Fox McCloud is a red fox and the main protagonist of the Star Fox series. He is sometimes referred to by the name of Star Fox, especially by his many enemies. He is additionally a pilot, combatant, adventurer, and the leader of the Star Fox team. Fox is the son of James McCloud, who edified him throughout his childhood to never give up. Fox McCloud was a cadet at the Cornerian Defense Army Academy when he heard the news that his father, James McCloud, had met a violent end at the hands of the twisted genius, Andross. The senior McCloud had been betrayed by his own wingman, Pigma Dengar, and delivered into a deadly trap from which there was seemingly no escape. Only James's wingman, Peppy Hare, managed to limp home in his badly damaged starfighter. As the only survivor of the original Star Fox Team, Peppy insisted that the young Fox take on the leadership of the group and form a new team of pilots. Thrust into the leadership role that he wasn't prepared for, Fox recruited the hot-tempered Falco Lombardi and the mechanical genius Slippy Toad to make up the new Star Fox Team. For a price, this crack group will fight against any threat to the Cornerian star system. Although it may appear that the Star Fox Team is motivated only by financial gain, it will only accept missions that serve to uphold justice.

Fox was born on Papetoon, but raised on Corneria by his father James, and his second father Peppy, who both always mentored Fox into never giving up and trusting his instincts. He exhibited exceptional aerial skills and even ground-based combat skills at a young age and joined the Cornerian Flight Academy along with Slippy Toad, Bill Grey and possibly Falco Lombardi. Five years after the evil mad scientist Andross was arrested, tried for treason and exiled to the outlandish planet Venom, General Pepper had received worrying reports from Corneria's observation station about signs of bio-weaponry activity, and sent James McCloud and his Star Fox team on a recon mission on Venom to investigate, but James and Peppy were betrayed by their fellow pilot Pigma and gave them to his new master, Andross. Peppy soon barely managed to escape captivity, but James was never seen again and was presumed to have been killed by Andross, with apparent rumored assistance from Wolf O'Donnell. Peppy returned from the incident as the sole survivor to apprise Fox of his father's fate. Emotionally apprehended by the news, Fox dropped out of the Academy in order to avenge his father's death, but couldn't bring himself to believe that his father was truly gone. Peppy took Fox under his wing, and together composed a new Star Fox team, recruiting Falco and Slippy to the team and inheriting his father's Great Fox, ROB 64 and the great financial debt. Even though Peppy was older than all the other Star Fox Team members, he declined the leadership role and insisted that the younger Fox McCloud take over the team after Fox's father, James McCloud apparently made this his last wish. Feeling guilty about sending James to his doom, General Pepper also took it upon himself to manage Fox's future career. Fox knew that Bill would join Star Fox if he was asked to but didn't want to pull Bill into this troubles.

A few years after the disappearance of James McCloud, Star Fox was called upon by General Pepper to stop Andross's empire and preserve the Lylat System. Fox led an incipient Star Fox team throughout the battles in the Lylat System, running into allies and enemies alike. His friendship with Bill Grey was revealed during one of these missions, and he went head-to-head with his rival Wolf O'Donnell of Star Wolf and others. Once Star Fox reached Venom, they fought through its defensive lines or Star Wolf all the way to Andross's base. Despite the protests of his team, Fox faced Andross alone. After Fox vanquished him, Andross self-destructed, inclined to take Fox with him. Fox screamed at his impending doom, thinking it was the end... but then Fox's father, James McCloud, appeared to guide him out of the base, while in the way out he verbalized the famous quote "Never give up, trust your instincts" and mentioned how vigorous Fox has become, determinately evanescent when prosperously exiting the base. Fox then left victorious as Andross' base exploded abaft him. They headed back to Corneria, where General Pepper offered to officially integrate Star Fox into the Cornerian army. With all due respect, Fox declined, stating that they preferred to do things their own way, while hearing a call from ROB that the Great Fox was ready to go and decreed that it was time for them to go too.

