Captain Falcon (SSBM)

Captain Falcon (, Captain Falcon), shortened as C. Falcon on the victory screen and character select screen, is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

reprises his role as Captain Falcon in Melee, albeit via recycled (and unused) voice clips from Super Smash Bros. 64, but slightly lower pitched.

Captain Falcon currently ranks 6th out of 26 on the Melee tier list, in the A tier. This is a slightly better placing compared to his previous placement in Smash 64, where he was ranked 3rd out of 12 and is his best placement in the series. One of Captain Falcon's primary strengths is his incredibly strong KO power. His knee smash is known as one of the best aerial attacks in all of Melee, due to its extremely high horizontal knockback. Captain Falcon has multiple setups and kill confirms that can all lead to a knee, which makes him the only top tier capable of reliably KOing all characters at or below 100 percent from center stage. He also has strong mobility, with the fastest dashing speed in the game, and a fast falling speed and air speed, giving him one of the best dashdances and SHFFLs in the game. His fast falling speed and heavyweight status give him great survivability, and he is especially difficult to KO vertically. Falcon possesses a strong combo game and tech-chasing abilities, with his, , , , , and Raptor Boost all acting as great combo starters, which can chain into each other or end in a knee.

Captain Falcon's primary weakness, however, is his slow and predictable recovery. His main recovery move, Falcon Dive, travels very slowly while providing almost no protection (only possessing a small grab hitbox in front of him), while also having high landing lag after touching the stage. This makes his recovery extremely easy to edgeguard or edgehog, and if Falcon chooses to land on the stage, he can be freely punished upon landing, resulting in him repeatedly being knocked off the stage. As such, getting sent far off the level almost always results in a stock loss against skilled players. Falcon also has limited reach, as he lacks a projectile, has a short grab range and very few disjointed hitboxes. His tilt and smash attacks, in general, are slow and unsafe on block, making him reliant on SHFFL'ed aerials to initiate openings. This makes Falcon's approach options rather predictable, and combined with his lack of reach, limits his effectiveness in the neutral game, especially against characters like, who can overwhelm him with fast attacks. Falcon is also susceptible to chain grabs and combos due to his heavy weight and high falling speed, most notably against, his most difficult matchup, who can combo him extensively with shine and. Overall, Captain Falcon has strong matchups against most of the cast, but struggles against many characters higher on the tier list.

Attributes
Captain Falcon is arguably the fastest character in the game. He has the single fastest dash speed, the second fastest falling speed (behind Falco), and one of the fastest lateral air speeds in the game. These traits, coupled with his high traction, good jumping prowess, the ability to wall jump, and the longest dash dance (because of his many dash initiation frames) give Captain Falcon great approach options, a short but quick wavedash, and the best moonwalk in the game.

Despite lacking a projectile, Captain Falcon's attacks and speediness enable great approach options to KO and combo reliably and efficiently. Many of Falcon's attacks have fairly long startup, but they deal incredible damage and knockback, have great range, and have little ending lag. His low short-hop, very fast falling speed, and aerials that reliably chain into one another makes for an excellent SHFFL, giving him a great damage rate and a multitude of approaches and combo finishers.

His aerials are fast and powerful and allow for many approach and KO options. The second hit of his neutral aerial has sex kick properties and can be SHFFLed very easily. His forward aerial, the (Knee Smash), is arguably Captain Falcon's best move. It can chain into one another through a series of well-timed sweetspots and sourspots, dealing high damage with little startup and KOing at damage percentages as low as 60%. It can be a combo starter and finisher. His back aerial is a quick and powerful backhand punch that is useful for edgeguarding. His up aerial is a high-reaching, strong bicycle kick with very fast startup (5 frames), and can be used for edgeguarding or as an out-of-shield option. His down aerial is the fourth most powerful meteor smash in the game. It has minor startup, high hitstun, and can chain itself into another down air by SHFFLing. If the down aerial hits above Captain Falcon's waist, then it acts as the most powerful spike in the game, though landing this sweetspot requires good spacing and timing.

All of Captain Falcon's smash attacks can be powerful combo starters and finishers with high KOing potential. Captain Falcon's forward smash, despite its fairly long startup, is the third most powerful forward smash in the game in terms of damage and knockback and is an excellent combo finisher and reading tool. His down smash is his fastest, dealing great horizontal knockback, and his up smash can flexibly act as a combo starter and finisher.

