Fox (SSBM)

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

Fox in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Star Fox
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Tier	Shine (20XX) (North America) Shine (20XX) (Europe)

“	MISHON COMPREE	”
—Fox's line during his victory animation.

Announced at E3 20XX, 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 20XXth in the Shine tier on the Melee tier list due to these advantages.

True to his position, Fox is an extremely efficient fighter with fast attacks, excellent comboing and damaging ability, long recovery options, and numerous approaching methods boasting some of the best neutral game options among the entire cast. He has KO options and setups at a wide variety of percentages, and his high falling speed makes him resilient to vertical KOs. His aerial game also includes several low-lag yet effective and powerful moves to complement his ground game, especially when SHFFL'd, and is incredibly effective at approaching and edgeguarding. Fox's main tool in his success, however, is his Reflector (also known as the shine), which is one of the most versatile tools in the game. Aside from its intended purpose, the Reflector activates on frame 1 (making it the fastest move in the game), has set knockback, and can be jump canceled; this allows for shine spike gimps, neutral stance resets, getup option mixups, and even combos when wavedashing is incorporated.

Despite being top tier, Fox is not flawless. His high falling speed makes him very easy to combo and chaingrab off of a single conversion from the opponent, and his light weight can result in extremely early horizontal KOs if the player's DI is poor. Although he boasts a very long recovery distance, he only has linear recovery options, which makes it easier for certain characters like Marth to predict his recovery path and edgeguard or gimp him. Fox also has an extremely high technical learning curve, as most of his techniques require extremely nimble fingers and fast reaction time. Also, due to his aforementioned flaws, Fox is considered to be a glass cannon, where he could lose a stock if a single mistake is made, giving him a high cerebral learning curve. So while Fox has incredible fighting process and potential, many consider Fox to be arguably the hardest character to play as and master, requiring a lot of practice.

Regardless, his pros greatly 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 (which remedies his low air speed somewhat), tied with Marth for the fastest walking speed, the third fastest normal falling speed, tied with Captain Falcon for the second fastest fast falling speed, fast dash-dancing, and fast attacks. His low traction and fast jump (only 3 frames before he leaves the ground) gives 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 an effective horizontal finisher 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, though he retains his ability to hit most opponents out of his up throw with guaranteed aerials, depending on DI.

Despite being a top-tiered character and considered among the most powerful in Melee, Fox is not completely infallible. Because he is a light fast faller, he suffers more hitstun but less vertical knockback. As such, nearly every character can juggle or chaingrab him for decent damage or even to KO percents with little chance for Fox to escape (Marth and Peach being notorious for having deadly chaingrab combos on Fox at Final Destination). 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 rather exploitable recovery. On paper, despite being a fast faller with poor air speed and the highest gravity value amongst the fighters, Fox's recovery is among the best in the game, as his two options, Fire Fox and Fox Illusion, both travel extremely long distances. He can also mix up his recovery options by angling Fire Fox in nearly any direction and shortening his Fox Illusion, making the opponent second-guess themselves about where they should be on the stage to intercept Fox's recovery. However, such techniques are also extremely dangerous if incorrectly spaced, as if the opponent obtains the correct read or gets into a position where they can hit him out of his recovery, Fox will most likely not be able to recover again. A multitude of attacks can intercept both moves, such as Mario's Cape or Falco's down aerial, and top-tiered characters generally have the options to cover several of Fox's recovery options at once, or even chase Fox off-stage before he even has the chance to recover. Fox has the option of wall jumping in an attempt to further his recovery attempts; this technique, however, is situational, as there are very few positions where wall jumping would be more beneficial to him than simply recovering conventionally.

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, all thanks to the introduction of wavedashing. Fox also received a new special move, known as Fox Illusion, which can be used as an alternate recovery option, allowing for recovery mix-ups. Another noteworthy buff is his Reflector, as it can now be jump-cancelled. This buff alongside the introduction of wavedashing eventually became the birth of a new technique known as waveshining. When successfully performing a waveshine, Fox can easily follow-up into a range of many different attacks.

Fox has also received notable nerfs, however, with one being his Blaster. Although Blaster's projectile travels faster and can fire rapidly, it deals less damage overall and can no longer deal knockback, making it slightly less effective for camping. This also means that Blaster can no longer be used to gimp opponents. Fox also suffered a decrease in his air speed, limiting his recovery. However, none of these nerfs were enough to stop Fox from being viable in competitive play.

Overall, Fox's strengths clearly outpower his flaws. As a result, he is considered to be one of the few characters that were truly buffed, alongside Samus and Jigglypuff.

