From what I know, theres only 1 fox. Theres a falco and a wolf as well, but they are different.
Clones don't exist.
In melee: Falco has very different move properties compared to fox (shine goes up, d-air is spike, u-air hits diagonal, up-b is shorter, laser stuns) are the obvious differences. Some people say ganon is a falcon clone... that is silly. Ganon's moves are even more different from falcon than falco's are from fox. To list a few (u-tilt, down-b, falling speed, jab, n-air, f-air, u-air). Even Mario vs Doc, doc is preferred for a reason, and that reason is the difference between Mario and Doc (kill power?). Between them, a pile of moves come to mind in how they are different (f-air, f-smash, b-air, d-tilt, u-tilt). So, are these people really clones? They have differing play styles (moreso falcon vs ganon, or fox vs falco, compared to doc vs mario). I wont get into marth vs roy differences.
So why do you call them clones? Certainly not because of their animations! If animations were the reason behind clone whining, then you should actually be happy, because in reality that means they are different enough in playstyle and gameplay that animations shouldnt matter.
Can someone explain why people think falco is a fox clone (in melee)?
Even in brawl... Landmasters don't really mean anything in the scope of competative play. If brawl rules will be like melee, there won't be any items so it doesn't make a difference. In the chance that FS will be allowed at events, it is still too early to tell since brawl isnt even out in our country. Even yet, FS are such a small part of the game and of a character to claim "clonage". It is 1 attack out of many.
All characterss are unique.
Not all clones are created equal. Ganondorf was an example of a very
good clone, so I'll use him for my baseline of comparison.
Captain Falcon is defined by his incredibly high ground speed and his ability to retain all of that momentum when he jumps, giving him unparalleled horizontal maneuverability both on the ground and in the air (well, one could argue that Jigglypuff is more maneuverable in the air, but that's a different kind of movement). Pretty much everything Captain Falcon is capable of stems from this special attribute of his character. Remove that speed and maneuverability and you strip him of everything that makes him Captain Falcon. This is the basis for Ganondorf's moveset. At his very core, he is fundamentally distinct from his progenetor, and his combination of agility and power in his attacks allowed him to press an offensive in any direction in a way no other heavyweight could claim. He filled a completely unique niche, plainly distinct from everyone else in the roster, most of all Captain Falcon. I'm actually rather glad they kept this moveset in Brawl, since giving him a greatsword would have forced them to build him in the same way as Ike, which would have sucked. I do rather hope they update some of his specials, though.
Young Link wasn't too bad either. Link's melee abilities all centered around a specific theme, which was very high range and power offset by crippling post-attack lag. Young Link completely inverts this trend, having absolutely atrocious range and power but having a great deal of agility, with very little lag to him at all. As someone who has played Link diligently for many years, I can testify that I have no idea of how to go about fighting with Young Link at all. Whenever I try, I'm reduced to spamming the sword plant like some kind of noob, because the basic properties of his character are the inverse of everything I know about the adult Link. Nothing applies to both, aside from knowing how to put the right spin on a bomb throw. His return to Brawl isn't terrible, I suppose, but the Wind Waker style just
begs for exaggerated, cartoony A moves and cool new specials. The fact that they didn't bother is a huge missed opportunity which feeds into the whole "lack of originality" that I started with.
Compared to these two, Falco's modifications from Fox were
highly superficial. Same build, same speed, most of the same overpowered kill moves. The only real differences in moveset was that Falco's blaster was for stunning instead of building damage and he spiked with the pillar instead of the shine. Big deal. Falco has different favored combos at the top pro level, but by and large he's a slight variation on a theme, not a fundamentally new playstyle. If there's
anything that gave him a claim at uniqueness in a way rivaling Ganondorf's, it was his ridiculously high jump and super-fast falling speed...and this attribute was REMOVED in Brawl. He falls at the same slow, normalized rate as most characters (I'll dig up the video if you don't believe me). Throwing the reflector instead of wrapping himself in it is a superficial change...it makes him a little different visually, but he is still very much a variation on Fox and not a new character in his own right (or at least seems to be from what's been seen).
Lucas is the worst of all. He has the EXACT same core properties as Ness. The only difference is that his B move doesn't suck and where Ness has quirky defensive moves (yo-yo smashes and the obnoxiously-disruptive forward air), Lucas has boring power strikes of the type Ness already had in other directions. He adds absolutely NOTHING new and distinctive to the list of available playstyles. Not a thing.
And then we come to Wolf. He has the same build as Fox. There's nothing from the games that gives him any special potential. All of his specials have been seen to be barely modified versions of Fox's. What does he have to add to this game? The fact of the matter is that Fox just does not have a very cloneable moveset. He's quick, and his attacks are pretty powerful, and that's really all there is to him. He is the all-around standard for the speedy character type. Unlike Captain Falcon or Link, he has no unique, signature advantages or crippling faults that can be exaggerated, removed, or otherwise altered to create a new core character. A slow, powerful Fox would very much be a slower and more powerful version of Fox, with nothing like the kind of differentiation you get between Captain Falcon and Ganondorf. Even if the team poured a ton of effort to him and tried to give him a moveset without any direct visual similarities to Fox's, he would still feel very dull and same-y. He just
doesn't have the potential. If you honestly think that Wolf could add even a
tenth as much diversity and uniqueness to the roster as Krystal could (with a completely new weapon type and an arsenal of magical and telepathic abilities alongside it), you're deranged.
I'm not just saying "omg clones are bad". I'm saying that Falco, Wolf, and especially Lucas are just
bad clones in particular. They just can't differentiate themselves enough to create totally new niches in the roster the way a brand-new character or even the likes of Ganondorf could.
