Falco (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Mark Lund reprises his role from ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'' with new voice clips, sounding more akin to his appearances in ''Star Fox Zero'' and ''Starlink: Battle for Atlas''. In the Japanese version, Falco is now voiced by Kōsuke Takaguchi, reprising his role from ''Star Fox 64 3D'' and ''Star Fox Zero'' and who also voiced {{SSBU|Wolf}}, replacing Hisao Egawa from ''[[Melee]]'', ''[[Brawl]]'', and ''Smash 4''.

Falco is a lightweight character with the highest [[jump]] in the game, a fast [[initial dash]] speed, the 7th highest [[gravity]], the 10th fastest [[walking speed]], the 11th fastest [[falling speed]], the 12th highest [[traction]] and the 9th best [[air acceleration]], but in contrast has average [[Dash|dashing speed]] and the 23rd slowest [[air speed]]. This makes his movement somewhat polarizing as he has overall mediocre horizontal movement (especially while airborne), but excels in reaching insane vertical heights.

Owing to his status as a "talented aerial fighter" with an "amazing jumping ability" and fast falling speed, Falco's greatest strengths lie in his strong combo, juggling, and edgeguarding capabilities; with his aerials being most evident of these traits. Up aerial in particular, is his primary juggling tool, thanks its quick startup, wide hitbox that can hit opponents on landing, and low overall lag and knockback. These traits make it very effective at starting and extending juggles, and as well as being capable of comboing into itself and other aerials. Additionally, it can KO at high percents near the upper blast line. Neutral aerial has a large, lasting hitbox that covers Falco and is a fast multi-hit, making it a good disruptor and combo extender/finisher. It can also drag opponents downward, allowing it to start combos on stage. Forward aerial has decent horizontal range and is also a lasting multi-hit, allowing it to edgeguard and KO reliably. Like his neutral aerial, it can drag opponents downward as well, putting offstage opponents in a very bad spot. Back aerial is one of the strongest aerials of its kind and can reliably KO even from center-stage. Lastly, down aerial, while nowhere near as notorious as its previous iterations, comes out fast and is a lasting hitbox; with its clean hit being a powerful meteor smash, giving it the ability to start combos onstage and score early KOs against poor recoveries.

Although Falco's ground game looks limited, he has a handful of respectable options at his disposal. Up tilt, in particular is Falco's staple in initiating combos thanks to its very quick startup, great coverage, and low ending lag and knockback. It can combo into itself and any of his aerials, and even setup for KO's into back aerial or up aerial at high percents. Down tilt, despite being Falco's most powerful tilt, is also capable of follow-ups into aerials thanks to its sourspots' lower power. Additionally, it covers a good distance in front of himself, allowing him to burst KO grounded opponents or call out low recoveries aiming for the ledge. Forward smash has a wide front hitbox and can kill fairly early if performed near the ledge, while down smash comes out quick and sends at a [[semi-spike]] angle, working as another burst KO option and heavily threatening those with poor recoveries. His other moves, although more situational, still have their uses: neutral attack comes out exceedingly quick and its first two hits can [[lock]], forward tilt can be angled and is relatively fast, allowing it to be used as a decent spacing option, and dash attack has a long duration, enabling it to catch dodges and landings, with its clean hit sending at a favorable angle for juggles and its late hit sending opponents at a much lower angle for edgeguards.

Complementing Falco's aerials and tilts is his grab game, as overshielding his feared up tilt and aerials provides Falco the opportunity to make use of his highly damaging throws. Up throw is Falco's best throw, as much like up tilt, it is an effective combo starter into any of his aerials at all percents and can perform KO setups or even outright KO with its second hit. Forward throw and down throw, while lacking true combos, can lead into follow-ups lower near the ground at low to mid percents. Finally, back throw's first hit is a semispike that sets up for Falco's strong edgeguarding game, while its second hit can outright KO at high percents near the blast line.

Considering his special moveset, Falco's specials can provide unique benefits. [[Blaster]] is his primary ranged option, with it being an effective disruptor due to its fast projectile and greatly reduced ending lag. Its shots can be used to pressure, provoke or halt approaches, snipe double jumps, or even outright gimp poor recoveries. [[Falco Phantasm]] has Falco dash very quickly, making it great for horizontal recovery. Its grounded version can start combos at low to mid percents and even set up KOs with back aerial at high percents, while its aerial version can meteor smash careless edgeguarders. [[Fire Bird]] is his main recovery option and grants respectable distance in any chosen direction. It can also work as a niche damage option due to having damaging hitboxes throughout and can deal well over 30% if all hits connect. Lastly, [[Reflector]] activates on frame 1, making reacting against quick projectiles less of a liability for Falco; it also has a hitbox which activates slightly later that serves as a decent poking tool.

