Fox (SSBM)

Fox; in Super Smash Bros. Melee
	;
Universe	Star Fox
Other playable appearances	in SSB; in Brawl; in SSB4;
Availability	Starter
Tier	SS (1)

This article is about Fox's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the character in other contexts, see Fox McCloud.

“	A wily fox that does the safety dance.	”
—Description from Melee's manual.

Announced at E3 2001, Fox (フォックス, Fox) is a playable starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He is emblematic of speed and he can dominate foes with his rapid attacks, quick movement and overpowering offense in all areas of his game. He is placed 1st on the Melee tier list due to these advantages.

It is agreeable that Fox is the mascot of Melee in every way. MISHUN COMPREE

Changes from Smash 64 to Melee

Fox received a mix of buffs and nerfs upon making the transition between games but was buffed overall, with an increase in K.O power, recovery, and movement options.

Aesthetics

Fox received a new taunt.
Fox also received new voice samples that sound more energetic.

Attributes

Fox has an increase in his initial dash frames makes his dash dance significantly better.
Fox has increased falling speed, his increased falling speed aids his approach due to his very strong SHFFL, and makes him harder to KO vertically, but makes him more susceptible to combos.
Fox's air speed is much slower, going from among the fastest in Smash 64 to among the slowest in Melee.
Fox is catastrophically lighter (100 → 75 (NTSC)/73 (PAL)), making him much easier to KO horizontally.

Ground Attacks

Dash attack has more combo ability.
Fox has a new up tilt where he kicks behind and above himself. It has stronger knockback and has better combo potential.
Down tilt has less combo ability.
New forward smash: a spinning kick that moves him forward. It is slightly quicker.
New forward smash has much weaker knockback and deals 2% less damage (17% → 15%).
Up smash deals 2% more damage (16% → 18%).
Down smash deals 1% more damage (14% → 15%).
Down smash doesn't semi-spike as effectively due to its reduced knockback.

Aerial Attacks

Neutral aerial has stronger knockback and more overall utility.
Neutral aerial does less damage (14% → 12%).
New forward aerial has more damage potential (12% → 17%).
New forward aerial is much weaker and has much less utility.
Back aerial has a bigger hitbox and does more knockback. It also does 3% more damage (12% → 15%).
Up aerial does 1% more damage (15% → 16%) and has increased knockback.
Up aerial is more difficult to sweetspot, and is much less useful during aerial approaches due to Fox's lower air speed. The first hit's set knockback is also slightly lower, and has less ability to be followed up with other aerials.
Down aerial has less landing lag.

Grabs and Throws

Fox has been given an up and a down throw, providing him with more options after a grab.
New back throw has much weaker knockback to the point where it cannot K.O. reliably.
New forward throw, in which Fox punches the opponent forward.

Special Moves

Blaster fires much faster, and has rapid-fire capabilities, improving his approach.
- Blaster no longer causes hitstun on opponents and deals less damage (6% → 3% per laser), making it less effective for stopping opponents' approaches. Laser followups and setups are also no longer possible due to this.
Fox Illusion gives him an additional recovery option, and also makes his horizontal recovery considerably quicker.
Reflector can now be jump-cancelled, which, along with the introduction of waveshining, allows shine combos. This also means Fox can quickly followup a grounded shine without having to go through the normal short hop animation; it can be sped up using a wavedash or simply a wavedrop.
Fire Fox can damage opponents while charging (leaving Fox less vulnerable), and it travels further and faster. It can also be used near the edge when Fox is facing it to quickly grab the edge, allowing him to stall or setup edgehogs and shine spikes.

PAL differences

Like other characters, Fox has received some changes in the PAL version of Melee, which nerfed him overall, but it does not severely affect his tournament viability, as he is also ranked 1st on the PAL tier list.

Weight no longer 75, so he can tech out of Falco's down throw.
Weight reduced from 75 to 73, making Fox now lighter than Kirby.
Up smash deals 1% less damage and has noticeably less base knockback and knockback scaling.
Down smash deals 2% less damage and sends enemies on a slightly higher angle, making it easier to DI.
Fire Fox's strong hitbox is slightly smaller, deals 2% less damage and travels less distance.

