Captain Falcon (SSB4)

Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	F-Zero
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Blue Falcon
Tier	B (19)

Captain Falcon (キャプテン・ファルコン, Captain Falcon) returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. He was confirmed during a live stream on July 14th, 2014, which is exactly 16 years after F-Zero X was released for the Nintendo 64 in Japan in 1998, alongside Lucina and Robin.

Ryō Horikawa's portrayal of Captain Falcon from Melee and Brawl were repurposed for Smash 4.

Captain Falcon ranks 19th out of 54 on the SSB4 tier list, thus going into the B tier. This is a remarkable improvement over his bottom tier placement in Brawl, where he was ranked 34th out of 38. Thanks to the changes to hitstun canceling, Captain Falcon's lost combo game has been greatly restored. Additionally, Captain Falcon retains his rudimentary speed and power, allowing him to rush foes down with ease. When combined with his excellent endurance, Captain Falcon has a very effective neutral game, courtesy of his strong edgeguarding game, further supplemented by several renowned moves, the most notable being his forward aerial.

However, Captain Falcon has noteworthy shortcomings. Captain Falcon remains highly susceptible to combos, which are linked to his high weight, gravity, falling speed, and hurtbox. While his high air speed and air acceleration can allow him to return to a stage, Raptor Boost and Falcon Dive do not grant sufficient protection, meaning that Captain Falcon is also very vulnerable to edgeguarding himself. Captain Falcon's neutral game is also moderately hindered by his short range and lack of a projectile, making it very difficult for him to counter spacing and camping. Overall, Captain Falcon has returned to the very viable position he held in SSB and Melee, earning him strong representation and results, as well as the third largest tier rise out of the entire cast.

Attributes

Captain Falcon is a tall heavyweight character. However, his mobility is nearly unconventional for his weight class: he has the 2nd fastest dashing speed, the 4th fastest falling speed, the 5th highest gravity, the 14th fastest air speed, and above average air acceleration. He also has very high jumps and wall jumps. Strangely, though, his walking speed is rather slow, and his traction is below average. Such an odd mix of traits grants him excellent mobility, yet also allows him to keep up with his opponents.

Despite lacking a projectile, Falcon has an overall effective neutral game, thanks to his mobility. His dash grab covers a long distance, making it a reliable approach option, and his back aerial is quick, has good range, and autocancels in a short hop, allowing it to lead into his grab. From there, he has many tools with which to rack up damage. His pummel is quick, and his down and forward throws are effective combo-starters, with his combo ability being arguably his greatest strength. His down throw leads into multiple up aerials, or his neutral aerial, and his forward throw combos into his dash attack or even his neutral air at low percents. Falcon's up aerial demonstrates the versatility of his combo game. At a wide range of percents, it can chain into any aerial, including itself. Starting at middling percentages, it can even lead to his down air meteor smash on grounded foes, which can either extend combos onstage or finish opponents near the ledge. Alternatively, Falcon can chain his up aerial into some of his deadliest finishers, which include his down air meteor smash and the famed Knee Smash forward air, and end his opponent's stock below 100%.

Captain Falcon also boasts excellent KO power, as well as a formidable edgeguarding ability. His smash attacks and back aerial deal high knockback, and his aforementioned Knee Smash is an extremely powerful semi-spike that KOs at early percentages offstage. His down aerial is relatively fast, has a large hitbox, and its sweetspot is one of the most powerful meteor smashes in the game, while its sourspot deals high horizontal knockback. His down tilt is a semi-spike, being useful for putting opponents offstage. His back and forward throws are good for starting edgeguards and killing at high percentages. Due to being a heavyweight, he is a proficient user of rage, bolstering his already high power.

However, he has his weaknesses. Though he has numerous hard-hitting moves, most of them are difficult or slow to land, some prominent examples being his smash attacks. His Knee Smash is faster than those moves, but it suffers from a small sweetspot that lasts for only one frame, making it hard to land without an air dodge read or setup off of an up aerial. As a result, he often has to rely on edgeguarding to score his kills. Though his neutral game is good overall, his lack of a projectile leaves him susceptible to camping, especially against characters like Villager. Falcon suffers from a poor out-of-shield game and, while his dash grab has a long range, his standing grab range is average at best. His dash grab is also very easy for players to whiff should they use it carelessly, especially since Captain Falcon's overall high mobility may make him a bit difficult to control properly. His high weight and fast falling speed give him great endurance, but they also leave him vulnerable to combos, and he has no fast options with which to break them.

