Fox (SSBM)

This article is about Fox's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the character in other contexts, see Fox McCloud. Also, for information about Fox's clone, see Falco (SSBM).

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

“	A wily fox that uses speed to keep enemies off balance.	”
—Description from Melee's manual.

Announced at E3 2001, Fox (フォックス, Fokkusu) 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.

Fox, true to being on the top of the tier list, is an extremely efficient fighter, with fast attacks, unparalleled comboing and damaging ability, and numerous options to approach the opponent. His aerial game is almost unsurpassed when SHFFL'd, and his shine combos are extremely effective. He can KO effectively on all four sides of the screen, and his high falling speed makes him resilient to vertical KOs. Despite being top tier, Fox is not flawless. He has an extremely high learning curve, requiring fast reflexes to properly use his shine and SHFFL combos. Additionally, his high falling speed makes him very easy to chain grab, he suffers from a poor recovery due to his low air speed and high falling speed, and his light weight makes him vulnerable to KOs. Regardless, his pros outshine his cons, and Fox is notable for being one of only four characters in the series (the other three being Pikachu in Smash 64, Falco in Melee, and Meta Knight in Brawl) to have no disadvantageous matchups, with only three (Falco, Marth and Samus) being considered even.

Attributes

Fox falls into a unique archetype: He is exceptionally quick, yet he is equipped with a plethora of viable finishers. He has the second fastest dashing speed, tied with Marth for the fastest walking speed, the fastest normal falling speed, the third fastest fast falling speed, fast dash-dancing, and fast attacks. His low traction is balanced with his fast falling speed and low air speed, all of which give him a fast, moderately long wavedash.

Fox's primary reason for his top-tier placing is his unparalleled comboing and damaging ability, helped by a powerful approach game. His fast fall and low, fast short hop contribute to an extremely quick SHFFL, which can let him almost effortlessly start combos or act as a deadly approach option. Additionally, Fox's specials act as powerful ways to aid this; his Reflector makes for a potential combo starter, as well as a potential infinite combo with his waveshine infinite, and his blaster is an almost unstoppable damage-racking method, due to its long range, inability to cause hitstun, high speed and its ability to be combined with Fox's short hop as part of the short hop laser technique. Additionally, a majority of Fox's attacks inflict significant damage while being very fast as well; his neutral aerial, back aerial, and tilts are especially notable in this regard, with the remainder of his aerials having little ending lag.

Additionally, Fox's KO ability is also among the best in the game, with numerous powerful vertical finishers in his arsenal, most notably his up smash and up aerial, both of which are among the most powerful in the game with huge hitboxes. Fox's Reflector also makes for a valuable tool for KOing, due to its set, semi-spike knockback properties that makes it extremely useful for edgeguarding or gimping. Its instantaneous startup time and its ability to be jump-cancelled also means that it is of very low risk to use off the edge. While not the strongest, Fox's forward smash is also powerful at higher damage percentages, capable of KOing even heavyweights like Bowser under 150%.

While not the best, Fox's grab game is decent. His throws' low knockback allow him to set up potentially lethal combos. His up throw can lead into a sweet spotted up aerial, one of Fox's primary KO methods, and can even chain throw fast fallers. His forward and back throws force opponents a fair distance off the stage, aptly setting up opportunities for Fox to use his smashes, aerials, or shine spikes to edgeguard. In rare situations, Fox can use his down throw to meteor smash his opponents off the edge of a stage. Despite this, Fox's grab range is average, though his high dashing speed gives him a potential method to "extend" its range. Fox also cannot reliably chain grab at higher percentages, as most of Fox's throws send opponents a considerable distance away from him, allowing players with good SDI to escape combos.

Despite being a top-tiered character and considered among the most powerful in Melee, Fox is not completely infalliable. Fox's properties of being a fast faller with low air speed causes him to be among the most easily chaingrabbed characters in the game, particularly by characters such as Marth and Peach. Additionally, Fox can be very easy to combo if the opponent moves fast enough, which is exacerbated by his poor air speed. As a result, Fox can be considered somewhat of a glass cannon, as while his attack prowess is high, a single blunder by the player can cause the loss of a stock.

In addition to an ease of being comboed, Fox also suffers from a poor recovery; his high falling speed makes him fall far before he can recover, and his low air speed prevents him from moving closer to the edge. Fox's third jump of Fire Fox is relatively long, but it is also linear in nature and predictable; a multitude of attacks can easily intercept it, such as Mario's Cape. While Fox also has the ability to recover with Fox Illusion, it too is linear and predictable in nature. He can, however, mix up his recoveries by angling Fire Fox in different directions and shortening his Fox Illusion, making the opponent second-guess themselves about where they should be on the stage to intercept Fox's recovery. Fox has the option of wall jumping in an attempt to further his recovery attempts; this technique, however, is situational, as few tournament legal stages can allow him to use it.

Changes from Smash 64 to Melee

Fox received a mix of buffs and nerfs upon making the transition between games. He remains top-tiered in both games, and it can be argued that he was not significantly buffed or nerfed overall.

