Falco (SSBB)

Falco (, Falco) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He was confirmed to return as a playable character on February 20, 2008. Hisao Egawa reprises his role in the Japanese version from Melee, providing new voice clips, while he is now voiced by Dex Manley in the English version of the game.

Falco is ranked 7th out of 38 on the tier list, the lowest position of the A- Tier and top tier, and a slight drop from his Melee tier placement, where he was 4th overall. Falco's shots are very fast, hard to punish, very long-ranged, transcendent, and allow him to camp and punish approaches easily. At low percents, Falco can rack up damage quickly using lasers and his down throw chain grab with many follow-ups such as the Gatling Combo or the meteor smash in his down aerial. He also has incredible vertical mobility, fast attack speed, a strong all-purpose attack in his back aerial, the aforementioned down air meteor smash (the fastest meteor smash in Brawl with only 5 frames of startup lag), a long-ranged, and other tricks such as his BDACUS.

Falco still has significant problems, however. While his vertical mobility is excellent, his horizontal mobility is sub-par as Falco has below-average air speed and average dashing speed at best. Falco can have difficulty KOing his opponents who can survive his meteor smash offstage from his chain throw, possessing few reliable KO moves that are not particularly powerful and stale quickly (made worse by the fact that some of his finishers are used frequently). Falco also has a poor recovery; while his Falco Phantasm provides great horizontal distance, it can be predictable and leaves Falco vulnerable for the duration of the move, allowing opponents to easily hit him out of it. Additionally, his Fire Bird travels a short vertical distance, has a very small ledge sweetspot, and is easily edgehogged. His fast falling speed also hinders his recovery, and the fast acceleration of it makes him vulnerable to chain throws from characters like who can chain throw him from low percentages to a KO. Regardless of his disadvantages, Falco still has a large amount of favorable matchups, having only three disadvantageous ones, and has achieved very strong tournament results.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following:
 * Play 50 VS. matches.
 * Complete 100-Man Brawl.
 * Have Falco join the player's party in the Subspace Emissary (The Swamp).

With the exception of the third method, Falco must then be defeated on Lylat Cruise.

Attributes
Falco has a diverse moveset featuring quick attacks, great follow-up ability, capable finishers, the ability to wall jump, the highest initial jump in the game, and a fantastic projectile. Outside of his forward aerial, all of his aerials cancel quickly upon landing, including his down aerial. Falco's Blaster has great range, transcendent priority, and decent speed. The ending lag of aerial blaster shots also cancel quickly upon landing. This gives him an incredible ability to approach or shutdown approaches, as short-hopped Blaster cancels can be immediately chained into many of Falco's other attacks at close or mid range. Although he has a great camping game, he also has a very good close-range game. He has a very fast jab which is can be used to rack up damage or set up for a grab, and his spot dodge is one of the fastest in the game. Falco can also bolster his approach with his dash attack, a quick, strong move that is difficult to defend against. Falco has a chance to forcibly trip opponents with his quick down special, Reflector to further harass their approach due its great range, although it is unsafe on shields and spot dodges due its fairly long ending lag and low amount of shield stun. Reflector can go through walls and also has the ability to reflect uncommon projectiles, such as 's. It can also be used in conjunction with his blaster to safely disrupt recovering opponents from a distance.

One of Falco's most potent moves is his down throw. Although impractical for KOs, it instead provides Falco with an excellent and easy to use chain-throw, chaining into itself up to damage percentages as high as 50% on most characters including the down aerial finish, and it affects more characters than 's down throw chain. When Falco gets to the edge during the chain-throw, he can unavoidably meteor smash opponents to their doom; should they be able to recover, he can simply edge-hog at the right time to prevent their return (on some characters, it doesn't work against most characters). This attack chain is particularly fatal to all the space animals, including himself, due to the delay and movement limitations in their up specials, though Fox can still recover thanks to his buffed up midair jump in the form of Rising Fair. Falco's down throw also combines well into down aerial and dash attack, and a popular alternative finish to the chain-throw is the Gatling Combo where Falco will hit with dash attack before instantly canceling into an up smash. As for characters on which he cannot initiate his chaingrab, his down throw still makes for a good setup move as he can follow up the throw with a wide range of attacks from his arsenal, such as his neutral and down aerials, side smash, DACUS, Blaster, Reflector, jab, and forward tilt. However, Falco's grab range is sub-par at best and as such, he can have trouble grabbing nimble characters who can potentially out-camp him such as or, who would otherwise be helpless against Falco's chain grab. It should be noted though that if Falco lands close to his opponents after successfully connecting a short hopped double laser, he is almost guaranteed a free grab.

For finishing moves, one of Falco's lackluster areas, Falco can use his forward and up smashes to good effect, though his forward smash is slow and is weak in the tip (although it has a fast charge release, has fairly long range and the hitbox lasts some frames with the weak hitbox being during the last frames). His up smash has strong, purely vertical knockback if it hits during the upswing of his kick, and can be used as a DACUS to gain the jump on opponents further away, though its hitboxes have poor range. The hitboxes of the latter portion of Falco's up smash have little knockback and cannot KO below 200%. However, at high percentages, it acts as a somewhat effective semispike, which can prove fatal to opponents with poor recoveries. Falco is also armed with a fast and powerful meteor smash in his down aerial that can KO at percentages as low as 50%. However, although this move has a slight horizontal disjoint, it has little range with only a small sweetspot the very start on the move spikes, and sourspotting the attack knocks back horizontally with fairly low knockback and lasts a long time while in the air, which makes it dangerous to use off the edge given Falco's fast falling speed. Falco's down aerial excels at spikes near the edge and at spiking opponents above the stage, setting them up for punishment or even a different finisher as they get up from the floor. Falco also has an infinite in the form of his laser lock which can be set up up somewhat easily with his down aerial or down throw followed by a buffered jab (see the techniques section below for more thorough information). It can also potentially set up KOs from his BDACUS.

Falco's major weaknesses lie in recovery and finish ability. Although Falco Phantasm (side special) gives moderately good horizontal distance, Fire Bird (up special) has very short distance, leaves Falco vulnerable during the charge, and is easily edgeguarded, and its only real use is recovering from below or diagonally. His falling speed has some hindrances, such as making him a candidate for 's 0%-100% chain-grab (although he has resistance against chain-grabs that are ineffective against lightweights such as 's down throw chain-grab). Although planking can pose a problem for Falco, this issue is ameliorated in the tournament scene where it's usually limited or banned altogether. The main causes of Falco's poor finish ability stem not from a lack of KO moves, but rather his difficulty in landing them, particularly against quick, mobile characters, due to the fact that some of his moves used for racking up damage also happen to be his only KO moves, have poor range, and stale when his foes get within KO percentages, and his forward smash has its aforementioned power though slow start-up and ending lag.

Other than his recovery and poor finishing ability, Falco has no critical problems. Smart, experienced Falco players have overcome these setbacks with his defense and adaptability.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee
Unlike in Melee where Falco was a clone of Fox, Falco's moveset received a massive overhaul, to the point where is now a semi-clone rather than a full clone.

While Falco is still a top tier character in Brawl, he has been significantly nerfed from Melee with little to no compensation, albeit to a lesser extent than Fox. His overall endurance has been worsened; his much slower falling speed and the changes to knockback formula have made him more frail despite his increased weight, similar to Fox. His Reflector has lost a lot of its utility: it can no longer be jump-cancelled, and the changes to hitstun have removed his high damaging combos and KO setups from Melee. Falco's overall KO power has been weakened, as his back aerial, down tilt, and forward smash are weaker. Down aerial is slightly stronger during its early hitbox; however, it now only meteor smashes during the first few frames, instead of throughout the whole move, similarly to how it was in the PAL version of Melee. Also, due to the removal of spikes, it is now meteor-cancellable, significantly worsening its KOing potential.

Falco's new moves have overall poorer utility than their previous iterations. Neutral aerial is less effective for approaching, pressuring, and comboing, forward aerial has very high landing lag, and up aerial deals less damage and is weaker. Forward smash's sweetspot is hard to land. His already poor recovery has been both buffed and nerfed: he can maneuver more effectively offstage due to his lower falling speed and faster air speed, and Falco Phantasm goes farther, but Fire Bird travels an even shorter distance than before.

However, Falco has received notable buffs. His grab game has better utility. Down throw can no longer be teched by opponents, and allows for easy and highly damaging chain-grabs, partially making up for the loss of his Shine combos. The addition of the DACUS gives Falco a new and reliable approach option, and aids his damage racking ability. The more defensive gameplay in Brawl has indirectly boosted his already strong camping game; the loss of several mobility options makes it much harder to overcome Falco's Blaster, and he has gained a few notable laser techniques, and he can also fire two lasers from a short-hop.

Despite his numerous nerfs, Falco still remains more effective than the majority of the cast since most other veterans were heavily nerfed to various degrees, as well as him being less affected by the transition of Melee ' s physics to Brawl's compared to other characters.

Ground attacks

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

Throws/other attacks

 * Pummel:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Edge attack:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Edge attack:
 * Down throw:
 * Edge attack:
 * Down throw:
 * Edge attack:
 * Edge attack:
 * Edge attack:

Special moves

 * Blaster
 * Falco Phantasm:
 * Fire Bird:
 * Final Smash:
 * Falco Phantasm:
 * Fire Bird:
 * Final Smash:
 * Fire Bird:
 * Final Smash:
 * Final Smash:
 * Final Smash:
 * Final Smash:
 * Final Smash:
 * Final Smash:
 * Final Smash:
 * Final Smash:
 * Final Smash:

Techniques

 * Silent Lasering: A silent laser refers to canceling the ending lag of a single blaster shot by short hopping and using his Blaster instead of using it in the ground. This allows Falco to SHDL and combo a laser into an up smash, DACUS, or BDACUS for a KO. Another interesting advantage to this technique is that a perfectly performed silent laser will cancel about 6 frames of the blaster's landing lag. This will allow Falco to land in front of his opponents and grab them before they can spot dodge. He can proceed to start his trade mark, deadly chain grab combos. It should be noted that this will not work if the blaster is stale, as a stale silent laser will only cancel 4 lag frames.
 * Laser Cancelling: Using Falco's Blaster before touching the ground cancels landing lag and shortens response time upon landing. The optimal timing is noticeable because Falco will draw his laser, but not fire a shot. This is used for mind games, because of its look of Falco immediately becoming neutral. It is more useful for flail recovery than tapping the shield button upon landing because there are no frames on landing, and Falco is able to attack more quickly. In Melee, the response time reduction is more significant, but it lacks in flail recovery. In Brawl, the flail recovery is better, but the response time reduction is almost unnoticeable. They both cancel flail (assuming the player has control) equally.
 * Laser lock: Some of Falco's moves have enough hit stun to cause opponents to bounce on the ground. If one's reflexes allow it, Falco can use his lasers to trap opponents in the bouncing animation, effectively giving him a potent and inescapable lock.

Taunts
Falco is one of only four characters to speak in all three taunts in Brawl, the others being, and  (though Peach uses real words in two of her taunts, and Pikachu, like most Pokémon, only ever says variations of its name). Additionally, in the English version, Falco speaks in his taunts with a Brooklynese Italian-American accent (his surname, Lombardi, is Italian).

Notable players

 * See also: Category:Falco players (SSBB)


 * 🇯🇵 Japan Aki
 * - Widely considered to be the best Falco player in the world, and the greatest Falco player of all time.
 * - Considered to be one of Japan's two best Falco players, along with.
 * - Co-mains Falco with.
 * - Considered to be one of Japan's two best Falco players, along with.
 * - Widely considered to be the best Falco player in the world, and the greatest Falco player of all time.
 * - Considered to be one of Japan's two best Falco players, along with.
 * - Co-mains Falco with.
 * - Considered to be one of Japan's two best Falco players, along with.
 * - Considered to be one of Japan's two best Falco players, along with.
 * - Considered to be one of Japan's two best Falco players, along with.
 * - Considered to be one of Japan's two best Falco players, along with.

Tier placement and history
Falco has always been seen as a top-tier character in Brawl, though he is ranked slightly lower in the most recent tier lists than in the previous ones. Falco was ranked 5th place on the first tier list (September 2008) in the top tier, and rose to 3rd in the second (January 2009; his highest position so far). He then remained at 4th from the third tier list to the sixth, before dropping to 6th on the seventh (April 2012), then 7th on the eighth and current list, as of April 2013. While Falco has had many notable players contributing to his metagame, as well as having always had great matchups against the majority of the cast, he does have trouble against some top/high tiers, and his less successful recent tournament results hold him back, though he still remains a top tier character.

Role in The Subspace Emissary
Ejecting from his Arwing, Falco shows up just in time to save from trophyization at the hands of  and a Shadow Bug clone of  by flip-kicking the Dark Cannon from Bowser's hands and destroying it with dual lasergun fire, forcing Bowser to leave. He is shown to use two blasters, but only uses one when he is used in-game. This makes Falco the only character who destroys a Dark Cannon in SSE, no matter which princess the player rescues. The Diddy clone begins to absorb more Shadow Bugs, becoming gigantic, and after Fox revives the real Diddy, the three fight the giant clone. Falco then turns to leave, but is dragged back by Diddy and reluctantly comes along. A stupefied Fox shrugs his shoulders and walks off after them as he received the same treatment from Diddy earlier.

As and  look down at the ship carrying 's trophy, Falco's Arwing shows up, ejecting Diddy Kong from the cockpit. Diddy then activates his Rocket Barrel Jet Pack and shoots the ship with his Peanut Popguns. Landing on the ship, he quickly detrophifies DK, and after DK, Diddy, Captain Falcon, and Olimar defeat the Primids that board the ship, Falco gives Diddy and Donkey Kong a thumbs up as he leaves.

He makes his next appearance in the battle against Duon on the Halberd, where he teams up with, , , , and. When it's defeated, Peach revives as  takes back control of his ship. He uses his Arwing during the attack on the Subspace Gunship and maneuvers effectively to avoid the cannons. He enters Subspace and stands loftily, as if he is above this. When he is turned into a trophy, he is rescued by, and , and joins them in the Great Maze. He aids them in the fight against Tabuu.

Playable appearances
After Outside the Ancient Ruins is finished, Falco will be removed from the player's team until the Duon battle in Battleship Halberd Bridge.


 * The Swamp
 * Battleship Halberd Bridge
 * Entrance to Subspace
 * The Great Maze - If he's rescued in Subspace (Part I)

Exclusive stickers
These stickers can only be used by Falco or a select few including him.
 * Andrew: Launch Resistance +7
 * Arwing: [Leg] Attack +6
 * Falco (Star Fox 64): [Weapon] Attack +11
 * Falco (Star Fox Adventures): [Specials: Indirect] Attack +11
 * Falco (Star Fox Command): [Energy] Attack +14
 * Falco (Star Fox: Assault): [Tail] Attack +20
 * Fox (Star Fox 64): [Energy] Attack +18
 * Fox (Star Fox Adventures): [Arm, Leg] Attack +15
 * Fox (Star Fox Assault): [Energy] Attack +33
 * Krystal (Star Fox Adventures): [Electric] Attack +28
 * Krystal (Star Fox Command): [Energy] Attack +12
 * Krystal (Star Fox: Assault): [Tail] Attack +17
 * Miniature Dachshund: [Tail] Attack +28
 * Panther: [Tail] Attack +18
 * Pigma: [Arm] Attack +7
 * ROB: [Electric] Resistance +15
 * Wolf: [Arm, Leg] Attack +15
 * Wolfen (Star Fox 64): [Tail] Attack +16
 * Wolfen (Star Fox: Assault): [Tail] Attack +30

Using stickers
Falco mainly benefits from energy stickers as his Blaster and Reflector as well as all of his throws except his forward throw are energy attacks. He has exclusive access to a few tail stickers which covers his down tilt. He's most benefited from arm and leg stickers due to the majority of his attacks are punches and kicks. He also benefits from slash stickers as much of his standard moves as well as his Falco Phantasm are slash attacks. Flame stickers can cover his Fire Bird special move.

In Classic Mode, Falco can appear as an opponent or ally in Stage 7 if he has been unlocked along with, , and on Lylat Cruise. Falco 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, Falco is fought in Stage 16 alongside and  on Lylat Cruise.

Solo Events

 * Event 32: Bird in Darkest Night: As Falco (with a dark alternative costume), the player must defeat on Brinstar. The stage gets dark very frequently throughout the match.
 * Event 34: All-Star Battle Melee: Falco is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are newcomers from Super Smash Bros. Melee.
 * Event 38: The Wolf Hunts the Fox: As, the player must defeat and Falco on Lylat Cruise.

Co-op Events

 * Co-Op Event 19: Shadow of Andross: and Falco team up to defeat  on Lylat Cruise while an Andross assist trophy is used against them.
 * Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on.

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

Trivia

 * Falco holds the world record for Level 2 Target Smash, by completing it in 3.95 seconds. He also holds the Co-op Target Smash world record for Level 1 with (2.66 seconds), and holds the top two records in Level 2 (Co-op) with:
 * (3.30 seconds).
 * (3.55 seconds).
 * Falco's up and down smashes have the lowest uncharged base knockback of all the uncharged up and down smashes.
 * Strangely, the Prima game guide gives Falco a "10" ranking on speed, even though his dash speed is actually only average (although his walking, falling, and attack speed are among the fastest).
 * The lasers fired during Falco's up, down and back throws can be reflected, and damage Falco instead, if his opponent is wearing a Franklin Badge.
 * All of Falco's smash attacks can hit on both sides of him.
 * Owing to his thick in the English dub of Brawl, Falco's down taunt, where he says "Hands off my prey", is thought to sound like "Hands off my bread" to a number of players; this inspired a number of jokes, image macros, and references in the Smash community.
 * Falco is the only character who has a codec conversation that does not feature Colonel Roy Campbell, Otacon, nor Mei Ling; instead, his Codec Conversation features Slippy, who is implied to have hacked onto Colonel's channel.
 * Despite wearing a scanner on his headgear in his game model, Falco does not wear this in his official artwork.