Captain Falcon (PM)

Captain Falcon in Project M and Project+
Universe	F-Zero
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Captain Falcon (SSBM)
Alternate costume	Retro Falcon, Super Falcon (Project+)

Captain Falcon is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. He was remade to be nearly identical to his Melee counterpart in terms of attack hitboxes and animations.

Captain Falcon is currently ranked 9th out of 41 on the official tier list, placing him in the top portion of the A- tier. This is a marginal drop of his 6th place out of 26 in Melee, and a drastic improvement over his 34th place out of 38 in Brawl. He retains this placement in the official Project+ tier list, now at the bottom of the A+ tier.

Attributes

Captain Falcon had the reputation of being one of the worst Brawl characters in spite of his speed and power, as Brawl's physics crippled him and resulted in a massive drop in his tier position. Because of this, he has been reverted back to his Melee incarnation, while retaining a few buffs from his Brawl iteration. Since Project M returns to the physics of Melee, Captain Falcon's combo abilities are once again efficient, as the removal of hitstun canceling no longer allows opponents to air dodge like they could in Brawl. Additionally, the Knee Smash, his main finisher in Melee, is once again as easy to sweetspot as it was in Melee. Captain Falcon also benefits from the normalization of sidesteps; it was lackluster in Melee, but since all sidesteps were made to be roughly the same in terms of frame data in Project M, he is no longer as susceptible to pressure. However, Captain Falcon can still be considered a glass cannon because his high falling speed hinders his already poor recovery and makes him susceptible to combos and gimps.

Captain Falcon fares slightly better in Project M than he did in Melee partially due to the small buffs he's received, but also partially due to the addition of many more semi-floaty characters that Falcon can easily overwhelm and combo, leading him to have good matchups against a majority of the new characters. The expanded stage list, which allows for stage bans even in best of 5 sets, also allows Captain Falcon players to avoid being hard counterpicked to his worst stage in Melee, Fountain of Dreams. In addition, metagame shifts have been favorable to him. Arguably his worst matchup in Melee, Falco, has been slightly nerfed and has worse matchups against the new characters, causing him to be used less often. Other characters from Melee that were difficult to handle have also been nerfed, bringing Falcon's matchups against them closer to even. Due to these factors, Falcon is acknowledged to be better relative to the cast than he was in previous games.

Changes from Melee, Brawl to PM

Captain Falcon was mostly reverted to his Melee version while keeping a minority of improvements from Brawl.

Aesthetics

• Up and down taunts have switched positions. When using down taunt, he now also utters a soft "Yes!" This is an otherwise unused voice clip from Brawl's sound test.
• Kneeling victory pose is now more similar to Melee's version; he will thrust his chest forward and shout while briefly emitting fire.

Attributes

• Captain Falcon is the character most affected by Project M's dashing changes; he no longer has a more exaggerated delay before his initial dash animation than every other character (particularly when starting the dash in the opposite direction that he is facing), allowing for much easier dashing jumps than in Melee.
• Captain Falcon jumps slightly higher (3.1 → 3.23).
• Captain Falcon's soft landing is 1 frame faster (4 frames → 3).

Ground Attacks

• Gentleman (the third hit of neutral attack) is now always separated from the rapid punches, just like in the PAL version of Melee. While there is still a big window of time where pressing the attack button results in the punches, it can be avoided by jab canceling. On whiff, the jab combo has to be slightly delayed to avoid using the jabs.
• The first input of neutral attack has more base knockback (0 → 1).

Aerial Attacks

• Connecting with a sweetspotted Knee Smash (forward aerial) when a taunt input is held results in Falcon exclaiming "Yes!", like with Falcon Dive.
• Down aerial's nipple spike now uses the fire element, making it more noticeable.

Special Moves

• Falcon Punch retains its reversible ability and startup from Brawl. It can now be reversed up to 4 times, receiving a 1% damage bonus per reverse after the first one.
  • Each reversal after the first one resets the move's start-up.
• Aerial Raptor Boost propels Captain Falcon with forward momentum if it lands, and retains its ability to edge sweetspot from Brawl. When used towards an edge from the ground, Captain Falcon now goes into the ending animation instead of instantly becoming helpless, allowing him to still grab the edge and come back to the stage. Landing lag for a successfully connected aerial Raptor Boost has been lowered to match that of a missed aerial Raptor Boost.
• Falcon Dive retains its vertical distance, its ability to grab foes on the ledge, and its damage (deals 17%, 2% more than Melee's 15%) from Brawl. The move also has slightly higher knockback and its edge sweetspot is now located higher on Falcon's body.
• Falcon Kick is reversible, and has less endlag. Its lingering hitboxes also have much more favorable angles, making the move safer.

