Fox (SSBB)

This article is about Fox's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For the character in general, see Fox McCloud.

Fox in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	Star Fox
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Landmaster
Tier	C (15)

“	The famous Arwing pilot boasts first-class speed and agility in combat.	”
—Brawl manual description

Fox (フォックス, Fox) was confirmed for Super Smash Bros. Brawl at Nintendo World 2006. Fox was the first fighter to appear on the DOJO!! that did not appear on the E3 2006 video. When he was revealed in the Nintendo World 2006 trailer, he was shown with his blaster in his hand at all times, leading to much speculation over how his attacks might change in Brawl. However, his gun is shown in its holster in all subsequent screen shots shown at the Super Smash Bros. DOJO!!.

Fox is currently upper-mid tier at 15th (C), a significant nerf from his position at the top of the Melee tier list. Fox maintains his incredible movement, fast attack speed, high damage output, effective setup moves (especially down aerial), and a very fast (8-frame) up smash with enough strength and reach to KO the majority of characters reliably under 100%. Additionally, Fox possesses the fastest projectile in Brawl in his Blaster (which is also transcendent), a long reaching recovery with good mixup, and an effective semi-spike and defensive stalling tactic in his Reflector. Fox is notoriously frail, however, sustaining the fourth most knockback in Brawl, with rather poor vertical endurance (despite strong vertical momentum cancelling abilities), and among the worst horizontal endurance. His endurance problems are exacerbated by his extreme falling speed and acceleration, which leave him heavily vulnerable to combos and juggles, locks, and chain throws, some of which (including Pikachu's, the Ice Climbers', and Sheik's) can bring Fox to KO percentage from zero damage, if not zero deathing him outright. Additionally, Fox's attacks are very poor on shield, with high ending lag, low shield stun, and insufficient reach to hit opposing shields safely. Fox also has poor horizontal aerial movement and mobility, a tendency to over-rely on his up smash to KO, and a projectile without any flinch. Nonetheless, Fox's offensive prowess tends to outweigh his significant flaws, with his matchups being above average overall (despite a few hard counters), along with above average tournament results (which are significantly better in Japan, where he's in top tier (7th place)).

• Fox's selection sound: Come on!

Attributes

Fox is a very light character who moves at very high speeds, clocking in as the third fastest runner and 2nd fastest walker in the game (with Marth being the fastest). Almost all of his attacks come off quickly and combine with each other. Fox's excellent speed is counter-balanced by the small and short reaching hitboxes in most of his attacks. This can complicate approaches, and his Blaster doesn't make up for that because it doesn't make opponents flinch. However, it is able to force approaches, unless the opponent has a lasting reflector, an absorbing move such as PSI Magnet, or their crouch is low enough to avoid it.

His up smash is a powerful vertical killer, and is also his only move that can KO reliably under 100%. It's a good move due to its high knockback scaling, speed, and reach. It can also be combo'd into, most notably from a down aerial. His forward air can add extra height to Fox's jump, due to producing a hovering effect if used shortly after jumping (known as Foxcoptering) - this can extend his recovery and allow him to quickly recover vertically, which isn't possible with his primary vertical recovery move (Fire Fox). His back air has high horizontal knockback. As far as specials go, Fox's blaster can easily build damage from a distance, it refreshes stale moves if it hits, and it's also able to steal KOs. Fox's Reflector not only reflects projectiles, but can semi-spike opponents when used in the air (making it a useful tool for gimping poor and/or slow recoveries), and also slows Fox's aerial movement. The jump cancel has been replaced with a dash cancel, allowing a continuous shine volley across the stage (it works best at 70% and above depending on the character). As far as recovery goes, Fox Illusion can be used to gain a horizontal boost, and can also be canceled before completion to trick opponents, as opposed to Fire Fox, which comes off much slower but can move vertically. However, Fire Fox is easily edgeguarded, due to leaving Fox vulnerable during the charge required to use the move (though it can damage opponents if they get too close). Fox is also able to wall jump, boost grab, and DACUS (though his sliding up smash doesn't gain much less distance than his DACUS).

