The Awesome Black Hole
Briefing: This space graveyard, created by Andross' experiments, is where your father vanished, Fox!!
Enemies/Obstacles: Random fighters, derelict ships, ion-launching pods.

Stage:

This stage is more of a warp zone with powerups than an actual level of the game, but it still has its dangers. The black hole is the final resting place of many spacecraft, most of which drift aimlessly. A few ion-launchers are still operational and will fire at you, but for the most part you just need to be careful to avoid these ghost ships. Their hulls are weak and don't take too much laser fire to destroy.

A few powerups can be found behind doors and there is a one-up to be had as well. Alternately you will find rings flying toward you. Flying through these rings will take you outside the black hole and warp you to an advanced stage on one of the three courses--Sector Y, Venom, or Sector Z.

Interestingly, one of the ships that appears at random in the Awesome Black Hole is the older-model arwing Fox's father would've flown (the same kind that fly off on the attract mode when you first turn on the game), and General Pepper's briefing did say it was where he vanished... James McCloud, you are NOT forgotten.

Out of This Dimension
Briefing: Come in, arwings!! Fox, where are you?! We need you to protect Corneria!!
Enemies/Obstacles: Fighters (at THE END), rotating beams, "origami" fighters.

Stage:

This stage is fairly straightforward, strategy-wise. The odd, sinusoidal background and strange music say it all--it really IS out of this dimension! Avoiding the rotating beams shouldn't be too bad. Perhaps the most unusual enemies in this stage are the origami-like objects that appear. Some fold into "paper airplanes"--those can just be blasted before they fly around and into you. Others, however, only spawn more objects when you hit them unless you wait for them to fold into their final shapes, which will then suddenly charge at you.

BOSS: Slot Machine

The final boss of Out of This Dimension isn't too difficult, but may require some patience. The only way to beat it is to get "777" on its tumblers. Shoot the handle to "pull" it. Some combinations cause the slot machine to turn over and pay out coins. Those are good; they give you shield energy if you hit them. However, if one or more Andross faces appears, prepare for laser blasts and missiles! The small triangles under each tumbler occasionally flash. If you shoot a flashing triangle, that tumbler will remain stationary for your next pull of the handle, so if one starts flashing underneath a "7" be sure to hit it! The hit detection is a bit touchy, though. If you have twin blasters you may run the risk of accidentally hitting two triangles or even the handle if you're not careful.

Once the slot machine is destroyed the background stops waving and the credits appear--only you can still fly while the credits are on the screen! When a scrambled "THE END" appears, hit the letters to make them reappear in a different orientation. If you can correctly align each letter, the puzzle repeats again. Random bogeys will appear to try to hit you and thwart your efforts, though, rescrambling the letters if they can. This pattern repeats infinitely. There is no way to escape this stage unless you hit reset on your control deck.