TechnoMonster
Smash Ace
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2008
- Messages
- 836
A lot of this has been mentioned already, but I'd figure that I'd go at it again. I picked up Fox first in Brawl and he has several good mechanics, but on a good tier list I'd say he is at best mid tier and excels in no category. This post is going to be a short guide on how to pick up your Brawl Fox if you were an experienced Melee fox player.
First of all, treat Fox as if he were a brand new character. He is not old school Fox, but you can draw from some of Melee Fox's strategies.
First of all, treat Fox as if he were a brand new character. He is not old school Fox, but you can draw from some of Melee Fox's strategies.
- Edgeguarding Is Still In
This is Fox's biggest strength as far as I can tell. Not that it's **** in a can, but you can still shinespike. Hopping out and doing a vertical N-air before firefoxing back to the stage is very good as well and can throw people off. If they grab the edge, and they will often, simply wait for their invulnerability to expire, and try to downsmash them back off. This is very effective because you cannot ledgehop and attack immediately, so you can catch a lot of good melee players falling back on their old habits. - Backair is Wack
Backair has MAJOR startup lag, and almost no duration. It's not longer sex kick #2, it's a pinpoint target attack and should be replaced with F-air and N-air whenever possible. While it's out, it still has nice priority; not a bad move, but this is one of the big adjustments that Brawl Foxes need to make. - Drill is a Good Approach
Drill is good, but since you don't have the shine after, you have to cross up. It's good because it keeps them from getting out for the duration of the attack, and is good to follow up with an up-tilt if you cross up their shield. Use the C-Stick and hold up on the D-pad to up-tilt; it's good. - Jab is as fast or faster than shine; take the shine out of your game.
Drill is a good setup for a lot of things, but the only thing it combos into is your jab. - FLT Grab is Pro
Turn-around grab: While dashing, simply slap back on the stick and press Z to turn around and grab. It's mega pimp and very good against people that like to dodge your grabs or roll away a lot, and it gives you a second to react. - Nair is Reasonably Solid
N-air is very low lag which is nice, and covers a good area, but it's low priority. You can still use it to punish and pressure, however don't go challenging people in the air; there are many disjointed and high-priority attacks out there. - Fair is Weird but Good
You rise as you do your F-air, kind of like a weird helicopter effect. It also does bangin' damage and is a good follow up to most attacks, and has good duration and priority. - Fox has NO Combos to speak of
Upthrow doesn't combo into anything, neither do any of your other throws, at any percent. - Lasers suckish
Laser game is out. You can't air DI and SHDL misses a lot and is very slow. Standing lasers are bad for all the same reasons as in melee. - Smashes got nerfed
Both F-smash and Up-smash got nerfed for power and priority, F-smash has less range, and both feel laggy. You'll have trouble upsmash KOing some characters at 150. It's still good to set up for a juggle, but uptilt to get them off the stage is generally cooler. - Top Tiers EAT You
Unfortunately Fox isn't competition for Marth or Meta Knight or Pit; you can't use your mediocre speed to get around their gay, you fall too slow to jump on their heads. You can still give them a fierce fight but for now I'd stay away from these match ups in ranked play. Fox seems to be best against slower characters without disjointed hit boxes, like the heavyweights, Peach, the space animals, etc.
There are many great options with him (as far as I can tell), I just think it will take time for people to figure him out, since he plays so differently from melee.