Fox's most notable attribute, as well as the most notorious, is his short jump in relation to the rest of the Brawl cast (much like Jigglypuff having the slowest falling speed in the game). His falling speed acceleration is the fastest, and his falling speed is the third fastest in the game (which is unusual for a character as light as he is). It has advantages and some hindrances, all of which must be known to make the best use of Fox. Some advantages of such speed are that it makes him difficult to juggle and KO vertically. However, his extreme falling speed acceleration is what makes him very susceptible to certain chaingrabs (particularly Pikachu's buffered d-throw chaingrab that has a 0-death on Fox) and locks (like Sheik's f-tilt lock). His fast falling speed also shortens his recovery.

The end result is that Fox is a glass cannon. The average range make it non- difficult for him to approach characters with strong defensive games and fighters with better protection space him quite easily, forcing him to rely on his Blaster to force approaches if needed, which some characters can avoid rather effortlessly. His combination of very low weight (seventh lightest character), very high knockback sustained (fourth highest), very fast overall falling speed (third fastest normal falling speed and fastest accelerated falling speed), mediocre air speed, and mediocre recovery for his weight create a tendency to KO at low percentages. However, he does everything very quickly, has a very strong offensive game, and once the opponent is knocked back he has flexible follow up options, but his speed makes him tough to control. Although he has many great skills and combos, Fox can pull his weight around. In reality Fox is a skillful fighter. With many ways of a lot of combo attacks, great speed, with a balance defense and offense. If a real Fox player knows and/or can play him the right way, he can reach great heights. If possible, he might not be stopped.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

Fox has suffered a moderate overall nerf in Brawl, though since with his significant nerfs he got some decent buffs to help compensate, as well as generally keeping the traits that made him excel in the previous games, he's still arguably viable. Overall, he's still very fast with great damage racking and effective KOing ability, though he's slightly weaker and much frailer, and can't pressure as effectively.

• Midair jumping height has been increased, and Fox now has the highest midair jumping height outside Yoshi, Ness, and Lucas.
• The kicks in the rapid hitting part of Fox's jab are faster.
• Up tilt has slightly better reach, and reaches farther in front of Fox.
• Fox's forward smash has less ending lag.
• Up smash has slightly improved reach.
• Forward aerial has been drastically improved; all of its kicks link properly now, they come out much faster, and the move can complete and autocancel upon landing when short hopped. Additionally, the move produces a "hover" effect, which can be used with jumping to increase the height of Fox's jumps (especially his midair jump), improving his recovery. Its damage output has also been significantly increased, with it dealing 6% more damage for a total of 23% when all hits connect.
• Back aerial is more powerful and can now semi-spike.
• Down aerial has slightly higher damage output, with it dealing 2% more damage for a total of 21% when all hits connect. It additionally now has knockback scaling (though extremely slight), slightly improving the move's offstage gimping abilities (which Fox can use offstage now without self-destructing with his much slower falling speed).
• Up and back throw deal 1% more damage for 8% total, while down throw deals 4% more damage for 9% total.
• Fox can now shoot three lasers in a short hop.
• Fox can now DACUS.
• Reflector can be dropped faster (effectively reducing ending lag), which leaves him less vulnerable after reflecting a projectile and makes it much easier for Fox to halt his aerial momentum and stall in the air while losing very little height. It also reflects projectiles slightly earlier (on the 2nd frame, improved from the 4th frame in Melee, preventing him from being hit by projectiles during invinciblity on frame 1), and has been given slight knockback scaling, making shine spikes gradually harder to recover from on higher percents.
• Brawl's change to the knockback formula (where it now adjust knockback based on gravity) causes Fox to sustain more knockback despite being heavier (he now sustains the fourth most knockback out of 39 characters). Brawl physics have also made Fox's vertical endurance drastically worse, where without momentum cancelling he has the fifth worst vertical endurance, and with momentum cancelling, Fox has the 11th worst (when in Melee, Fox had the 6th best vertical endurance out of 26 characters).
• He walks slightly slower.
• Down tilt is weaker and deals 1% less damage.
• Up smash is slightly weaker and deals 1% less damage.
• Down smash is slightly weaker and deals 1% less damage.
• Neutral aerial is weaker and deals 3% less damage.
• Back aerial has slower start-up lag, much more ending lag, much less hitbox duration, and less reach with a much smaller hitbox.
• Up aerial has significantly weaker knockback scaling, now requiring opponents to be around 140% or near the upper blast line to KO, instead of reliably KOing under 100% regardless of the opponent's proximity to the upper blast line, though it is still one of his most effective KO moves.
• Down throw now sends opponents up and away from Fox, instead of meteor smashing them into the ground to setup tech chases, significantly reducing the throw's ability to setup followups.
• Blaster shots travel roughly half the distance they previously did.
• Fire Fox is significantly weaker, with the charge dealing 4% less damage (for 8% total), while no longer being capable of KOing under 200%.
• Reflector can no longer be jump cancelled, completely removing Fox's shine combos. Its hitbox also has slower startup, starting on frame 6 as opposed to frame 1.
• Fox is now slightly heavier.
• Some of Fox's attacks received a slight tweak in animation; Fox's feet enlarge during the rapid hitting of his jab and during the kicks of his forward aerial, Fox bends all the way forward during up tilt to touch the ground and brings his foot all the way forward to the ground in front of him, his forward smash is now a butterfly kick, and his back aerial is now a backwards spin kick.
• Fox has a new idle stance, which is believed to belong to the fighting style of Tae-Kwon-Do.