Captain Falcon's greatest problem lies in his recovery, despite having an impressive air speed. His two recovery options, Falcon Dive and Raptor Boost, are linear and do not grant enough distance, making them predictable and easily intercepted, and they have small ledge sweetspots. These two moves do not have hitboxes above him, leaving him open to meteor smashes, which he usually cannot survive due to his short recovery and falling speed. To his merit, he can reuse Falcon Dive if it connects with an opponent, and even stage spike them, though this is easily teched. Although he has a wall jump, he will be in danger offstage without his double jump.

With customs on, Captain Falcon gets many benefits. While Falcon Dash Punch is weaker and has a slower startup than the default Falcon Punch, it propels him forward, forcing his opponents offstage for him to KO them with his aforementioned above-average edgeguarding tools. Heavy Raptor Boost, while being slower and giving less distance, has super armor throughout and much more power. Wind-Up Raptor Boost, while being weaker than the regular Raptor Boost, allows for mind games as Captain Falcon backs up a bit before charging forward, and it moves faster as well. Falcon Strike, while being unable to grab opponents, thus sacrificing reusability, has a hitbox during the entire ascent, granting better overall protection. It also goes higher and has much more horizontal momentum, not only giving Captain Falcon a better vertical recovery, but it also gives him one of the quickest horizontal recoveries in the game, as his already fast air speed is put into even better use. The Explosive Falcon Dive is similar to the Heavy Raptor Boost in that, while it is slower and has less recovery potential than the default, has much more launching power, KOing at 80% in the air. Finally, even though Lightning Falcon Kick has a slower startup and weaker knockback than Falcon Kick, it travels significantly faster and the landing hit paralyzes opponents, which allows numerous setups should the Captain Falcon player be skilled and lucky enough to pull it off. It also goes straight through opponents, allowing for easy cross-ups.

Overall, Captain Falcon's strengths outweigh his weaknesses. With speed, power, and easy-to-use combos off throw setups, he has a comparatively low learning curve and high payoff. While Falcon is not as common or as dominant as other perceived top-tier characters such as Bayonetta and Rosalina & Luma, he has a dedicated playerbase that brings his usage in line with many characters said to be better than he is, with many top players continuing to use him as a main or a secondary. As a result, he has achieved notable tournament success at high-level play and even stronger results in low- and mid-level play (including regional tournaments), and is considered by the competitive community to be a viable choice for tournament play.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Captain Falcon has been significantly buffed from Brawl, in which he was a bottom-tier character despite his speed and power. Several of his moves have been given more reach and knockback, and some of his situational moves, such as his up tilt, have been greatly improved. Falcon's grab game has also been buffed, as his throws have less ending lag, allowing him to string together combos more reliably, much as he could before Brawl. Complementing this is his newly buffed dash grab, which comes out very quickly and covers a lot of distance. Falcon also significantly benefits from the changes to two of Brawl's mechanics - hitstun canceling, which is now only possible at higher percents and restored his comboing ability for lower percents, and chain grabbing, which is now impossible and was one of his biggest weaknesses in Brawl. As he is a heavyweight character, Falcon also benefits from the rage mechanic, without his combos being affected. As in SSB and Melee, Falcon is mainly a heavily offensive rushdown character who relies on overwhelming his opponents with rapid combos and powerful finishers.

On the other hand, some of Captain Falcon's previous staple moves were nerfed; for example, his Knee Smash now has much more landing lag and can no longer autocancel from a short hop, and Falcon Dive has decreased safety due to its higher ending lag, weakening some of his possible recovery mixups. As a result, while being considered much better in comparison with his Brawl incarnation, he is still considered to be slightly inferior to his Melee incarnation. However, these nerfs are minuscule compared to the massive buffs he received, and as such, not only is one of the few characters to get truly buffed in the transition to Smash 4, but he is also one of the most improved characters in the game, alongside Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Sheik, Mewtwo, and Sonic.