Moveset

Fox's aerial attacks

For a gallery of Fox's hitboxes, see here.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		4%	A quick jab that can combo into several other attacks, including an up smash. Very useful against shields, to jab reset, and into shine cancels. The second jab makes Fox move forward a bit and is followed by a flurry of rapid kicks. It's combo ability into other moves makes it the best jab in the game.
		4%
		1% (loop)
Forward tilt		9%	Sticks his foot out to the side. This is best used for a quick close-ranged spacing move. This move can be aimed up or down.
Up tilt		12% (foot grounded), 9% (leg & foot aerial)	Performs a quick and surprisingly strong vertical back kick. It covers Fox's whole body; thus, it makes Fox and his vertically-aimed foot a hitbox. Its speed, power, and hitbox make it great for close-up spacing. It can easily combo into itself, up air, and up smash. Used as part as a chain-grab against fast-fallers with it being connected to his up throw. Begins to KO at around 120% on mostly the floaty lightweights. Fox's foot deals more damage on grounded opponents.
Down tilt		10%	Performs a sweeping tail lash. Moderately fast. Can combo at mid-percentages into aerials. It can also become a somewhat solid finisher at higher percentages.
Dash attack		7% (clean), 5% (late)	Runs forward and sticks his leg out. Good combo ability, especially into an up smash. Very vulnerable to crouch canceling.
Forward smash		15% (clean), 12% (late)	Performs a flying hook kick. Has moderately low knockback (extremely low base knockback - 10) for a smash, though it is fast, and is actually quite reliable at higher percentages (very high knockback scaling - 105), KOing usually at around 120%.
Up smash	Flip Kick	18%/17% (clean NTSC/PAL), 13% (late)	Performs a backflip kick. This move is very fast, and when used on the ground while facing the foe, it has very high vertical knockback. It is very reliable at mid-high damages. Shine into up smash is very useful for KOs. Widely considered the best u-smash in the game due to its extreme speed, extreme power, decent range, and ability to be easily set up into it. However, it is actually the second most powerful u-smash in the game, behind Pikachu's. Fox's head is intangible during the early part of the animation.
Down smash		15%/13% (feet NTSC/PAL), 12% (legs)	Does a split kick, hitting on both of his sides. It is fast and has moderate knockback, sending opponents on a semi-spike trajectory. Useful for edgeguarding and spacing. Both of Fox's legs are intangible near the start of the move.
Neutral aerial		12% (clean), 9% (late)	Sticks his foot out, a simple sex kick. A very quick aerial, good against shields and great power when it first comes out. Arguably the best nair in the game due to its combo ability and reliable setups into shine.
Forward aerial		7% (hit 1), 5% (hit 2), 6% (hit 3), 4% (hit 4), 3% (hit 5)	Kicks forward five times. Good knockback when all hits connect. Regrettably, this move is very awkward due to the short amount of forward distance, short range of the move, and bad physics of the kicks being chained together. All hits are extremely hard to connect without a good set-up, especially on lighter characters.
Back aerial		15% (clean right leg), 9% (clean left leg, late)	Does a quick no-look kick backwards, with sex kick properties. Great knockback on early hit, and one of Fox's best edgeguarding and KO moves. Also on of the best back airs in the game.
Up aerial		5% (hit 1), 13% (hit 2)	Whips his tail up and kicks immediately after. A very high knockback move, good vertical finisher, can combo out of an up throw on virtually everyone. It and his u-smash give Fox an advantage against light, floaty characters, notably Jigglypuff and Kirby. Can be Smash DI'd out of however. Widely considered to be the best up air in the game due to it's juggling prowess, speed, power, and ability to be comboed into.
Down aerial		2-3% (hits 1-7)	Spins around, drilling downwards with his extended foot. Useful as SHFFL'd approach, with combo potential into moves like uptilt, upsmash, and shine. It is the weakest spike in the game, with weak set knockback.
