Fox (SSB)

Fox in Super Smash Bros.
Universe	Star Fox
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Tier	A (4) (North America) ? (3) (Japan)

Fox (フォックス, Fox) is the main character from the Star Fox series and appears as a starter character in Super Smash Bros. He is known for his amazing movement speed, running and falling fast, as well as being equipped with a small Blaster and a reflector for defensive purposes. He is voiced by Shinobu Satouchi, who also voiced him in Japanese in Star Fox 64.

Fox ranks 4th on the tier list, mainly due to his very quick movement speed and versatile combo ability. He has the second fastest dashing and falling speeds in the game, along with the fastest walking speed, and the third fastest air speed, allowing him to get around very quickly, which not only helps with evading opponents, but also to get around during combos. His combo moves typically include his up tilt, down tilt, down aerial, the first hit of his neutral attack, etc. He is able to rack up damage in a variety of ways such as up tilt chains and repeated down aerial to down tilt chains. Fox is known for his Blaster Shot, among the best projectiles in the game for numerous reasons - its hitstun allows Fox to effortlessly counter opponent approaches, while it also helps him approach. The lag of the move can also be avoided using the techniques short hop laser and ledgehopped double laser. While the majority of Fox's moves are low power, combo-orientated moves, he does have high power attacks such as his up smash and up aerial. Fox additionally has multiple quick, low power aerials which can easily combo offstage and reliably edgeguard opponents, along with an effective semi-spike in his down smash and a set knockback semi-spike in his shine, notable for the shine spike technique.

However, Fox does have some weaknesses. He has an over-reliance on his up smash and up aerial for onstage KOs, and his only reliable way to finish off the opponent outside those moves is edgeguarding. His other onstage moves are either generally lacking in power, predictable, inferior to up smash and up aerial, or all of the above. Fox is additionally a vulnerable character to combos - despite his moderate weight and size, his fast falling speed makes him vulnerable to characters such as Pikachu and Kirby, who can easily get Fox offstage, where his predictable and linear recovery, along with his fast falling speed, puts him in a bad position offstage. With the banning of Hyrule Castle, Fox has slightly dropped in the most recent tier list, since it is more difficult to camp on Dream Land, the only legal stage, due to its smaller size.

Regardless of these weaknesses, Fox's strengths outweigh them by quite a margin, having great matchups, as well as strong tournament representation and results. He also ranks slightly higher in the Japanese tier list at 3rd.

Attributes

Fox's congratulations screen.

Fox using Fire Fox in the SSB instruction booklet.

Fox is a character who is all about speed. He has the second fastest dashing speed (second only to Captain Falcon), third fastest air speed (behind Yoshi and Pikachu), the third fastest falling speed, a fast roll, and generally very fast attacks in terms of both startup and ending lag. Fox also has a good and useful short hop, which he can easily perform Z-cancelled aerials out of quickly. Fox can sometimes have trouble KOing because the majority of his attacks have low knockback, excluding his up smash and up aerial, which he sometimes relies on for KO'ing onstage. This problem is bigger against characters with strong vertical endurance, such as Captain Falcon, Link and other Foxes. The up smash can easily KO most characters under around 90% (KOs at 76% on Dream Land), and can be combo'd into in a variety of ways, such as the using a Z-cancelled down aerial (which can be used during aerial approaches), or the first hit of his jab, then using the move while the opponent is in hitstun. The up aerial is mainly used as an aerial combo finisher, but can be used on its own as an effective aerial finisher. However, the generally low knockback of Fox's attacks means that he has amazing combo potential, having the ability to zero-death many other characters. Both Fox's forward and back throws can additionally chaingrab at very low percentages and combo into moves such as dash attack, short hop laser, or short hop double laser. Additionally, though Fox can have trouble KOing onstage, he does have a strong edgeguarding ability. His forward and back aerials can easily be used in offstage aerial combos or combo'd into from a move such as an up tilt at certain percentages, and his neutral aerial is a pretty powerful aerial when it first comes out. He also has two effective semi-spikes - down smash (best used near the edge), and his shine (which allows the shine spike technique, and can also be used just after an edge drop to cover the area around Fox).

