. You can tell when you have hyper lasers by the telltale song they make. If your ship takes heavy damage, it will revert back to a single laser. Laser Upgrades are often hidden within enemy ships and gun emplacements. You often must destroy an entire squadron or groups of guns before they will appear. Laser Upgrades are carried over from one mission to the next. If the Arwing is destroyed, you'll lose all your Laser Upgrades and any other items you collected.”
- —Official Nintendo Power Player's Guide, pg 12
Lock On[]
- “The hyper laser also has the ability to store up and fire a concentrated blast of energy. Press and hold the A Button to charge the laser and then tap A to fire. To "lock on" to an enemy, aim at a specific target while the laser is charging. When you fire, the laser bolt will home in on the target. The resulting explosion can wipe out entire groups of enemies. Once you lock on to a target and fire a charged laser blast, you can't lock on again until that blast has detonated. You can still fire regular and charged lasers in the meantime.”
- —Official Nintendo Power Player's Guide, pg 12
Cannon[]
- “The Landmaster's laser is more powerful than the Arwing's base weapon. The main gun can't be upgraded, but it can charge up and lock on to targets.”
- —Official Nintendo Power Player's Guide, pg 14
Laser Upgrade[]
- “Collect this to upgrade to a twin laser or hyper laser.”
- —Official Nintendo Power Player's Guide, pg 16
Fox wing riding with Falco using the Plasma Cannon.
In Star Fox: Assault, there are two types of Laser power ups. The green one corresponds the Super Laser upgrade, but the red one upgrades the laser straight from Single to Hyper. If the red one is picked up after a green one, the Laser still changes to Hyper. Also, picking up a Hyper upgrade repairs damaged wings in the game.
Many weapons used by Pilots in the game use Lasers, for instance the standard Blaster and the powerful Plasma Cannon.
Instruction booklet references[]
- “Green Power Upgrade: Grab one of these upgrades to increase your vehicle's firepower by one level.”
- —Star Fox: Assault; Instruction Booklet
- “Red Power Upgrade: Grab one of these upgrades to increase your vehicle's firepower by two levels.”
- —Star Fox: Assault; Instruction Booklet
In Star Fox Command, most of the characters had their own personal craft, each with unique forms of Lasers and lock-on features. The Laser Upgrade as a supply is only present in Star Fox Command's mulitplayer mode.
Instruction booklet references[]
- “All Buttons: Press the A, B, X, Y, L, R Buttons - or the +Control Pad - to fire your lasers. Press and hold any of these to lock-on to an enemy, then release it to fire a blast that will follow foes across the sky!
Note that not all characters have lock-on abilities.”
- —Star Fox Command; Instruction Booklet
Fighter Dossiers[]
- “LASER TYPE: "The type of laser equipped. Laser varieties include SINGLE (one beam), TWIN (two beams), PLASMA (two round shots), ARC (curved beam), and ZAPPER (powerful long-distance beam)."”
- —Star Fox Command; Instruction Booklet
| Pilot | Fighter | Single | Twin | Plasma | Curve | Zapper | Wide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fox McCloud | Arwing II | 
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| Falco Lombardi | Sky Claw |
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| Slippy Toad | Bullfrog |
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| Krystal | Cloud Runner |
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| Peppy Hare/James McCloud | Arwing |
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| Dash Bowman | Monkey Arrow |
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| Bill Grey/Krystal | Cornerian Fighter |
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| Wolf O'Donnell | Wolfen |
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| Leon Powalski | Rainbow Delta |
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| Panther Caroso | Black Rose |
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| Amanda | Tadpole |
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| Lucy Hare | Sky Bunny |
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| Katt Monroe | Cat's Paw 2 |
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Single Laser is the least effective of the Laser types since it only shoots out a single laser beam.
Twin Laser, unsurprisingly, shoots out two laser beams. This makes it presumably twice as effective as Single Laser.
Plasma Laser shoots out two round shots. It is more powerful than the Twin Laser.
Curve Laser, also known as Arc Laser, is even stronger than the Plasma Laser, and curves when fired whilst the ship is rolling, but is slightly slower than other weapons.
Zapper Laser is the strongest Laser available. However, it is significantly slower than the other lasers.
Wide Lock fires continuous charged homing laser bolts at enemies that are caught within the range finder.
The Landmaster charge shot in Zero.
The Laser functions very much as they did in 64 with some slight alterations. Because the Arwing can no longer lose its wings, it can keep the Twin Laser upgrade even after taking significant damage. It also increases the strength of the Charge Laser. Upgrading to Hyper allows the player to lock onto two enemies at once to fire two homing shots. The Hyper upgrade also causes the Arwing to glow periodically, but the upgrade will be lost if the player takes damage twice, regardless of how much was incurred. The Charge Laser itself was also given a stronger blue-colored variation that moves faster and can be launched by simply letting go of ZL the instant a full lock-on is achieved. While the Landmaster can't upgrade its laser, its Charge Laser function was replaced in favor of a multi-lock on system that fires powerful missiles with a large blast radius. Unlike in 64, laser upgrades do not carry over to succeeding stages.
In Co-Op Mode, the second player operates an unseen additional laser turret that fires orange bolts.
Super Smash Bros. Series[]
Lasers are used as the default special move for all Star Fox characters in the Super Smash Bros. games.
Fox's Blaster[]
Throughout the entire series, Fox has used his blaster as his standard special move. In the first game, Fox fired it at a slow rate and it made those hit by it flinch, stopping them in their tracks. In Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl, Fox could shoot it more rapidly and the shots did not make the opponent flinch at all.
Falco's Blaster[]
In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Falco appeared as an unlockable character. His blaster was similar to Fox's blaster from Super Smash Bros, only it fired at a much slower rate of fire, hits for more damage than Fox's blaster, and causes the enemy to flinch. It is also of note than when using his blaster, Falco crosses his arms and holds the blaster parallel to the ground, rather than wielding it in a more orthodox manner. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Falco's blaster fire is blue instead of red.
Wolf's Blaster[]
Wolf's laser fire in Brawl.
References[]
- NINTENDO POWER Star Fox 64: Official Nintendo Player's Guide. Redmond, WA, Nintendo of America. 1997.
- Star Fox 64; Instruction Booklet
- Star Fox 64 3D; Instruction Booklet
- Star Fox Assault; Instruction Booklet
- Star Fox Command; Instruction Booklet
- Star Fox 1993; Instruction Booklet
| Weaponry & Powerups | ||
| Firearms |         
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| Explosives |    •     
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Reticle Locks • Charge | |
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| Other | •  • Self-destruct program
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| Supplies | ||
| Health |   • First Aid Kit • Fuel Cell • 1-Up •  •  •  • Barrier Sphere • Reflector • 
| |
| Containers |  •  •  
| |
| Other | Special Flag • Star Fox Adventures items • Medal • Key of destiny • Hit Point | |
| Supplies | ||
| Weapons | Laser Upgrade • Smart Bomb • Torpedo • Fuel Barrel | |
| Health | Supply Ring • First Aid Kit • Fuel Cell • Wing gyro • 1-Up • PukPuk Eggs • Dumbledang Pods • Bafomdad • Barrier Sphere • Reflector • Stealth Suit | |
| Containers | Container • Item Box • SharpClaw Crate • Basket | |
| Other | Special Flag • Star Fox Adventures items • Medal • Key of destiny • Hit Point | |