Fox also had a few cosmetic changes, such as the aforementioned attack animation tweaks. He has been graphically updated, his design being now a mix of his appearances in Star Fox Command and Star Fox Assault. He has his Star Fox Assault voice actors for both English (Jim Walker) and Japanese (Kenji Nojima) releases.

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2%	Punches twice, followed by a flurry of kicks.
			2%
			1-2%
Forward tilt	↗		8%	Kicks his leg out. Can be angled.
	→		6%
	↘		7%
Up tilt			10% (foot), 8% (leg)	Fox does a fast scorpion kick that covers his back. Can juggle at low percentages.
Down tilt			9% (close), 8% (mid), 7% (far)	Fox performs a quick tail whip.
Dash attack			7% (clean), 5% (late)	Fox jumps slightly off the ground and performs a running kick.
Forward smash			15% (clean), 12% (late)	Fox performs a powerful spinning jump kick.
Up smash		Flip Kick	17% (clean), 13% (late)	Fox does a flip kick. The attack is weaker when it hits opponents behind Fox. Considered the strongest up smash out of the 3 Star Fox characters.
Down smash			14% (feet), 12% (legs)	Fox does a split kick that hits both sides of him. His legs are intangible for the duration of the attack.
Neutral aerial			9% (clean), 6% (late)	Fox does a sex kick that loses power the longer it's out. The move can jab lock fallen opponents.
Forward aerial			6% (hit 1), 5% (hits 2-3), 4% (hit 4), 3% (hit 5)	Fox performs five kicks in succession. Fox "hovers" whenever he performs all five kicks, useful for gaining distance when recovering.
Back aerial			15% (sweetspot), 9% (sourspot)	Fox performs a slow back kick, sending opponents at a semi-spike trajectory. It's sweesopt is on his right leg with the sourspot being on his left.
Up aerial			5% (hit 1), 11% (hit 2)	Fox flips himself upward for a tail whip and follow-up kick. Considered one of Fox's best air finishers if both hits connect.
Down aerial			3% (7 hits)	A spinning drill kick that hits multiple times in succession. It can meteor smash, but it's hardly noticeable at lower percentages due to its very weak power. It does a good amount of damage, and if the whole move connects right before landing on the stage (possible with a short hop down aerial), it can immediately lead into an up tilt, grab, or down or up smash. Down aerial to up tilt combos are very useful and common in Fox's metagame. Overall, considered one of Fox's most useful moves.
Grab			—
Pummel			2%	Knees opponent.
Forward throw			4% (hit 1), 3% (throw)	Fox bashes the opponent forward.
Back throw			2% (throw), 2% (shots)	Fox throws the foe backwards and then fires three shots with his blaster. Shots can be avoided using DI.
Up throw			2% (throw), 2% (shots)	Fox throws the foe upwards and fires three shots with his blaster. Shots can be avoided using SDI.
Down throw			2% (shots), 1% (throw)	Tosses opponent upward, then fires four very quick Blaster shots. Can be followed up with either a forward aerial at low percentages on certain characters or an up aerial on all characters.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Fox does a kick in front and in back.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Fox punches forwards, and kicks backwards.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Fox spins around, kicking foes with who are close.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6% (legs), 8% (body)	Fox lunges at the opponent with a kick.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Fox slowly gets up and hammers the ground with a kick.
Neutral special		Blaster	3% (close), 2% (far)	Fox fires his blaster. The laser lose power the farther they travel.
Side special		Fox Illusion	4%	Fox dashes forward, leaving an afterimage behind him. Enemies hit by the move will be launched at an upward angle.
Up special		Fire Fox	2% (charge loop), 14% (clean dash), 8% (late dash)	Fox charges up and suddenly fires himself in one of many directions, depending on what direction is held.
Down special		Reflector	5% (activation), 1.5x damage for reflected projectiles	Fox activates a Reflector around him. All projectiles are deflected and do more damage than they normally would. The Reflector damages nearby foes upon activation. Can be used to stall in the air if used repeatedly.
Final Smash		Landmaster	6-22% (movement), 15-16% (turn), 17% (shot), 11% (roll), 15% (fall)	Fox summons his Landmaster. It's overall the most balanced out of all the three, it's only drawback being it's air mobility.