Fox's Blaster Shot is an extremely useful projectile that covers a very large distance and causes opponents to flinch. This allows him to combo from a considerable distance (as it will stun the opponent, and Fox's very fast dashing speed allows him to get to them quickly). Due to its hitstun, it can prevent enemy approaches, and it can also be used while approaching to give the opponent a hard time. Fox can use the Blaster Shot to easily and effectively camp, which is also one of the core tools to use if the player wants to prevent 0-death combos: Fox relies on camping with his Blaster Shot to prevent opponents from getting near, using his very quick movement speed to get around the stage, while he can start a combo on the opponent when they are left vulnerable. His Reflector, informally known as the Shine, is also a reliable way to deal with projectiles and projectile camping from opponents.

On the downside, Fox has problems with his recovery like many characters in the game. His fast falling speed and predictable and linear recovery make him easy to edgeguard and combo offstage into a meteor smash or powerful aerial finisher. His primary recovery move, Fire Fox, additionally requires charge-up time, and cannot damage opponents during that time, leaving Fox vulnerable; it is also possible to hit him out of the move using a projectile such as Thunder Jolt to gimp him repeatedly. With the correct timing, hitting him out of Fire Fox while moving is also possible. Fox's aforementioned problems with recovering also put him in a bad position when too far offstage, so he must be careful when combo'ing offstage against characters who are able to fight back easily such as Pikachu and Mario. Fox is also vulnerable to combos that work on fastfallers, but due to him being a middleweight, he is conversely resistant to combos effective on lightweights.

In doubles

Fox is considered to be slightly worse in doubles than singles as it is more difficult to laser camp and put opponents in poor positions to start combos, one of his main strengths in singles. Fox's recovery is an issue and the fact that he has problem gimping unless close to the edge is also a weakness. If he gets the chance, however, Fox is one of the better characters at starting combos. He is considered a good combo with Ness, as Fox can laser Ness's PSI Magnet to help him recover damage. Fox is an overwhelm based character in teams, helping his partner combo, and using an up smash or up aerial to KO. Fox is also a great team partner for Pikachu and Captain Falcon due to his aerials and up smash being able to mix very well with Pikachu's recovery and Falcon's air game and combo ability.

Differences between game versions

NTSC-J to NTSC-U

In his transition to NTSC-U, Fox got a mix of buffs and nerfs. Some of his moves deal slightly more damage, his special moveset's tools have been generally improved. On the downside, his Reflector is slightly worse for shinespiking and Fire Fox has no invincibility frames, making his recovery slightly riskier. He also suffers from the removal of momentum sliding. Lastly, the higher SDI presence makes him down aerial easier to escape as well, but it also allows him to escape combos easier. Overall, Fox doesn't perform either better or worse than in the Japanese version.

Attributes

• The removal of momentum sliding slightly hinders Fox's approach.

Ground attacks

• Down tilt deals 2% more damage (10% → 12%) and has increased base knockback (0 → 25).
• Down smash has a horizontal knockback angle instead of a vertical knockback angle (70° → 25°), making it worse for combos but better at edge guarding.
• Down smash deals less knockback (30 (base), 100 (scaling) → 35/80).

Special attacks

• Blaster Shot deals more damage (5% → 6%).
• Blaster Shot's angle has been altered (361° → 10°).
• Blaster Shot has decreased set knockback (5 → 1).
• Fire Fox deals 3% more damage (13% → 16%) and has increased knockback (65 (base), 50 (scaling) → 60/60).
• Fire Fox now launches opponents vertically (361° → 80°).
• Fire Fox no longer has invincibility frames.
• Reflector has an increased reflection multiplier (1.5x → 1.8x).

NTSC-U to PAL

Fox was slightly nerfed in his transition to PAL, as while his Teleport glitch covers more distance, which in turn gives him a better approach option, his forward tilt has reduced range, making it a worse spacing tool.

Attributes

• Teleport goes farther, making it a better approach option.

Ground attacks

• Forward tilt has smaller hitboxes (100u/100u → 80u/80u).
• Forward tilt's foot hitbox has been repositioned closer to Fox's foot (x offset: 140 → 120), giving it less range.

