Star Fox Characters Legs Aren't Amputated, According to Designer

Following Fox McCloud and his fellow pilots as they fight for the Lylat System, Star Fox has become one of Nintendo's most beloved franchises since it was first released in 1993 on the SNES. This arcade-style space flight adventure game rallied a new fandom around an anthropomorphic fox and his combat team of animal pilots as they defend against Fox McCloud's archrival, Andross. As with most big Nintendo franchises, there are a lot of fan theories surrounding Star Fox and its characters, with some relatively mundane and others much more macabre.

An example of a popular darker theory in this franchise is that the various Star Fox pilots had their legs amputated. This Star Fox fan theory attempts to explain the appearance of Fox McCloud's legs in early games and promotional images for the series. Though most of the time the Star Fox team flies around in their ships, the animal cast of characters all walk on metal-looking Star Fox robot legs. As gaming communities connected virtually on the internet, the Star Fox amputated leg theory was passed around from gamer to gamer as fan-created lore for the franchise. Fortunately, Star Fox developers have since set the record straight.

Updated by Lynette Guzman on November 22, 2024: The video game medium is no stranger to dark theories, even for generally family-friendly games like Nintendo's Star Fox series. This article has been updated to conform to CBR's current publishing guidelines and delve deeper into this bleak Star Fox theory.

The Star Fox Amputated Leg Theory, Explained

Gamers Devised an In-World Explanation of Fox McCloud's Appearance

The Star Fox amputated legs theory stems from official art design for the action-adventure game, particularly looking at designs for Star Fox feet. Around the time of the original game's 1993 release, an issue of Nintendo Power featured Star Fox's characters on its cover. In the image, the legs of the game's various pilots are metal beneath the knees. Fox's legs, in particular, look inorganic, with his ankle almost shockingly thin. As such, some fans latched onto the idea that Fox and his companions' legs seemed mechanical, and these gamers' curiosity led them to fill in details about Star Fox lore.

Attempting to explain this artwork, enthusiastic fans crafted the theory in question, suggesting that Star Fox's pilots actually had their legs amputated due to their daily repeated tasks. The real-world reason for this, theorists argue, is essentially that amputated legs would allow the Star Fox pilots to sustain more gravitational force (g-force) as they maneuvered through space at high speeds in their Arwing fighter aircraft. Given that the animal crew spent a lot of time flying around in these ships, the constant flips and barrel rolls in Star Fox's game mechanics aligned with this fan theory to create lore that satisfied players.

MatPat from The Game Theorists highlighted this popular fan theory, with a deep dive into the science behind why the Star Fox characters' metal legs would be useful to the fearless pilots. In his breakdown, MatPat examined the claim that Star Fox's pilots are amputees to prevent blood clotting, allowing them to do their jobs better and more safely. However, the popular internet theorist determined there would be negligible g-force benefit due to a rebalancing of the circulatory system. Still, MatPat supported the theory because of the potential increased speed that Star Fox's prosthetic legs would offer the crew while running on the ground.

Do Characters in Star Fox Have Metal Legs?

Star Fox Developers Explain Fox McCloud's Legs

Despite the fan theory's popularity, many key figures in Star Fox's history have debunked the notion that the franchise's pilots are amputees. In 2016, original Star Fox programmer and designer Dylan Cuthbert addressed the amputee theory in a livestream. He said the theory was not true, saying that "people just have the weirdest imagination." Cuthbert then said the characters were just wearing metal boots. Later, Cuthbert reaffirmed the idea that the Star Fox pilots aren't amputees, noting that they're wearing "high-tech boots."

Cuthbert isn't the only person involved with Star Fox to have talked about the theory. Legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto told The Game Theorists in 2016 that Star Fox has metal legs because they wanted to make the animal characters seem more human. Even though Star Fox game developers did their research into the relevant spacecraft physics as they figured out how to design key elements of the game's mechanics, Miyamoto said, "At the time, we actually didn't know anything about the problems that pilots can have with blood clots in their legs."

It's funny because when we were first working on the game, really all we were looking at was really how do we take these animal characters and make them seem more human... the thing that I always worry about more than his legs is what's happening with his tail when he's sitting.

So, while the fan theory that Star Fox pilots have had their legs amputated is a compelling explanation and helps deal with a facet of early artwork for the game, game developers involved with the project do not believe that's the case for their fictional world. Instead, the choice to give Star Fox pilots metal boots is an aesthetic one. Star Fox designers simply wanted to capture a specific futuristic look and feel while also making Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare appear just a bit more human as they navigated the environment in Star Fox.

How Star Fox Designs Have Changed Over Time

Modern Graphics Alter the Appearance of Star Fox Robot Legs

Though the designers did not give Star Fox characters prosthetic metal legs, the puppet-looking creatures appearing in the art for the first game promoted this unintended fan theory about Star Fox amputated legs. These designs likely aimed to give Fox McCloud and the rest of the Star Fox characters more realistic looks, aligned with Miyamoto's vision of creating more humanoid versions of these animal protagonists. Over time, however, Fox McCloud's design has changed, providing fans with alterations in later games as players continue their adventures in Star Fox's Lylat star system.

With older hardware graphics limitations, it is unsurprising that early Star Fox games had more ambiguous-looking robot leg designs. Sharp angles matched the style of video games in the '90s, as the existing consoles had fewer pixels to work with. As a consequence of these hardware constraints, Star Fox games on the Nintendo 64 and SNES before it translated the puppet animal forms into more triangular-shaped versions of the space heroes. Since the original Star Fox and Star Fox 64 games, these designs have been smoothed out more because of the improved graphics from each generation of new gaming consoles.

Fox McCloud joined Nintendo's 1999 Super Smash Bros., which more heavily featured his classic appearance. Gamers played as Fox as he wielded high kicks, solidifying their memories of the Star Fox character's metal legs. Still, the N64's version of Fox McCloud shows very thin ankles in its triangular design, looking more mechanical and prosthetic. However, 2001's Super Smash Bros. Melee for the GameCube evolved Fox's design, with a thicker ankle and a larger foot outline that looked more like a boot than seen in previous Star Fox games. The upgraded hardware gave the lead Star Fox character a reflective shine and smoothness while showing more leg muscles in Fox McCloud's legs.

In 2002, the following year, Star Fox Adventures continued to polish the famous pilot, showing more details in Fox's outfit. Star Fox Adventures also introduced a new blue vixen named Krystal who brought a different aesthetic to the team. In this game, players also get to experience Star Fox in combat missions on the ground, with an entirely different outfit design. Fox McCloud wears red boots over his army pants, suggesting that these accessories are indeed boots and not robot legs attached to his body. With each iteration, gamers get a clearer picture of their favorite Star Fox character. Games like the Wii's Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U styled Fox McCloud's boots even more.

It's also noteworthy that, in later artwork, the Star Fox pilots' metal legs don't look as mechanical. Instead, they're much more obviously boots that the characters are wearing. The reason why the actual artwork was so odd may just boil down to the fact that not all depictions of characters were necessarily meant to represent them exactly. The original art for Capcom's beloved Mega Man series, for example, features a man who looks nothing like the titular character does in the games. Taking every piece of artwork as canon fails to consider how, sometimes, an image is just an image. Even still, fans fondly remember the popular Star Fox amputated leg theory and the creativity gamers have for their favorite franchises.