Everyone's been putting Fox way off where he deserves to be in most tier lists. I see him averaging like spot 13 to 18 or some stupid thing like that. He's terrible. His tournament standings are growing more and more laughable. Only a few people being able to do well with him, people who would do well with any character they choose (like Lucien). And still, even with that they usually use another character and if they do go solo Fox it usually only will get them a fifth at best. When you see Fox do well it's either a) a really good player or b) someone who depended on other characters more. Fox really only has a surprise factor, and it isn't even that good of one like a character such as Pokemon Trainer or Ganondorf might have. So Fox's tournament results really aren't that good, in fact if you take away the a) and b) you'd see he's really pretty low in results.
Then you have moveset. Man it's terrible. Fox has no approach options of worth. They are all very easy to deal with and don't really pose much of a threat. He's got dair for best results, and it easily is punished. It has little DI forcing Fox to commit to an easily shieldgrab for his opponent. When it comes to other options, it's fairly useless. He has nair which has little range and is also easily punished. He has fair which has a lot of DI making it hard to punish, but it pushes him too high to be of use on most characters. He's got illusion, which is laughable. He's got bair which won't get him far. He's got dash attack, which is subpar at best. His ability to get in a grab due to his speed is good, too bad it leads to nothing in all directions at all percents.
Which basically leaves him with no safe approaches on any and all characters, forcing him to attempt to force the opponent to approach. He's got lasers and a reflector in order to attempt to accomplish such a thing. However, this isn't going to do much for him. His lasers offer low mobility and are easily weaved around if Fox is doing SH lasers. If he's doing standing lasers then he's a sitting duck. Not to mention is reflector isn't the best when it comes to prevent him from being spammed. Most characters will end up forcing him to approach in the end, sadly. Not to mention when they do finally approach, his options are limited still. Fox's moveset is very vanilla and easily predictable. It's hard to keep it fresh, nothing strings together. None of his combos that people think work are actually all easily punished.
So Fox can't approach and he can't do much if he does successfully approach. The best he can do is run away and go for another 10% later. He builds damage rather slowly when played against correctly (i.e. not falling for lousy up-tilt juggles and dair to whatever combos that are easily escaped.) His lasers can't do much when you realize he can't maneuver at all with them and punish this. So when he gets approached he has the same problem. He can make the opponent go away with his very few, easy to predict and punish options. That's about it. Fox is usually forced into mid-range battle because of this. Fox is terrible at mid-range. Out of long range, mid range, and close range, mid is probably what he wants to avoid most. Too bad he'll always be forced into it if his opponent knows how to handle him. Fox is easily outranged with this and can't use lasers without being punished at all. The best thing he has for mid range is side tilt, which doesn't help much at all.
When it comes to killing, Fox is pretty limited. He has his smashes, uair and bair are probably what you want to use. Sadly, uair is very obvious and easily avoided, it really shouldn't connect. Bair will really only work for edgeguarding, which Fox can't do well since he can't commit more than two inches off the stage without putting himself in a terrible position. If Fox goes past this point, he'll most likely find himself the one being edgeguarded. So that leaves the smashes. Forward smash and downsmash are easily punished and takes higher percents than needed to successfully kill. They both can set up for edgeguarding pretty well. Too bad Fox can't edgeguard well. Then you're left with upsmash. Great kill move, one of his few redeeming factors. However, due to Fox's vanilla-like qualities, it becomes a one-option that becomes easily predicted to the point where it won't be killing into percents where it's potential to kill low doesn't even matter anymore. So Fox pretty much is obvious when it comes to killing. His best idea is to hopefully land a dair at around the 100% mark where it will trip the opponent and connect it to an upsmash. It's reliable, except it is harder than it seems vs an opponent aware of this.
But we have even more problems with this character. Lets talk about recovery. He has very few options. Fox travels vertically very fast and horizontally fairly slow. This means that unlike other characters, Fox simply can't DI up when hit off the stage and then DI back towards the stage gracefully. No, Fox is actually going to have to use his recovery. Sadly for Fox his recovery is subpar at best. Firefox is unusable due to having no priority, limited range, and a long wind-up. Making it easily intercepted and basically useless. Then you have illusion which is easily predicted. Not to mention it's shorter than Falco's, along with more wind-up and cool-down time. Easily punished. Fox is basically forced to rely on the following strategy for recovering: DI towards the stage. Use you second jump with a rising fair as late as possible. Use an illusion. All while having shine-stalling in mind to space yourself so you don't get intercepted by your opponent. However, this only gets you so far and doesn't allow for a good or even decent recovery.
Yet sadly, Fox's problems don't even end there. Fox's match-ups are terrible as well thanks to Fox's falling speed. Fox falling speed doesn't offer any advantages to Fox's match-ups really. It doesn't allow him to combo his opponent with blistering running speed coupled to it. Instead it allows for Fox to be comboed easily to high percents without much hope by a slew of characters. Couple this with Fox's absurdly low weight and he's pretty much always going to be dieing quickly in a lot of matches. A lot quicker than he can do things. Fox's upsmash will kill another Fox at a lower percent than it will kill kirby. That should be a testament to just how light this guy is. One of Fox's few good attributes is his upsmash killing at low percents. Sadly this isn't going to do anything other than make matches go faster when most characters have a move that will end up killing Fox at an even lower percent. Not to mention many characters will be easily comboing Fox to his death percents much easier than Fox will be getting them to theirs.
If anything, this is Fox's match-ups:
Fox N/A
Pikachu 2-8 (Pikachu)
Falco 2-8 (Falco)
Olimar 3-7 (Olimar)
Sheik 3-7 (Sheik)
Kirby 3-7 (Kirby)
Zero Suit Samus 3-7 (Zero Suit Samus)
Lucario 3-7 (Lucario)
Metaknight 3-7 (Metaknight)
Ice Climbers 4-6 (Ice Climbers)
R.O.B. 4-6 (R.O.B.)
Donkey Kong 4-6 (Donkey Kong)
Peach 4-6 (Peach)
King Dedede 4-6 (King Dedede)
Toon Link 4-6 (Toon Link)
Zelda 4-6 (Zelda)
Mr. Game & Watch 4-6 (Mr. Game & Watch)
Snake 4-6 (Snake)
Marth 4-6 (Marth)
Luigi 4-6 (Luigi)
Wolf 5-5
Ike 5-5
Wario 5-5
Diddy Kong 5-5
Pit 5-5
Lucas 5-5
Pokemon Trainer 5-5 (all three surprisingly)
Samus 5-5
Mario 5-5
Ness 5-5
Bowser 5-5
Sonic 6-4 (Fox)
Jigglypuff 6-4 (Fox)
Yoshi 6-4 (Fox)
Link 6-4 (Fox)
Ganondorf 6-4 (Fox)
Captain Falcon 7-3 (Fox)
Most of the worst are due to Fox being easily comboed to a percent he can be killed just from a grab. Followed by match-ups where Fox is just easily controlled or easily killed. Then for the neutral match-ups Fox can't be controlled or killed to easily. The few positive match-ups are where Fox won't be controlled and can actually control himself.
There is no positive for Fox anywhere. Bland moveset, terrible physics, terrible match-ups, no solid tournament results outside of a few good characters piloting him to a subpar position. Stop placing Fox so darn high. He does not deserve to be grouped among or above good characters such and kirby, donkey kong, ice climbers, etc... He's easily on the level of Lucas, Ness, Pokemon Trainer. I'd say somewhere around spots 24 to 30 work for him fairly well for him, but not the usual 13 to 18 I see. Best I can see him is bottom of mid, when he really should be around the middle of low. Once you learn to play against him, he's easily controlled and taken care of. Lots of one-sides match-ups, lots of disadvantages in general, few neutral matches, and few advantages all against less than notable characters.
Don't let me fool you, Fox is awesome and fun to use. But isn't worth it in the end if the surprise factor isn't going to win it for you. If your opponents know what to do against Fox, then you can expect to lose. If your opponents are clueless then you can expect to barely squeak a win by if you use some other good character to help.
And thus ends my, 'Fox is a terrible character' rant.