Moveset

Fox's aerial attacks

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Jab (ジャブ) / Body Blow (ボディブロー) / Rapid Kick (ラピッドキック)	4%	Two paw jabs, then a series of rapid kicks. Due to the hitstun of the first jab, it can lead into an up smash for a KO. The second jab is very fast and easily combos into his other moves. Can be used for a jab grab.
			4%
			1% per kick
Forward tilt	↑	Fox Whip H (フォックスウィップＨ)	11%	A fast but somewhat short-ranged move, and is good for spacing or leading into a wall combo.
	↗		10%
	→		9%
	↘		8%
	↓		8%
Up tilt		Fox Whip V (フォックスウィップＶ)	9%	Kicks directly upwards, making his extended foot the only hitbox. This makes it a close up move, however, it is extremely useful. It can chain into itself, it is very fast, knocks the foe into the air leading into many air combos, and is the center of most of Fox's combos.
Down tilt		Fox Tail (フォックステイル)	12%, 10% (NTSC-J)	Tail sweep. Can combo into a forward smash or jab at low percentages, a down aerial at low to mid percentages, and in certain situations at low percentages, a shine followed with a shine spike.
Dash attack		Jump Side Kick (ジャンプサイドキック)	10% (clean), 7% (late)	Leaps and kicks. Can combo into an up tilt, leading into another combo, or a forward smash, which is effective near the edge.
Forward smash		Striking Drill (ストライキングドリル)	17% (clean), 13% (late)	Puts his feet together and jumps forward, feet first. Decent KO power.
Up smash		Flip Kick (サマーソルトキック, Somersault Kick)	16% (clean), 8% (late)	Does a bicycle kick. Has a lot of vertical KO power.
Down smash		Ground Kick (グラウンドキック)	14%	Does a fast split, which hits on both sides on the same time. Sends opponents on a semi-spike trajectory, an effective edgeguarding move. However, it is the weakest down smash in the game (knockback wise).
Neutral aerial		Fox Kick (フォックスキック)	14% (clean), 9% (late)	A normal sex kick. Great for KOing and edgeguards, comes out quickly and has good range, though it has limited combo ability compared to his other aerials.
Forward aerial		Air Drill H (エアドリルＨ)	12% (clean), 8% (late)	Does a feet-first kick forward with a similar animation to his f-smash. Good combo move, can also be used to edgeguard.
Back aerial		Reverse Spin Kick (リバーススピンキック)	12% (clean rear), 8% (front/late)	A sex kick behind himself with low knockback, can combo into itself and lead into other aerials and other moves such as up tilt.
Up aerial		McCloud Flip (テイル＆レッグ, Tail & Leg)	2% (hit 1), 13% (hit 2), 15% (total)	Upward aerial flip, great vertical KOer and juggler. Does 2% first hit, 13% second hit. Landing the first hit does set knockback and can combo, but is difficult to land intentionally.
Down aerial		Air Drill V (エアドリルＶ)	2% (hits 1-7), 14% (total)	Does a drill kick with weak knockback. Not a good meteor smash, but if used on a grounded foe, easily combos into an up tilt or up smash when Z-cancelled.
Grab		Grab (つかみ)	—
Forward throw		Leg Shoot (レッグシュート)	12%	Throws opponent forward with good KO power.
Back throw		Reverse Leg Shoot (リバースレッグシュート)	15% (throw), 10% (collateral)	Rolls backward and kicks the opponent off him.
Forward roll Back roll		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Kicks on both sides and returns to his stance.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Kicks on both sides and returns to his stance.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			4%	Gets up and thrusts his feet forward, like his f-smash.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			4%	Slowly rises and flip kicks.
Neutral special		Blaster Shot	6%, 5% (NTSC-J)	The Blaster shoots a pink laser beam as a projectile that does some hitstun on opponents, allowing some followups, and making the move excellent for stopping opponent approaches, especially when coupled with the short hop laser and ledgehopped double laser techniques. Has increased fire rate while Fox is airborne allowing Fox to short hop double laser.
Up special		Fire Fox	16%, 13% (NTSC-J)	Fox charges up (and is pulled down by gravity at a reduced rate), and then propels himself in a direction with a fiery blast, that is controllable with the Control Stick. Used for recovery, does decent vertical knockback, but not a reliable KO move.
Down special		Reflector	5% (activation), 1.8x rounded up (reflected projectile), 1.5x rounded up (NTSC-J reflected projectile)	Informally known as a shine, it reflects any projectiles that hit it back. As an attack, it sends opponents on a semi-spike trajectory, has set knockback, and is fast, making it useful for edgeguarding, via the shine spike technique.