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, which makes his dash dance significantly better.
• Fox walks significantly faster (0.45 → 1.6).
• Fox has significantly increased falling speed (60 → 2.8). 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 (36 → 0.83), going from among the fastest in Smash 64 to among the slowest in Melee.
• Fox is significantly 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 tumbling-spinning back kick from a turning leap 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%).
• Neutral aerial has an altered animation; Fox faces more away from his kicking-direction akin to his dash attack, and tucks in his right leg differently. The hitbox via the leg placement is also somewhat more horizontal.
• Fox has a new forward aerial; he spin kicks rapidly at a slanted-upward angle exactly five times to his right.
• New forward aerial has more damage potential (12% → 17%).
• New forward aerial is much weaker and has much less utility. It also fails to link properly at times due to the bad physics on the attack, especially on lighter characters.
• Back aerial has a bigger hitbox aimed slightly higher and does more knockback. It also does 3% more damage (12% → 15%).
• Back aerial has an altered animation: Fox's upper body is more upright even during the ending turn (altering the pertaining hurtbox), with his left leg pointing more diagonally-downward and being a bit bent (which shrinks the pertaining hitbox).
• 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 making it much harder to punish.

Grabs and Throws

• Fox has been given an up and a down throw, providing him with more options after a grab.
• New forward and back throws have much weaker knockback to the point where they cannot K.O. reliably.

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%), 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 while recovering in a turn, with sex kick properties. Great knockback on early hit, and one of Fox's best edgeguarding and KO moves. Also one 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 does not make opponents flinch, unlike in the previous game. It is mainly used from long range as short hop lasers to build up damage. 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 three 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, but can damage opponents during this. Less predictable than illusion given its ability to change angles, but still a linear move. Techniques such as changing the angle and sweetspotting can keep Fox's opponent guessing. 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 mix-up potential. Its distance was nerfed in the PAL version of Melee.
Down special		Reflector	5% (startup), 1.5x damage for reflected projectiles	Informally referred to as the Shine, it reflects any projectiles that hit it back at the opponent who fired them for 1.5x damage and knockback. This move has low base knockback, but is an extremely useful semi-spike as it can push opponents offstage while edgeguarding, to prevent them from recovering. 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 off stage, and it also gives him access to the waveshine technique. Reflector is invincible and active on the first frame of the animation, and thus considered one of the best Down B's 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 documented."
• Looks at the top left of the screen and says "Mission Complete!"; 作成資料。 which translates to "Data documented."
• Looks at both sides and says, "Mission Complete!"; これより感謝の。 which roughly translates to "No thanks from this."

• 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 "No worries, Falco."

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

•  Aisengobay
•  Alex19
•  Armada - One of the five gods and Europe's best player. Peach main with a strong Fox as a co-main.
•  Cactuar
•  Chillin - Arguably the first notable top Fox main. A pioneer of Fox's meta. Best Fox main in MD/VA.
•  Colbol - Best Fox main in Florida
•  DJ Nintendo
•  Druggedfox - Ranked 1st on the Georgia Melee Power Rankings; 13th place at EVO 2016, 17th at Super Smash Con 2016, 9th at UGC Smash Open
•  Fiction - One of the best Fox mains in SoCal. Was in the Top 25 of the 2014 SSBMRank.
•  Forward
•  Fuzzyness - Second best player in the UK.
•  HomeMadeWaffles
•  Ice - Best player in Germany.
•  Javi - Best player in Mexico.
•  Kels
•  KJH - Top 3 in Michigan.
•  Kounotori - Top 3 in Japan.
•  Leffen - Europe's best solo-Fox.
•  Lovage
•  Lucky - Best solo-Fox main in SoCal.
•  Mango - One of the five gods. He is the Undisputed best player in SoCal.
•  Mew2King - One of the five gods. Also mains Marth and Sheik.
•  Mike Haze - One of the best Fox mains in SoCal.
•  Professor Pro - Best player in the UK.
•  Redd
•  Rudolph - Japan's best Fox player (who primarily mains Marth). Ranked 52nd on the 2016 SSBMRank.
•  Ryan Ford - Best Canadian Fox main.
•  SFAT - Best Fox main in NorCal.
•  Silent Wolf - The Northwest's best player. Ranked 11th on the 2015 SSBMRank.
•  Weon-X
•  Westballz - Falco main with a strong Fox secondary.
•  Zgetto - Best Dutch Fox main.

Inactive

•  Hax - Originally a Captain Falcon main until his switch to Fox. Regarded as the most technical Fox player. Currently on hiatus due to hand pain and insomnia.
•  Jman - The first Apex champion for Melee.
•  KDJ
•  Masashi - A Japanese Melee player from the pre-Brawl era known for not wavedashing. Now only plays Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as Cloud.
•  PC Chris - One of the best Melee players in the pre-Brawl era. Also mained Falco
•  Remen - One of the best players in the Netherlands. Has switched to maining Falco.
•  ZeRo - Best Chilean Fox main. Now only plays Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as Diddy Kong.

Tier placement and history

The year is 20XX. Everyone plays Fox at TAS levels of perfection. Because of this, the winner of a match depends solely on port priority. The RPS metagame has evolved to ridiculous levels due to it being the only remaining factor to decide matches.

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

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

Fox [Smash]

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

• 

  [Smash]

• 

  [Smash]

Alternate costumes

Fox's alternate costumes 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.
• Fox is the only character in Melee with two soft-damage yells.
• Fox is one of 2 characters to ever be placed in their own tier over the rest of the cast, the other being Meta Knight in Brawl.