Tails The Fox

General
Miles Prower マイルス・パウアー|Mairusu Pauā, better known by his nickname, Tails (テイルス|Teirusu), is one of the main characters in the Sonic series of video games, comics, and animated series released by SEGA.

The name "Miles Prower" is a pun on "miles per hour", a reference to the famed speed of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is an 8 year-old orange-yellow, anthropomorphic fox with two tails, hence his nickname. He is known to be Sonic's best friend, sidekick, and an expert mechanic. He is able to use his two tails to propel himself into the air like a helicopter for a limited time. His debut was on October 16, 1992, introduced in the 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit).

Attributes
Tails is a versatile character who is proficient in several areas. He is rather agile, posessing good footspeed and above-average aerial movement, but he does not trade this for recovery ability. Tails can hover by holding down the Jump key, much like Peach, and can also float after his Up B, Whirlwind. These attributes, combined with Tails's speed, more than make up for his somewhat light weight in terms of survivability. He has access to a lot of tools in his attacks as well. For one thing, he has an effective projectile in Electron Cannon, as it is fairly large and deals more damage and knockback than most projectiles despite its speed. Also, tails has, a diverse array of normal moves, having quick, combo-friendly attacks (such as Forward Aerial and Up Tilt) as well as powerful finishing strikes (like his Back Aerial and Side Smash attacks). For instance, SH-B-Air will kill most characters at 90 or 100%, or at the very least set them up for an edgeguard, and it has a great disjointed hitbox. Finally, Tails can rack up damage quite quickly. As soon as he gets in close he has an easy time dealing damage with U-Air -> U-Tilt chains, which are extremely difficult to escape. His Spin Dash provides access to high damage combos as well as mobility, and it's a great tool to use when Tails is on the offensive.

While he is quite strong in a few areas, Tails has a few weaknesses. For one thing, he is a light character who may get blasted off the screen more easily than his buddy Sonic. On top of that, his recovery, while arguably very effective most of the time, is very slow and can be easily intercepted due to it requiring hovering to be very effective. This means that in using Tails, you'll want to only be near the edge of the stage when it's your turn to do the edgeguarding, since it could be detrimental to get spiked or edgeguarded.

One of Tails's defining techniques is attacking while using his Zeppelin (hovering). It is perfect for edgeguarding because he can perfectly space his N-Special and S-Special by flying around and can retreat if they miss. It can also be very effective to use on-stage, as a Dair performed while hovering is difficult to counter-attack for most characters, and when L-canceled, the Dair can combo into other moves. Using a Uair or Nair will cause Tails to stop flying, which can be great air-to-ground attacks, especially with the precise positioning available in Zeppelin.

Tails is currently ranked at 12th (C Tier) on the tier list. Characters that excel at gimping, especially with meteor smashes, can give Tails a run for his money, but Tails himself excels in that regard as well. Due to his wide array of useful abilities and attacks, especially in his mobility, Tails can deal with just about any matchup, making him arguably one of the best characters.

Tails' Normal Moves
Combo


 * Tails does a punch, kick, and then a second punch. Tails moves forward quite a lot when performing the third part.

Side Tilt


 * Tails swipes his tails horizontally. This move is great for spacing and is rather fast on cool-down.

Up Tilt


 * Tails spins into a ball and stands on his tail, bouncing into the air a bit. Very fast and effective at juggling.

Down Tilt


 * Tails rolls into a ball and spins slowly. This move has a deceptive hitbox and hits foes horizontally, making it effective near the edge.

Dash Attack


 * Tails rolls into a ball and moves slightly forward, much like his spin attack in the Sonic games. It's very fast-moving, but rather weak, unsafe and punishable. Nonetheless, it has its place in punishing opponents' mistakes.

Side Smash


 * Tails devliers a huge swing with his robotic boxing glove, which spins around him and back, hitting up to two times. The first hit has high knockback so that the second hit usually does not connect. It's a powerful finishing move with horizontal knockback.

Up Smash


 * Tails uses his robotic punching glove to punch upward from the ground. This move has a nicely disjointed hitbox and deals relatively strong vertical knockback. It's Tails's only viable vertical KO move, and quite a decent one at that.

Down Smash


 * Tails spins around, using his tail to deal 3 damaging hits in succession. This is by far Tails's fastest Smash attack and is a good panic-button move since it hits on both sides of Tails. Opponents are launched backwards.

Neutral Air


 * Tails spins in his ball form. This is a fast attack that stays active for a long time and has good priority.

Forward Air


 * Tails delivers a straight punch while wearing boxing gloves. This move is fairly quick and deals solid knockback and damage, making it a go-to air move in many situations.

Up Air


 * Tails performs a few upwards somesaults, hitting enemies several times. This move sets up for grabs and other quick attacks when used near the ground if the last hit does not connect.

Back Air


 * Tails turns around fires a short range ball of energy from his cannon. This move deals good damage and strong horizontal knockback, but it has a slightly slow startup speed. The large hitbox and high power make this move one of Tails's best attacks.

Down Air


 * Tails spins his tails downward to deal damage in two hits. When near the ground, this move is powerful, since it deals a good deal of hitstun and can combo into other moves. However, it's a bit slow.

Forward Throw


 * Tails tosses the enemy forward with moderatly high knockback.

Up Throw


 * Tails first rolls upward in a ball, then throws the enemy upward.

Back Throw


 * Tails smashes the enemy to the ground.

Down Throw


 * Tails rolls on the enemy, much like Sonic does in his own Down Throw.

Ledge Attack


 * Tails gets up from the ledge and rolls.

Notable Appearances

 * Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994)