Fire Fox


 * This article can refer to Fox's or Falco's up special moves. For Wolf's, see here.

The Fire Fox is Fox's Up Special Move. It involves Fox charging the move, and then going in the direction inputted on the control stick or D-pad. The move has a Fire element throughout the entire move. Falco and Wolf have similar moves. Fire Bird and Fire Wolf, respectively, though Wolf's version has no fire.

Fire Fox is Fox's primary recovery move, and is used mostly for vertical recovery, with Fox Illusion being used for horizontal recovery, though it's also good horizontally if it isn't expected to be used. When used in midair, Fox remains stationary during the charging. The attack can deal around 28% damage, provided the opponent is hit by both the chargeup and recovery. Fire Fox covers the most distance out of all three of them (Fire Wolf covering the second most and Fire Bird covering the least.) However, unlike Wolf and Falco, Fox's Fire Fox only hits opponents once, not including any charge-up hits. It is highly likely to return to the ledge of the stage by using Fire Fox to recover, due to its long traveling distance.

In Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64, Fire Fox was notably different from SSBM and SSBB. Instead of being surrounded by fire, Fox charged the move without flame (and was pulled down by gravity at a reduced rate), and then propelled himself with an explosion, similar to PK Thunder. The charging did not inflict damage.

Interestingly, the author of the Prima strategy guide was apparently unaware that the attack can be aimed, even though the move has been aimable throughout the entire series; he suggests that its only use is attacking players from beneath.

Fire Bird


Fire Bird is Falco's Up Special Move in both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Fire Bird is almost identical to Fire Fox, does 14% damage, and has low priority.

Fire Bird is almost identical to Fire Fox, but with some small differences. Unlike Fire Fox, which only hits an opponent once after Fox starts moving, Fire Bird can hit opponents with multiple small hits when moving, followed by a stronger finishing blow similar to Lucas' PK Thunder 2. Its distance is also shorter (very poor in general). Its only use would be vertical or diagonal recovery because it has lots of start-up, poor distance, falling almost straight down after using it meaning being easily edge-hogged or hit out of because of its low priority. To maximize the usefulness of Fire Bird, one should try to position Falco exactly under the ledge and use it completely vertical, this way it can sweetspot easier (though it's easily edge-hogged meaning KOed due poor air speed after using it similar to Fire Wolf). Also, it doesn't burn opponents during the charge-up animation in Melee, but in Brawl it does.

Trivia

 * The name of the move (in the case of Fox) is often parodied with the program Mozilla Firefox.