Captain Falcon (SSBB)

Captain Falcon (, Captain Falcon) appears as an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He was confirmed on February 22, 2008 on the Smash DOJO!!

reprises his role as Captain Falcon in Brawl, albeit via recycled voice clips from Super Smash Bros. Melee, along with new, previously unused voice clips.

Captain Falcon is ranked 34th on the tier list in the bottom tier, a huge drop from his 6th position in the current Melee tier list and by far his worst placement in the series. Captain Falcon has his trademark speed-and-power playstyle, in addition to great mobility, great momentum cancelling and overall survivability, a versatile up aerial, and one of the best jabs in the game. However, his combo and KOing power were nerfed from Super Smash Bros. Melee, with his finishers either being weakened (such as forward smash), or significantly more difficult to land (such as his Knee Smash). In addition to this, most of Falcon's attacks have awkward hitbox placements, making safe approaches and spacing quite difficult, especially when considering his lack of projectiles. The impact of the new Brawl physics severely harmed Captain Falcon: the universal ability to act out of hitstun hurts him more than any other character, since his attacks no longer keep opponents in longer periods of hitstun. A less effective dashdance and an inability to moonwalk gives him even fewer approaching options. He also has fairly poor out of shield options due to his short grabbing reach and possessing either slow and/or poor reaching attacks. In addition, he possesses a linear recovery and a vulnerability to chain grabs. All of these factors result in him being unable to pressure opponents or escape opposing pressure. As a result, he has terrible matchups and terrible overall tournament results.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following:
 * Play 70 VS. matches.
 * Complete on Normal difficulty or higher in under twelve minutes.
 * Have Captain Falcon join the player's party in the Subspace Emissary (Outside the Ancient Ruins).

With the exception of the third method, Captain Falcon must then be defeated on Port Town Aero Dive.

Attributes
Captain Falcon is a heavy character with great momentum canceling, especially vertically due his very fast falling speed, with strong attacks, and has the second fastest running speed, second to. However, though his speed is useful, his dash has very low traction, causing him to trip more often than other characters, though his tripping animation being the shortest in the game slightly alleviates this. His attacks mostly consist of hard-hitting kicks and punches, resulting in him operating in close-quarters.

Many of his moves have high knockback and damage output, though they also have considerable startup time and small sweetspots. His standard special, Falcon Punch, deals high damage, can KO at early percentages, and can be reversed in direction after start-up, but its extremely slow startup and audio cue makes it close to impossible to successfully land. Raptor Boost makes him rush forward and perform a fiery uppercut that launches opponents upwards opponents in the air, but its terrible shieldstun and slow startup makes it trivial to block or shield. If he misses it, he will suffer from considerable ending lag. When used in the air, he will instead swing downward, which can meteor smash targets. This makes it useful when recovering, since catch edge-guarders and edgehoggers off guard, but the attack is slow, predictable, and leaves Captain Falcon more vulnerable than the Falcon Dive. Raptor Boost also has the ability to cut through most projectiles. Falcon Kick sends him rocketing forward when used on the ground, and downward and slightly forward when used in mid-air. It deals decent damage and knockback, but like his other moves, it has subpar start-up and the hitbox is rather small, making it only good at surprise, quickly get downward or punish laggy moves. Falcon Dive sends him upwards with some horizontal movement, which gives him an important recovery move when combining it with great air speed. If the attack connects, it will deal high damage to the opponent and Captain Falcon will jump off from them. This also enables him to use the attack again should it connect. When used near the stage, the attack can sometimes stage spike when used against edge-guarders, though Falcon Dive can be teched to prevent that. It can also deal with edgehoggers if they are within its grab range. In terms of recovery, though, Falcon Dive is a slow move, cannot auto-sweetspot ledges if he is using it in the opposite direction of the edge and it is easy to edgeguard because it has no grab box directly above him. Although Captain Falcon has a very big ledge sweetspot range, Falcon Dive is easily edge hogged, and if he still manages to get to the stage, his recovery leaves him in a fairly high landing lag, high enough to often allow the edgehogger to get up in time to punish it. Although it is a minor problem, Captain Falcon suffers from the landing lag glitch. Captain Falcon's very fast falling speed makes recovery problems even worse.

Many of his moves also make for powerful finishers. His forward aerial is renowned for its extreme knockback, but it is hard to sweetspot and has fairly slow start-up (the first frames of it are not avoidable on reaction but are still predictable). His back aerial has good startup and knockback, his down aerial is a powerful meteor smash, and his forward smash deals high damage and has very high knockback scaling.