Aesthetics

• Captain Falcon has a brighter color scheme overall in SSB4, which matches his appearance in the F-Zero series. His racing suit and boots are tighter, which makes his model more well-defined and muscular than in Brawl. His facial features are softer looking, his dimples are also more pronounced, and the "eyes" on his visors are smaller, as well as the visor going back to being opaque, like in SSB. He has also lost the hair on the back of his head.
• Captain Falcon's green alternate costume has been updated. His helmet and racing suit are now jungle green instead of chartreuse green and goldenrod, respectively. Additionally, the falcon on his helmet is now gold instead of beige, and lastly, his scarf is now red instead of pink. Captain Falcon has also received two new alternate costumes.
• All of Captain Falcon's actions involving fire have more fiery visuals.
• Like other characters, Falcon has more exaggerated facial expressions (albeit less noticeable due to his helmet), and clenches his teeth when performing certain attacks and during one of his victory poses. Oddly enough, however, Captain Falcon's mouth no longer moves for his voiced down and side taunts (instead grimacing with a closed mouth for his down taunt), despite his mouth being fully animated for a few of his moves and victory poses. His mouth can still be seen moving in certain circumstances, such as during the slowdown after ending a match, which may be a carryover from Brawl.

Attributes

• Captain Falcon walks faster (0.85 → 0.94).
• Captain Falcon dashes faster (2.18 → 2.32), slightly surpassing his Melee dashing speed.
  • However, his initial dash is much slower (2.05 → 1.7), no longer being the second fastest in the game.
• As with all characters returning from Brawl, Captain Falcon’s fast-falling speed is faster (2.5718 → 2.9392). This improves his already excellent aerial mobility and leaves him less susceptible to juggling.
• Captain Falcon's gravity is higher (0.1027 → 0.12). This allows him to land more safely and improves his ground-to-air transitioning, but makes him more susceptible to combos, hinders his endurance, and reduces the height of his jumps.
• Captain Falcon's air speed is slower (1.18 → 1.1).
• Captain Falcon's air acceleration is faster (0.06 → 0.075), going from the 10th slowest in the game to around average.
• Captain Falcon's double jump is higher (height multiplier 0.9x → 1x).
• Captain Falcon greatly benefits from the changes to hitstun canceling and Directional Influence, as it heavily improves his combo potential, especially with and into some of his more powerful moves.
  • However, this also makes him more susceptible to combos and hinders his endurance as he can no longer make use of momentum canceling.
• The removal of chain grabbing significantly improves Captain Falcon's survivability, as he is no longer vulnerable to them.
• Air dodge has less startup (frame 4 → 3) and ending lag (FAF 50 → 34).
• Rolls have less ending lag (FAF 32 → 28).
• Rolls have a shorter duration (frames 4-19 → 4-15).
• Spot dodge has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 2-20 → 3-18).
• Spot dodge has more ending lag (frame 26 → 28).
• Captain Falcon's item toss is stronger (1 → 1.013333).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's first hit deals less damage (3% → 2%).
  • The first hit has more ending lag (FAF 16 → 18).
  • Neutral attack's second hit can now either transition into the Gentleman (the third hit) only, or skip to the neutral infinite if the attack button is pressed repeatedly, rather than only being able to transition into the third hit, which can then lead into the infinite.
    • This makes the move much more versatile, allowing the player to either quickly launch the opponent away with the Gentleman, or rack up more damage with the infinite.
    • However, this also hinders neutral attack's damage-racking potential, as the third hit can no longer lead into the infinite.
  • To support its separation from the infinite, the third hit launches opponents at a consistent angle (70° (clean)/361° (late) → 361°) and it deals drastically higher knockback (10/0 (base), 50/70 (scaling) → 70/100), with the move now being a viable KO option near horizontal blastzones.
