Star Fox Cheat Codes & Secrets
Complete collection of cheat codes, passwords, unlockables, and hidden secrets for Star Fox (1993).
Route Selection and Difficulty Paths
Star Fox does not use a password system. Each session begins with a route selection from the Lylat system map, and your chosen path determines every planet, enemy loadout, and boss you encounter. Routes represent escalating difficulty — Route 1 is the easiest path to Venom; Route 3 is the most demanding. Selecting at the map is the primary “difficulty code” built into the game.
| Route | General Path | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Route 1 | Corneria → Sector Y → Aquas → Fortuna → Sector X → Titania → Macbeth → Venom | Easy |
| Route 2 | Corneria → Sector Y → Meteo → Sector X → Macbeth → Venom | Medium |
| Route 3 | Corneria → Sector Z → Meteo → Fortuna → Sector X → Venom | Hard |
Route 3 includes Sector Z rather than Sector Y, a much denser enemy corridor. It is also the route that gives access to the Meteo warp (see below).
Secret Warp: Out of This Dimension
The most significant hidden content in the game. During the Meteo asteroid belt stage (reachable on Routes 2 and 3), a distinct ring formation of small grey asteroids appears amid the field. Fly the Arwing through the center of this ring to trigger a warp.
The destination is a hidden stage called Out of This Dimension — a surreal, abstract environment unlike anything else in the game.
What you encounter:
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Enemies | Giant playing cards — hearts, spades, clubs, diamonds — that fly in erratic patterns |
| Environment | Abstract space with no polygon terrain; pure starfield backdrop |
| Boss | A giant slot machine called The Out of This Dimension |
| Ending | A stylized “GAME OVER?” screen that loops — there is no route completion from here |
Slot machine boss mechanics:
| Outcome | Effect |
|---|---|
| Three matching symbols | Damages the boss |
| Three 7s | Maximum damage per spin |
| No match | No effect; reels reset |
The stage is an intentional dead end — a joke reward for finding the warp. You cannot complete the main campaign from this branch. To reach Venom, you must avoid the asteroid ring warp.
Expert Mode
A hidden Expert difficulty is accessible at the title screen. Enemy AI becomes more aggressive earlier in encounters, certain bosses advance to harder attack phases sooner, and incoming fire frequency increases across all stages.
| Code | Effect | Input |
|---|---|---|
| Expert Mode | Increased enemy aggression and attack frequency | Hold L + R, then press Start at the title screen |
The visual presentation is identical to normal play. The change is purely behavioral — bosses pressure you harder and enemy fighters deviate from their standard patterns more often.
Shield and Lives Management
Star Fox awards a fixed number of Arwings at the start of each run. There is no standard infinite lives cheat code, no extra credits system, and no continue mechanic — losing all ships returns you to the route selection map.
Wing damage mechanics:
| Wing State | Effect |
|---|---|
| Both wings intact | Full laser spread, charge shot available |
| One wing lost | Reduced spread width |
| Both wings lost | Single-shot laser only, no charge shot |
A wingless Arwing is significantly weaker but still flyable. Some stages contain golden repair rings that restore a damaged wing on contact. These rings are positioned in specific corridors and do not appear on every route — learning their locations by route is part of advanced play.
Shield recovery: Certain enemy clusters spawn a shield orb (spinning yellow ring) when fully destroyed. These are not random drops — specific formations trigger them. Sweeping a full cluster rather than picking off individual enemies is the reliable way to spawn these.
Scoring Bonuses and Hidden Points
The game tracks a kill count and score throughout each stage. Maximizing score requires deliberate enemy targeting beyond the enemies that cross your direct path.
High-value opportunities:
| Stage Type | Technique |
|---|---|
| Space corridors (Sector Y, Sector Z) | Intercept fighters before they exit frame edges — they count whether or not they fire |
| Planetary stages (Corneria, Macbeth) | Destroy all ground structures and stationary turrets for full stage clear bonuses |
| Asteroid sections | Shoot every asteroid cluster, not just obstacles — small asteroids award points and some spawn items |
| Boss encounters | Hit every sub-component of multi-part bosses before finishing the core |
Finishing a stage with a high kill count relative to total enemies pushes the end-of-stage score bonus into a higher tier.
Beneficial Glitches and Exploits
Barrel Roll Contact Damage The barrel roll (tap L or L again, or R + R) deflects incoming projectiles. The less-documented use: rolling through a tight enemy cluster deals contact damage via wing hitboxes. In Meteo and Sector Z, this clears tight formations that your lasers would miss at the current approach angle.
Boss Phase Stalling Several bosses in Star Fox only advance to a more aggressive attack phase when the player’s Arwing crosses a specific forward depth threshold. Holding your position and letting the boss approach rather than flying toward it keeps many bosses locked in their first, easiest phase. This is most effective against the Corneria boss and the Macbeth stage boss. Flying aggressively forward triggers the phase transition ahead of time.
Smart Bomb Screen Position Smart Bombs detonate in a radial burst. Detonating a bomb at the vertical center of the screen maximizes the arc of enemy projectiles cleared, as the blast catches both upper and lower incoming fire. Against diagonal fire patterns in Sector Z, center-screen detonation outperforms targeting individual enemies.
Smart Bomb Double Burst If two Smart Bombs are deployed in extremely close succession and their blast radii overlap during the same frame window, the overlap zone briefly deals two hits to any enemy inside it. Replicating this consistently is difficult, but it can remove shield-heavy mid-stage enemies in one exchange.
Developer Easter Eggs and Hidden Content
Argonaut Software ROM Strings The Super FX chip — the custom graphics processor that makes Star Fox’s polygon rendering possible on the SNES — was developed by Argonaut Software. Standard development diagnostic strings referencing Argonaut are present in the cartridge ROM and are visible via hex editor. They were not removed before final mastering. These are not accessible in-game but are a documented artifact of the development process.
“Starwing” Internal Naming The European localization was published under the title Starwing (the “Star Fox” name was already trademarked in Europe). Internal text strings in both versions retain references to both names, depending on the region of the ROM. Examining a PAL ROM in a hex editor surfaces “STARWING” where the NTSC ROM uses “STAR FOX.”
Out of This Dimension as Developer Humor The slot machine boss and the looping “GAME OVER?” non-ending in Out of This Dimension are intentional developer jokes. The stage was designed as a reward for players skilled enough to find the Meteo warp but goes nowhere narratively on purpose — a deliberate troll ending acknowledging the player found something they weren’t supposed to use as a victory condition.
Quick Reference: Key Inputs
| Action | Input | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Expert Mode | Hold L + R, press Start at title screen | Harder AI throughout |
| Barrel Roll | L, L or R, R (double-tap) | Deflects projectiles; deals contact damage in clusters |
| Charge Shot | Hold B | Requires both wings intact for full power |
| Smart Bomb | A | Center-screen for maximum projectile clearance |
| Warp to Out of This Dimension | Fly through asteroid ring in Meteo | Accessible on Routes 2 and 3 |