Even though most of his attacks have high power and damage output, they have considerable startup and unfavorable hitboxes (which make it difficult to land his attacks), and his small amount of disjoints is a severe issue when against characters with disjoints that outrange him, especially the faster ones. His throws chain well, but Captain Falcon himself is an easy target for chain grabbing and comboing (like Ike's jab canceling) due to his heavy weight, large size, and fast falling speed. His poor, small hitboxes in his aerials and fast falling speed additionally make it difficult for him to hit grounded characters from the air. Falcon is also very easily outcamped due to his below average attack speed, unfavorable hitboxes, and unremarkable attack range. All of this, combined with his abysmal shieldstun (one of his biggest flaws), lack of a projectile, and slow ground attack speed, results in a very poor approach, though Falcon's high mobility slightly alleviates this. Captain Falcon also has a difficult time handling small characters, as most of his attacks have no low hitboxes. Captain Falcon's low tiering despite his speed and power is derived from his inability to combo characters effectively.

In the end, Captain Falcon relies on his weight, survivability, power, decent range, and mobility to make up for his abysmal approach options, poor amount of disjointed hitboxes, barren combo tree, and his often sluggish attacks. He can KO and rack up damage quite easily when the opportunity presents itself, though he lacks a quick ground finisher.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee
Captain Falcon has been heavily nerfed from Melee to Brawl. The vast changes in the gameplay physics removes many of his options while also significantly inhibiting his mobility, mixup options, and ability to play offensively. Additionally, his overall frame data is worse and his KO power was considerably toned down, since many of his moves have reduced KO power, while his forward aerial was nerfed to be rendered situational, since its sweetspot has a shorter duration, a smaller hitbox and increased hitlag making it much harder to land. Even if he does land it, his opponents have ample time to DI and SDI the move. The changes to hitstun and falling speeds, as well as changes to his moves that increased their lag or altered their angle, also harm Captain Falcon's hitstun-heavy combos. On top of this, none of Captain Falcon's major issues from Melee have been addressed: despite generally better aerial mobility, his recovery has been shortened and weakened even further elsewhere as Falcon Dive is more reliant on momentum while Falcon Kick no longer restores his double jump.

However, Captain Falcon has received a few buffs. His specials have seen some minor improvements, as Falcon Punch can now be reversed, which gives it some extra power. Raptor Boost is far more useful offstage, since he can now use other attacks like his aerials or his Falcon Dive. Falcon Dive can also grab opponents hanging onto the ledge. Despite how much Brawl's mechanics have harmed him, Falcon does benefit from the changes to aerial grab releases, which gives him some followups out of a grab.

Overall, Captain Falcon fares significantly worse off in Brawl than Melee, as the handful of buffs he received do not make up for the nerfs to his KO power and the game's mechanics drastically harming his offensive and defensive capabilities. While he still has great mobility and has a handful of solid moves, such as his jab and up aerial, he lacks reliable options to challenge his opponents and overall has poor defensive capabilities. Ergo, his tournament representation and results are significantly worse than they were in Melee, resulting in him being a contender as one of the worst characters in the game.

Ground attacks

 * Neutral attack:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Up tilt:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:

Throws/other attacks

 * Grabs:
 * Pummel:
 * Pummel:
 * Pummel:

Special moves

 * Falcon Punch:
 * Raptor Boost:
 * Falcon Dive:
 * Falcon Kick:
 * Blue Falcon:
 * Falcon Dive:
 * Falcon Kick:
 * Blue Falcon:
 * Falcon Dive:
 * Falcon Kick:
 * Blue Falcon:
 * Falcon Kick:
 * Blue Falcon:
 * Blue Falcon:
 * Blue Falcon:

Most historically significant players

 * See also: Category:Captain Falcon players (SSBB)


 * - While Ally never used Captain Falcon in serious tournament matches against legitimately threatening opponents, it became perhaps the most famous "low tier main" of a top player in Brawl, with Ally being able to beat high level players with Falcon and dominate low tier tournaments. As such, Ally was considered to have the best Falcon for a long time, and only Stroumbert would contend with him for this title near the end of Brawl.
 * - Like Ally, Daiki had an extraordinarily competent Captain Falcon that he never used as a main nor serious secondary, but in Brawl's late competitive life, Daiki would use primarily Falcon at some Kantō regionals. In particular, his 7th at using solo Falcon and 7th at  using primarily Falcon are the best known results anyone have achieved with Falcon in Brawl, giving him a strong argument for having the best Falcon in the world.
 * - One of the very few genuine competitive Captain Falcon mains, and the only one to have achieved any real notability beyond his region. Was considered the third best Falcon player under Ally and Stroumbert.
 * - Like Ally, he didn't actually main Captain Falcon, but he became known for having an especially competent Captain Falcon, and would end up competing with Ally for the title of best Falcon in Brawl by the end of its competitive life.