Grab		—
Pummel		3%	Knees opponent.
Forward throw		4% (hit 1), 3% (throw)	Punches the opponent forward. Despite its generally poor combo ability, it can chain-grab on some heavy characters. It is best used for forcing opponents offstage, setting up an edgeguard.
Back throw		2% (throw), 2% (shots)	Throws backwards and shoots the opponent with his Blaster. Used mainly for setting up edgeguards off-stage, though really not many other uses besides mixing up a Fox player's throw game.
Up throw		2% (throw), 2% (shots)	Throws the opponent into the air and shoots them with his Blaster. It can chain-grab fast fallers at lower percentages and combo into moves such as up tilt, up aerial, and up smash. Often considered the best up throw in the game due to its easy kill setups (notably up throw up air), its chaingrab ability, and it's juggle potential (up air juggles after up throw).
Down throw		1% (shots), 1% (throw)	Throws the opponent into the ground and shoots them with his Blaster. Has meteor smash properties, and if performed at the edge of a stage or platform can send the opponent straight down. However, this also allows it to be meteor cancelled or teched, and so tends to be overshadowed by upthrow, which has true combo followups on the majority of the cast. However, it can be used as a mixup on high percent opponent, or techchased into a KO move.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge	—	—
Techs	—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)		6%	Gets up and kicks on both sides.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)		6%	Punches forwards, then kicks backwards.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)		6% (body), 8% (legs)	Throws himself onto the stage with both feet sticking out.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)		6% (body), 8% (legs)	Slowly gets up and kicks in front.
Neutral special	Blaster	2-3%	Fox fires a laser from his Blaster. The fastest projectile used by any character in the game, but it does not make opponents flinch, unlike in the previous game. It is mainly used from long range as short hop lasers or short hop double lasers to camp and bring up damage for an u-throw into uair combo or a u-smash. If used on the ground, there is ending lag. This attack has transcendent priority.
Side special	Fox Illusion	7%	Fox dashes forward, leaving an afterimage behind him. A fairly quick but linear horizontal recovery move. Can be shortened at different distances by pressing the B button again on specific frames.
Up special	Fire Fox	2% (charge loop), 14%/12% (dash NTSC/PAL)	Fox charges up in flames and blasts off in a direction, which can be controlled with the control stick. Unreliable as an attack due to the charge time. Can damage opponents during the charging. Less predictable than illusion given the ability to angle, but still a fairly linear recovery. Techniques such as mangling and sweetspotting give it potent mixups. Has next to no landing lag making it hard to punish on landing and is overall considered the best Recovery Up B in the game due to its distance and mixup potential. It was nerfed in the PAL version of melee however.
Down special	Reflector	5% (startup), 1.5x damage for reflected projectiles	Informally referred to as the Shine, it reflects any projectiles that hit it right back at the opponent who fired them for 1.5x damage and knockback. This move has low set knockback, but is an extremely useful semi-spike as it can drag opponents offstage while edgeguarding, to prevent them from recovering - it stuns them as well. Due to the set knockback, it has guaranteed followups on much of the cast at any percentage. The move can be jump cancelled to avoid the ending lag, allowing Fox to quickly jump up offstage (after using a spike, for example), and it also gives him access to the waveshine technique. Fox has invincibility on the first frame of the animation. Considered one of the best moves in the entire game and the best Down B in the game along with Falco's.