Four years after the Lylat Wars, the tranquillity times have taken a heftily ponderous toll on the Star Fox team. After a training session with Falco (involving Game Boy-like contrivances and Arwings kindred to the pristine Star Fox design), he receives a Distress Signal from Katt Monroe. Falco left abruptly to endeavor and avail her, much to Fox and the rest of the team's protests. They then decided to visit the Cornerian Research Base on Titania, meeting up with the officer in charge of the base, Captain Shears, and he accepted their request, though under one condition. Fox and his team were to wipe out some Andross remnants who were making off with some "data" relating to Andross' research. When Fox started fighting off the Androssian vessel, he then spotted another Arwing disembarking the ship, and realized that Falco seemed to have "defected" to the Androssians. Falco then commenced firing on Fox, thus coercing Fox to go into a dogfight with Falco. Falco taunts that barrel rolling was a bad move because Fox wouldn't have known where he would be after the move was over, but Fox turned the table by flying into the sunlight where Falco couldn't see, and launched a charged homing laser bolt, downing Falco. At the Great Fox's hangar, Peppy scolded Fox for fighting with Falco, shaming him and asking what his father would say before he asked why Fox got into the Dogfight in the first place. Fox then explained that Falco had emerged from the Androssian ship, ostensibly siding with them. Peppy then felt perturbed at what he's hearing. Fox then admitted feeling suspicious about Shear's true motivations. Shortly after Slippy was sent to the base to investigate (much to his chagrin, as he had deplorable recollections from the last time he visited the planet), the accused Androssians hail the Star Fox team. It turned out the "Androssians" were genuinely Katt Monroe's team, the Hot Rodders, and that they were never affiliated with Andross. In fact, the reason why they had been on the planet is because they discovered data pertaining to the project that Shear's is involved in and was intending to expose it. After learning from ROB that the project authentically involved cloning Andross, they learned that Slippy had been captured by the research facility under Shear's command. Following Peppy's directions to Slippy's cell, Fox and the Hot Rodders cooperated to foil Shear's plans and rescue Slippy. Fox and Shears had a sword duel that mostly involved Shears chasing Fox around on his Titanian River Boar. Lamentably, the Andross clone had matured far more rapidly than anticipated thanks to Slippy accidentally speeding up the process and the clone liberated itself from the cloning container in a fit of rage by seeing and remembering Fox. Fox endeavored to apprehend Shears, but when Shears endeavored to elude, he ended up being killed by his very own endangerment, and Andross then endeavors to suck Fox in. Upon Slippy's return, they then notice that the Landmaster is still in the docking bay, and Fox endeavors to utilize a Nova Bomb on Andross to endeavor and ravage him, eradicating the base and proximately killing himself and Slippy in the process. After learning that Falco was taking some time away from the team at least for the time being, Fox heeded Falco's last request and told Katt that she and her friends should disband the Hot-Rodders. Four years later, Fox was training with Slippy (albeit this time with a model resembling the Game Boy Advance), and he beats Slippy (causing him to remark that Slippy's not authentically an adequate rival). He asks ROB for any job requests, but ROB informed him that no official requests have been made for them, but he does have a concern for a particular planet. Fox then decides with the remnant of the Star Fox team that they should endeavor and preserve it. Presumably, they sent a request sanction to General Pepper for carrying out the mission.

Eight years after the events of the Lylat Wars, a way more cocky and immature Fox McCloud calmed the conflict on Dinosaur Planet (later penned as "Sauria") by teaming with Prince Tricky of the EarthWalker tribe and returning the SpellStones to their rightful positions in two of the planet's temples, liberating a confined Krystal by returning the five remaining Krazoa Spirits to their rightful positions, thwarting the orchestrations of General Scales, and vanquishing a reawakened Andross, who was abaft the troubles on Sauria. He was verboten from bringing his blaster into the mission by Pepper as a condition to accepting the mission, as Pepper believed that they needed to solve the quandary without resorting to brute force, albeit he nonetheless managed to make do with a staff that he found near the landing site which pristinely belonged to Krystal. After that, he returned to the Great Fox, and General Pepper paid him for preserving Sauria. He and Falco Lombardi (who had left after the events of the Titanian incident.) were reunited, and Krystal joined the Star Fox Team. Immediately afterwards, the Star Fox Team responsibly used the large amount of reward money that Fox received to rehabilitate the Great Fox, as well as oiling ROB 64 and upgrading the Arwings and Landmasters.

A year since the events of the Saurian Crisis, after arriving at Fortuna to assist in ending an Androssian rebellion led by Andrew Oikonny at General Pepper's request, Fox discovered something bigger and more serious has just begun when Oikonny's flagship was shot down by a "strange creature". After it made an attempt on Krystal, Fox ordered a return fire and destroyed it, where it left behind an interesting object which Peppy prompted him to collect before making a hasty retreat from an approaching armada. After sending the Core memory to Corneria's research labs, General Pepper and Beltino Toad briefed Fox and his team about the uprising of the Aparoid race, while telling a tragic tale about a sole Aparoid destroying an entire Cornerian fleet seventeen years ago, fearing it was foreshadowing the future. Beltino assured Fox that his Federation scientists were making a full analysis but urged that they could understand more if a complete, undamaged specimen were brought in. Pepper then instructed Fox and his team to investigate a distress signal coming from the outpost base on Katina, suspecting Aparoid involvement. Once destroying the force leader and heading to collect its Core memory, Fox noticed that the distress signal had stopped transmitting, only to find out that the traitorous Pigma was behind the S.O.S signal and stole the core memory in order to sell it, deducing from Fox's protest that it was important. Though angry at the sight of Pigma and losing the Core memory, Fox opted to give chase to him. Tracking Pigma to a dodgy hideout, Team Star Fox's search provoked an aggressive attack from various criminals after they learned who they were. Star Wolf arrived on the scene to settle old scores but it ended badly for Wolf's team, who then revealed that Pigma was thrown off of Star Wolf and he couldn't have hidden at the hideout without being driven out. Star Wolf's newest member, Panther Caroso fell for the beauty of Krystal and slip gave that they might find Pigma at Fichina. On Fichina, after shutting down the protective shield, turning the climate control center back on and getting attacked by sentry bots, Slippy revealed that they had undergone Aparoidedation, while Pigma flew down to sadistically reveal he was "pulling the strings" and raising an infected shield generator. Once the machine was downed, the climate control center was saved, as Peppy made an ironic remark about "those with strong wills", "allies or enemies". Fox said that it sounded like someone he knew. Finding Pigma's trail leading through the asteroid belt and cutting through the Aparoids, Fox watched as Pigma underwent an unusual transformation and fused with an abandoned space station, forcing him to destroy the assimilated station and take back the core memory. Fox looked on in silence as Pigma faced a painful destruction. Heading back to Corneria and transmitting the core memory, General Pepper then revealed that their plan was to take the fight to the Queen, or else the threat would never end. But their return home to Corneria was interrupted when Krystal caught the telepathic sounds of "cries of agony" coming from Sauria. Fox was horrified to see that Sauria's dinosaurs were victims of Aparoidedation caused by Aparoid hatchers and decided to save the planet once again. Once the Aparoids were wiped out, Fox and Krystal had a short but sweet reunion with Tricky, who offered to take care of things so they could "come back on their honeymoon", sparking a friendly argument but to Fox's embarrassment. Fox and the team then learned the hard way that their absence left Corneria vulnerable to a colossal Aparoid armada, decimating the majority of the Cornerian defense fleet, and lost contact with General Pepper as a result. Fighting on the surface and rebooting the communications, Fox was then ambushed by Aparoids, but then shockingly was saved by none other than Wolf and his team. Siding with their rivals against a common foe, Fox brought down many Aparoids, including reluctantly taking down General Pepper's infected flagship, (but Pepper was timely saved by Peppy). Wolf then departed from the planet after remarking that he hadn't come here to save Fox, whilst giving a familiar sounding piece of advice, prompting Fox to reconsider his thoughts about his rivalry with Wolf. After regrouping with Beltino, the plan was set to take the new self-destruct program to the Aparoid homeworld and fire it into the queen, destroying their race. Defending the orbital gate, Star Fox shipped out via a portal to make their final stand against the Aparoids, accompanied by the remaining Cornerian fleets. On the planet's surface, Fox and Krystal took out the hatchers to try and disable the large shield covering the planet's core, but the shield reformed barring any entry. At the cost of their mothership, Peppy and ROB, Fox reluctantly respected Peppy's will and ordered that the team moves on, without him. Flying down the tunnels, Star Fox were then joined by their rivals, Star Wolf, just one more time, where the three Wolfen led a lethal barricade away from the Arwings to let them reach the queen. Ignoring the queen's imitations of those closest to him, including his father, Fox fought the Queen, breaking through her defenses and delivering the program, only to have to battle her one more time before she could escape and created an anti-body. Escaping the planet at maximum velocity, Fox theorized that the whole thing was one big entity and that she tried to bypass evolution by stealing souls, but knowing that "you have to be born with one". Reuniting with Peppy in space, Fox admits he knew the old rabbit would be all right all along, and knowing that Pepper would be fine too and feeling Wolf's team would live to fight another day, thanking his friends for their support.