Tier placement and history
Captain Falcon was initially seen as the worst character in Brawl; right away, players noticed the severe nerfs to Falcon's key traits (such as his Knee Smash, his go-to finisher in Melee, becoming extremely difficult to land), and that he got adversely affected to a severe degree by the universal mechanical changes; most prominently the introduction of hitstun canceling, which hurt Falcon worse than any other character due to not only being one of the most combo-reliant characters, but also his combo game was diminished more severely by it due to him relying on higher knockback moves to combo. It was additionally widely believed at the time that Falcon had "terrible priority" and would thus be unable to win any exchanges with opposing characters. As such, despite Falcon's still very fast movement speed and powerful attacks, players at the time did not believe he could do anything to any competent degree in competitive matches. A year after Brawl's release, it was realized that Ganondorf and were even worse characters than Falcon; as such, on the third tier list, Falcon rose up from last place and has never ranked there since. Players also began recognising some of the significant caveats Falcon had, such as his access to one of the best jabs, his still rather strong effectiveness at punishing, his still great mobility, and his incredible endurance potential while having a capable recovery that does not compromise it. Additionally, with Ally's tremendous success with Falcon in low tier tournaments, it was seen that Falcon had some clear advantages over his low tier brethren. With this, Falcon shot up to 32nd on the fourth tier list, and then consistently hovered around the 33rd-34th spot. However, he was still crippled by his remaining flaws; although his attacks enjoy the same amount of priority as those of any other character, he still suffered from a lack of disjointed range that could not compete with other longer-ranged characters.

While Captain Falcon was no longer seen as a candidate for worst character in the game, the stigma from his previous last placings still held on, and thus he was commonly seen as a joke character on the level of Ganondorf. With this, Falcon had barely any serious players; nearly everyone who could play Falcon at a competent competitive level only used him as a "low tier main" or "fun character", including his best players Ally and Stroumbert, leaving true competitive Captain Falcon mains very rare even at the local level. As such, Falcon's tournament representation was barren even by low tier standards, and only saw even worse representation in Brawl tournaments, leaving Falcon's capability to perform beyond low tier play rarely seen in practice.

Role in The Subspace Emissary
In The Subspace Emissary, Captain Falcon teams up with Captain Olimar and his Pikmin. When Olimar sends his Pikmin to attack a giant R.O.B., it wakes up the robot, causing it to shake off the Pikmin. Luckily, Captain Falcon drives his F-Zero machine straight towards them, jumps out in mid-motion, and Falcon Punches the ROB, thus destroying it, but upon landing, Olimar's remaining Pikmin (except for the red Pikmin beside Olimar) were killed when he slid into them. Once the two get out of the forest, they find a Primid transport platform, otherwise known as the Smash Skiff, that is holding the trophied hostage. The two watch as falls from 's Arwing, and fires peanuts at the ship. After Diddy Kong revives DK, Captain Falcon grabs Olimar, and jumps off the ledge and onto the ship. Then the four must fight off a horde of Primids. Afterwards, the ship will take them into the secret Subspace HQ, where they will meet up with, , and, eventually, a friendly.

After fighting off a large army comprising of various Subspace troops with the others, the heroes are unable to stop the ROBs which arm the last remaining Subspace bombs. Captain Falcon seemed to be analyzing the power of the Subspace Bombs, because afterwards, he motions to everyone to leave quickly. Captain Falcon presses a few buttons on his wrist, summoning his ship, the Falcon Flyer. Everyone piles into the ship and prepares to escape the doomed base when they are attacked from behind by Meta Ridley. After defeating the monster, they escape the floating island where a massive number of Subspace Bombs destroy the island. Captain Falcon joins the other heroes and uses his ship to help in the assault on the Subspace Gunship. He also helps in The Great Maze.

