Gee, Duck, what’s the weirdest boss you’ve ever fought? Well, that’s an easy one, random questioner, because the very first thing that comes to mind is a seriously bizarre hidden level in the old SNES game “Star Fox”. Like with the hidden Yellow Lum from “Rayman 2”, this secret didn’t come to my attention until just a few years ago. Two secrets did, actually, one involving going through a black hole, which was kind of weird, but not super exciting, and another called Out of this Dimension, and I mean it, this one’s really…weird.
Just getting to this place is weird. You’re supposed to go to the Asteroid Belt on the right (Fox’s right), and eventually you find this certain asteroid (which I missed during my first few tries) that looks different from the others that you blast to reveal an egg of some sort. Shoot the egg, and a bird comes out, and if you fly into the bird, you reach this secret place called Out of This Dimension that makes you want to spew and jump for glee at the same time. But, don’t, because that’ll only increase your chances of, well, spewing.
Anyway, this secret level involves funky music, a background that’s constantly swooshing around (hence, the spew factor), and…paper airplanes. Yep. In this most bizarre of places, Fox has to fight pieces of paper that float down from nowhere (apparently space has gravity in this dimension?…) and attempt to fold themselves into paper airplanes if you don’t blast them fast enough. And that’s not even the strangest part. Once you fly through this level for a while, you end up finding yourself engaged in an epic battle against…wait for it…wait for it…a giant slot machine! While “When the Saints Go Marching In” plays in the background. I kid you not. Watch the video. It’s real.
Video from Youtube User: TheNewerGuy
And like with all secrets, I remember being so excited when I first heard about this place. I enjoy this game, I do, but it’s hard. Really hard. Like, I’ve only beaten the easiest of the three paths kind of hard, and while I’ve improved over the years and had a grand, old time while doing it, this game also makes me sad because of the fact that I may very well never ever beat it ever. So finding out there was something new to check out in a game that’s over a decade old, not to mention the fact that it was something that I was actually capable of accomplishing, was pretty thrilling. Oh, how I squealed for joy when I finally vanquished that rogue slot machine by getting all 7’s! Take that, symbol of gambling! Since then, I’ve returned to this place several times, just because I can, and showed it to everyone that will quit fidgeting long enough to watch me. And knowing about this secret kind of makes up for not being able to beat the game, too, because while I can’t complete two of the three paths, at least I know about something that many others don’t. Which makes me special. So why not dust off your trusty SNES (unless you downloaded it on the Wii, which I suppose is good, too) and check it out? It’s fun, even for incompetent “Star Fox”-ers like myself.
When the Ducks Go Marching In
Great stuff! I had no idea it existed.
I don’t think Fox knew, either. Man, that place is weird…
Amazing how stuff like this can escape notice for so long. I never even heard of this level until now!
These are the best secrets, the ones you don’t know about until a decade later. They have the nifty ability to make old games feel a little new again.
I was an avid collector of the Nintendo Magazine back in the SNES days, and they told u show to get the OotD. Was tricky to get to intially, but was trippy when you did =)
You are not alone. I believe I beat the Medium path, but could never get past Macbeth and that darn Spinning Core boss on the Hard path.
It certainly takes some practice getting to this place at first, as I wasn’t entirely certain what to look for, but it’s easy now. And it’s awesome knowing a secret most people aren’t aware of.
This game is so darn hard, but I’m really bad at dodging stuff. Dodging skills is pretty much a requirement in this game.