  • The third hit's knee hitbox is now static, and it has been moved further away from Captain Falcon, improving its range.
  • The third hit deals less damage compared to its previous clean counterpart (6% (clean)/5% (late) → 5%).
  • The third hit has a shorter duration (frame 6-7 (clean)/8-9 (late) → 6-8).
  • The third hit's knee hitbox is slightly smaller compared to its previous clean counterpart (6.2u → 6u), and the back leg hitbox has been removed.
  • The third hit has a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.2×), making it easier to DI.
  • The infinite launches opponents at higher angles (361°/361°/90° → 85°/75°/90°) and it deals more knockback (0 (base), 50/20 (scaling) → (15/8)/(50/30)), making it connect more reliably.
  • The infinite has a much lower hitlag multiplier (1× → 0.3×) along with a lower SDI multiplier (1x → 0.7x), making it much more difficult to escape from.
  • The infinite's previous body hitbox has now become a static hitbox in front of Captain Falcon. This gives the move less range inside of Captain Falcon, but it also gives the move more consistent vertical range.
    • This hitbox is slightly larger (4u → 4.2u).
  • The infinite deals lower consistent damage (2% (near)/1% (far) → 1%).
  • The infinite has received a finisher, an underhanded punch which deals 2% and high horizontal knockback at lower percents.
  • The finisher has much more ending lag than the previous ending animation (FAF 10 → 40).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has less ending lag when not angled and when angled downward (FAF 37 (non-angled)/32 (down) → 32/31).
  • The down angled version's far hitboxes have increased base knockback (0 → 10).
  • The foot hitbox has been slightly repositioned (x/y/z offsets: 0/5.5/0 → 5.5/-1/0.5).
  • Forward tilt deals less damage when not angled and when angled upward (11%/10% (up)/10%/9% (non-angled) → (10%/9%)/(9%/8%).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt's foot hitbox now meteor smashes aerial opponents (361° → 275°), greatly improving its edgeguarding potential.
    • However, this also hinders the move's effectiveness if the opponent is above the stage.
  • Up tilt launches opponents at a higher angle (361° → 60°).
    • When combined with the changes to hitstun canceling and DI, this grants up tilt some combo potential from low to mid percents, in addition to improving its KO potential near the upper blastzone.
    • However, this also hinders its edgeguarding and overall KO potential, in addition to making it more susceptible to DI.
  • The foot hitbox has been slightly repositioned (x/y/z offsets: 0/7/0 → 7/-1/0.5).
  • Up tilt deals less damage (13% → 11%), without full compensation on its knockback, especially on the aerial foot hitbox (50 (base), 80 (scaling) → (35/22)/100).
  • Up tilt has a shorter duration (frames 17-22 → 17-20).
  • The foot hitbox is smaller, especially against aerial opponents (6.5u → 6u (grounded)/3.5u (aerial)).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has less ending lag (FAF 36 → 35).
  • Down tilt deals more knockback (25 (base), 75 (scaling) → 38/80).
  • The foot hitbox has been moved further away from Captain Falcon (x/y offsets: 0/-6 → 6.5/-1), slightly improving down tilt's range.
  • Down tilt now has a consistent semi-spike launch angle (80° (foot)/40° (leg)/20° (body) → 25°).
    • This improves its consistency at edgeguarding and setting up tech-chases, especially when combined with its increased knockback.
    • However, this also removes down tilt's ability to set up juggles.
    • The angle is also higher than the previous body hitbox, making it less effective at edgeguarding and setting up tech-chases than the previous body hitbox (at least without taking the increased knockback into account).
  • Down tilt has a new animation which is longer than the previous animation (35 frames → 49).
    • This allows down tilt to be used as a pseudo-crawl due to its new interruptible frames.
    • However, this also increases the amount of time Captain Falcon cannot walk after performing the move.
