Fox (SSB)

Fox in Super Smash Bros.
Fox McCloud
Universe	Star Fox
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl
Availability	Starter
Tier	A (3)

Fox McCloud (Japanese: フォックス・マクラウド, Fokkusu Makuraudo) is the main character from the Star Fox series and a starting character in all three Super Smash Bros. games.

He appears in SSB as a weak character. He ranks 3rd due to his speed, which is unmatched in almost every aspect. His attacks tend to have less knockback than other characters'; however, this gives him excellent comboing abilities. His blaster is also one of the greatest projectiles due to its hitstun and reasonable damage.

Attributes

File:Foxending.jpg

Fox McCloud's ending picture in Super Smash Bros.

Fox is a character who is all about speed. He has the 2nd fastest dash speed (second only to Captain Falcon), fairly fast air speed, the third fastest falling speed, a fast roll, and very fast attacks. Fox also has a good short hop, the Reflector (which can be used to edge-guard), and a versatile jab. Fox can have trouble KOing because his attacks have low knockback (excluding his up aerial and up smash, which are powerful), but this also means Fox has amazing combo potential (he can zero-to-death combo). Fox is vulnerable to combos that work on fast-falling characters, but he has resistance to combos that are ineffective on light characters due to his light weight. Fox has a good projectile, blaster, which is fast and covers good distance. He also has a reliable way to deal with opponents' projectiles - his reflector. On the downside, Fox has problems with his recovery like many characters in Super Smash Bros. His fast falling speed and predictable third jump makes his recovery easy to edge-guard. Fox is overall considered the second best character in Super Smash Bros., since Fox, like Pikachu, heavily counters four characters. Fox overall has the best setup of matchups on Hyrule, but does weaker on Dreamland as there is less room to camp and space vs gimp-based characters like Donkey Kong, Pikachu, and Captain Falcon. What separates Fox from Pikachu is Pikachu's recovery and edge-guarding ability.

In Doubles

Fox is considered to be slightly worse in doubles than singles as it is more difficult to laser camp. Fox's recovery is an issue and the fact that he has problem gimping does not help as much either. Fox is one of the better characters at starting combos and is considered a good combo with Ness's as Fox can laser Ness's down special move to help him recover health. Fox is an overwhelm based character in teams, helping his partner combo and then up smashing or up airing to KO. Fox is also a great team partner for Pikachu and Falcon due to his aerials and up smash being able to mix very well with Pikachu's recovery and Falcon's up air.

Moveset

Ground attacks

Normal

• Neutral attack: Two paw jabs, and then a series of kicks. Very fast, easily combos into his other moves. 4% per jabs, 1% per kick. If the A button is pushed rapidly, Fox will continue to stream the kicks.
• Dash attack: Leaps and kicks. Easily leads into up tilt, followed by whatever combo. Dash attack does 10% damage.
• Forward tilt: Roundhouse Kick. A fast but somewhat short-ranged move, this move does 9% damage, and is good for spacing or leading into a wall combo.
• Down tilt: Tail Trip, 12%. Leads into a side smash or neutral attack at low damage percentages. If followed with a smash attack, shine edgeguards are possible.
• Up tilt: Vertical Kick, 9%. Fox 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.

Smash Attacks

• Side smash: Feet-First Dive. He puts his feet together and jumps forward, feet first. Decent KO power. 17%
• Down smash: Splits. He does a fast split, which hits on both sides on the same time, and is a great horizontal killer, or set-up for edge-related kills. 14%
• Up smash: Flip. He does a fast quick flip, with much vertical KO power. 16%

Other Attacks

• Ledge attack- Gets up and thrusts his feet forward, like his side smash. 4% damage.
• 100% ledge attack- Slowly rises and flip kicks. 4% damage.
• Floor attack- Kicks on both sides and returns to his stance. 6% damage.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral aerial: Sex kick. Great for KO-ing and edgeguards, comes out quickly and has good range. 14%.
  

  Fox's aerial attacks
• Forward aerial: Spin Kick. This animation is identical to his side Smash. Fantastic aerial killer. 12% damage.
• Back aerial: Splits Kick, 12% for either front or back. Great for edgeguarding.
• Down aerial: Drill Kick, 2% per hit, up to 7 hits. Not a good meteor smash, but if used on a grounded foe, easily chains into up tilt.
• Up aerial: Flip Kick, 2% 1st hit, 13% second hit. Great vertical killer and juggler.

Throws

• Forward throw- Throws foe forward with good KO power. 12%.
• Back throw- Rolls backward and kicks the opponent off him. 15%.

Special Moves

Fox in the SSB instruction booklet.

Fox's special moves

Neutral special	Blaster Shot	Blaster
Up special	Fire Fox
Down special	Reflector

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 SSBM and SSBB Vs. battles.)

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. (N64) Character Matchups

Avg.

Combos, Tactics, and Tricks

Down tilt/Up tilt/Jab

The down tilt, up tilt, and jab are great ways to start combos. It is very effective (and common) to either perform a Z-canceled drill kick (down aerial) into a down tilt/up tilt/jab or perform a down tilt/up tilt/jab into a drill kick and repeat the combo. If using the down tilt, the SHZed ADA (Short Hopped Z-canceled Aerial Down A) will still be able to combo the opponent until the opponent's percentage is ~40%; adept Fox players can still chain the down tilt into a full hopped ADA from there until the percentage is ~100%. Also, a up tilt is typically used to chain itself again and again until ~70% in which the opponent can escape (light characters can escape earlier). A jab is typically used at ~90% to send the opponent in the air a short distance and then finish them off with a down smash (at ~90%), up smash (at ~100%), and forward smash (at ~120%).

Off-the-Wall Chaingrabs

Conventional chaingrabbing doesn't exist in SSB due to high knockback of the grabs; however, certain characters can use the wall to repeatedly grab the opponent. Fox can do this very easily to several characters on Hyrule Castle. This tactic involves grabbing when one is slightly left of the structure on the far right side of the stage, bouncing the character off the side of the elevated area, using a short hop Z-canceled down aerial, grabbing, etc.

Short Hop Double Laser

If one's reflexes allow it, one can use Fox's laser twice in a short hop. This is useful for one's approach and counter-approach. Also, unlike in Melee, Fox's lasers stun and do 6% damage, falling down to 5% after repeated use (compared to Melee's 3% down to 1% after repeated use).

Shine Canceling

In SSB, unlike in SSBM, Fox's Shine cannot be jump canceled. Instead, one can cancel the Shine by landing during it (sometimes referred to as land-canceling). This is done by jumping and then using the Shine, but enough altitude must be gained so that the Shine's attack frames come out before landing.

Teleport

See Teleport (SSB)

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 in the PAL version)

From the Instruction Booklet

Following in his father's footsteps, Fox McCloud is the young leader of the Star Fox Team. With his trusty blaster, he plunges head-first into battle.

Costumes

File:Alt-fox.jpg

Fox's changeable clothing in SSB

Trivia

• Fox is the only character to have two different Sex kicks, being his back and neutral aerials.
• A slightly different sound effect is heard when Fox obtains an item unlike other characters. He also makes a noise when he shield rolls, also unlike other characters. These two unique aesthetic attributes are shown only in Super Smash Bros.