Super Missile

Lore & Background

The design philosophy behind the Arwing's missile system is as blunt as the weapon itself: if the target is bigger than a fighter, you do not use a fighter weapon. The Super Missile packs a shaped explosive warhead behind a guidance-assisted flight path, giving it enough kinetic and thermal punch to crack through the layered armor of enemy capital ships. In the early Cornerian defense doctrine, these rounds were reserved for the most dangerous engagements—Andross's flagship, the massive carrier vessels that shadowed Corneria's moon, the armored gate structures that sealed off enemy supply lines.

What makes the Super Missile a beloved part of the Star Fox pilot's toolkit is the commitment it demands. You are not spraying. You are not hoping. You pick your shot, you line up the reticle, and you commit a single round that will either open a hole in the target or vanish harmlessly into the void. That tension—the deliberate pause before the trigger, the long whistle of the missile trailing its smoke streak, the detonation that shakes the cockpit—gives the weapon a theatrical weight that the rapid-fire Blaster simply cannot match.

Across the series, the missile has evolved in presentation but never in spirit. Whether it is the pixelated streak of the 1993 original, the chunky 3D warhead of Star Fox 64, or the more elaborate guided rounds of later entries, the Super Missile remains the Arwing's statement that 'yes, I can hit that, and no, I will not be doing it with a laser.'

In Their Own Story

The corridor was narrow, the walls lined with humming coolant pipes that glowed a sickly amber. Slippy's voice crackled over the comm, counting down to the junction where the enemy carrier's reactor housing would be exposed for exactly four seconds. Fox lined up the reticle on the armored bulkhead, felt the Arwing shudder as a turret swept its searchlight across the fuselage, and held the trigger.

The Super Missile left the rail with a deep, resonant thump that he felt in his teeth. It drifted forward, trailing a thin ribbon of white smoke, and the corridor seemed to stretch. Then the warhead kissed the bulkhead and the world turned white and orange and the Arwing was thrown sideways, sliding along the corridor wall with sparks cascading off the wingtips.

'Good shot, kid,' Peppy said, and the reactor housing groaned open ahead of them, spilling a river of blue light into the dark.

Reader's Guide

Right. So. You want to fly the Super Missile. Good. You'll need it more than you think, and I'd rather teach you now than explain your corpse to your family later.

The Super Missile is your heavy round. One shot. One target. One very satisfying explosion. It is NOT your Blaster. You do not spray it. You do not 'test it on that little drone.' You save it for the thing that is making you feel small. The carrier. The fortress. The armored gate that your laser just bounced off like it was made of rubber.

Firing feel: there is a distinct, heavy kick when the round leaves the rail. You'll feel it in the yoke. The missile has a short, deliberate flight time before the warhead arms and detonates on contact. You are committing, not guessing. Line up, breathe, pull the trigger, and trust the round.

Introduced in the original Star Fox campaign on the Super Nintendo, the missile has been a selectable Arwing weapon ever since. In most iterations you toggle between Blaster, Laser, and Missile with the weapon-select button. No secret codes, no hidden upgrades—just your call on what the target needs.

Pro tip from a pilot who has done this a few hundred times: the missile does not home. It does not care about your feelings. It goes where you aim it. So aim well, or aim at the ground and enjoy the crater.

Now go make something explode. That's what we put you in the cockpit for.

Did You Know?

• The Arwing's missile option has been a core weapon choice since the very first Star Fox game in 1993, making it one of the oldest recurring weapons in the franchise.
• In Star Fox 64, the missile is one of three selectable weapons (alongside Blaster and Laser), and it is the only one designed to deal heavy damage to large, armored targets rather than swarms of small fighters.
• The Super Missile's single-shot, high-commitment design creates a deliberate tactical pause in otherwise fast-paced dogfights, a pacing choice that has defined the series' combat rhythm since the SNES era.
• The weapon's visual identity—a thick, smoke-trailing projectile with a big detonation—has been a fan-favorite moment across every 3D entry, often highlighted in cutscenes when the team takes down a capital ship.