Falco (SSB4): Difference between revisions

While he has received miscellaneous buffs, Falco has been nerfed overall from ''Brawl'' to ''Smash 4''. Falco has technically been buffed in all other regards, with increased KO ability in several of his attacks, an above-average selection of throws, all of which serve some practical use outside of inferior strings and situational high-damage kills, and a harder to edgeguard recovery due to the buffs to [[Falco Phantasm]] and the removal of edgehogging, but at the cost of losing effective neutral, approaching, and damage racking abilities. His most significant nerf was to his [[Blaster]]; formerly the crux of his neutral game, the shots can no longer autocancel, weakening his approaches and his ability to pressure from afar. The removal of [[DACUS]] only exacerbates this as Falco now lacks any safe, quick way to approach enemies on the ground and follow up on combos or strings. His down aerial, which was a staple in his playstyle in previous games, has also been significantly nerfed, weakening his ability to close out stocks quickly. It also weakens his ability to approach with down aerial, a relatively effective strategy in past games, unless the player frame cancels the move (which is extremely difficult to do consistently in tournament settings). The removal of chain grabs is also a double-edged sword for Falco; while Falco is no longer an easy victim to it, its removal means that he loses his down throw chain grab, which impairs his ability to rack up damage quickly.

Thus, while Falco's punish game besides down aerial has been left relatively untouched, Falco is now more easily camped and must work much harder to win neutral exchanges, which are disadvantages he cannot afford to endure at high-level play due to his fast falling speed and the ease in which he can be comboed by other characters.

In recent patches, Falco has been given improvements to his punish game, particularly his aerials, due to the increased versatility of his neutral aerial and greatly decreased startup lag of his up aerial. Additionally, his throws have improved. While this does not improve Falco's worsened neutral game, it does give him more options on the offensive and improves his previously nerfed damage racking ability, making him slightly more viable.