In spite of Falco's well-balanced strengths, he has numerous weaknesses. His most prominent flaws are his survivability and his inconsistency. Despite being a lightweight, Falco is vulnerable to combos due to his fast falling speed and lack of escape options. Although Falco's recovery grants respectable distance, it is very linear. Falco Phantasm no longer passes shields, making it far easier to corner him from his recovery. Without his double jump, Falco is in great danger offstage due to the nerfs to air dodging and how Fire Bird is still slow and predictable.

Regarding his moveset, Falco has several moves that do not function properly and can even work against him. Up tilt has a sourspot near the end of its first hit with set knockback, making it unsafe on hit. Up smash, despite having fast startup and high vertical reach, has large blindspots that only allow medium-sized or larger characters that are only directly next to and in front of Falco to be hit, leaving him extremely vulnerable from behind and against small or crouching opponents (even if they're directly in front of Falco). Additionally, plaguing him since ''Smash 4'', both up tilt and up smash are prone to failing to properly connect against aerial opponents. Despite its looks, neutral aerial has difficulty hitting opponents from behind, and due to changes in the game's engine, the move's looping hits are more prone to failing to connect than it was in the previous installment. While Blaster and Reflector have reduced lag, the former is still unsafe on hit even from a distance, while the latter still has a misleadingly small hitbox and its removed trip chance ironically makes it even more unsafe on hit overall than in ''Smash 4''. Most notoriously, however, are Falco's back and up throws. Due to changes in the game's physics, the laser from both throws are even more prone to being DI'd than before, allowing opponents to survive in excess of what would've been a KO.

These aforementioned problems compound Falco's other more defined weakness of struggling to secure a KO. Like fellow ''Star Fox'' fighters {{SSBU|Fox}} and {{SSBU|Wolf}}, Falco's strongest moves are also his slowest in terms of startup and/or endlag, requiring careful execution to avoid heavy punishment. Lastly, Falco's damage output and range have been nerfed from ''Smash 4''. This is especially noteworthy due to most of the cast receiving various buffs not limited to these aspects and the prominence of swordfighters and zoners in ''Ultimate''.

Overall, Falco has the tools that let him defensively pressure his opponent, then effectively capitalize on their errors with his strong combo and edgeguarding capabilities. However, he can struggle keeping up with faster opponents and as well as against those who have large disjoints. Although he can score early KOs through a well-executed edgeguard or hard read, Falco must be careful not to let opponents take advantage of his own weaknesses to avoid being combo'd and KO'd early himself.

Likely owing to his low-tier placement in ''SSB4'', Falco has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition to ''Ultimate'', being greatly buffed overall.

Falco's buffs mainly address his weakened tools that affected his previous transition from ''Brawl'' to ''SSB4'', notably to his notoriously nerfed {{b|Blaster|Falco}} and [[down aerial]]: Blaster has faster startup, fires at a faster rate while grounded, and has much lower ending lag, drastically improving one of his staple moves and making it less punishable. Additionally, down aerial is much faster (now being half as fast as in ''Brawl'') and has regained its ability to [[autocancel]] from a short hop. These changes allow both to function as tools for approaching or walling once again, instead of being limited to only [[edgeguarding]] and hard reads. Many of his other moves have been made more usable as well: his [[neutral attack]]'s first two hits can [[lock]], and its infinite portion connects more consistently. [[Down tilt]], [[forward smash]] and [[up smash]] deal more damage, while [[forward tilt]] and [[up tilt]] have reduced ending lag (greatly improving their spacing and combo potential, respectively), and [[forward aerial]] starts faster. Falco's grounded movement is noticeably faster, and the universal 3-frame jumpsquat and reduction to [[landing lag]] improve his strong aerial game, allowing him to easily juggle aerial foes while leaving him less vulnerable when landing; this also makes his short hop combos more effective. Finally, the nerfs to air dodging further compliment his aerial game, allowing him to once again abuse his edgeguarding capabilities. As a result, Falco's [[neutral game]] is more consistent, improving on one of his biggest weaknesses from ''SSB4''.

