Fox (SSBB)/Down special

Hitbox visualization showing the beginning Fox's Reflector.

Hitbox visualization showing Fox's Reflector.

Overview

Fox's Reflector, known informally as a shine, can reflect projectiles that are fired on Fox back at the opponent. Fox can also use the reflector as a direct attack, knocking opponents on a semi-spike trajectory with low knockback.

The move was regarded as the best move in all of Melee due to it being an incredibly versatile attack for many reasons being usable in almost any situation. As a result, the move was significantly nerfed. The move can no longer be jump canceled which removes much of its followup potential. The move suffers from the general changes to Brawl's mechanics but unlike most moves which suffer either from the introduction of hitstun canceling, the universally decreased falling speeds or both, Reflector's main downfall was the removal of wavedashing. The main thing which made the shine as amazing as it was in Melee was Fox's ability to wavedash which allowed him to quickly get back on the ground and perform another Shine which gave the move amazing shield pressure potential and even the potential to infinite a majority of the cast. Naturally, the removal of wavedashing alone harms the move's utility. Even if the move were hypothetically jump cancelable in Brawl, it would still be a significantly less oppressive move as Fox would not be able to get back on the ground anywhere near as quickly to perform another Shine. The move also saw some other more direct nerfs. It has increased startup lag (now coming out on frame 3 rather than frame 1), it deals slightly less damage on aerial opponents and it launches opponents at a slightly higher angle which hinders the move in multiple ways. It makes the move less effective as an edgeguarding tool, it makes SDIing the move easier especially with its higher hitlag and it prevents the move from locking opponents which it otherwise would have gained the ability to do.

Despite these nerfs, Reflector has actually seen some buffs which still make it a useful move. The move's hitbox has a slightly longer duration and its intangibility has increased making it more effective at breaking out of combos despite its increased startup lag. If Fox does not hold the move, it also has considerably lower ending lag. On the ground, this allows the move to have at least some followup potential particularly at the wall where the move still has 0-death potential (although this can be avoided with SDI) and in the air, this gives the move extremely strong stalling capabilities. The move no longer has set knockback instead have high base knockback but low knockback scaling. This prevents the move from knocking down lighter characters at lower percents removing one of the few limitations it had in Melee (although this also means that it now knocks down heavier characters at higher percents) and it make shine spikes more effective at higher percents. Fox can also now roll or spot dodge if he reflects a projectile.

Overall while being a farcry from its Melee counterpart, Reflector is still a useful move in its own right.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Damage	SD	Angle	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			SDIx	H×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Type	Effect	G	A	Sound	Direct
0	0	5%	0		60	30	0	6.0	0	0.0	6.5	0.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Burn
1	0	4%	0		60	30	0	6.0	0	0.0	6.5	0.0	1.0x	1.0x	0%							Burn

Timing

Minimum duration

Intangible	1-3
Hitbox	3
Animation length	21

In general

Intangible	1-3
Hitbox	3
Reflects	4-[release+1]
Turnaround possible	4-[release+1]
Animation length	[release+18]

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Vulnerable

Loop point

Reflect

Intangible

Properties

Reflection radius	8.5
Reflection y position	6.5
Reflection damage	1.5x
Reflection speed	1.0x
Reflection duration	0.5x
Max reflectable damage	50
Reflection lag	20

Trivia

• According to Fox's moveset files, Reflector was intended to have a cooldown of 18 frames before it can be canceled, but it gets entirely skipped for unknown reasons. This is shared with Wolf's Reflector.

Fox's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2 · inf) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Forward roll · Back roll · Spot dodge · Air dodge · Techs
Floor attack (front) · Floor getups (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor getups (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Floor getups (trip)
Edge attack (fast) · Edge getups (fast) · Edge attack (slow) · Edge getups (slow)
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash