Introduction
Fox is Melee's dedicated pixie character and with that comes a truly dizzying array of viable choices to make in any given moment. If you want an elite launcher to start a full combo, Fox has multiple. From recoveries that combo to death, the most consistent kill confirms in the game, the best jump in the game, and blisteringly fast speed, Fox has it all. Not to mention his shine. An invincible, instantaneous, jump cancellable move that leads to full combos onstage and kills offstage at 0%. When you are playing well as Fox, you can feel entirely unbeatable and you quite possibly are.
The true benefit of all of this versatility is that Fox is the most expressive and personalizable character in the entire cast. This gives you the ability to sculpt your Fox to suit your style. Want to laser for 6 minutes, camping until you get a strong hit? Do you want to play pure rushdown, mixing your opponents to death? Most would argue that Fox is an ideal choice for either one. What's more, even the choice to play defensively or aggressively in a situation comes with it the true question, how? There are often a dozen viable moves that, when combined with his incredible mobility options, create endless permutations of answers to even relatively simple questions
However, all of this comes with a cost. Befitting his archetype, Fox is incredibly fragile once he gets opened up. What's more, his low range and inability to safely or effectively interact with his opponents outside of it means that he is often forced to commit which can pose terrifying consequences. Combined with the highest executional demands of the cast, and he becomes an inconsistent tournament character.
Still, this is a small price to pay in order to experience the unequaled high that is Melee's Fox McCloud
| Strengths |
Weaknesses
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- Versatility: Fox's moveset makes him an unrivaled adapter; no matter the matchup, the situation, or the style, he has the tools you need
- Speed: Fox is one of the fastest characters in Melee, both in the air and on the ground, horizontally and vertically. This allows him both to play runaway and quickly reach his opponent and easily control the pace of any game. This is mirrored in his frame data, which is some of Melee's best
- Shine: One of Fox's best moves, which can be canceled into jump, pressure shields, push opponents back, spike them offstage, combo into itself via waveshines, stall himself in the air, and even reflect projectiles.
- Recovery Mix-ups: With multiple Fire Fox angles, Illusion, shine-stalling, and his air-dodge, Fox has a library of choices to pick from when recovering, many of which can easily reversal into Fox's own punishes if he makes it back
- Kill Confirms: Fox has among the most consistent kill confirms in the entire cast, and some of the best kill options to use them with
- Full Hop: Fox's full hop is among the most powerful movement options in the entire game, as well as having extremely potent synergy with the rest of his kit
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- Execution: Some of Fox's techniques can be hard to perform consistently, particularly in tournament settings
- Combo Food: As a fast faller, Fox can get combo'd very easily, get edge-guarded hard, and will likely fall first when both characters can't recover offstage. Almost every character has some sort of special punish trees for him, especially on FD
- Popularity: As the best and most popular character in the game, he will be his opponent's most practiced and best match up the vast majority of the time. This helps to make his matchups less skewed in practice than they might appear on paper
- Range: Fox has generally low range and a lack of disjointed options. This isn't a crippling issue for Fox, as his speed gives him a great range of attack despite those attacks being stubby, but it means that he of can't usually engage opponents without getting right on top of them. This puts Fox at a great risk in physical combat.
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