Falco (SSBU)

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Falco in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Star Fox
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Team Star Fox

“	He's a talented aerial fighter with amazing jumping ability, but Falco is a bit slower on the ground. His final smash is an all-out attack using an unorthodox formation of Arwings!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Falco (ファルコ, Falco) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Falco is classified as fighter #20.

Mark Lund and Kōsuke Takaguchi, Falco's voice actors from Star Fox 64 3D, Star Fox Zero, and, for the former, Starlink: Battle for Atlas reprise their roles with new voice clips.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Falco being the 32nd character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Fox or any character in his unlock tree, being the fourth character unlocked after Peach.
• Have Falco join the player's party in World of Light.

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

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

In spite of his low-tier placement in SSB4, Falco has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition to Ultimate, and is considered to be nerfed overall due to his key weaknesses, with most of them being his already weak neutral game and recovery, not being addressed, but rather worsened. Generally, Falco's KO ability has been toned down with moves such as Forward aerial being weakened while his combo potential has also been nerfed, with several moves now becoming more difficult to perform follow-ups with, making it difficult to rack up damage. And because Falco Phantasm can no longer travel through shields, his recovery is much more exploitable and predictable.

Aesthetics

• As with all veterans returning from SSB4, Falco's model features a more subdued color scheme. His feathers feature simple detailing, similar to Brawl.
• While Falco retains some design elements from SSB4, he now wears his flight suit and headset from Star Fox Zero.
• Falco has altered sidestep and rolling animations.
• Falco now says "Come on!" during his side taunt instead of "Get some!".
• Falco now does a different pose in his jumping in the air victory animation.
• Falco has a new victory pose. He walks up to the camera, shrugs, and says "Sorry! Gotta jet!" while crossing his arms. This line replaces his "You aren't worth the trouble." line from previous games.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Falco's jumpsquat animation now takes three frames to complete (down from 6).
• Falco dashes much faster (1.472 → 1.619).
• Falco walks slightly faster (1.28 → 1.344).
• Falco's air speed is slightly higher (0.93 → 0.977).

Ground attacks

• Neutral infinite now finishes with a spinning downwards kick instead of a knifehand strike. Falco also now does a backflip upon finishing the attack.
• Neutral infinite's final hit has less ending lag (frame 41 → 40). Additionally, the first two hits can now lock opoonents.
• Falco no longer inches forward when performing each hit of neutral attack decreasing its range. Additionally, the first two hits have a shorter duration (frames 2-4 → 2 (hit 1), frames 3-5 → 3-4 (hit 2) and all hits except the final hit deal less damage (3% (hit 1), 2% (hit 2) → 1.5% (both), 0.3% → 0.4% (loop hits)).
• Dash attack deals more knockback.
• Forward tilt has less ending lag (frame 28 → 25).
• Forward tilt deals less damage (9% → 6%).
• Up tilt has much less ending lag (frame 37 → 30), and a larger hitbox, hitting grounded opponents more easily.
• Up tilt does less damage (9% → 7.5%).
• Down tilt has more startup (frame 7 → 10) and ending lag (frame 29 → 32). These changes hinder its combo potential.
• Down tilt does more damage (12% → 13%), improving its KO potential.
• Forward smash deals more damage (15% (clean), 10% (late) → 16%/12%).
• Forward smash has an altered animation where Falco doesn't move as far forward hindering its range.
• Up smash has an altered animation. It now hits much higher from the ground, causing it to miss against short characters. It also has less range on the back hit and the second hit has a shorter duration (frames 13-20 → 13-18).
• The second hit of up smash does slightly more damage (12% → 13%).
• Falco's torso faces the opposite direction when performing his down smash.
• Down smash has more startup lag (frame 7 → 8).
• Down smash has one extra frame of intangibility.

Aerial Attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (15 frames → 9 (neutral/up), 25 frames → 15 (forward), 15 frames → 13 (back), 23 frames → 14 (down)).
• Neutral aerial's third and fourth hits have less startup lag (frame 14 → 10 (hit 3), frame 23 → 19 (hit 4)).
• Forward aerial has less startup lag (frame 10 → 7).
• Forward aerial's finisher has less knockback.
• Back aerial has a larger hitbox.
• Back aerial has significantly increased startup lag (frame 4 → 9).
  • However its interuptability remains the same, thus reducing the ending lag compared to the hitbox, slightly improving its followup potential.
• Up aerial does less damage (10% → 9%).
• Up aerial has an altered animation.
• Down aerial has significantly faster startup (frame 16 → 10), and now auto-cancels from a shorthop like it could in Brawl.
• Down aerial has more base knockback but less knockback growth, making it more effective at gimping fighters with poor recoveries, but less effective at KOing from higher up and at higher percents.

Throws/other attacks

• All grabs have less startup lag (frame 8 → 6 (standing), frame 10 → 9 (dash), frame 11 → 10 (pivot).
• Down throw has an altered animation. Falco now lies the opponent on the ground and fires a point blank Blaster shot without slamming the opponent downwards. [1]

Special Moves

• Blaster:
  • Blaster fires faster (frame 11 → frame 8), and has significantly lower ending lag (frame 59 → 42) on the ground.
  • Aerial Blaster fires faster (frame 9 → frame 7), and drastically lowered ending lag (frame 50 → 39).
  • Blaster makes a different sound when fired and when hitting an opponent.
• Falco Phantasm:
  • Falco Phantasm has less ending lag (frame 61 → 56) when used on the ground.
  • Grounded Falco Phantasm has more base knockback, and lowered knockback growth. When combined with the above change and the changes to airdodges it grants the move mixup potential.
  • Falco Phantasm travels a shorter distance when used in the air. It also has more startup lag both on the ground and in the air (frame 18 → 19).
  • Falco Phantasm no longer travels through shields, making it extremely unsafe if blocked.
• Reflector:
  • Reflector's ending animation has been altered, with Falco standing upright to catch his Reflector while turned slightly.
  • Reflector has reduced ending lag (frame 51 → 47), improving its safety both defensively and offensively.
• Final Smash:
  • Falco has a new Final Smash, Team Star Fox, which involves him leading an Arwing strike in a similar manner to Fox's Final Smash, but with a more erratic and aggressive flight pattern. Unlike Fox's version, Falco's sends opponents almost vertically. Upon activating, Falco yells, "Showtime!" If the Arwings successfully catch their target, Falco yells, "Time for a little payback!", one of Falco's famous quotes from Star Fox 64 with it captioned on screen during the cinematic. [2]
    • If the Final Smash hits multiple opponents, he will yell "We've got multiple bogies inbound!". [3]
  • Team Star Fox is much easier to avoid compared to Landmaster and is overall less versatile.
  • Team Star Fox can potentially deal more damage than Landmaster (although it could also deal a lot less), and the single hit has increased KO power, making it more consistent.
  • Due to being a cutscene Final Smash, Falco can no longer accidentally self-destruct like he could in the Landmaster.

Classic Mode: Soar Above the Darkness

All of Falco's battles are against "dark" forms of main characters.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music	Notes
1	Dark Samus	Frigate Orpheon	Multiplayer - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
2	Dark Pit	Reset Bomb Forest	Dark Pit's Theme
3	Dark Link and Dark Toon Link	Bridge of Eldin	Dark World (for 3DS / Wii U)
4	Grey Lucas	New Pork City	Porky's Theme	References the Masked Man from Mother 3.
5	Red Captain Falcon	Port Town Aero Dive	Devil's Call in Your Heart	References Blood Falcon.
6	Giant Mr. Game & Watch	Find Mii	Flat Zone
Bonus Stage
Final	Crazy Hand	Final Destination	Crazy Hand	On intensity 7.0 or higher, Master Hand teams up with Crazy Hand and Master Hand/Crazy Hand plays instead.

Role in World of Light

Falco was among the fighters summoned to the cliffside to fight an army of Master Hands.

During the opening cutscene, Falco was present when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. Falco attempted to flee the scene immediately, as he was already seated in his Arwing; however, Galeem destroyed his aircraft and vaporized him, placing him under Galeem's imprisonment along with the rest of the fighters, excluding Kirby.

Falco is unlocked in the space area of the World of Light on the planet resembling Titania, a callback to the Star Fox games where Fox rescues a teammate on said planet if they were shot down in certain levels. The player must have a Slippy Toad or ROB 64 spirit to ride the Great Fox to navigate this sector. Then, the player must defeat the Starship Mario and the Aparoid spirits to access his unlock stage.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Falco's fighter card.

• 

  Falco on Battlefield after catching his Reflector.

• 

  Firing his Blaster on Pokémon Stadium 2.

• 

  Performing Falco Phantasm next to Sonic on Prism Tower.

• 

  Air dodging on The Great Cave Offensive.

• 

  Attacking Captain Falcon with Falco Phantasm on Pokémon Stadium.

• 

  Performing Fire Bird on the Great Plateau Tower.

• 

  Taunting on Lylat Cruise.

• 

  Buried with Villager and Wii Fit Trainer by Shovel Knight on Garden of Hope.

Character Showcase Video

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Trivia

• One of the pictures of Falco from his fighter page on the Ultimate website features him using Fire Bird above the Great Plateau Tower. This is a likely homage to Revali, a similar looking character from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Falco is used to represent Revali in Spirits mode.
• A section of Falco's trailer pictures him showing frustration by charging Fire Bird once he notices a roast chicken food item on the ground. This is a recurring joke from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, as Falco's clear movie shows him crouching near the roast chicken food item, as well as Roy's clear movie, where he is seen "turning" into a roast chicken item upon being hit by Flare Blade.
• In Falco's character showcase video, frame-by-frame inspection reveals that the hitbox visualization of Falco's Blaster lasers and Falco Phantasm are visible while Falco fights Cloud. [4][5]. This is likely an error that went unnoticed during editing.
• Falco's artwork was one of the three that have been updated on the official site, alongside Palutena and Shulk. In his case, he is covered with more feathers, his forehead appears slightly larger, and his body and beak have more saturated colors.
• Due to an error on the American official site blog, Falco does not have his own Fighter tag nor the general "Fighter" tag on his blog entry, thus not being listed when sorting the "By Fighter" category. The former also applies to Incineroar.