Alright now I may not be the most practiced PM player in the world, even though I have been trying pretty hard to jump in to the scene. So remember that my opinion is just an opinion and it's just one that I want to express after everyone looking like they were going to start a riot a few days ago lol.





Initially I thought the changes to foxes UP B would be out of control. Although I will admit I don't know much at all about frames in Smash and I don't plan on learning about them either. So when I read 20 frames it definitely scared the hell out of me. After playing in a tournament with 3.6 fox however (and winning it ;] ) I realized the only real problem with it was that I couldn't Sakurai combo anymore, which is a fantastic change considering even I think it's one of Fox's silliest options in MELEE. Now I do think there are a few ways it will hurt his recovery if people learn how to abuse this change with edge guarding, but I will keep those to myself. You PM players already got this nerf so you guys can figure out how to make the most of it. :p



This new aerial shine I see as a good thing and bad thing. To start with the bad I would say it’s pretty lame since a lot of PM characters have amazing recoveries as it is. Not being able to squeeze in an early edge guard definitely hurts my pride as a fox player. Although I don't think it hurts the character that much, in fact it might even be a good thing for most fox players overall. Most of the PM match ups that I run into in SoCal consist of characters that kill me very easily off stage. They also have recoveries that allow them to kill me or put me in a horrible spot if I don't land the off stage shine. Whether it be some sort of UP B that will push me under the stage, stage spike me, or just out right be able to hit me with an arial attack due to multiple jumps. Shine spiking off stage in PM is just a huge risk and one that is usually not worth it either. I would imagine a lot of players might argue that if it's such a risk for fox he should deserve the reward. I on the other hand will look at it as now I have zero reason to gamble off stage and only lose my stocks in the neutral. So again, this was more of a nerf to fox players in the sense that he can't do something that he has been doing for over a decade. It does not actually hurt the character considering he is still the god of neutral. I believe someone also told me that jab to up smash would be harder to link due to changes on Fox's jab. Which is another fantastic change since I think it's one of the lamest combos in Melee LOL.



Over all Fox is practically the same character in 3.6 as he was in 3.5 with a few minor changes. I'm very sure that he is still top tier and still very sure that the combo game is highly based on his weight. Few characters, if any at all, have the options this character has to approach and the same goes for characters that get destroyed as hard as he does off of a hit, grab, or being off stage. Due to Fox getting demolished the way he does by most of the cast in the combo game I don't believe at all this his play style or moves deserve any more changes in terms of frames, or anything along those lines. If people do continue to see fox needing a nerf I would say they should focus on percents. Percents of aerials in particular so that I have to win the neutral a few more times before I can get a character to kill percents. Granted I think it would be silly considering the percents that characters can kill fox at, but this would be the only change that would make sense to me without completely changing the character or his metagame.



Closing thoughts

Fox is still Fox and who saw my PM Falcon last night? ;)

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