Dive into the basics of the consensus best character in Super Smash Bros. Melee - Fox. From his moves to his matchups, learn about the character that has left a sizable impact on the competitive meta of Melee.
Fox is widely considered the best character in the game by members of the community. Played by some of the greatest players, past and present, including Mang0, Armada, Leffen, iBDW, and many more, Fox has been the poster child for competitive Melee for a long time.
Fox is one of the fastest characters, can be played in many different styles, and has one of the most diverse movesets in the game. Many believe he does not lose a single match-up in the game and is only even with a couple of characters like Falco and Marth.
The staple of his moveset is his down-special, better known as Shine. This move comes out frame one and can be canceled by jumping. These aspects make Shine a Swiss Army knife of a move. It’s used in various spots of combos from the beginning to the end, to get out of unfavorable situations, to kill characters offstage at low percent, to put pressure on shields, and in other more niche situations. This versatility makes this move one of the strongest you will see in Melee.
Shine has some specific tech that comes with it. One of these is wave-shining. By Shining and then immediately doing a wavedash out of it, you can do many different things. On some characters with low traction, you can combo Shines into each other, theoretically infinitely. One all characters a wave-shine will most likely lead to various follow-ups to either combo or take the stock of your opponent. There is also shine-stalling, which is when you hold the Shine offstage in order to change up the positioning and timing of your recovery. Since you can jump out of Shine at any time, it is a great way to mix up your opponent when they are trying to edgeguard you.
His neutral special is his laser. While its bullets do not do any knockback or inflict hit-stun, it can be used to rack up damage on his opponent. In match-ups against slower characters, Fox can use his laser to build percent without having to commit to interactions until he can hit harder combos or take the stock.
Fox has both side-special and up-special that help him recover while offstage. Side-special, called Illusion, sees Fox travel directly either left or right very quickly, leaving afterimages behind him. This can be shortened to two different lengths by pressing B at various frame windows. This move can snap directly to the ledge, which helps when your opponent is putting on pressure. Up-special, called Firefox, has a start-up where Fox is surrounded by fire while suspended in the air. Then Fox will travel in whatever direction the player is holding while having a large cone of flames around him. This is used when Fox is at an angle from the stage and can either snap to the ledge or go onto the stage. In certain spots it is virtually impossible to cover every angle, so it is a powerful tool that leads to recoveries from far and awkward spots.
Fox has strong aerials that all serve different purposes. His down-air is great to apply pressure and start a combo on a grounded opponent. His forward-air is often used to extend combos where other moves would launch opponents too far. Neutral-air is used to punish opponents’ mistakes, start or extend combos, apply shield pressure, and (at high enough percentages) it can be used as a finisher. Back-air is great for finishing opponents, extending combos, and keeping space by walling out the opponent. Foxes use up-air to juggle opponents in the air, take stocks off the top, and in some cases link directly to some of Fox’s grounded moves.
Fox’s tilts and jab are also strong. Forward-tilt is perhaps the least useful tilt but can be used to snuff characters trying to recover offstage and to knock characters off the stage. Up-tilt can be used to catch falling and approaching opponents, start and extend combos at certain percentages, and in some cases even take the stocks of high percent characters. Down-tilt is used to pop up opponents either during or at the start of a combo to lead to other moves or kill at high percent. Jab is a fast move that can be used to check your opponent’s movement and approaches, confirm into launching moves at high percent, or reset characters after getting a knockdown.
Finally, are Fox’s smash attacks. Side-smash is a launcher with a decently long-lasting hitbox that is used mostly to punish recovery attempts at ledge as well as ending some combos. Down-smash has a downward trajectory on its launch, so it is also used mostly in edge-guarding against certain characters. Up-smash is by far Fox’s best smash attack. This move kills most characters below 100% on most stages. The pressure this move has in neutral due to its strength and quick start-up is substantial. Either at the end of a combo to take a stock or as a call out in neutral to either start a combo or kill the opponent, up-smash is among Fox’s best moves.
One of Fox’s strongest areas is his grab game. Up-throw is used to start a lot of punishes, whether it be linking into up-smash, up-air, up-tilt, or putting them on a platform. Back-throw is mostly used to send opponents off-stage for an edge-guard but can be used as a mix-up in some situations to get an up-smash or punish. Forward-throw is almost exclusively used to send characters off-stage. Down-throw is mostly a mix-up to get an unexpected smash attack or tilt after knocking down the opponent.
Most people believe that Fox does not lose in a single match-up. There are two where many consider it to be even, Falco and Marth, but most characters lose the Fox matchup. The lower tiers of the roster outside of the top 10 or 11 are pretty much invalidated by Fox as long as the player is playing to the match-up. The top seven characters, including Fox, are the most seen in competitive play and have some general game plans.
When both players play Fox, better known as a Fox ditto, the game plan is pretty much the same on both sides of the match with variations depending on the players. There is a lot of dash-dancing to jockey for stage position by both Foxes, waiting for the other to make a mistake or commitment. The main thing that both are looking for is a grab in order to start their punish with an up-throw. Fox combos Fox hard, so at high levels it only takes a couple of neutral exchanges to see stocks come off the board.
The Fox vs Falco matchup is one of the faster paced matchups in the game. Both characters punish the other very hard, so it is all about getting that first opening and trying to push it towards taking the whole stock. Their movesets are very similar, with every move being the same just with different hitboxes and interactions. Fox looks for the grab to start a lot of his combos, while Falco is looking for a shine to pop up Fox and to shut down Fox’s approaches with his lasers.
Marth is the other matchup that is considered to be even for Fox. This is because of the hard punish game that Marth has on Fox, as well as the stage advantages that Marth is believed to have. The two stages without a top platform, Final Destination and Pokémon Stadium, are favorable for Marth. On Final Destination, Marth can chain grabs together on Fox to very high percentages, often leading directly to a taken stock if done properly. Fox is looking to stay on top of Marth in the matchup, applying pressure and going for up-air chains and edge-guards. Fox is faster than Marth, so using that to your advantage with precise and effective dash-dancing is crucial to winning situations. Marth is looking to catch Fox in that movement and punish on overextensions, so precision is key in order to win neutral. Mixing up crouch-canceling aerials by Marth into grabs and Shines is also a great tool in the matchup.
The Sheik matchup is widely thought to be Fox-favored, but there are a lot of routes to victory for Sheik that should be avoided. When Fox is at low percent, Sheik can only really look for grabs, needles, and stray aerials, which can be exploited by the Fox. Crouch-canceling is key against Sheik when Fox is at low percent. Avoiding grabs and punishing bad tilts and aerials are aspects of neutral that can make or break the match. Fox is the aggressor in this matchup, staying on top of Sheik and pressuring her until she breaks. If she gets a grab, she can down-throw over and over if the opponent reacts to your tech options when you hit the ground, so not getting grabbed shuts off a lot of her punish game. Without grabs, Sheik has to stick and move for the first 30-40% on Fox, which is where you can be really aggressive.
Captain Falcon has a rough time getting openings on Fox, but once he gets one, he can extend it quite a bit. Fox wants to be on top of Falcon as much as possible. Falcon’s weight makes him perfect combo material for Fox, and a good Fox can take one or two openings and get a whole stock off it. Falcon can do the same thing to Fox but has a lot harder of a time getting it. Once Fox gets the opponent off-stage, he has the tools to easily dispatch of Captain Falcon’s recovery. This includes shining and back-airing Falcon as he drifts towards the stage or ledge. The name of the game in this matchup for Fox is to a combo starter like a grab, up-smash, or up-tilt when Falcon tries to get something started, and putting on as much percent as possible, hopefully taking the stock. Down-air into a wave-shine is another good way to start combos out of your dash-dance, which you should be doing very close to Falcon to apply pressure and take space on the ground.
One of the more infamous matchups in Melee history is Fox and Jigglypuff. This is a matchup where Fox uses lasers a lot to build up percent from a safe distance as Puff is too slow to close large distances quickly without making a commitment. Once Fox gets Puff to 40% to 70%, he then starts looking for a grab to attempt an up-throw into an up-air, which if the opponent does not DI or smash DI properly to escape the strong hit can take the stock extremely quickly due to her low weight. Up-smash is another move that takes Puff’s stock very early. Keeping her away until you can go in for the kill is normally the most effective way to take down most Puff players. Jigglypuff loses the matchup but has a lot of quick ways to take Fox’s stocks off the board. Puff has a move, Rest, that can kill Fox as early as 10%, and sometimes lower with bad DI or on a smaller stage. If the move is missed or kills Fox off the side instead of off the top, Fox can get a punish as there is a state of inaction after the move is done for a few seconds. Avoiding her walls of back-airs and her set-ups for Rests while racking up laser damage and the occasional up-tilt or back-air until you can take the stock is how to find success against Jigglypuff.
Fox can be very deadly against Peach if the player knows the matchup well. Peach will be looking for crouch-cancels a lot for her down-smash attack, which can rack up over 50% if the Fox is not doing the proper DI. This makes moves like neutral-air and back-air very risky when approaching Peach. This means that Fox should catch approaches with a down-air while applying pressure and forcing her to come in. If Fox can shine Peach, the punish is opened up as she has low traction and can be wave-shined consecutively. Up-throw is another great tool against Peach, as it leads to either a string of up-airs or a back-air to set up an edge-guard. She has a recovery that can be dealt with by a well-placed shine, so getting her off stage either level or lower than the stage are great positions for Fox. Keeping Peach near ledge or off stage is very advantageous. She, like most characters, has a decent punish game on Fox, but her lack of speed makes it hard to open up a Fox that is moving well and has a good dash-dance.
If you want to get good at Fox, there are a few things you can do to improve at a decent rate.
Getting in the training room is always a good way to see positive growth. Some things to work on for fox would be getting a consistent and flexible dash dance, getting consistent with your wave-dashes and wave-shines, practicing short hopping and fast falling your aerials into a L-cancel, and invincible ledge-dashes. Try to focus on one at a time to really grind each technique into your hands and your head. Spending 20 minutes on each technique a day will help you improve without overdoing it.
Find videos that help break down more niche topics on Fox, as well as matches from top players to see what you should be shooting for. There are a lot of great videos by top players that break down the character and introduce more focused topics on Fox out there. Finding those and taking notes are great tools once you get your basics down is how to take your skills to the next level.
Looking at what top Foxes do against other top players is another way to learn what you should do. Seeing what they do in isolated situations and then breaking down what their thought process could be and what resulted from their decisions will help get your mind thinking about what you can implement into your practice routines. What did this Fox do when they had a Marth in the corner? What about when they had Sheik off-stage? These are questions you should ask when viewing top Foxes.
Finally, play people. Once you work out your movement and have ideas of what to do when playing against every character, put it to the test. Find a local tournament and attend. Play friendlies before bracket to get some practice and an opportunity to test yourself without the stakes of tournament. Once bracket starts, you can see where you stack up locally and if your play translates well. Once you see how you perform, you can go back to the lab and work on things you need to improve on.
Continue this process for every tournament you attend, and you should see yourself performing better every time you walk into the venue. If you choose to become a Fox main, good luck on becoming the best Fox you can be.