Taunts

• Up: Fox charges fire and says "Here I come!". This taunt can be used for faking Fox's Up Special.
• Side: Fox throws his blaster around himself, watches it flip, and catches it.
• Down: Like in Melee, Fox backs up, bends down a bit, and says "Come on!", although it seems faster.

On-screen appearance

• Ejects from an Arwing.

Cheer

Fox's NTSC and PAL cheer

Fox-Fox! *claps three times*

Victory theme

This victory theme comes from the main theme of Star Fox 64.

Victory poses

• Flips his tail up and looks to the side with a smug (prideful) expression on his face with his arms crossed.
• Goes into shooting position with his blaster at 2 different angles, then points it at the screen saying "Mission Complete".
• Flips his Blaster in the holster and says "This is Fox - Returning to base" and puts his hand on his hip. If Fox wins a battle against Falco, he does this pose, but instead says "Better luck next time, Falco".

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

According to the current SWF matchup chart for Brawl, Fox's matchup spread has the seventeenth highest unweighted rank and has a weighted total of -58, seventeenth highest overall. Fox has mostly positive matchups, despite being hard countered by three characters. He is also soft countered by seven characters and even with eight characters. He soft counters ten characters, counters seven characters, and hard counters only Ganondorf. Fox is notably hard countered by Pikachu and Sheik as they can take advantage of his extremely fast falling speed acceleration attribute. Pikachu can perform a "0-death" chain grab on him by using its down throw to rack up damage in excess of 100%, then using a Thunderspike to KO, while Sheik can rack up 50%+ damage with her forward tilt. The Ice Climbers also hard counter Fox, as he lacks safe options to approach without getting grabbed. However, Fox's amazing speed and effective KOing options allows him to counter many characters that are below him on the tier list.

Notable players

See also: Category:Fox professionals (SSBB)

•  Karamity
•  MegaFox
•  Nakat
•  Sodrek
•  TKD
•  Trevonte
•  Yui
•  Zeton

In event matches

Solo Events

• Event 2: Landmaster Ignition: Fox must survive against Meta Knight and Sheik. He has unlimited access to his final smash, the Landmaster which he can use to defend himself from his opponents. He must defeat an opponent at least once or the event results in a failure.
• Event 10: All-Star Battle Regulars: Fox is one of the opponents that the player must fight in order to complete this event. All opponents are starter characters from the original smash bros.
• Event 23: Molten Norfair: Samus must retreat into the safety capsule when it appears. If she survives by other means (like hanging onto a ledge when the wall of lava consumes the stage) the event results in a failure. Samus has 2 stocks while Captain Falcon and Fox have unlimited lives and will try to stop Samus and everyone has 300% damage.
• Event 38: The Wolf Hunts the Fox: Wolf must defeat Fox and Falco. The player has 2 stocks while the opponents have 1.

Co-op Events

• Co-Op Event 19: Shadow of Andross A team of Fox and Falco must defeat Wolf in a 1 stock battle while an Andross assist trophy is used against them.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Two players select a character and must defeat the entire roster.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

An Arwing is seen engaging the battleship Halberd, but is soon struck and begins to fall toward it. This causes Kirby and Zelda/Peach to be blown overboard in its wake.

It is later shown that the Arwing crash-landed at the edge of a jungle, near a lake. Diddy Kong discovers the Arwing, but Rayquaza rises from the lake and territorially attacks the Arwing with an Energy Ball setting it aflame. As Diddy is snatched up by the provoked Pokémon, Fox is ejected from the cockpit of the burning Arwing and proceeds to effortlessly rescue Diddy from the clutches of the serpentine Pokémon using his Fox Illusion and Reflector.

Fox in the SSE

After the two defeat the giant Pokémon, Fox attempts to leave, but is dragged back by Diddy and follows him deeper into the jungle. Soon, they fight a Shadowbug clone of Bowser and defeat it. Suddenly, the real Bowser fires his Dark Cannon at them, and Fox barely dodges the shot. Although Diddy is eager to fight Bowser, Fox knows that they can't survive against his Dark Cannon, so he grabs Diddy and jumps off a cliff.

After recovering from the fall and quickly making their way through The Swamp, they are ambushed by Bowser again, who succeeds in turning Diddy into a trophy. Bowser then attempts to turn Fox into a trophy, but he manages to dodge the shot, so Bowser sends some Shadowbugs to clone Diddy's trophy, outnumbering Fox. Falco suddenly appears out of nowhere in his Arwing and saves Fox from Bowser by destroying his Dark Cannon, forcing Bowser to escape. The Diddy clone begins to absorb more Shadowbugs, becoming gigantic as a result. Fox uses the opportunity to revive the real Diddy, and the three fight the clone. After Falco unwillingly joined the group, they find a ship carrying Donkey Kong's trophy to a floating island. The Great Fox suddenly appears, and as Falco and Diddy attempt to free DK, Fox plans to take down the Halberd with the Great Fox.

The Great Fox duels with the Halberd, but it ends up getting carried away by it, gets crashed into a mountain, and flies away in smoke. Later on, as Peach and Zelda (disguised as Sheik) are making their escape after Snake frees them, Fox is seen attacking the Halberd again in his Arwing. During the fire-fight, some of the Arwing's blasters hit dangerously close to Peach. Sheik does a very high range teleport on top of the Arwing and breaks open the cockpit. Both Sheik and Fox fall out of the Arwing and on the Halberd deck. They start running towards each other at high speeds and just before they break into a fight, Peach randomly offers them a cup of tea. Although Fox is shocked by this, when Sheik accepts hers, he accepts his as well. Just as they do, a group of Shadowbug Mr. Game & Watches fall from the Halberd's cockpit and form into Duon. The three are joined by Lucario and Snake (who knocked them down there in the first place), as well as Falco who arrives on another Arwing, and defeat the monster. Duon leaves behind the real Mr. Game & Watch trophy as it disappears. Fox prepares to blast the trophy, but Peach approaches it and revives Mr. Game & Watch. With Meta Knight taking back control of the Halberd, he flies his ship into the daylight and eventually landing on The Canyon, coincidentally the same time The Falcon Flyer lands, after previously escaping the doomed Subspace Factory. Fox, Falco, Peach, Zelda, Lucario, Snake, and Mr. Game & Watch are now greeted with Mario, the rest of the Canyon heroes, and the Falcon Flyer heroes, they all unite and become one big team, now plotting against Subspace. Fox joins the rest of the heroes in the assault on the Subspace Gunship and the attack on Tabuu although he would be one of the many heroes to be transformed into trophies by Tabuu. However, like the other heroes, his trophy could be found and be revived by King Dedede, Luigi, and Ness in Subspace. After being rescued, he join the rest of the heroes to go to The Great Maze and defeat Tabuu.