  • Down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 11-15 → 11-12).
  • The body hitbox is smaller (4.8u → 3.5u) and it has been moved closer to Captain Falcon (x/y offsets: -2.8/2.8 → 0/3.5), reducing the move's range behind Captain Falcon.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack's clean hit deals more damage (8% → 10%) and knockback (80 (base), 40 (scaling) → 90/50).
  • The late hit deals more knockback (65 (base), 40 (scaling) → 90/50).
  • Dash attack has larger hitboxes (6u (clean)/4.5u (late) → 6.2u/4.8u), and they are now static, rather than being attached to Captain Falcon's shoulder. They are positioned further forward overall (z offset: 0.8 → 12), improving dash attack's range.
    • However, this also gives the move less range inside of Captain Falcon to the point where it will now whiff against some characters at close range.
  • The late hit launches opponents at a higher angle (40° → 65°). This grants it combo potential but removes its edgeguarding potential.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash has more startup lag (frame 18 → 19).
    • However, its total duration was unchanged, slightly reducing its ending lag.
  • Forward smash has a longer duration (frames 18-20 → 19-22).
    • As the move's animation was unchanged, this improves forward smash's range.
  • Up and non-angled forward smash deal knockback (20 (base), 85 (scaling) → 24/95), improving its KO potential.
  • Down angled forward smash deals more damage (18% → 20%) with minimally compensated knockback (20 (base), 85 (scaling) → 24/83), improving its KO potential.
  • Down angled forward smash launches opponents at a lower angle (40° → 38°).
  • The arm hitbox is positioned further away from Captain Falcon (x/y offsets: 0/0 → -2/-2), improving its range.
  • The middle hitbox is smaller (4.5u → 3u).
  • Captain Falcon no longer lunges farther when performing a pivoted forward smash, significantly hindering its approach and whiff punishment potential.
  • Captain Falcon can no longer do a two-hit forward smash with battering items, nor can he fire multiple stars at once with the Star Rod.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has a short duration (frames 22-23 (hit 1)/28-29 (hit 2) → 22/28).
  • Up smash now uses static hitboxes.
  • The first hit's lower hitboxes have altered angles (90°/100° → 95°/110°) and higher set knockback (80/100 → 120/140), allowing them to connect more reliably into the second hit.
  • The first hit's upper leg hitboxes have gained set knockback (0 → 20), allowing them to connect into the second hit regardless of the opponent's percent.
    • However, this only links into the second hit against certain characters and even against characters where it can, the second hit can still miss depending on Captain Falcon's positioning relative to the opponent, and when it does miss, the opponent is left in a more favorable position.
  • The first hit's lower hitboxes deal less damage (8% → 6%).
  • The first hit's lower hitboxes are smaller (6.72u/5.76u → 6u/5.7u).
  • The second hit's sourspot has been moved to Captain Falcon's hips, and the sweetspots to the leg. This makes the latter easier to hit.
  • The second hit has slightly higher knockback scaling (102/103/110 → 104/106/112).
  • The second hit has larger hitboxes (4.8u/4.8u/4.8u → 6u/5.5u/5u).
  • The changes to hitstun canceling and DI grant the move some combo potential against fast-fallers at lower percentages.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash's front hit no longer has an extremely weak hitbox that deals 6% with set knockback, making it more reliable against low-profiling opponents.
  • The back hit deals more damage (16% → 18%), improving its KO potential.
  • The front hit deals much less damage (18% → 14%) without full compensation on its knockback scaling (85 → 90), significantly hindering its KO potential.
  • Down smash smaller hitboxes (6u/5u/4u/3.5u (front)/5u/4.5u/4u (back) → 4.5u/4.2u/3.7u (both)) with the foot hitbox being moved slightly closer to Captain Falcon (x/y offsets: 0/5 → 4.9/-0.9), reducing its range.
  • The back hit has a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.2×), making it easier to DI.

