Captain Falcon: Difference between revisions

|lastappearance= ''{{s|mariowiki|Mario Kart 8 Deluxe}}'' (2017, cameo)

|homeworld    = {{s|fzerowiki|Port Town}}

|voiceactor  = {{s|wikipedia|Ryō Horikawa}}

'''Captain Falcon''' ({{ja|キャプテン・ファルコン|Kyaputen Farukon}}, ''Captain Falcon''), full name '''Douglas Jay Falcon''',<ref>[https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/01/18/smash-moves-captain-falcon Smash Moves: Captain Falcon - IGN]</ref> is a character from the {{uv|F-Zero}} series. Renowned throughout the Milky Way Galaxy as both a bounty hunter and racer, Captain Falcon is also the ''F-Zero'' series' de facto mascot.<ref name=FZEROdevs/> As a member of the "[[List of Super Smash Bros. series characters#"Perfect-attendance crew"|perfect-attendance crew]]", Captain Falcon has been featured as a playable character throughout the [[Super Smash Bros. (series)|''Super Smash Bros.'']] series. His highly offensive playstyle, his signature moves (most notably his [[Falcon Punch]]) and his memorable quotes have made him a fan favorite character across the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series despite ''[[F-Zero (universe)|F-Zero]]''{{'}}s status as a lesser-known Nintendo franchise. His voice actor throughout the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series is Ryō Horikawa.

Near the end of ''{{s|fzerowiki|F-Zero}}''{{'}}s development, the game's designer, Takaya Imamura, sought to create a character in response to an internal request for a mascot to represent the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Following on the requester's naming suggestion of "captain", Imamura also sought to use a red, blue and yellow color scheme for the character, in reference to the Super Famicom's controller buttons.<ref name=FZEROdevs>[https://www.nintendo.com/super-nes-classic/interview-f-zero F-ZERO Developer Interview - Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition - Official Site]</ref> Although Imamura does not recall why his prototypical captain character was no longer sought to be the SNES' mascot, he nevertheless created concept art of ''F-Zero''{{'}}s four racers.

During a discussion regarding the game's packaging, Imamura decided to depict these racers in [[fzerowiki:F-Zero: The Story of Captain Falcon|an eight-page comic]] that used an {{s|wikipedia|American comic book}} art style, instead of reusing their original designs. Due to this comic gaining an overwhelmingly positive response from {{s|wikipedia|Nintendo of America}}, it was included within ''F-Zero''{{'}}s game manual and, in Imamura's assumption, was the reason as to why Captain Falcon became the series' de facto mascot.<ref name=FZEROdevs/>

''F-Zero'' was released in 1990 for the Super Famicom in Japan, and in 1991 for the SNES. Its comic introduced Captain Falcon, {{s|fzerowiki|Dr. Stewart}}, {{s|fzerowiki|Pico}} and [[Samurai Goroh]] alongside their [[Blue Falcon|respective]] [[fzerowiki:Golden Fox|futuristic]] [[fzerowiki:Wild Goose|racing]] [[fzerowiki:Fire Stingray|machines]], the F-Zero {{s|fzerowiki|Grand Prix}}'s announcer {{s|fzerowiki|Mr. Zero}}, and Captain Falcon's [[Falcon Flyer]] and his status as a reputable bounty hunter.<ref>[https://www.captainfalcon.com/comic.html F-Zero: The Story of Captain Falcon]</ref>

The ''F-Zero'' series' chronology has many vague elements up for debate, but it is stated by ''F-Zero X'' that Captain Falcon was involved in a huge accident that caused the suspension of the F-Zero Grand Prix; while he was hospitalized, his DNA was stolen and used by someone else to create his evil clone [[Blood Falcon]], who races against him in hopes of taking him out. The story mode of ''F-Zero GX'' shows Captain Falcon winning several races, then saving a fellow pilot known as [[Jody Summer]]. He ends up in a heroic role when he races against and defeats the supervillain Black Shadow, then a superior villain named Deathborn, and he goes on to even defeat the Creators of the ''F-Zero'' world.

Captain Falcon appears as a playable character in every ''[[Super Smash Bros. (series)|Super Smash Bros.]]'' game in the series. As Falcon had almost never been depicted in combat in his home series, his moveset is largely original to the ''Smash'' series itself, where he is depicted as a pyrokinetic hand-to-hand brawler; his famous [[Falcon Punch]] made its debut in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' and has been his signature move in the series ever since. Falcon's voice acting in the series is also part of this original portrayal (and inconsistent with his depiction in ''F-Zero GX''), as he is voiced by the Japanese Ryō Horikawa (who is also a fluent English speaker) speaking in simple, overenthusiastic English phrases; his taunt of "Show me your moves!" has become strongly associated with the character in general, as seen in ''{{s|mariowiki|Mario Kart 8}}''.

Captain Falcon appears in ''[[fzerowiki:F-Zero: GP Legend (anime)|F-Zero: GP Legend]]'', a reboot of the ''F-Zero'' series. Although Falcon's depiction as a mysterious, yet very skilled racer who helps uphold law and order is retained as in the previous installments, he is not the main protagonist. Rather, ''GP Legend'' features him as a co-protagonist alongside one of its original characters, {{s|fzerowiki|Rick Wheeler}}.

''GP Legend'' also revamps Captain Falcon's backstory in a few major ways. In addition to working as a bounty hunter as shown in [[fzerowiki:F-Zero: GP Legend|''GP Legend''{{'}}s video game]], he works as a bartender under the name Bert Lemming. In reality, Bert/Falcon is actually Andy Summer, the long-lost brother of {{s|fzerowiki|Jody Summer}}. Andy was involved in an attack by {{s|fzerowiki|Zoda}}, Wheeler's archenemy, that caused an explosion that injured Jody to the point of requiring cybernetics to survive. Faking his own death, Andy assumed the mantle of Captain Falcon and sought to take down Zoda and his employers, the Dark Million Organization, while using his alias as Bert and later on, {{s|fzerowiki|Berserker}}, to avoid any suspicion.

Ultimately, Falcon and Wheeler team up and use their collective Reactor Mights to destroy Black Shadow's Dark Reactor. However, when Black Shadow attempts to strike back in one last ditch attempt, Falcon retaliates with a [[Falcon Punch]] in order to ensure that he does not escape the exploding reactor, though at the cost of his own life. Some time thereafter, Captain Falcon's helmet is recovered from the debris of the Dark Reactor. Wheeler decides to wear it and pilot the [[Blue Falcon]] in honor of Andy, thus succeeding him as the new Captain Falcon.

*Many of Captain Falcon's minor animations, such as shield breaking or using battering items, appear on several characters who are otherwise not clones of him (often those with a similarly realistic physique such as [[Snake]], [[Little Mac]], and [[Simon]]), suggesting his animations are commonly used as templates.

**However due to ''Donkey Kong'', ''Wario'' and ''Yoshi'' being Mario sub-franchises, then Captain Falcon is the only solo series fighter to have appeared in all entries in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series so far.

*Captain Falcon's voice actor, Ryō Horikawa, reprised his role for the first time in over a decade in [[Min Min]]'s reveal trailer for ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate''. However, he only provided sounds of slurping noodles rather than new dialogue.