However, Falco has also received noticeable nerfs, which worsen some of his worst traits, including his [[recovery]]. Though he does possess the highest jump in the game, Falco has had his already poor recovery nerfed as [[Falco Phantasm]] now travels slightly less distance and no longer passes through shields, making it even easier to intercept and more punishable. Meanwhile, Falco's other recovery option in [[Fire Bird]] is also still extremely linear and easy to exploit. Furthermore, the nerfs to air dodges make both of his recovery options even more linear and exploitable than before. Additionally, while many of his combo-centric moves were made more effective through reduced lag, they have also been weakened (forward tilt, up tilt, [[up aerial]]), requiring him to deal more hits to acquire damage. This ties in with Falco's KO ability, which has also been toned down: moves such as forward aerial and [[back throw]] do less knockback, while his strongest attacks have higher startup lag (down tilt, [[down smash]], and most notably [[back aerial]]), making it even harder for him to close a stock. Moves such as neutral attack and forward smash no longer move him forward as much, reducing their range, while up smash's hitbox was altered to such an extent that it will completely miss against grounded opponents unless they are right in front of Falco. Finally, {{b|Reflector|Falco}} no longer has a bonus chance to [[trip]] opponents, removing its utility for follow-ups and worsening its overall safety. As a result, while Falco may have more effective combos and spacing abilities than before, many of his weaknesses are even more defined.

Overall, Falco is considered to be much better than his appearance in ''SSB4'', since his key strengths are more threatening than before, and his neutral game has seen noticeable improvements. Although his player base is still somewhat small, he has nonetheless achieved very good results thanks to many good players such as {{Sm|Larry Lurr}}, {{Sm|Kofi}}, {{Sm|PiXL}}, {{Sm|Juice}}, and {{Sm|Tilde}}. The general consensus is that he is an upper-mid/lower-high tier character.

Falco has been buffed significantly via game updates. Curiously, he was left totally unchanged throughout several updates until update 7.0.0, which enlarged his shield as part of a near-universal buff. Following this, update 8.0.0 granted Falco a number of noteworthy buffs. His infamous up smash became significantly more consistent, thanks to hitbox and knockback adjustments, and its respectable power was increased even further. Neutral aerial, which was also somewhat notable for being inconsistent, was noticeably improved via hitbox adjustments and its last hit being sped up.

 

In update 13.0.1, Falco was buffed one last time. His dash attack deals deals more damage on both of its hitboxes with compensated knockback, making it KO slightly earlier. And finally, his forward smash now has added hitboxes on frame 17, making it better match the animation and giving it slightly longer hitbox detection.

Due to his buffs, Falco fares significantly better than he did at ''Ultimate''{{'}}s launch, and he is generally seen a lower high tier character instead of a low tier character like in ''SSB4''.

|usdesc=Engulfs himself in an aura of [[flame]] before launching himself in a fiery tackle. The trajectory of the move can be chosen before Falco launches himself, with up to 16 angles to choose from. After the move ends, Falco becomes helpless. Compared to [[Fire Fox]], Fire Bird travels less distance, deals multiple hits and has almost no KO potential, though it does a high amount of total damage if every hit lands (does a maximum of 33%, being one of the most damaging up specials in the game). It can, therefore, be used as a niche damage-racking option, though the looping hits sometimes have issues keeping the opponent trapped in the move.

*Turns his torso towards the camera (away from it if he's facing left).

SSBUFalcoIdle1.gif|Falco's first idle pose

SSBUFalcoIdle2.gif|Falco's second idle pose

*'''Up:''' Jumps high into the air while scoffing, then poses on the ground while forcing a laugh. His ending pose is reminiscent of his artwork in ''Smash 4'', as well as his old [[spot dodge]] animation.

''Any number following the Smasher name indicates placement on the [[Fall 2019 PGRU]], which recognizes the official top 50 players in the world in [[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]] from July 13th, 2019 to December 15th, 2019.''

''See also: [[:Category:Falco professionals (SSBU)]]''

*{{Sm|Active|USA}} - Placed 13th at both {{Trn|Play With Heart}} and {{Trn|Emerald City 8}}, 17th at {{Trn|Port Priority 5}}, and 65th at {{Trn|GENESIS 7}} with wins over players such as {{Sm|Moxi}}, {{Sm|Duwang}}, and {{Sm|Remi}}. Currently ranked 4th on the [[Oregon Power Rankings]].

