Falco (SSBB)/Down aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Falco's down aerial.

Overview[edit]

Falco turns diagonally and spins. At the start of his attack, with a hitbox from his knee to his lower body, he can execute a meteor smash with his spinning heel. The meteor smash hit does 13%; otherwise, it does 8%. It has extremely fast start-up (being the fastest meteor smash in Brawl in terms of startup), with a long-lasting normal hitbox, and only has 12 frames of landing lag upon landing, making it good at initiating ground-based juggles (such as down aerial→down throw or down aerial→tap reset). It doesn't require landing-specific hitboxes (like Marth's down aerial), making it much easier to land than other meteor smashes, while still effective. If the opponent is hit with the meteor smash toward the ground and doesn't guard upon impact with the ground, they will bounce on the ground, allowing Falco to combo into any smash attack or start his laser lock. A down throw can lead into this move; this can be performed offstage to end a chaingrab or to set up a down aerial onstage, causing the opponent to bounce on the ground. It is especially effective at landing quick meteor smashes near the ledge and meteor smashing opponents recovering high (due to Falco's very high jumps). Like the other meteor smashes that were spikes in Melee, it sends opponents at a slight diagonal angle instead of straight down; unlike many such moves, however, the angle was altered to one that would have been a meteor smash in Melee regardless. Due to Falco's lackluster recovery and the move's rather high duration, this attack is a moderate risk to use offstage. The move only meteor smashes during its initial hitboxes; landing the later hitboxes hits the opponent away with weak horizontal knockback. The move also has low base knockback, which prevents it from KOing or gimping most characters at low percents (it has high knockback scaling, effective at higher percents).