A combo notoriously difficult to execute is the infamous Sacred Combo, a two-hit combo involving his Knee Smash followed by a midair Falcon Punch, before the hitstun of the previous attack wears off. If executed correctly, the opponent is likely to be KO'd. However, there are severe consequences if Falcon makes a mistake while performing this technique; it's possible for him to jump too far while performing the Falcon Punch, which will result in a self-destruct.

Despite having a poor grab range (the sixth shortest in the game), Falcon's grab game is among the most flexible and devastating in Melee; his forward and back throws can easily send opponents off the stage at higher percents and create an edgeguard situation, while his up and down throws can be used to start combos and chain grabs.

One of Captain Falcon's glaring and famous weaknesses is his mediocre-at-best recovery. He has high air speed, but the distance that he can cover is drastically shortened by his fast falling speed. He is prone to edgeguarding because his recovery move cannot grab edgehoggers. He can extend his horizontal recovery by performing an uninterrupted Falcon Kick in the air; this gives him back his midair jump, but it usually forces him to recover from the bottom blast line, as the Falcon Kick sends him very far down. Using Raptor Boost is a decent horizontal recovery option, but it grants nonexistent vertical height and cannot instantly snap to the ledge. It also halts recovery immediately if it connects with anything in midair, sending him down the bottom blast line.

Besides somewhat crippling his horizontal recovery, Captain Falcon's fast falling speed also acts as a double-edged sword; while it does grant him a very good combo game and the best vertical knockback resistance in the game due to his above average weight, he is also prone to chain grabs such as 's and 's up throws; combos that utilize moves with decent vertical knockback, such as up tilts and up aerials, are also easier to land on Captain Falcon due to his relatively large hurtbox.

Overall, Captain Falcon is a tank with gifted speed; he can deal a lot of damage and take as much punishment, while having one of the fastest movement speeds in the game. Players must take advantage of this speed and quickly adapt to their opponents to fully utilize his abilities.

Changes from Super Smash Bros.
In the transition from Smash 64 to Melee, Captain Falcon gained a mix of buffs and nerfs. His recovery has seen multiple improvements due to his higher air speed, Falcon Kick giving him his double jump back and Falcon Dive covering more distance. He also benefits from the fact that jumps carry over momentum from a dash moreso than any other character greatly improving his aerial approach. His forward aerial is now his Knee smash which has excellent KO potential and combo ability which along with the previous change, now gives him an extremely powerful and deadly approach option and combo ender. Captain Falcon's horizontal movement is better than ever due to multiple universal changes giving him access to new movement options such as more flexible dash-dancing, wavedashing and moonwalking. Captain Falcon has also gained strong tech-chasing potential due to both the universally increased falling speeds and his new up throw, down throw and his new side special Raptor Boost which also acts as a solid combo starter. Lastly, many of his attacks have reduced ending lag and some of his attacks also have increased KO power (such as forward smash, down smash and the aforementioned Knee smash).

Falcon has also received some significant nerfs however. While he has more movement options and better aerial mobility, his dash speed (while still the fastest) has been decreased especially relative to the cast. His up aerial is no longer an extremely powerful juggling tool due to its clean hit now launching opponents horizontally (although it is still one of his best moves) and its late hit has drastically reduced power no longer being a strong KO move. His throws are also less reliable at comboing (although he now has the potential to chain grab or tech chase his opponents out of his down throw) while his back throw has much lower KO potential. His combo game in general is less consistent and effective due to both the introduction of DI and the fact that some of his other moves having reduced combo potential (such as up smash and down aerial which also have drastically increased startup lag) and are less reliable as his up smash no longer consists of one hit and down aerial can now be meteor-cancelled. A decent amount of Captain Falcon's moves have increased startup lag (such as his smash attacks and aerials) and while some of his attacks have increased KO potential, others have reduced KO power (such as his afforementioned back throw and his aerials besides his forward and down aerials). Captain Falcon also suffers from the changes to shields as while he is less vulnerable to shield pressure, his moveset is less safe on shield with multiple moves (such as his up tilt, landing aerials and Falcon Punch which previous gave him frame advantage against shield) now becoming punishable and his own out of shield options are worse due to his slower and altered aerials making his out of shield game a bigger weakness than it was before. Lastly, his specials are worse in various ways. Falcon Punch is weaker and slower giving it less combo potential, Falcon Dive is considerably weaker and has seen other non-beneficial changes and Falcon Kick now decays over time making it less effective from afar.