Taunt

Fox crouches and says "Come on!", beckoning with his left hand. With Japanese as the set language, he says かかってこい！ (Come at me!)
Smash taunt: Fox can do a Star Fox conversation that can only be used on Corneria or Venom by quickly tapping Down on the control pad (for one frame). This taunt can only be used once per match.

Taunt	Smash taunt

Idle pose

Slightly looks towards his right side and twitches his ears.

File:Fox Idle Pose Melee.png

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Gooooooo Fox!	Fox! claps three times
Pitch	Group chant	Male

Victory poses

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

Swirls gun into holster and says, "Mission Complete!"; 作成資料。 which translates to "Data Gathered."
Looks at the top left of the screen and says "Mission Complete!"; 作成資料。 which translates to "Data Gathered."
Looks at both sides and says, "Mission Complete!"; これより感謝の。 which roughly translates to "It was unforgiving."

If the language is set to Japanese and Fox wins against Falco, he may say きにする, ファルコ。, which roughly translates to "Don't worry about it, Falco."

Update history

1.0.3

Landing lag of all aerials increased.
Blaster can only be fired consecutively five times.
Reflector no longer deals damage.

In competitive play

Matchups

**Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups**
																											Avg.

As one of the only two characters in the game to not have any disadvantageous matchups (the other being Falco), Fox has, undisputably, the best matchup spread in Melee. He has only three matchups that are even, while he soft counters six characters, counters seven, and hard counters nine (second most in the game, behind Sheik). Fox has many advantages that help him against any character, such as his quick, versatile combo ability, great aerial attacks, and his very effective shine techniques, including a potential waveshine infinite that, even if performed to a limited degree, can shut down a large portion of the cast. Fox, however, does suffer from flaws; his very high falling speed and very low air speed undermine his otherwise relatively long recovery, making him predictable off the stage and easy to gimp and edgeguard by characters such as Falco, Jigglypuff and Marth. With his said falling speed, characters such as Marth can easily chaingrab him, and his light weight attribute makes him easy for characters such as Samus to KO horizontally.

Notable players

See also: Category:Fox professionals (SSBM)

Active

Inactive

Tier placement and history

Fox has been a top-tiered character, along with Falco and Sheik, since the very first Melee tier list, and has never fallen below third place. However, he was not at the top of the list for the first seven revisions, as Sheik was then considered to be the best character in the game. In the early metagame, although dedicated Fox professionals such as Thunders and Chillin showed early signs of great technical ability, they were considered far too inconsistent; many of the top players of that era, including Ken and Azen, used Fox only as a secondary for specific matchups, and only a few dedicated mains made any impact with him in serious tournament settings.

Eventually, more dedicated Fox mains, such as PC Chris, FASTLIKETREE, KoreanDJ, and Mew2King began to revitalize his metagame, incorporating much higher levels of technical skill that not many had seen before. These players began placing within the top 8 of MLG-sponsored tournaments, and their consistency and dominance against the majority of other top professional players resulted in Sheik's dethroning from first to third place on the eighth revision of the tier list in July of 2006. Later that year, PC Chris and KoreanDJ placed 1st and 2nd, respectively, at the MLG Las Vegas national championships, using Fox primarily in both sets of grand finals. This cemented Fox's position on the tier list, and since then, he has never fallen from the top spot.

Some smashers, however, are currently disputing Fox's standing on the tier list. Although Fox has one of the most developed metagames and the largest notable player base in Melee by far, his players are unable to win as many tournaments as professionals of characters below him, because he is one of the hardest characters to play consistently at the top level; even the best Fox professionals frequently lose in important tournament matches due to technical errors or mistimed reads. Additionally, the Fox matchup is almost universally known, making it extremely difficult for newer players to find tournament success with him. However, due to Mango's victories at EVO 2013, MLG Anaheim 2014, and EVO 2014 with almost only Fox, as well as his amazing raw potential, Fox's spot on the tier list is currently considered secure.

Recent trends in the metagame have seen a major increase in the usage of Fox; he is by far the most common character in doubles matches, and the most common character in singles matches as well. Many players who mained a lower-tiered character, most notably Hax, have abandoned their former character in favor of using only Fox, and other players, such as Armada, switch to Fox when they are having trouble against certain opponents. This overwhelming presence has lead to Fox being placed in his own tier at the top of the most recent tier list (much akin to Pikachu in the previous iterations of the 64 tier list or Meta Knight in Brawl). However, two of the "gods" — PPMD, who uses Falco/Marth, and Hungrybox, who uses Jigglypuff — have not recently used Fox against high-level opponents in tournaments.

PAL viability

Like several other top-tiered characters, Fox was nerfed in the PAL version of Melee. While his nerfs seem insignificant, they actually affect his matchups more than most other nerfed characters. The nerf to his up smash allows several characters to barely survive in that version where they would not have been able to in NTSC, forcing Fox mains to learn later KO percentages for it; at those percentages, however, some up smash setups are no longer guaranteed. Fox's nerfed recovery also weakens his off-stage game, as he can no longer travel as far off-stage to intercept enemies, and hinders his survivability, especially against characters who retain their edgeguarding ability, such as Sheik and Marth. The nerf to his weight exacerbates his decreased survivability, but as a positive note, allows him to escape combos more easily.