Announcer call

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• English/Chinese

• French

• German

On-screen appearance

• Ejects out of an Arwing.

Taunt

• If facing left, Fox crosses his arms, looks toward the player and makes a "hmph" sound. If facing right, the posture is reversed so that Fox looks away from the player. (This posture returns in a slightly altered form as one of Fox's victory poses in Melee and Brawl Vs. battles.)

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	*clap* Go *clap* Fox *claps 3 times*	Fokkusu *claps 3 times*
Pitch	Crowd chant	Crowd chant

Victory poses

A cover of a portion of the main theme of Star Fox 64.

• Crosses his arms, scoffing (also his character selection animation and taunt).
• Points his blaster around him.
• Twirls his blaster and places it in its holster.

In competitive play

Most historically significant players

See also: Category:Fox players (SSB)

•  Alvin - One of the best players in South America who mained Fox before switching to Pikachu and Captain Falcon. Back then, he was the best Fox player in South America and won a tournament with Tacna 2014 and was the runner up at Arequipa 2011.
•  Isai - One of the best Smash 64 players of all time who is efficient with the entire cast, however, Fox is one of his most consistently used characters and is the best Fox player in the world. One of his most memorable tournaments runs as Fox was with his 4th place finish at GENESIS 3 where he beat Mariguas and tacos. He also went Fox at Inka Fest 2019 where he also placed 4th and took a set over Nax.
•  LD - The best solo Fox player in the United States and one of the best in the world. He has culminated some of the best Fox results in the game's history with tournament wins at Shots Fired 2 and MVP vs MOMS, the former being where he beat Fireblaster and Josh Brody. He also placed 7th at Super Smash Con 2015, one of the best solo Fox placements at a 64 supermajor.
•  Masaru - One of the best Fox players in the country but has not competed since 2018, placing 3rd at some notable Japanese tournaments such as Kansai 2017 and 7th at Japan Smash Cup 2016, with him outplacing Taimai at both events.
•  Mercy - A longtime top Smash 64 player who has recently been playing Fox in more tournaments, beating top players such as Czar and Crovy and has made top 8s at Operation Desert Smash 3, Keystoned V, and Super Smash Con 2022. He is currently ranked 14th on the 2023 Smash 64 Power Rankings as the highest Fox player on the list.
•  S - The best Fox player during the early 2010s, has many proficient runs at Japanese tournaments such as 2nd at Kansai Festival 2010 and 3rd at Kanto 2012.
•  Sensei - Considered the second best player in North America during the mid-2000s and early 2010s and co-mained Pikachu and Fox. He won a smaller 64 tournament as Fox with Apex 2010 over Nintendude and made top 6 at Apex 2012 and Apex 2013.
•  SuPeRbOoMfAn - One of the best Smash 64 players of all time who was previously one of the best Fox players in North America. He won GENESIS 2, Apex 2012, and Zenith 2013 with Fox as one of his most prominent characters. He returned to the character briefly in 2023 with his 2nd place at Xanadu Origins, marking the best solo Fox result seen at a major.
•  Taimai - One of the best Fox players in the country before switching to Ness. He notably placed 9th at GENESIS 4, beating JaimeHR and Isai and in-region placed 7th at Kansai 2017 and 17th at Japan Smash Cup 2016.
•  TR3GTheZ - Considered the second best player in Canada behind SuPeRbOoMfAn, being ranked #1 in Montreal for years before his retirement. Primarily used Fox at multiple major tournaments such as his 2nd place at Get On My Level 2016 and 3rd at Get On My Level 2017. He is also the founder of TR3G, a group dedicated to advancing Fox's metagame.

Tier placement and history

Fox has been a character who always been ranked high and players seeing great potential in him. In the first tier list, he was ranked 4th of high tier, right above Falcon. When the second tier list was released, Fox was able to take 2nd in S tier, being the only character to be ahead of Kirby, other then Pikachu, ever in the game's history. By the third tier list was dropped, Fox dropped below Kirby again, but both were placed in A tier where he was still seen as a top tier character.