Overall, Captain Falcon has a less consistent combo and punish game along with having many moves with increased startup lag and reduced KO power. Despite this, the few reliable KO moves he has are extremely effective and he still possesses a solid combo and punish game. Additionally, most of his moves which were nerfed in some ways were buffed in other ways and he has benefitted from numerous changes to Melee's mechanics which have made his excellent movement speed an even bigger advantage/threat. Nevertheless, Captain Falcon remains one of the stronger characters in the game and has still seen a fair amount of success in tournaments.

Ground attacks

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

Grabs and Throws

 * Grabs:
 * Forward throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Down throw:

Special Moves

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

Version history
Like some other characters, Captain Falcon was slightly changed in the PAL version of Melee.

Moveset
For a gallery of Captain Falcon's hitboxes, see here.

Taunts
Note: Captain Falcon and are the only characters in the game to have two different taunt animations.

Most historically significant players

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


 * - Formerly ranked 61st on the 2015 SSBMRank and 8th on the 2009 RetroSSBMRank. A top old-school Melee Falcon player and one of the Midwest's best and most established players, who continued to compete all the way up to 2017.
 * - One of the best Captain Falcon players in the world, and one of the pioneers of the 20GX movement to optimize competitive Falcon gameplay.
 * - A pioneer of the 20GX movement along with Gahtzu and Wizzrobe. He was formerly ranked 11th on the Central Florida Power Rankings and 41st on the 2016 SSBMRank.
 * - The best Falcon player in Japan, became well-known after a strong performance at Apex 2013. He is ranked 3rd on the Japan SSBM Rank 2019, but rarely travels internationally nowadays.
 * - Considered the best Falcon player in the world before he retired him in favor of, making numerous significant contributions to Falcon's metagame that are still used today. He most notably popularized "Haxdashing", a difficult but strong ledge option, that allowed for mixups and quick ledge invincibility refreshing.
 * - Was regarded as the best Melee Captain Falcon player in the world in his prime during the MLG era. Although his placings at Melee singles tournaments lowered over time, he is one of the few players to have defeated former Melee world champion multiple times. Isai was the first Falcon player to win a major at  and then later in that year became the first Falcon player to win a supermajor at, which would stand as the last time a Falcon player won a supermajor or major for over 13 years, until Wizzrobe won.
 * - One of the best Falcon players in Europe, formerly ranked 66th on the 2015 SSBMRank. He is primarily known for his extremely fast and fluid movement around platforms and offstage, with very precise wavelands and walljumps.
 * - One of the best Captain Falcon players in Northern California, formerly ranked 29th on the 2013 SSBMRank. He is an infamous "hidden boss" in the community, regarded as having top 100-level skill despite rarely traveling to majors.
 * - One of the top Falcon players from 2016-2021, and arguably the most technical among them. He is renowned for his creative, mixup-heavy style, as well as his high-risk/high-reward punishes, which set him apart from other top Falcons such as and . He was the first Falcon to defeat  in tournament in a decade, taking three sets at GOML 2016, UGC Smash Open and DreamHack Austin 2017 . He was also the first Falcon to defeat  in over a decade at Rising Stars at EGLX 2019.
 * - One of the three best Falcon players in the modern era and the most established among them over the past decade. He is known for his unorthodox, air-heavy style and explosive punish game that set him apart from the other two top Falcons. His gameplay coined the term "Johnny Stock," referring to his uncanny ability to string together zero-to-deaths.
 * - One of the best active Falcon players in the world. She is considered the best player in Texas and has had strong results following the online era of Melee, such as 1st at and 9th at . She is currently ranked 18th on the SSBMRank Summer 2023.
 * - While he is now known primarily as a commentator, Scar was one of the most renowned Captain Falcon players in the world from 2009 through 2014. He ranked 62nd on the inaugural 2013 SSBMRank and 89th on the 2014 SSBMRank. His top 6 placement at the first also stood as the best placement for a Falcon player at a supermajor or major in the post-MLG era, until it was first tied by Hax's 5th at, and it wasn't outright exceeded at a major until Wizzrobe placed 4th at , while it would take until  for Wizzrobe to exceed top 6 at a supermajor. Scar is additionally the namesake of the Scar Jump, an advanced version of the wall jump commonly used by Falcon players.
 * - Now semi-retired from Melee, Setchi is notable for having produced many advancements in Captain Falcon's defensive game, including ways of escaping combos and setplay. He also was, to date, the highest ranking European Captain Falcon player, having been ranked 42nd on the 2019 MPGR and achieved results such as 2nd at and 3rd at . He is known for his prowess against  and, but has mostly stopped attending Melee tournaments to focus on Guilty Gear: Strive.
 * - Along with, SilentSpectre was responsible for the immensely famous Wombo Combo. He is also one of most influential old-school Falcons, along with Isai, Darkrain, and Scar, who popularized the fast-paced and aggressive playstyle of Captain Falcon.
 * - One of the three best Falcon players in the modern era, and considered to be overall the best among them. A pioneer of the 20GX style of play, he is known for his safe, consistent and perfectionist style that relies on guaranteed and optimal tech-chases, edgeguards, and combo follow-ups, which set him apart from the other two top Falcons. Wizzrobe also set numerous placement benchmarks for Falcon; his 4th at DreamHack Austin 2016 was the first time a Falcon player made top 4 at a major in the post-MLG era, while he would later become the first post-MLG Falcon player to place top 4 at an invitational supermajor and an open supermajor, then would become the first Falcon player since Isai to win a supermajor or major at.

Tier placement and history
Captain Falcon was considered a low tier character on the first tier list; inexperienced panelists felt he was inferior to his Super Smash Bros. counterpart, and failed to overcome the high technical skill demands required to play him. Captain Falcon then moved up to the middle tier, but was not recognized as being a solid character until one year after Melee began being played competitively. Dedicated Falcon mains such as showed how powerful his comboing abilities were, and how well he could KO out of a combo with the deadly Knee Smash. Falcon mains began placing very high in tournaments, inching him up the list into the high tier as old high tier characters, such as and, began falling. Despite being ranked as a top tier character, Captain Falcon has always been seen as less viable compared to the other top tiers, as no player has been able to consistenly win majors with the character. In addition, his tournament representation took a hit in 2014 when, the best Captain Falcon player in the world at the time, switched to playing Fox, believing that the latter character was more competitively viable and would help him reach the highest level of play. As a result, Captain Falcon fell to 8th on the 2015 tier list, ranked below the Ice Climbers, considered to be merely a high tier.

However, since 2015, perceptions of Captain Falcon's viability have improved. Falcon's metagame has been further developed by a new wave of top players, including, , , and , as part of the "20GX" movement, which aimed to prove that Captain Falcon was competitively viable. Areas of play including edgeguarding, punishing, and reaction tech-chasing were further refined and optimized, and multiple Captain Falcon players have consistently been able to achieve top eight placings at major tournaments. Wizzrobe in particular became the first player since Isai to win a major with Captain Falcon at, defeating , the number one player in the world, and accomplishing what players like Hax had once called practically impossible.

Despite Captain Falcon's recent successes, his difficult matchups against the space animals (particularly Falco) has left him short of being able to consistently win majors: Wizzrobe's run at Smash 'N' Splash 5 was aided by avoiding Mango, who he has never taken a set off of in tournament. However, his viability is seen as far more improved than in years past, and as a result he rose to the A tier and is ranked 6th on the thirteenth and current tier list.

PAL viability
Captain Falcon only received two changes in the transition to PAL, the more welcome of the two being that the Gentleman can now be done with just three A button presses, without any extra inputs or timing alterations required. The other nerfed his soft Knee Smash, making it hit only half as hard as the NTSC soft Knee Smash. The Gentleman is now much easier to perform and Captain Falcon's jab combo is overall a much more viable damage racking option than it is in NTSC. The nerf to the soft Knee Smash, however, prevents a guaranteed followup into another Knee Smash, slightly weakening Falcon's edgeguarding and combo potential, though this can be worked around by using up aerial instead. With almost all of the characters who would years later be above him in the tier list receiving nerfs (particularly Fox and Sheik), he fares better in those respective matchups, but due to considerably less representation of Captain Falcon in Europe, he remains at 7th place.

