Star Fox: Super Weekend

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Star Fox: Super Weekend flyer

Star Fox: Super Weekend (Official Competition), or Star Wing: Super Weekend (Official Competition) in Europe, is a rare special edition cart only briefly sold through Nintendo Power. The special edition version was created for international Star Fox competition events hosted by Nintendo Power (the US contest was held Friday April 30 to May 2, 1993), and featured a single gameplay mode with a five-minute time limit on a modified version of the first Corneria and Asteroid stages. Extra rings and other bonus systems were placed to add more challenge and scoring opportunities. The developers also added an exclusive bonus level. The altered start-up screen displays "Official Competition Cartridge". Depending on the points scored, players could win a t-shirt, a jacket, or even trips to international destinations. An estimated 2,000 cartridges were made.

Gameplay

The game is composed of three stages, the point being to cover as much ground within each stage as possible within a four minute time limit in order to accumulate as large a score as possible.

During play, a large "SCORE" counter is placed in the upper-left hand corner of the screen, with a constantly diminishing four minute timer being placed in the upper-right hand corner. At the end of each stage, the variation of Star Fox's end-of-the-stage results screen appears, rewarding the player with a "Perfect Bonus" of 20,000 points if he or she manages to destroy all of a stage's enemies. The game ends immediately when the timer ends, bringing the player to a result screen that displays his or her final score. It should be noted that players have infinite lives, and upon dying, the player is re-spawned at the beginning of his or her current stage.

Upon boot-up, the cartridge's title screen is displayed, with the words "Official Star Fox Competition" being prominently displayed. After progressing to the next screen, the player is greeted with the selection of control schemes found in the original, widely-released version of Star Fox on SNES, sans the "Training" option. Instead, the words "Push Start To Exit" are displayed. Exiting this screen immediately causes Stage 1 to begin.

Stage 1

The first stage is a modified and drastically shortened version of the "Easy" route's Corneria from Star Fox on SNES. The opening launch scene from the standard SNES version of Star Fox is omitted, but the quick scene of the Arwings leaving their base remains intact. It contains a boss in the form of the Attack Carrier from the original SNES version of the stage.

Stage 2

The second stage is another modified and extremely shortened version of a stage from Star Fox on SNES, this time the stage being the "Easy" route's Asteroid. The Asteroid stage contains a boss in the form of the Rock Crusher from its SNES counterpart.

Stage 3

The final stage of the cartridge is also the oddest. Although it uses several assets from the "Space Armada" stage from the "Easy" route of Star Fox on the SNES, most namely the music and several of the stage's structures, it is an entirely new and looping stage created just for this cartridge. The stage features a number of rings that award the player point bonuses upon being flown through. Some of these rings are being "rolled" around in space by destroyable enemies. All enemies in this stage cause large point values to appear on screen after the enemies themselves are destroyed. Since the level loops repeatedly, there is no boss, or results screen at the end of the Stage, as it never finishes. Thus, once reaching Stage 3, the player spends the remaining duration of his or her time here.

Event

In the United States, the Star Fox: Super Weekend Competition cartridge was played by thousands of competitors in malls across the country. Stores such as KB Toys and Suncoast Video hosted the event. Players would use cartridges that were timed to four minutes. The objective of the competition was to get the highest score by shooting down the most enemies within the time limit. After the competition, a limited number of the Super Weekend cartridges were sold through the Nintendo Power magazine. Prizes included a free trip to one of four locations around the globe, along with goods such as flight pins and jackets.

In the United Kingdom, the competition was known as the Star Wing Challenge and was held in gaming shops across the country on May 29, 1993.

Netherlands also held the Starwing competition at various game stores in early 1993. The winner of each day won a large Starwing poster. Starwing competition was also used for the Dutch Nintendo Championship in October 1993-1996.

References

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