Towards the end, Captain Falcon and everyone else confront Tabuu. In a single, devastating act, Tabuu turns everyone into trophies. All are brought back to life due to the Dedede Badges and the efforts of, , , and. With the aid of, Tabuu becomes vulnerable, and a final battle between the characters and Tabuu begins. The player may pick Captain Falcon to fight Tabuu, if the player has collected the Captain Falcon trophy in Subspace.

Playable appearances

 * Outside the Ancient Ruins
 * The Subspace Bomb Factory (Part II)
 * Entrance to Subspace
 * The Great Maze - If rescued in Subspace (Part I)

Exclusive stickers
The following stickers can only be used by Captain Falcon:
 * Blue Falcon: [Specials: Direct] Attack + 3
 * Capt. Falcon (F-Zero): [Slash] Resistance +23
 * Capt. Falcon (F-Zero GX): [Arm, Leg] Attack + 8
 * Capt. Falcon (F-Zero X): [Specials: Direct] Attack +19
 * Gomar & Shioh:	[Specials: Direct] Attack +10
 * Samurai Goroh: [Arm] Attack +18
 * Black Shadow (F-Zero GX):[Flame] Attack +25

In Classic Mode, Captain Falcon can appear as an opponent or ally in Stage 7 if he has been unlocked along with, , and on Lylat Cruise or Port Town Aero Dive. Captain Falcon can also appear as an opponent in Stage 11, but only if he hasn't appeared in Stage 7.

All-Star Mode
In All-Star Mode, Captain Falcon is fought in Stage 13 on Port Town Aero Dive.

Solo Events

 * Event 23: Molten Norfair: must retreat into the safety capsule when it appears. Captain Falcon and  are featured in this event, who will try and prevent the player from entering the capsule.
 * Event 24: Come On! Blue Falcon!: Captain Falcon must must use his Final Smash, Blue Falcon, to defeat two s before one lap on Port Town Aero Dive is complete.
 * Event 29: All-Star Semifinal Regulars: Captain Falcon is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are characters that were unlockable from the original Super Smash Bros. game.
 * Event 36: High-Tech Special Forces: Captain Falcon is one of the three bounty hunters along with and  that  must defeat.

Co-op Events

 * Co-Op Event 6: Unwanted Suitors: and  must defeat an invisible Captain Falcon and  on Port Town Aero Dive..
 * Co-Op Event 12: Come Back! Falcon Flyer: Captain Falcon and must defeat two es in under 30 seconds.
 * Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on.

Trophies
Captain Falcon's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing and All-Star mode respectively with Captain Falcon.

Trivia

 * Captain Falcon is one of the few characters to speak during The Subspace Emissary. He yells out "Falcon Punch!" while using the move on a giant R.O.B., and he says "Come on!" following with a snap to summon the Falcon Flyer.
 * Captain Falcon is one of four characters that have a two-hit forward smash with battering items. He shares this ability with,  and.
 * In addition, Captain Falcon only does 10% with both forward smash hits with the Star Rod in Brawl instead of 18% like the rest of the characters.
 * Captain Falcon is one of the few characters that says something meaningful when teetering; he will say "Whoops".
 * Despite being an unlockable character, Captain Falcon can be seen in the "How to Play" video in the game; he can be seen sleeping on Delfino Plaza at the end of the video as a result of Peach's Peach Blossom.
 * Captain Falcon and are the only members of the perfect-attendence crew that remain the only playable characters to represent their own series in Brawl. This carries on to future instalments of the series.
 * However, as Yoshi, Donkey Kong and Wario are sub-franchises of the series, then Captain Falcon is the only fighter of the perfect-attendance crew who represents his franchise alone.
 * Captain Falcon's official artwork greatly resembles his F-Zero GX artwork, as well as his down taunt.
 * If one clips through Captain Falcon's head with a hacked camera, they will find a blue eye.
 * This is likely a remnant of an unused feature where characters would show visible damage during battle, as other characters like Meta Knight and Marth have unused textures for their armor or weapons being damaged. Presumably, Falcon's visor was supposed to crack, showing one of his eyes underneath, but as this feature was never implemented, the now-vestigial modeled eye region is all that remains.
 * Interestingly, size changing items affect Captain Falcon's damage multiplier differently than with most other fighters. For an example, acquiring a Super Mushroom causes Captain Falcon's direct attacks to deal around 1.8x their normal damage, instead of the usual 1.56x. He shares this trait with, Wario-Man, , , , , , , , and.
 * Interestingly, Captain Falcon's up aerial has a very late hitbox that will load, but will then be deleted at the same time it appears. The hitbox deals 8%/6% damage. This is also the case in Melee.