Captain Falcon
- For fighter info, see Captain Falcon (SSB), Captain Falcon (SSBM), and Captain Falcon (SSBB).
| Captain Falcon | |
|---|---|
 Official artwork of Captain Falcon. | |
| Universe | F-Zero |
| Debut | F-Zero (1990) |
| Smash Bros. appearances | SSB Melee Brawl SSB4 Ultimate |
| Console/platform of origin | Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Gender | Male |
Captain Falcon (キャプテン・ファルコン, Kyaputen Farukon), whose full name is Captain Douglas Jay Falcon, is the main playable racer from the F-Zero series of futuristic Nintendo racing games, and is the most effective "mascot" of the franchise. He has featured as a playable character in Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. His voice actor in the first two games is Ryo Horikawa.
Character description
The first F-Zero was released in 1990 for the Super Famicom in Japan and its American counterpart SNES, and it introduced the first character design of Captain Falcon along with the other three F-Zero-series characters that appeared in the game as racing pilots, along with their respective futuristic racing machines such as Captain Falcon's Blue Falcon. The manual to the game featured an eight-page comic featuring these characters, with the comic's story revolving around one of Falcon's trademark bounty-hunting missions in his Falcon Flyer transport ship. Captain Falcon's design and backstory would be revised in future iterations of the F-Zero series; his design in F-Zero X for Nintendo 64 would be used for his appearances as a playable fighter in 1999's Super Smash Bros. and 2001's Super Smash Bros. Melee, and his most recent "main" design is in F-Zero GX for GameCube. In all these appearances, Falcon and his machine are touted as the most balanced and easy-to-play-with machine for that game, so players of a new F-Zero game almost always play as Captain Falcon first.
Captain Falcon is described as "an accomplished F-Zero pilot, a renowned and talented bounty hunter", and is also an eccentric man in his late thirties (36 in F-Zero X and Melee, 37 in F-Zero GX). His "Captain" title is rumored to originate from his being perhaps an officer in the Internova Police Force in the past. He is a resident of Earth, coming from the city of Port Town. His bounty hunting exploits have yielded him enough of a reputation that he has gained many enemies across the galaxy; to avoid the constant danger from his adversaries, when he's not racing or bounty-hunting he lives in seclusion in his personal island chain off the coast of Port Town. His need to shield himself from outsiders borders on paranoia (albeit not necessarily unwarranted), because whenever he wins a race he has to dash home to his islands with his award money before others can get him. Living comfortably in solitude in his islands, Captain Falcon practices his F-Zero racing with a separate track built on each one of his islands.
The F-Zero series' chronology has many vague elements up for debate, but it is stated by F-Zero X that Captain Falcon was involved in a huge accident that caused the suspension of the F-Zero Grand Prix; while he was hospitalized, his DNA was stolen and used by someone else to create his evil clone Blood Falcon, who races against him in hopes of taking him out. The story mode of F-Zero GX shows Captain Falcon winning several races, then saving fellow pilot Jody Summer. He ends up in a heroic role when he races against and defeats the supervillain Black Shadow, then a superior villain named Deathborn, and he goes on to even defeat the Creators of the F-Zero world.