• Most attacks are generally faster and stronger.
• Increased falling speed aids his approach due to his very strong SHFFL.
• New up tilt has stronger knockback and is better at comboing.
• Dash attack has more combo ability.
• New forward smash is slightly quicker.
• Neutral aerial has stronger knockback and more overall utility.
• Back aerial has stronger knockback and is better at edgeguarding.
• Down aerial has less landing lag.
• Blaster fires much faster, and has rapid-fire capabilities, improving his approach.
• 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.
• Air speed is much slower, going from among the fastest in Smash 64 to among the slowest in Melee.
• Much lighter, making him generally easier to KO.
• Down tilt has less combo ability.
• New forward smash has much weaker knockback.
• Down smash doesn't semi-spike as effectively due to its reduced knockback.
• New forward aerial is much weaker and has much less utility.
• 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.
• New back throw has weaker knockback.
• Blaster no longer causes hitstun on opponents, making it less effective for stopping opponents' approaches. Laser followups and setups are also no longer possible due to this.
• New forward throw.

In terms of cosmetic changes, Fox received a new taunt, and he also received new voice samples that sound more energetic.

PAL differences

Like other characters, Fox has received some changes in the PAL version of Melee.

• Weight no longer 75, so can tech out of Falco's down throw.
• Weight reduced from 75 to 73, making Fox lighter than Kirby. (Who himself got his weight boosted to 74)
• Up smash deals 1% less damage.
• Down smash deals 2% less damage.
• Fire Fox's strong hitbox 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		Jab, Straight, Rapid Kick	2-4%	A quick jab, followed by a versatile jab that can combo into several other attacks, including 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.
			4%
			1% per kick
Forward tilt		Fox Kick	4-9% depending on angling	Sticks foot out to the side. This is best used for a quick close-ranged spacing move.
Up tilt		Back Kick	9-12%	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.
Down tilt		Fox Tail	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		Jumping Side Kick	5-7%	Runs forward and sticks a foot out. Good combo ability, especially into up smash. Very vulnerable to crouch canceling.
Forward smash		Roundhouse Kick	12-15% uncharged, 16-20% fully charged	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% uncharged, 24% fully charged, 13-17% behind	Performs a back flip 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. Often considered the best u-smash in the game due to its extreme speed, extreme power, and decent range. However, it is actually the second most powerful u-smash in the game, behind Pikachu's.
Down smash		Fox Split	15% uncharged, 20% fully charged	Does a split, 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.
Neutral aerial		Flying Kick	12% maximum	Sticks foot out, simple sex kick. A very quick aerial. Very good against shields and great power when it first comes out.
Forward aerial		Tornado Kick	17% if all hits connect	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		Reverse Spin Kick	9-15%	Does a quick no-look kick backwards, with sex kick properties. Great knockback when it first comes out, and one of Fox's best edgeguarding moves.
Up aerial		McCloud Flip	17% if both hits connect	Whips his tail up and kicks immediately after. A very high knockback move, good vertical finisher, can combo out of up throw on virtually everyone. It and the u-smash give Fox an advantage against light, floaty characters, notably Jigglypuff and Kirby. Can be Smash DI'd out of however.
Down aerial		Air Drill	19% if all hits connect	Spins around, drilling downwards with his feet. It can combo into up smash and out of up tilt. Useful into shines as well. It is the weakest spike in the game, giving almost no knockback when it is used on an opponent, and the knockback being set. However, when it is used on a wire frame or a handicapped opponent, it sends them strongly diagonally downwards, like a spike. Using this move will not win any of the meteor smash bonuses with it, and it sends the opponent diagonally downwards and not straight down, giving proof that it is a spike.
Grab			—
Pummel		Knee	2-3% per pummel	Knees opponent.
Forward throw		Elbow Bash	7%	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		Skeet Blaster	7%	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		Star Blaster	7%	Throws the opponent into the air and shoots them with his Blaster. It can easily combo into up tilt, up aerial, and up smash. If wavedashes are properly used between throws, it can also chain-grab fast fallers at lower percentages; however, it can be Smash DI'd out of the chain-grab.
Down throw		Floor Blaster	5%	Throws the opponent into the ground and shoots them with his blaster. This throw does not make opponents bounce off the ground like other down throws (except Falco who also uses this throw) because it sends opponents straight downward, meaning that it can meteor smash over the ledge if Fox's body is partially overlapping it. Not useful due to being able to tech out of it, but players can read techs for KOs. Can lead into u-tilt or a shine.
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%	Gets up and kicks on both sides.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8%	Throws himself onto the stage with both feet sticking out.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			8%	Slowly gets up and kicks in front.
Neutral special		Blaster	3% per laser	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.
Side special		Fox Illusion	7%	Fox dashes forward, leaving an afterimage behind him. Fox's quickest and safest horizontal recovery move. If B is quickly pressed again just after starting the move, it will be canceled and Fox will not dash forward. However, if this is done in midair, he keeps his momentum.
Up special		Fire Fox	1-23%	Fox charges up in flames and blasts off in a direction, this can be controlled with the Control Stick. Unreliable as an attack due to the charge time. Can damage opponents during the charging. This move should only be used for vertical recovery, or to safely get onto the stage while going over an attacking opponent.
Down special		Reflector	7%	Informally referred to as the Shine, it reflects any projectiles that hit it right back at the opponent who fired them. 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 can be done at any percentage. This knocks opponent onto the ground on the stage, and can follow up with a move such as a u-tilt, u-smash, or another shine. 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, wavedashing out of the shine.