*{{Sm|FILIP|Japan}} - One of the best Falco players in Japan. Placed 2nd at {{Trn|TSC 13}}, 25th at {{Trn|Sumabato SP 2}}, 17th at {{Trn|Seibugeki 8}}, and 33rd at both {{Trn|Umebura SP 4}} and {{Trn|Umebura SP 5}}.

*{{Sm|Jaxter|UK}} - The best Falco player in Europe. Placed 5th at {{Trn|DAT BlastZone 31}}, 7th at {{Trn|BIG LAB: Awakening}}, 9th at {{Trn|Manchester Conquest 6}}, 13th at {{Trn|Super SmashPoint 3}}, and 33rd at {{Trn|Valhalla III}} with wins over players such as {{Sm|marisa}} and {{Sm|Lucky|p=Germany}}. Currently ranked 7th on the [[England Power Rankings]].

*{{Sm|Juice|USA}} - Co-mains Falco with {{SSBU|Greninja}} and is one of the best Falco players in the world. Placed 7th at {{Trn|Smashadelphia 2019}}, 13th at {{Trn|Shine 2019}}, 17th at {{Trn|Glitch 6}}, and 33rd at both {{Trn|Smash 'N' Splash 5}} and {{Trn|Glitch 8 - Missingno}} with wins over players such as {{Sm|Light|p=Connecticut}}, {{Sm|LeoN}}, and {{Sm|Scend}}. Currently ranked 1st on the [[Philadelphia Power Rankings#Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Rankings|Philadelphia Ultimate Power Rankings]].

*{{Sm|Kofi|USA}} - One of the best Falco players in the United States. Placed 7th at {{Trn|Return to Yoshi's Island}}, 9th at {{Trn|Smash at The Paramount}}, 33rd at both {{Trn|Glitch 7 - Minus World}} and {{Trn|Smash 'N' Splash 5}}, and 49th at {{Trn|GENESIS 7}} with wins over players such as {{Sm|Mr.E}}, {{Sm|Sinji}}, {{Sm|UtopianRay}}.

*{{Sm|Larry Lurr|USA}} - Co-mains Falco with {{SSBU|Wolf}}. Placed 2nd at {{Trn|Super Splat Bros}}, 7th at {{Trn|The Kid, the Goat, and the Mang0}}, 9th at {{Trn|DreamHack Dallas 2019}}, and 17th at {{Trn|2GG: Prime Saga}} with wins over players such as {{Sm|MkLeo}}, {{Sm|VoiD}}, and {{Sm|Sparg0}}.

*{{Sm|MASA|Japan}} - The best Falco player in Japan. Placed 5th at both {{Trn|Kagaribi}} and {{Trn|Seibugeki 9}}, 7th at {{Trn|Seibugeki 8}}, and 33rd at both {{Trn|Umebura SP 7}} and {{Trn|Sumabato SP 11}} with wins over players such as {{Sm|kameme}}, {{Sm|Jagaimo}}, and {{Sm|huto}}.

*{{Sm|Tilde|USA}} - Currently the best Falco player in the world. Placed 4th at {{Trn|Momentous}}, 9th at {{Trn|Glitch 8.5 - Konami Code}}, 13th at {{Trn|Temple: Hermès Edition}}, 17th at {{Trn|Riptide}}, and 25th at {{Trn|Defend the North 2019}} with wins over players such as {{Sm|Light|p=Connecticut}}, {{Sm|Gen}}, and {{Sm|NickC}}. Online, placed 4th at {{Trn|The Box: Lunch Box 11}} and 9th at {{Trn|Frame Perfect Series 4: ONLINE}}. Currently ranked 38th on the [[Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v7]].

{{clear}}

*One of the pictures of Falco from [https://www.smashbros.com/en_US/fighter/20.html his fighter page] on the ''Ultimate'' website features him using [[Fire Bird]] above the [[Great Plateau Tower]]. This is a likely homage to {{s|zeldawiki|Revali}}, a similar looking character from ''{{s|zeldawiki|The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild}}''. Falco also represents Revali in his Spirit battle.

*The afterimages of Falco's [[Falco Phantasm]] still uses his model from ''Smash 4'' rather than his ''Ultimate'' model. This is shared with Fox's [[Fox Illusion]].