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This time I'm doing fox only, final destination, no items. I actually like his playstyle in this game other than the fact that his laser seems nerfed and his reflector is no longer cancellable so it's pretty useless, but he has a few customs that are fun, especially his recovery. His normals also feel pretty good generally, so I may pick him up soon.
Neutral Special 1 (Blaster)
Pew pew, it's Fox's trusty blaster, though now he likes to take some time to contemplate life before he puts it away, meaning it's a pretty unsafe move.
Does 2% damage a hit and is just as spammable as before, causing no hitstun or knockback as usual, the laser will travel the length of Battlefield before disappearing.
Neutral Special 2 (Hyper Laser)
A blaster variation that sacrifices a high-fire rate and range for slightly bigger damage, doing 4% initially and decaying to 2% at the end of the shot.
I guess the main appeal of this move is that it does do minor knockback and hitstun, so you can use it to waste someone's second jump by hitting them or gimping their recovery.
Has the same startup and endlag as the default blaster though.
Neutral Special 3 (Charge Blaster)
This move was a missed opportunity to use effects similar to an Arwing charge shot, but oh well.
In this variation, Fox charges his blast for half a second and shoots a larger projectiles that does 10-11% damage and does large hitstun and decent knockback for what it is, killing Samus off the side of Battlefield at ~170%.
I think this move is straight up better than his default blaster, the default blaster is risky due to the lack of hitstun and high endlag, this move feels like it'll be much better in most situations, it also makes a cooler sound effect!
Side Special 1 (Fox Illusion)
Fox dashes forwards about half the length of Battlefield, doing 3% damage and a little vertical knocback, the move has pretty high startup and endlag.
Though it no longer puts you into special fall when used in the air, it can still only be used once per air time and the endlag means you're punishable for a second once used.
Side Special 2 (Fox Explosion)
For this variation, the travel distance is decreased but an explosion is created at the moves end doing damage, knockback and causing you to stall when used in the air.
Can still only be used once per air time and doesn't put you into special fall, but the explosion does 13% damage and decent knockback as well as ok shield damage (I took off half of Samus' fully charged shield using this move)
Side Special 3 (Fox Flash)
This move works exactly like Wolf Flash from Brawl, from what I remember about it, travels less horizontal distance than Fox Illusion, but it has a vertical element to it.
It does 3% damage and minor knockback unless you hit them with the sweetspot at the end of the move, which does 9% damage and spikes.
You can only use it once per airtime still, but the fact that this move no longer puts you into special fall, means that it's actually a pretty viable edgeguard tool in this game, though it is very predictable and easily airdodged, so watch out for any misses that reverse the situation.
Up Special 1 (Fire Fox)
Fox charges for a second then shoots in the direction the stick is held, his recovery probably travels farther than it ever has and thanks to the lack of SDI in smash 4, it's multihit nature means you should be able to get more damage off of it should you choose to use it offensively.
The hits during charge do a total of 14% and the second hitbox during the launch does a further 14%, doing 28% total damage, though the knockback isn't enough for it to be a kill move, only killing Samus off the top of Battlefield at ~180%
Up Special 2 (Jet Boots)
Travels the same distance as Fire Fox, but loses all damage capabilities.
The upside to this is that the startup is much quicker, meaning you're less vulnerable to people knocking you further out whilst the move charges when you're trying to recover.
Up Special 3 (Barrel Roll)
This is my favourite custom move so far, I don't know if it's actually called barrel roll, but I'm sure it's at least based on it, Fox is like an Arwing in this move which is so cool, boosting in his chosen direction with a blue jet of fire behind him and spinning wildly through the air, though you won't be reflecting any projectiles with this spin.
It travels about the same distance (although it does it slower) and only does 13% damage if all hits connect, so it doesn't do as much damage as the default Fire Fox, but the knockback on the final hit seems to be almost doubled, killing Samus off the Side of Battlefield at ~100%.
Down Special 1 (Reflector)
The Reflector is back!... and you still can't jump cancel it.
The move can be held indefinitely and will reflect projectiles and multiply their damage by around 1.4 times, It can be used to stall your fall still.
The first few frames of the move have a hitbox that does 2% damage and low knockback, there is no invincibility on the startup frames still.
Pretty basic reflector move when all is said and done, has no way near the number of applications it did in Melee.
Down Special 2 (Large Reflector)
The size of the reflector increases noticeably, it has a push back effect instead of the damage and can still be used to stall you in mid-air.
The damage multiplier on reflected projectiles is less than the default, being only 1.2 times, so I'm wondering what the real benefit of this move is supposed to be.
I guess when people use their recovery move you can use it to push them away without resetting their recovery? Doesn't seem like that's a thing that's going to happen very often.
Down Special 3 (Pulse Reflector)
This Reflector variation has no pushback, no damage, it loses the ability to stall downwards momentum and it has increased startup frames which means it's a better reflector at long range than it is at short to medium range, the upside to this is that it multiplies the damage of reflected projectiles by around 2.1x.
Final Thoughts
I like Fox's Customs, his Barrel Roll-esque recovery is fun to watch and use, and his charge laser and "Fox" Flash make him feel a little different, almost like another character.
Whenever I use him, my loadout is 3233, I can't stress how much I love the new recovery and the Fox Explosion is a good way of covering your approach back to the stage because a mis-spaced aerial will mean they eat an explosion.
Any laser is better than his default because with the high endlag it has in this game, you're going to need atleast some damage and hitstun to make up for it which both of his customs provide, I'm actually surprised the endlag isn't much less on his default Blaster to make up for all the downsides it has, it feels really badly designed imo.
Don't like the Large Reflector at all, but the massive ~2.1x damage modifier on the Pulse Reflector means it's the one I use, the default Reflector just doesn't have enough knockback or hitstun (*COUGH*OR JUMP CANCELLING*COUGH*) to make it not useless to me.
Up next is Koop- uh, Bowser.