Taunt

• Fox crouches and says "Come on!", gesturing with an open hand for others to come to him. Switching the language to Japanese will cause him to say "kakatte koi!" as well (which means the same thing).

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. This taunt can only be used once per match.

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. 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.

Notable players

See also: Category:Fox professionals (SSBM)

Active

•  Aisengobay
•  Armada
•  Cactuar
•  Chillin
•  Colbol
•  DancingQueen90
•  Dark
•  DJ Nintendo
•  Eggm
•  Fiction
•  Fuzzyness
•  Hax
•  Ice
•  Javi
•  Jman
•  Kels
•  KoreanDJ
•  Leffen
•  Lovage
•  Lucky
•  Mango
•  Mew2King
•  Pasi
•  Professor Pro
•  Remen
•  SFAT
•  Silent Wolf
•  Weon-X
•  ZeRo
•  Zgetto

Inactive

•  FASTLIKETREE
•  Masashi
•  PC Chris
•  Unknown522

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 recent 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.

In single-player modes

In Classic Mode

Fox can appear in ordinary one-on-one matches, as an opponent or ally in team battles (paired up with either Falco, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong or Samus), or as an opponent in the metal fight. In these cases, Fox either appears on Venom or Corneria; in the team battles, he appears on Big Blue when with Captain Falcon, on Brinstar with Samus, on Kongo Jungle with Donkey Kong, and on Battlefield in the metal battle.

In Adventure Mode

Fox appears in Stage 6 of the Adventure Mode, on Corneria; in the stage, the player has to fight against Fox once, then a second time. In the second time, however, the stage features "trigger happy" Arwings, which fire at the stage considerably more often. Additionally, Fox returns with a different Palette swap.

In All-Star Mode

In All-Star Mode, Fox and his allies are fought on the stage Corneria.

In Event Matches

Fox appears 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 from a team of Fox, Donkey Kong and Pikachu on the Rainbow Cruise stage.
• Event 20: All-Star Match 2: Fox is the last opponent the player must fight in this series of staged battles. Their character battles him on the Corneria stage, and the player's character has 2 stock while Fox has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him and the other four characters with the overall time and life they have: Samus, Link, Zelda, Captain Falcon.
• Event 23: Slippy's Invention: In this event, the player must fight against Fox and Falco on Venom, in a standard two stock match; however, the two are under the effects of a Cloaking Device during the entire match, though they can still be damaged.
• Event 36: Space Travelers: As Ness, the player must defeat five opponents in a row: Samus, Kirby, Fox, Captain Falcon, and Falco. In the first three opponents, the fights are done on Onett; after this, the player is then sent to Battlefield to fight against the last two.
• Event 43: Birds of Prey: In this event, the player, as Fox, must fight against a team of Falco and Captain Falcon on the stage Big Blue. Everyone has two lives, but there is also a time limit of two minutes.

Ending images

• 

  Classic Mode.

• 

  Adventure Mode.

• 

  All-Star mode.

Japanese Quotes

When Fox wins a battle and Language is set to Japanese he says one of these three quotes

• "作成完了！"(Sakusei kanryō!) which can roughly translate to "Mission Complete!"
• 作成資料。" (Sakusei shiryō.) perfectly translates to "Data Gathered."
• これより感謝の。" (Kore yori konsha no.) roughly translates to "It was unforgiving."

If Fox taunts in Japanese, he says "Come on!" or "かかってこい！" (Kakatte koi!) which roughly translates to "Bring it on!"

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 the Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Fox on any difficulty:

Fox (Classic)

"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."

• Game: Star Fox [03/93]

Fox (Adventure)

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

Fox (All-Star)

Fox falls quickly, so he's a tough target to strike from below; however, this advantage can work against him when he goes flying sideways. You can use the Control Stick to set the direction of the Fire Fox technique while it's charging up. On a side note, Fox is also much lighter than he was in the N64 Super Smash Bros. game.

• Up & B: Fire Fox
• Down & B: Reflector

• 

  Classic

• Fox3.jpg

  Adventure

• Fox2.jpg

  All-Star

Palette swaps

Fox's changeable clothing in Melee

Trivia

• Fox is one of the only characters in Melee that can do a wall infinite, along with Ness, Pikachu, Link, and Pichu.
• Fox is the only character to have completely lost his forward and back throws from Super Smash Bros. to Melee. Kirby and Jigglypuff both gained new forward throws in Melee, but their former forward throws were moved to be their up throws instead.
• For all three victory poses, Fox is the only character in Melee who says the same quote - "Mission Complete."
• Fox is the only character in Melee with two soft-damage yells.
• Contrary to popular belief, Fox's taunt in Smash 64 is not used for one of his victory taunts in Melee. It was simply replaced by a new one.
• Fox is the only character to be 1st on the tier list to not be 1st on the first version of the list.