In the time between the third and fourth tier list, Fox was still achieving notable success in tournaments. His matchups against the characters higher than him improved, to where it wasn't seen as dominating and his matchup with Falcon appeared to become even at this point. However, the abundance of Yoshi and Jigglypuff players during this time ended up hurting Fox, with Yoshi no longer considered to be a winning matchup for him and Jigglypuff's matchup against Fox no longer appearing as one sided as originally thought. Another problem was in recent years, Fox players weren't placing as high as they once were, with the two aforementioned characters taking much higher spots in tournaments. In addition to this, Hyrule Castle was being phased out of tournaments, which was a very strong stage for Fox. Fox could easily abuse his speed and laser pressure on Hyrule Castle due to its large size, the walls gave him strong combo potential and his recovery overall was less exploitable. With Hyrule Castle becoming less and less prevalent as time went on however, Fox was restricted to Dream Land, which is a stage he does not perform as well on, due to its smaller size restricting his ability to run away and camp. This would lead to Fox dropping back to 4th of A tier on the fourth tier list. However, it appears Fox might drop even further due to the general consensus that Yoshi has surpassed him since last tier list. Notable player Kerokeroppi thinks that Jigglypuff will also surpass Fox in the next tier list due to the performance of the character in the metagame. At the moment, its uncertain how Fox will do in the future with the constant advancing metagame of the characters around him.

In Single-player

• In the game's single-player mode, Fox is the third character the player battles, in which they must face him on Sector Z.

Techniques

Short hop laser

A very useful and frequently used technique that is great for approaching and stopping opponents' approaches alike. It is performed by simply short hopping, then firing a laser. If one's reflexes allow it, it is possible to fire two lasers in one short hop, known as short hop double laser (SHDL). As the lasers cause hitstun on the opponent, it can give characters without projectiles and/or reliable ways to deal with them serious trouble approaching, plus the stun can allow laser followups, which can can be used for combos to rack damage (at low percentages) or to lead into a move like an up smash for raw KOing.

Ledgehopped double laser

Similar to the short hop laser, only this is done by edge dropping, jumping, then firing one or two lasers while moving onto the stage. Very similar uses to the short hop laser, but obviously for different situations.

Teleport

Fox using his up smash out of a dash, without a teleport (left), and with a teleport (right). The additional distance given can clearly be seen.

A technique that allows Fox to slide forward a short distance. Fox can attack, jump, or perform other actions out of the slide (it even allows him to go offstage), and with it giving him some speed, it can be used for movement, though simply dashing is usually quicker due to Fox's very high dashing speed.

Shine spike

An edgeguarding technique that simply involves using the shine offstage on an opponent. Its semi-spike trajectory and set knockback make it effective for edgeguarding and gimping alike. It can be used on its own or combo'd into via moves such as up tilt or down tilt.

Dash turnaround ledgegrab

Fox is the only character in the game along with Ness who can use the turnaround animation of his full sprint to grab a ledge whilst running off of the stage. This is due to his turnaround animation changing the faced direction before the character "brakes". This technique is obviously useful for being Fox's fastest way to edgehog.

Description

From the Game

Following his dead father's footsteps as the young leader of the Star Fox Team, Fox McCloud's piloting of the super-high-performance combat ship ARWING for the Lylatian System is still fresh in our memories. His one weakness may be his difficulty earning the trust of his teammates.

Works:

• Star Fox (SNES) (STARWING in the PAL version)
• Star Fox 64 (N64) (LYLATWARS^[sic] in the PAL version)

Alternate costumes

Trivia

• According to Masahiro Sakurai, Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad were considered to appear as alternate costumes for Fox, however this was decided against as Fox's playstyle didn't fit Slippy.
  • Of these three, Falco would later become a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a clone of Fox.
• Fox is the only character to have two of his aerials both being sex kicks (his neutral and back aerials). All other characters have only one sex kick.
• A slightly different sound effect is heard when Fox obtains an item than when other characters do, most likely to distinguish from the similar sound his Reflector makes. He also makes a noise when he rolls, also unlike other characters. These two aesthetic attributes are present only in Smash 64.
• On the Character selection screen, Fox's portrait greatly resembles his artwork from Star Fox 64.
• Fox's official artwork for Smash 64 gives his jacket a greenish color, in contrast to the tan color it is given in-game.
• The sound effect heard when using Reflector would later be used for picking up items in future Super Smash Bros. games, starting with Super Smash Bros. Melee.
• Super Smash Bros. marks the only time a Star Fox character is introduced as a starter.
  • This also marks the only game in which Fox is the sole Star Fox fighter.