Kirby vs. Fox
At first glance, Kirby looks like a hard counter against Fox. He can duck under lasers, combo Fox with repeated f-throw -> u-airs and KO at lower percentages. Then, you go up against a fox who knows what they are doing against Kirby and realize that the lasers aren't his only option in the MU, he can SDI away from the f-throw -> u-tilt combos and that he can dance around Kirby's kill moves all day... punishing any missed KO attempt with a KO move of his own! Fox is one of the quickest and most nimble characters in the game, even putting speedsters like Metaknight and Diddy to shame at times. A Kirby player will need to keep their wits about them in this MU, but if they do, they can pull out a win.
Long Range
Kirby never wants to be here. Ever. Fox's lasers may not cause Kirby to flinch, but they can deal damage and replenish moves at an alarming rate. If the Kirby player isn't paying attention, they can have a good 10% on them within seconds of the beginning of the match. What is worse is that even if Kirby copies the lasers, Fox can stay in his reflector and deal the damage back to Kirby while Kirby has no way of doing the same (at least in a 1 vs. 1 match). The icing on the cake is Fox's ability to auto-cancel the lag by shooting the lasers in a short hop, so he can move at will while doing it. Kirby has a few options when dealing with this, and they deal with spacing. Fox players will rarely (if ever) use grounded lasers, so the Kirby player can close the distance between the two of them simply by dodging the lasers shot closest to the ground until closer ranges. This puts the Fox player in one of two positions mentally, fight or run away, both being things that Kirby can punish if the Fox has been cornered at the edge of the stage. Just to reiterate, as Kirby you will want to close the distance as soon as possible. Then the real fight begins. Just a note: if the Fox player has platforms to utilize, they will most likely run away. Platforms give Fox more opportunities to take to the air to run away (or bait and punish if the Kirby gets predictable) by using illusion (side-b).
Mid Range
Kirby has a few decent spacing tools in this MU that can out-space Fox's moves. f-tilt, d-tilt and even u-tilt can give Fox trouble. The problem is Fox's ability to dance around them and punish. Fox can punish just about any lag with his speed, and will be looking for any opportunity to do so. Kirby should be looking to keep his lag to a minimal, with his best options being his d-tilt (which can dodge and attack at the same time due to his hurt-box reduction) and on some occasions, a quick b-air. The time to be most wary in this range is when Fox has put Kirby here using one of his string starters, and Kirby will be hard pressed to avoid some of the follow-ups. There isn't much else to say here, but any time that Kirby can space without risking lag, the player should do so (especially at mid percents).
Close Range
Here is where Fox's options really begin to shine (no pun intended). Fox's speed (both horizontal on the ground and vertical in the air) give Fox the ability to punish his opponent's moves with relative ease. Fox's common punishing moves are d-air, grab, and u-smash. While grab and u-smash are scary in their own right (especially the u-smash, it being an 8 frame over-powered kill move!), d-air is what really makes Fox difficult to deal with. If fresh, it can combo into a multitude of things, ranging from grab (0% and higher), Jab and reflector(~5% and higher), u-tilt (~10% and higher), d-smash (~70% and higher) and of course, u-smash (~90% and higher). All of these options (except grab) can be power shielded at the percentages lower than listed or if d-air is stale, so Kirby should be looking to punish whenever possible. It is also good to note that a good Fox will try and land the d-air behind Kirby, making it much more difficult to punish. Assuming that Fox's d-air hits, his follow-up options come into play. If Fox goes for a grab, he will most likely use d-throw. D-throw's trajectory leaves Kirby slightly above and in front of Fox. The scary thing is Fox's follow-ups from here. Anywhere ranging from low to mid percents, Fox can follow up with f-air, u-air, n-air or in rare cases, a d-air or b-air. Kirby doesn't have any air moves that are fast enough to deal with the first three options save air dodge until upper mid percents, so it is very likely that Fox will successfully pull one off. If the Kirby decides to air dodge, they should be wary of the Fox baiting it at lower percentages and punishing. A well placed u-air at correct percents and positioning can kill, so be extremely wary of that. If the Fox decides to jab (its a 2 frame jab fyi, and beats out all Kirby's moves speed wise) they can follow up with a straight (the second hit of Fox's jab combo) and cancel it into whatever they want, even another jab! Kirby doesn't have any air responses to this, so SDIing the second jab is Kirby's best option. The third option on the list is reflector. Although this isn't used as much by Fox players due to the other options having more follow-ups, it is a viable option that can combo (true combo!!!) into a dash attack or in some rare cases, an u-smash! It should also be noted that the reflector has 3 frames of invincibility at the start, so it can't be interrupted until after the first hit-box comes out, much akin to Marth's dolphin slash. Fox's fourth option is his bread and butter. Fox's u-tilt comes out in 3 frames, has a good deal of priority on it and can put the opponent into awkward positions. If the Fox player follows the DI, he has multiple options for follow-ups. If Kirby DIs in front of Fox, Fox can reverse the u-tilt or grab, leading into the strings previously mentioned. If Kirby DIs away from Fox, Fox can follow up with a b-air. (note: Kirby can avoid the b-air by air dodging, but if the player chooses that option, Fox can fast fall and catch Kirby in landing lag with a d-smash. If the Kirby player can avoid with a jump, they should). The final two options from d-air are both kill moves and should be DIed accordingly. At the end of the day, Fox needs to hit with d-air for any of this to matter (as far as set-ups go), so Kirby should always be on the lookout to punish an attempt with u-tilt or shield grab.
Trying to keep up with Fox at this range and keeping lag to a minimal should be tops on any Kirby player's priority list at this range. Both d-tilt and u-tilt are great options, with both being equally offensive and defensive at the same time. Unless Fox is already in the air, there isn't much he can do against a well spaced d-tilt, and you have the opportunity to poke. If Fox is in the air, u-tilt can work wonders by juggling Fox a few times at lower percents and allowing for a chance to follow up if he doesn't SDI far enough away. Grabs also can work wonders against Fox. If the Fox player isn't any good at SDI, Kirby can get Fox to a good 50% with f-throw -> u-air -> re-grab combos. If the fox is a bit better at SDI, Kirby can switch up to d-throws and d-throw mind-game follow-ups. Though it gets harder for Kirby at higher percents to rack up damage, most of these options still work to a lesser extent at mid percents.
Air
If a Kirby who doesn't know the MU faces off against a Fox that does, this aspect of the MU can be extremely disorienting. Fox and Kirby are on opposite sides of the spectrum here... Fox takes to the air at will and lands again after attacking in the blink of an eye, while Kirby takes to the air a bit more slowly and likes to stay there for a while. To make matters more complicated, both characters are very well equipped for air combat with different types of tools at their disposal. At the end of the day though, both are evenly matched in the air.
If a Fox player has taken to the air, it is likely for one of two reasons. First and most likely is for a punishing dair. Secondly is for a follow-up of some kind. Though these are the norms, there are exceptions to the rule, and it is important to note them because a good Fox player will know them and use them (and abuse if the Kirby player doesn't know about them beforehand).
The big moves of Fox's in the air for air combat that have not already been covered in application are nair and reflector (which is more commonly referred to as a shine). Nair is a simple sex kick move (meaning the hit box stays out for a time, but it's power diminishes over time) that has multiple uses. First, it comes out on frame four, so it makes for a good "get off me" type of move. Second, it can be used offensively to bait. If Fox spaces nair on a shield, the move is not punishable by a grab (save for tether grabbers and King DeDeDe). Since Kirby doesn't fall into the category of tether grabber (or King DeDeDe
), there isn't much he can do to punish the move, especially since the move has such little landing lag. A Kirby player should be wary of throwing out shield grabs against this attack, because they will have just lagged them self, which is deadly against a good Fox (and if they are using this set-up chances are that they are a good Fox).
Shine is much different in application compared to the rest of Fox's air moves. It doesn't give Fox any time to follow up after it hits, so it doesn't see much use as a regular air attack (it still has it's uses and they will be covered in the offstage section). When the move is used in the air, however, it stalls Fox in mid air. This combined with how fast Fox falls combines for one of the most well known of Fox's mind-games... the shine-stall -> dair. It is important that a Kirby player be aware of where Fox is in the air compared to where Kirby is. One dair leads to a whole lot of nasty as was covered earlier. the move is useful only at mid-height, however. If the Fox is too close to the ground, he lags enough for a quick u-air or bair punish. A Kirby should always look for opportunities to do this, because even a good Fox player will be at this range once in a blue moon. Beyond that, if the Fox is at mid or high heights, it should be easy to see coming and the Kirby can and should adjust accordingly.
Because of Fox's areal nature, it will be a rare occurrence for Kirby and Fox to meet each other in air combat. Should this happen, Kirby's bair is a better option than most of what Fox can do.
Two more things of note: Because Fox is so fast, it is rare for any opportunity to hit Fox with an areal to arise due to Kirby's slow air movement speed. If you do, consider yourself lucky. Also, Fox's short hopped fair, short hopped u-air, and short hopped Fast Falled b-air have
NO lag to them at all. A Kirby player should be wary of getting tricked into attacking preemptively, only to eat a u-smash in the face.
Off Stage: Fox's Recovery
Off Stage: Kirby's Recovery
KO Options
Summary: 50-50 even
NOTE: I'm out of time on this computer, so I'll finish this post up later. If any of the Fox players see anything I missed, let me know.
Edit:
Getting closer! Sorry its taking me so long, but there is a lot to cover and I can only do this off the top of my head due to me typing this on someone's computer other than my own.
. As far as fox gimping Kirby, I don't mind floating up since I know how to DI fair and uair. I'm more scared of bair when i come back than either of those moves. Overall I still say 60:40 Kirby due to air game and fox' lack of reasonable approaches. Duck under fair, walk out of the way and counter dair, and it becomes simple. Bair is still as always a great poking tool and can put some shield pressure on Fox and make him mess up.
) than he was no doubt off his game. As far as Falco's side B goes, I know for a fact that the hitbox extends in front of Falco so u can't just dair before and automatically hit him as it you will get hit first if you have anything more than Kirby's feet in the attack. Because of this I assumed Fox's illusion acted in a similar manner. You also can't assume that Fox is just gonna try to Side B towards the ledge. Once he gets the vertical height he can maybe dair or AD towards the stage. Or he can bait us toward him and Side B away and use his fast falling speed to get to the ground before we can punish. I still think its 60:40, but for issues that aren't gimps.