Playable appearances

After Outside the Ancient Ruins is completed, Fox is removed from the player's team, and is not seen until Battleship Halberd Bridge

• The Lake
• The Swamp
• Battleship Halberd Bridge
• Entrance to Subspace
• The Great Maze (if rescued in Subspace (Part I))

Exclusive stickers

The following stickers can either be only used by Fox, or by a select few characters including Fox:

• Andrew: Launch Resistance +7
• Arwing: [Leg] Attack +6
• Falco (Star Fox 64): [Weapon] Attack +11
• Falco (Star Fox Command): [Energy] Attack +14
• Falco (Star Fox Adventures): [Specials: Indirect] Attack +11
• Fox (Star Fox Command): [Tail] Attack +18
• Fox (Star Fox Adventures): [Arm, Leg] Attack +15
• Fox (Star Fox 64): [Energy] Attack +18
• Fox (Star Fox: Assault): [Energy] Attack +33
• Krystal (Star Fox Adventures): [Electric] Attack +28
• Krystal (Star Fox Command): [Energy] Attack +12
• Krystal (Star Fox: Assault): [Tail] Attack +17
• Miniature Dachshund: [Tail] Attack +28
• Panther: [Tail] Attack +18
• Pigma: [Arm] Attack +7
• ROB: [Electric] Resistance +15
• Wolf: [Arm, Leg] Attack +15
• Wolfen (Star Fox 64): [Tail] Attack +16
• Wolfen (Star Fox: Assault): [Tail] Attack +30

Alternate costumes

Fox's alternate costumes in Brawl

Trophies

Fox's main trophy is obtained by clearing Classic Mode with Fox, while the Assault one is obtained randomly.

Description

Main trophy - The leader of the commando unit for hire known as Star Fox. He uses both the team's mother ship, the Great Fox, and his personal Arwing fighter to challenge the evil scientist Andross. He made his name as an ace pilot but has lately shown himself also to be an adventurer with a knack for hand-to-hand combat.

: Star Fox (NTSC), Starwing (PAL)

: Star Fox Command

Assault trophy - The leader of the one and only Star Fox team. Fox McCloud is an expert pilot of both the Arwing and Landmaster. In on-foot battles, Fox starts with a blaster and continues on with four other types of weapons as he fights through the Aparoids. Fox also demonstrates his skills in air combat using the plasma cannons on the Arwing.

: Star Fox: Assault

• 

  Main trophy

• 

  Trophy based on his Star Fox: Assault model

Trivia

• Fox holds the world record for Co-Op Target Smash!! Level 3 with Pit (completed in 4.03 seconds).^{[citation needed]}
• The early trailers of Super Smash Bros. Brawl featured Fox constantly holding his blaster, instead of holstering it as usual.
• If Fox uses a forward aerial during a Mini Light Brawl, the momentum created by the attack actually causes him to float upwards.
• Fox, Diddy Kong, Samus, Pikachu, and Lucas are the only characters in the Subspace Emissary to fight more than 2 bosses (excluding boss re-creations in the Great Maze). Fox can be chosen to fight Rayquaza at The Lake and Duon at the Battleship Halberd Bridge, as well as Tabuu in the final battle at Tabuu's Residence.
• Fox's trophy is the only one for a Star Fox playable character that doesn't give the character's full name.

External links

• Fox's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!!
• Fox Character Guide at SWF
• Fox's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice