New to Smash, new to Fox. Help pls

[Sir_Africa]

Hey guys. So I'm fairly new to smash bros. I mean, I've played it before, but only now did I decide to take it seriously, especially since the new one is coming out to Wii U.

Currently playing Brawl but I prefer Project M and I really like Fox. I still don't understand much about the fundamentals about this game, so I need some help.

I understand that Nair is the best approach with Fox as it can combo into shine and all that good stuff. My problem though is that I can't control my short hops. I'd really like to start utilizing Nair and dair to get in on my opponent (which is what I have a hard time with already), but I always end up jumping way too high or Fox is just way too fast for me to be precise with my aim on my nair or dairs.

Are there any tricks or tips that I should be aware about to help me aim my attacks better?

 

[Foxy K]

Tricks come after fundamentals, and fundamentals just take time and hard work. When I first started learning advanced techniques in Melee and found out how short hopping works, I thought I would never get it. Ever. Now, I never full jump when I want to short hop. Because I put in the time to learn how to be consistent with it. You have to sit there, in training mode, flicking (or quickly pressing, people do it differently) the jump button, over and over, until you can do it 100%. It's the only way.

As far as aiming attacks, that just comes with time. For that, you really need to have good control and movement so that you can even tango with other (decent) players, who will always be moving in ways that CPUs never will.

 

[Sir_Africa]

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

 

[Rhus]

The fundamental skill cap of Fox comes from mastering his potent movement. Move in a confusing manner, mix up your approaches, stand still occasionally, practice wavelanding and figure out the spacing on his illusion and how it can help maneuver you around stages with platforms, primarily by edge cancelling the lag of it.

Because Fox is such a tricky character to learn and play, and still arguably the hardest character to learn in PM, you have to sit in training and understand the timing on his techniques. Given it sounds like you are just starting, I would try and get the following techniques down first:

Dash Dance
Short Hop
L-Cancel
Short Hop>Fast Fall
Short Hop>Fast Fall>L-cancel (SHFFL)
Short Hop double laser
Shine Jump Cancelling
Usmash Out of Shield
Shine Out of Shield
Wavedashing
Waveshining

Note that waveshining and its associated techniques are quite a bit harder than the rest listed, but I would still consider it a fundamental for Fox.

If you get these techniques down to the point that you can do them consistently and move around the stage with them, then you can start applying them. I have very little community here to play against, so what I end up doing is sitting in training mode and just practicing the techniques on the CPU. Once you've got it down, try setting the CPU to walk and jump and make sure you can time your SHFFL against them correctly. You can start with a slow moving and walking character like Bowser, but it's best to transition to fast walking (Fox, Marth) and fast jumping (Fox, Falco) characters to get a feel for exactly how to time it.

If you are having trouble on applying things properly, try setting yourself up against a level 7 ish CPU with infinite time and do nothing but practice the technique and what it leads into. Though they move differently than humans, they are still going to attack you when you get close, and they will try to kill you, so you can sort of judge where and when the technique can be applied, but just try not to get too used to their attack patterns and get wrecked by other humans because of it.

Good luck!

 

[xSTx]

Master your wavedases, master short hopping, master JC throw, master Up Smash OOS, etc.