Fox's matchups against other top-tiered characters become slightly less advantageous in PAL. For example, many professionals believe that Falco wins against Fox overall, as Fox's nerfs allow Falco to survive much longer and KO Fox earlier, while Falco himself is not significantly hindered by his own PAL nerfs. Fox's matchup against Marth, in particular, is much harder, as he is no longer guaranteed a grab out of a waveshine due to Marth's weight changes. Thus, Fox needs to work much harder for a grab setup, hindering his damage racking ability against equally skilled players. However, Marth retains his fantastic punish game against fastfallers and has a much easier time edgeguarding Fox due to his aforementioned recovery nerfs. Along with harder matchups against Peach and even Captain Falcon, some PAL professionals have vouched that Falco or Marth is the best in that particular version of Melee instead. Regardless, Fox still performs very well in PAL regions of Melee, and maintains first place in his own tier on the most recent PAL tier list.

Fox players who travel to attend large tournaments, such as Leffen, are forced to adjust to these changes in gameplay, which can be an obstacle when fighting in a foreign country or continent. A handful of these players own copies of both the PAL and NTSC versions of the game to allow practice before international tournaments, mainly to practice executing certain Fox-specific setups that are impossible in the PAL version but present in the NTSC version, or to practice accommodating for the lack of these setups with backup strategies.

In 1-P Mode

Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Fox can appear as an ordinary opponent, an ally or opponent in team battles, alongside Falco, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong or Samus, or as a metal opponent. In Fox's appearances, he appears on Corneria or Venom as a regular opponent, and on Battlefield as a metal opponent. In team battles, he appears on Mute City with Captain Falcon, on Kongo Jungle with Donkey Kong, and on Brinstar with Samus.

Adventure Mode

Fox appears on Stage 6 of the Adventure Mode on Corneria. In the first part of the stage, the player battles Fox, who will try and avoid the player. After defeating Fox once, the player will have to face him again, this time on offense donning his red costume and featuring "trigger happy" Arwings, which fire at the stage considerably more often. Additionally, there is a chance that the player will fight Falco instead of Fox, if the former is unlocked.

All-Star Mode

Fox and his allies are fought on Corneria.

Event Matches

Fox is featured in the following event matches:

Event 13: Yoshi's Egg: As Yoshi, the player must protect the Yoshi's Egg item from harm for 55 seconds against a team of Fox, Donkey Kong and Pikachu on Rainbow Cruise.
Event 20: All-Star Match 2: Fox is the last opponent to be fought in this series of staged battles. Their character battles him on the Corneria stage. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him along with Samus, Link, Zelda, and Captain Falcon.
Event 23: Slippy's Invention: The player chooses any character and must defeat Fox and Falco, who are permanently under the effects of a Cloaking Device, in a two-stock match on Venom.
Event 36: Space Travelers: The player uses Ness and must defeat Samus, Kirby, Fox, Captain Falcon, and Falco. The player battles the first three characters on Fourside and battles the last two on Battlefield.
Event 43: Birds of Prey: The player uses Fox and must defeat a team consisting of Falco and Captain Falcon in a two-stock match on Big Blue.

Ending Images

Classic Mode
Adventure Mode
All-Star mode

Trophy descriptions

In addition to the normal trophy about Fox as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing both Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Fox on any difficulty:

Fox

Fox McCloud is the leader of a band of adventurers-for-hire known as Star Fox. Fox and his fellow pilots Peppy, Slippy, and Falco patrol the Lylat system in their mother ship, the Great Fox. From the cockpit of his Arwing, Fox leads the ceaseless pursuit of the evil scientist Andross, who doomed Fox's father.

Star Fox [03/93]

Fox [Smash]

Fox is among the quickest and nimblest of the Smash Bros. characters. His speed is offset by low firepower, however, and he's better at one-on-one fights than melees with multiple foes. His Blaster is unique: it does damage but it doesn't make enemies flinch. His Fox illusion is best used as a surprise attack.

B: Blaster
Smash B: Fox Illusion