Question: If you beat Brain Andross on the Red Path, the "ghost" of James McCloud, Fox's father, appears and helps Fox escape the exploding base. What is the explanation for this? Is it actually the ghost of James? Was Fox hallucinating? Was James really alive the whole time? What happened exactly?
Continuity mistake: In the mission of Sector X, you fight the boss Spyborg. For slower players, Spyborg will usually smack Slippy with its hand and send the toad's crippled Arwing hurtling towards the planet Titania. Faster players can destroy Spyborg before it can attack the cocky Slippy. If this is done, you go to Macbeth instead of Titania. However, if you chose to go to Titania anyways, the mission plays out with Slippy crashed and captured by the mission's boss. Yet he didn't get hit and crash in the previous mission.
Trivia: If you clear every level with a Gold Medal, you unlock Expert Mode. While playing Expert Mode, Fox can be seen wearing his father's, James McCloud, sunglasses. This also unlocks the Sound Test feature in the main menu where you can scroll through and listen to every sound effect, music piece, and line of dialogue in the game.
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Answer: There isn't really an agreed answer to this, and the game leaves it purposely ambiguous. It's entirely possible that James is just a figment of Fox's imagination. It's also possible that his spirit is guiding him or that he's secretly alive. So in truth, any answer would be pure, 100% speculation.
TedStixon