Captain Falcon appears in a one-on-one, as an ally, on a team with, , or , in a giant, multi-man, or metal battle. Captain Falcon appears in or Big Blue except in the metal battle where he appears on.

Adventure Mode
Captain Falcon appears in the second portion of Stage 8: F-Zero Grand Prix.

All-Star Mode
Captain Falcon and his allies are fought on.

Event Matches
Captain Falcon is featured in the following event matches:
 * Event 5: Spare Change: The player controls and fights Captain Falcon in a coin battle on Onett. The player must collect 200 coins within 80 seconds in order to clear the event.
 * Event 12: Seconds, Anyone?: The player chooses any character and must defeat Captain Falcon within 7 seconds in a one-stock match on . Both players start with 100% damage.
 * Event 17: Bounty Hunters: The player controls, allied with Captain Falcon, and must deliver the finishing blow to on Jungle Japes. The event results in failure if Captain Falcon delivers the finishing blow or if Bowser self-destructs.
 * Event 20: All-Star Match 2: Captain Falcon is the fourth opponent to be fought in this series of staged battles. The player battles him on, which will transition to the next stage if Captain Falcon gets defeated. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him along with Samus, , , and.
 * Event 33: Lethal Marathon: As Captain Falcon, the player must race to the finish of F-Zero Grand Prix similar to Adventure Mode. However, the gameplay is sped up and the F-Zero racers can deliver almost a one-hit KO.
 * Event 36: Space Travelers: The player uses Ness must defeat Samus,, Fox, Captain Falcon and . The player battles the first three characters on Fourside and battles the last two on Battlefield.
 * Event 43: Birds of Prey: As Fox, the player must defeat Captain Falcon and Falco in a two-stock match on Big Blue.

Trophies
In addition to the normal trophy about Captain Falcon as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing both Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Captain Falcon on any difficulty:

Trivia

 * Captain Falcon is the only character to have every single smash attack changed from Smash 64 to Melee.
 * While Captain Falcon's normal air speed is a great 1.12, by jumping while running he can start off with an airspeed of 2.1, notably faster than any other character's best airspeed and even almost all characters' running speeds (except his own dashing speed and 's).
 * Captain Falcon's red costume (the costume resembling his evil clone, "Blood Falcon") has a different logo on the back of his outfit, being a skull with bird wings and text that reads "BLOOD HAWK" (Blood Falcon's F-Zero machine).
 * In the Japanese version of Melee, the text instead reads "HELL HAWK".
 * Captain Falcon is one of the two characters who was unlockable in Smash 64 that became a starter in Melee, the other being.
 * Each of Captain Falcon's costumes have a unique default pose, with minute alterations on his hands and arms. That leads to tiny differences on his arm hurtbox positions and 3D-orientations, as well as environment collision boxes (ECBs) that govern stage collisions. The differences aren't static, as animations may also alter the arms and hands. For instance, his green costume has the widest ECB on most neutral standing (" ") frames, but on some aerial attack frames its the narrowest instead. Some animations that animate the hands and arms undo the costume differences altogether. Different costumes also have slightly altered hitbox placements on his back air, Raptor Boost, and Falcon Punch. Captain Falcon is the only character in the game known to have gameplay differences depending on costume.
 * , Captain Falcon and are the only characters in Melee that don't finish their defeat noises upon being KO'd horizontally or falling.
 * Captain Falcon's down air attack is the only move in Melee that has both a spiked hitbox and a meteor smash hitbox.
 * When Captain Falcon is selected on the character select screen, one of his attack voice clips is played very quietly, to the point where it is usually barely audible when the music is turned off due to being drowned out by the announcer. As shown by the 's Sound Test, every character has one of these, but only Captain Falcon's isn't silent. The clip also isn't present in the regular Sound Test.
 * His Forward Smash and Raptor Boost are the only moves from Captain Falcon with a proper origin, as they resemble two panels in the comic found in F-Zero's manual, where he's seen hitting two criminals with his elbow and an uppercut in similar poses as the comic.