8 Reasons Why We've Always Wanted to Slap Slippy From Star Fox
PocketEpiphany
Published
08/03/2021
in
Funny
Sidekicks in video games are a touchy subject. Some sidekicks go on to be beloved characters of their very own, like Miles “Tails” Prower. Other sidekicks send players into spasms of rage.
And that’s especially true of Slippy from Star Fox. We wanted to slap him the entire time we were playing. Here are a few of the reasons why!
And that’s especially true of Slippy from Star Fox. We wanted to slap him the entire time we were playing. Here are a few of the reasons why!
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1.
Constantly Needs Rescuing
There are many reasons players hate Slippy. But if we could only pick one, it’s the fact that he constantly needs to be rescued.
In most Star Fox games, you are simply focused on your own problems...shooting down your own foes, fighting bosses, all that good stuff. Every now and then, though, you’d have to save one of your teammates when they had a bad guy on their tail.
For whatever reason, this happened to Slippy more than the others. And it’s tough to like a sidekick that is constantly distracting you from your enjoyment of the game. -
2.
Annoying Voicework
Aside from the constant need to rescue Slippy, another majorly annoying factor is his voice. While he has had different voice actors over the years, angry fans mostly remember Slippy’s voice from Star Fox 64.
It was very high-pitched, to put it mildly. In fact, when Slippy called for help, it was less “asking” and more “screeching at a frequency that will hurt your dog’s ears.”
Between his “helpful” hints and Slippy constantly calling for help, players had to hear this annoying voice quite a bit. -
3.
Hurts Your Chances At Medals
Another annoying aspect about Slippy plays off of something that we already mentioned: he constantly needs help. At this point, someone who hasn’t played much Star Fox might be asking “why don’t you just let him die?”
One reason you cannot lightly do this is that in certain games like Star Fox 64, Slippy shows you what the life gauge of an enemy boss is. When his Arwing is down, it makes those boss fights harder because you have less intel.
Additionally, you need your whole squad to survive to get medals at the end of missions in certain games. So every time Slippy tries to get himself killed, he hurts your chance at getting a medal. -
4.
Sad Attempt At Comic Relief
Part of what makes Star Fox special is that every member of your crew fills out a special role. Sure, everyone is a pilot, but in terms of plot, Falco is your hotheaded rival and Peppy is your wise old mentor.
And then there’s Slippy. He was seemingly intended to be the comic relief, but all of his jokes fall flat. Even if the jokes were great, though, you have to put up with his annoying voice and seeming inability to fly without getting himself killed.
Trust us: all it takes are a few Slippy jokes to have you willingly flying your Arwing into the ground! -
5.
Annoying Girlfriend
If you only played one or two Star Fox games, you might not realize that Slippy gets a girlfriend. That’s right: in Star Fox Command, we find out that a girl named Amanda lets this troubling toad “slippy” himself inside her.
That would be fine except for one thing: Amanda is annoying, too! Not as annoying as Slippy, but still enough to make you cringe whenever she is on screen.
Everyone has had that moment where a friend they like gets a girlfriend that everyone hates. In Slippy’s case, we hate the boyfriend and the girlfriend with equal passion. -
6.
Weird Design
This next reason may seem extra-petty, but hear us out. Slippy has a really weird and off-putting character design.
Just go look at the main screen for Star Fox 64. For the most part, Fox, Falco, and Peppy all look like normal anthropomorphic designs. And then there is Slippy, who looks like someone designed him in five minutes in Microsoft Paint.
His face is just like a multicolor watermelon that they threw bug eyes and a childish cap on. Aesthetically speaking, Slippy sucks in a big way. -
7.
That Stutter
Much of our hatred against Slippy has to do with his annoying voice. But he didn’t start having an English voice until Star Fox 64. In the SNES days, it was just gibbering ribbits and text.
However, Slippy’s “voice” was annoying back then due to a weird stutter the developers gave him. The stutter is gone in later games, but it serves as a reminder that Slippy was very annoying right from the beginning. -
8.
Retconned For the Worse
The final kick in the teeth regarding Slippy is this: developers made him better and then ended up making him worse!
While Slippy retained some annoying habits, later games made him less frustrating and more of a fleshed-out character. He gets a girlfriend, a family, and a personality that goes way beyond “annoying sidekick that constantly needs rescuing.”
And then Star Fox Zero came out. The game was a spiritual successor to Star Fox 64, which is fine in theory. But the developers once more gave Slippy a high-pitched voice, and you once more need to spend way too much time shooting bad guys off his back. This is one case where getting back to basics didn’t work out for all the characters.
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