Aerial attacks

• The introduction of frame canceling improves the follow-up potential of Captain Falcon's aerials if he perfectly lands with them, especially with forward aerial.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial's second hit has slightly increased knockback scaling (125 → 130), improving its KO potential.
  • The changes to hitstun canceling and DI significantly improve the second hit's combo potential.
  • Neutral aerial has more landing lag (9 frames → 12).
  • The foot hitbox has been moved closer to Captain Falcon on both hits (x/y offsets: 0/4 → 3.9/0.7), slightly reducing neutral aerial's range.
• Forward aerial (Knee Smash):
  • Forward aerial's late hit's knee hitbox is slightly larger (4.5u → 4.7u).
  • The changes to hitstun canceling and DI combined with the changes to up aerial have granted Captain Falcon more guaranteed/semi guaranteed setups into forward aerial.
  • The changes to shields have significantly improved the sweetspot's shield pressuring potential despite the move's increased landing lag, with its extreme hitlag no longer heavily hindering its safety on shield.
  • Forward aerial has more ending (FAF 40 → 46).
  • Forward aerial has more landing lag (22 frames → 30).
  • Forward aerial has a shorter initial auto-cancel window (frames 1-6 → 1-4).
  • Forward aerial auto-cancels later (frame 35 → 42), no longer doing so in a short hop.
  • The back hitbox is smaller (4u (clean)/4.3u (late) → 3u (both)) and it is now positioned right behind the knee hitbox rather than on Captain Falcon's back leg. This reduces the move's range behind Captain Falcon in addition to not making the clean sweetspot any easier to land.
  • The late hit has a lower trip chance (30% → 20%).
    • When combined with the move's worse auto-cancel window and higher landing lag, this makes it much harder and more situational for Captain Falcon to exploit the opponent if they trip.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has consistent and higher base knockback (20/0 → 25), improving the near hitboxes' and the late hit's KO potential.
  • The universal increase to shieldstun has noticeably benefitted back aerial, as the clean hit is now completely safe on shield against 90% of the cast if Captain Falcon lands perfectly with it, and the move becomes completely unpunishable on shield if Captain Falcon perfectly auto-cancels the move.
  • Back aerial has a shorter initial auto-cancel window (frames 1-6 → 1-4).
  • The clean hit deals less damage (14% → 13%), hindering the hand hitbox's KO potential.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial's clean hit now launches opponents vertically (361° → 70°), similar to its Smash 64 counterpart.
    • This significantly improves its combo potential at higher percents when combined with the changes to hitstun canceling and DI, with the move notably being able to combo into itself and even into a forward aerial.
    • However, this also considerably hinders its edgeguarding potential, as well as its follow-up potential into itself at lower percents.
  • The universal increase to shieldstun has noticeably benefitted up aerial, with it now being completely unpunishable on shield if Captain Falcon perfectly lands with it.
  • Up aerial's hitboxes have slightly altered positions, with the leg hitbox being positioned lower (x/y/z offsets: 0/-3.2/-2 → 3.2/2.1/0) while the feet hitbox is positioned higher (x/y/z offsets: 0/-6/-2 → 6.2/0.9/-0.4).
  • The unused late hit has been removed completely.
  • Up aerial deals less damage (13%/12% (clean)/12%/10% (late) → (11%/10%)/(10%/9%)), with only a slight increase to its base knockback (10 (clean), 8 (late) → 16/10), hindering its KO potential.
    • However, this also improves its combo potential at higher percents.
  • Up aerial auto-cancels later (frame 22 → 24).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial's foot hitbox is noticeably larger (4.5u → 5.9u).
  • The removal of meteor canceling, significantly improves down aerial's edgeguarding potential, especially since its power was unchanged.
    • The removal of meteor canceling also allows the foot hitbox to lock opponents. This greatly improves the move's combo potential as Captain Falcon can abuse this lock to set up a footstool to put opponents into an untechable bound where Captain Falcon can either lock with the down aerial at lower percents to set up into a neutral aerial for another footstool or (when combined with the changes to hitstun canceling and DI), launch the opponent with an untechable down aerial meteor smash at higher percents to footstool the opponent again to continuously reset the situation right up until the opponent is at KO percents
  • Down aerial now uses static hitboxes. This gives the move a more consistent range below Captain Falcon but reduces its range above Captain Falcon during its later frames.
  • Due to Captain Falcon's higher gravity, down aerial can no longer auto-cancel in a short hop, significantly hindering its approach potential.

Throws/other attacks

• Grabs
  • Dash and especially pivot grab have less startup lag (frame 11 (dash)/16 (pivot) → 9/12), with pivot grab no longer being the slowest non-extended/tether pivot grab.
    • In addition to this, Dash grab's total duration was compensated (FAF 40 → 38).
  • All grabs extend further outwards (z offset: 7.2 (standing)/8.8 (dash)/-12 (pivot) → z stretch: 9.7/12.2/-16.2), improving their range.
    • In addition to this, dash grab has a new animation where Captain Falcon slides much further forward. This greatly improves its range.
      • Furthermore, the momentum from the dash grab is retained after Captain Falcon grabs the opponent, which notably benefits his forward and down throws.
  • Standing and pivot grab have more ending lag (FAF 30 (standing)/36 (pivot) → 31/37).
  • All grabs are smaller (4.8u → 3.3u (standing/pivot)/2.6u (dash) and they do not extend as far inside of Captain Falcon (z offset: 2.2 (standing)/-2.4 (dash)/-2.5 (pivot) → 4/4/-4) reducing their range above and inside of Captain Falcon.
    • When combined with dash grab's new animation, this makes dash grab more prone to whiffing when used close to an opponent.
• The changes to aerial grab releases hinder Captain Falcon moreso than almost any other returning veteran, as they remove all the guaranteed followups out of an aerial grab release on any character he had in Brawl (as opposed to having multiple followups against most of the cast) while not significantly decreasing his own susceptibility to them.
• Pummel
  • Pummel now launches bystanders horizontally (80° → 361°).
• Forward throw: