Wolf O'Donnell

Wolf O'Donnell (Japanese: ウルフ・オドネル, Hepburn: Urufu Odoneru) is a fictional character in Nintendo's Star Fox video game series. In the series, Wolf O'Donnell is a wolf who is the leader of the fictional Star Wolf team and a rival (and antihero) to Fox McCloud. Wolf's team is initially hired by Andross to take down the Star Fox team. The Star Wolf team ultimately fails their mission causing Wolf to seek revenge for his own personal reasons.

His similarity to Fox has been criticized by video game reviewers, as well as his appearance on Super Smash Bros. Brawl. However, his rivalry and his role as a villain were praised.

Appearances

Wolf technically made his debut in the cancelled SNES/Super Famicom game Star Fox 2 as the boss prior to Andross. In this game, he wore no eyepatch, but there is a large scar that runs across his right eye, which is opposite of the eye that is damaged in his current form.

In his first official appearance in Star Fox 64 (also known as Lylat Wars; and consequently in the game's 2011 remake), Wolf's current image was created with him wearing an eyepatch. In this game, the player faces Wolf and his team at least once, no matter what path the player may take to get through the game, unlike in Star Fox 2, where he was faced only once altogether.

If the player fights Star Wolf on Venom, Wolf looks slightly different over his transmissions. Upon closer examination, his face is covered with bandages, to express damage from their last encounter with Star Fox. The rest of the team sports cybernetic prosthetics. These augmentations could most likely be explained away as necessary to the operation of their new Wolfen II fighters, since they're not shown on any Star Wolf members in subsequent games and it is also possible to reach that point in the game without having previously fought the team.

Wolf makes his next appearance in Star Fox: Assault, with a new costume and an advanced eye patch. At first he is angered at the fact that Fox McCloud raided the Sargasso Space Hideout while looking for Pigma Dengar. But fighting an enemy (the Aparoids) that means to conquer (or destroy) the entire Lylat System and all of its inhabitants (Cornerian or otherwise) brought out the good in Wolf, and he actually saved Fox's life when Fox was ambushed by Aparoids on top of the Persimmon's Building in Corneria City. Wolf explained that he only saved Fox because he wanted to be the only one to "tan his hide." During this time, Wolf is 28 years old.

In return, Fox blasts enemy fighters, anti-aircraft turrets, and General Pepper's Aparoid-infected flagship as they shoot at and chase the Wolfen. Throughout the fight with General Pepper, Wolf gives Fox encouraging words for the first time (though most likely to also ensure his own survival). United by a common enemy, Wolf and his team assist Star Fox twice more, once during a missile attack on the Cornerian Orbital Gate, and once in the tunnel leading to the Aparoid Queen. It was also Wolf's advice "Don't hesitate. When the time comes, just act" that got Fox past some internal struggles when facing the Queen.

Though it appears that Wolf was killed when the Aparoid Homeworld was destroyed, Fox McCloud believes that he and his team somehow survived the explosion, a belief which is later confirmed in Star Fox Command.

In the game's multiplayer, Wolf can be unlocked if the player finishes every mission without a wingmate taken enough damage to force them to retreat. He has maximum speed and health, and he's the only player capable of effectively piloting the unlockable Wolfen, but has poor stats in the other categories, including Arwing piloting. His victory taunt consists of him proclaimng "Victory is mine!" while firing Akimbo machine guns.

Wolf, Panther, and Leon return in Star Fox Command on the Nintendo DS. Wolf is a playable character in four of the game's thirty missions: twice assisting Fox on Solar, once assisting (only to betray him later) him on Titania, and then fighting the Anglars on Venom. Team Star Wolf (Wolf, Panther, and Leon) appear as a boss fight twice on Fichina.

After being removed from Team Star Fox, Krystal joined Star Wolf and hatched a plot to steal Andross' device that would neutralize the acidity of the Venom Sea. Wolf, in one story path, after assisting Fox on Solar, betrays him on Titania and steals the device. In two of the game's endings, Star Wolf are hailed as heroes for defeating the Anglars.

Outside of Star Fox series, Wolf appears as a secret-playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.^[1] He does not return in the fourth installment in the series, only appearing in a non-playable role.

Reception

Wolf featured in GamesRadar's "The Top 7... Bestest frenemies" list at seventh place, with the staff saying he "was notable mainly for looking and acting Fox McCloud would if he were gray and also a bastard."^[2] WhatCulture! said Wolf's obsession to destroy Fox "leads to some of gaming's most exhilarating and challenging dogfights", and ranked him fifty-first on its "100 Greatest Video Game Villains Of All Time" list.^[3] Patrick Lindsey of Paste ranked Wolf O'Donnell as the third best video game wolf in 2014, calling him "ever the Boba Fett to Fox’s Han Solo".^[4]

UGO Networks remarked that he is "cool" because he is "a walking, talking fox", however they criticized the fact of three Star Fox being playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, saying he should be replaced by another franchise character.^[5] Sharing the sentiments, Joystick Division ranked him fourth on it article about what Brawl characters should be replaced, with his substitute being Simon Belmont from Castlevania.^[6] While agreed with UGO and Joystick Division, saying Fox "now has TWO clones"—the other being Falco Lombardi—, IGN said "[i]t's not really all that bad" since slower and stronger than Fox, which differs him to the other series characters in Brawl.^[7] Rory Cocker from Nintendo Life criticized the inclusion of Wolf and Falco in the Super Smash Bros. series, calling them "essentially just model swaps."^[8] Thomas East from Official Nintendo Magazine ranked him second on his list of "Smash Bros characters who need to be dropped for Wii U and 3DS", also stating he a clone of Fox.^[9]

See also

• List of Star Fox characters

References