Falco Phantasm

Falco Phantasm (, Falco Vision) is Falco's side special move.

Overview
Falco quickly dashes at the opponent, leaving a trail of blueish-tinted afterimages behind him. The opponent can be hit by Falco or any one of the afterimages. Despite the fact that the move is an attack, it is rarely used as such; it is primarily used as a recovery technique, due to its speed. When used as an attack, it deals about 7% damage and is a meteor smash, although it usually only inadvertently hits opponents that are careless.

In Melee and Brawl, like the Fox Illusion and Wolf Flash, the Falco Phantasm can be ended early by pressing the button for a special move before its animation is complete, but a few frames must pass by before it will work. An easy way to time the canceling of this move would be to press the special button at the exact point the high pitched 'cling' noise is played. While not an ideal move for KOing, the move's meteor smash can be useful for counter edgeguarding while recovering, but is highly unlikely to KO the opponent even at high percentages, as it is exceedingly weak. The Phantasm can also be used for a very swift approach. Short hopping slightly increases the distance traveled. It, along with the Fox Illusion, can be reversed by quickly tapping the control stick in the opposite direction. The sparkle will stay in its original position, which can lead to mindgames.

Differences from Fox Illusion

 * In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Falco Phantasm covers a shorter distance than Fox Illusion. This can be a good or bad thing; good because it makes it easier to sweetspot the edge than with Fox Illusion, bad because it can not be used from as far of a distance. However, in Super Smash Bros. Brawl; not only does it deal more damage than Fox's, but Falco Phantasm travels the same distance as Fox Illusion. In Smash 4, it once again travels less distance than Fox's, reducing its attack range; however, since both moves now stop themselves at the ledge, there are no advantages to this.
 * Falco Phantasm, if used in the air, can meteor smash the opponent. Fox Illusion cannot.
 * Falco Phantasm has less startup lag than Fox Illusion.
 * Since Falco only travels for 4 frames, there are only 4 shortened Phantasm lengths, as opposed to Fox, who has 5.

Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:


 * 1) Falco Phantasm: Default.
 * 2) Falco Phase: Falco becomes intangible as he travels straight through opponents and projectiles almost instantly. However, the move doesn't deal any damage, and is not a good recovery move, due to its increased ending lag. Falco also loses most of his aerial momentum upon finishing the move in the air.
 * 3) Falco Charge: Nearly halves the distance of the move and travels slower, but increases the damage and knockback, especially at the beginning. The move sends opponents diagonally (therefore losing its meteor smash ability) and has slight KO potential at very high percentages. If the start of the move hits a shielding opponent, Falco dashes farther than normal.

Origin
Falco Phantasm is an exclusive move to the  series, but it may have been inspired by the Arwing's ability to fly at lightspeed after traveling through warps in Meteo and Sector X in Star Fox 64.

Trivia

 * In Ultimate, the afterimages use Falco's design from the Wii U version of Smash 4.

Fantasma Falco