Star Fox 2/Characters

Playable Characters
Before beginning the game you must select two characters. You will be using these characters for that entire game. There are two characters per Arwing model. There is no difference between the two other than the colour (red or blue), this simply allows you to have two characters using the same Arwing type. You can select which of both characters you want to control by pressing on the map screen. Note that your team-mate only serves as a backup, he or she will accompany you while you travel through the map and will appear in the space battles, but won't really assist you. When your main character dies you can still keep playing with your second character (though you will not be able to use again the other character for the remainder of the game), but note that both characters have only one life, so if you lose them both it's the end of the game.


 * Fox and Falco have the most balanced Arwings: average shields, speed, and Blaster charging time. Their Special Item is the Nova Bomb, which is really useful taking down whole fighter squadrons and severely damaging bosses.


 * Peppy and Slippy are defence-oriented coming equiped with high shields, but they are slow on speed and it takes the longest to charge the Blaster. They also come with the Recovery Item which makes them even more durable, and because of that, capable of attacking long range objectives away from the Mothership without having to go back for repairs. Still they are too slow to chase some of the fastest enemy ships, making it easy for them to escape if you do not destroy them quickly.


 * Miyu and Fay, the newcomers, are built for speed: they're fast and the Blaster charges up almost instantly, making it easy to take down fighter squadrons. However, they only have six shield points, so if they get damaged, unless they can find a Recovery or Repair Item on a level, they would probably have to go back to the Mothership to have their shields replenished, thus potentially loosing precious time despite their high speed. So because of their low shields their ships are a risky option, very useful if you can manage to avoid taking damage as much as possible, but with the danger of getting shot down quickly if things get bad. Their special item is the Shield, which at least makes up somewhat for their lack of Shield points, plus they also come equipped with Twin Blasters giving them an initial advantage on offence over the other ships.

Note that any character can use any Special Item if it's collected inside one of the levels or encounters.

Probably the best team for beginners is Fox and Peppy. Fox's ship is well-balanced and can handle everything pretty well, and if he gets low on shields (or even shot down), Peppy will be a useful backup to handle the danger with his massive shields and Recovery Items (of course, you can use Falco instead of Fox and/or Slippy instead of Peppy). Peppy and Slippy are also a safe team to choose, but they may be a bit too slow for the higher difficulty levels.

Miyu and Fay are fine for Normal and Hard because their low shields aren't really a problem against the forces you face on those levels. On Expert mode though there's a dilemma: their higher speed is more valuable since time is of the essence, but at the same time it's much easier for them to get shot down. If you choose one of them, it may be particularly wise to pair her with Peppy or Slippy.