Revisions

v2.1

• Dash attack can slip off edges like in Melee.
• Raptor Boost has a ground to air transition animation similar to Flame Choke, allowing him to grab edges backwards.
• Falcon Dive received physics adjustments to match Melee.
• Falcon Dive's throw animations were touched up.

v2.5b

• Captain Falcon's hurtboxes adjusted.
• Captain Falcon's dash animation cleaned up.
• Captain Falcon's forward roll animation adjusted to be like Melee.
• Captain Falcon's aerial attack animations cleaned up to match up with Melee timings.
• Falcon Punch is now reversible.
• Falcon Punch's turn occurs slightly later and can be performed up to four times.
• Falcon Dive launch fire hit graphical effects restored.

v2.6b

• Initial dash animation length increased by 1 frame to match Melee, improving moonwalk distance slightly.
• Turn grab animation is longer to match other turn grabs.
• Fixed a bug on his Ledge Rolls that caused them to not free up the edge until the animations completely ended.
• Falcon Punch additional turns can be prevented by holding B.
• Aerial Raptor Boost trigger box adjusted so that the hit connects more reliably once triggered.
• Aerial Raptor Boost now spikes.

v3.0

• Aerial Raptor Boost landing lag slightly reduced if it connects with an opponent, now is the same for when Raptor Boost whiffs or hits.
• Falcon Kick is now B-reversible.
• Grounded Falcon Kick has slightly more ending lag.

v3.01

• Forward-Throw and Up-Throw have had their hitlag decreased.
• Falcon Punch hitlag decreased.

v3.5

• Up smash's IASA frames decreased by one frame.
• Grounded Raptor Boost now requires the player to hold the reverse direction for Captain Falcon to grab the ledge after going offstage with it.
• Aerial Raptor Boost knockback reduced slightly.
• Falcon Kick's recovery frames from ground to air reduced to special landing rather than hard landing.
• Falcon Kick knockback adjusted for its later hitboxes.
• Falcon Dive knockback adjusted to use set character momentum instead of set knockback per character.
• Up taunt has more IASA frames when facing right.
• Air jump and Falcon Dive landing animations cleaned up.

v3.6 Beta

• Powershield size multiplier: x0.73 → 0.75
• Down aerial's nipple spike now has a fire element.
• Up throw and down throw's properties match Melee throws better.
• Aerial Raptor Boost has been reverted back to a meteor smash.
• Aerial Falcon Kick's landing hitbox has the following changes:
  • Only hits grounded opponents.
  • Damage: 6% → 10%
  • Knockback growth: 83 → 35
  • Hitbox size: 6 → 5

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.6.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2%	Captain Falcon punches twice, then knee strikes the opponent, which is then followed by a series of rapid punches. Stopping at the knee strike is known as the Gentleman.
			3%
			8% (clean), 6% (late)
			1-2% (loop)
Forward tilt	↗		12% (leg), 11% (body)	Captain Falcon does a roundhouse kick forward. This move can be angled up or down.
	→		11%
	↘		10% (leg), 11% (body)
Up tilt			13%	Captain Falcon brings his leg above his head and slams it down in an axe-like fashion.
Down tilt			12%	Does a sweep kick that deals vertical knockback.
Dash attack			10% (clean), 7% (late)	Captain Falcon does a running shoulder tackle forward, hitting any opponent in his path.
Forward smash	↗		21%	Captain Falcon leans back and jabs an elbow forward, dealing powerful flame damage. Has slow startup, but decent reach. This move can be angled up or down.
	→		20%
	↘		19%
Up smash			14%/8% (hit 1), 12%/13% (hit 2)	Captain Falcon performs a spinning double kick in one short hop. A fast move that has good vertical range, but poor range horizontally.
Down smash			18% (front), 16% (back)	Captain Falcon kicks forward and then backward.
Neutral aerial			5-6% (hit 1), 7% (hit 2)	Captain Falcon kicks forwards twice. A powerful combo tool.
Forward aerial		Knee Smash	18% (clean), 6% (late)	Often simply referred to as "The Knee", Captain Falcon jabs a knee forward. During the initial frames, the entire hitbox acts as a powerful Sex kick with electrical properties and great horizontal knockback. After the initial frames, it becomes a weak but sufficient semi-spike.
Back aerial			14% (clean), 8% (late)	Captain Falcon delivers a strong backhanded punch from behind.
Up aerial			12%/13% (clean), 10%/12 (late)	Captain Falcon does a flip kick with fast start-up and good all-around range. Primary used as a combo tool.
Down aerial			16%	Captain Falcon stomps downward with both feet. Acts as a powerful meteor smash, dealing a large amount of hitstun. It the attack connects within Captain Falcon's torso, it becomes a "nipple spike", a powerful spike that deals flame damage.
Grab			—
Pummel			3%	Captain Falcon knees the opponent. A fairly quick pummel.
Forward throw			5% (hit 1), 4% (throw)	Captain Falcon punches the enemy forward.
Back throw			5% (hit 1), 4% (throw)	Captain Falcon puts the enemy behind him and kicks.
Up throw			4% (hit 1), 3% (throw)	Captain Falcon holds the enemy up and punches them upwards. This throw can be used to start a chain grab on fast fallers at mid-high percents.
Down throw			7%	Captain Falcon swings the foe overhead and then slams them on the ground with a single arm. This throw can be used to start a chain grab on most non-fast fallers.
Floor attack (front)			6%	Captain Falcon gets up and flips while kicking.
Floor attack (back)			6%	Captain Falcon stands on both hands and perfprms a spinning double kick.
Floor attack (trip)			5%	Captain Falcon gets up and punches both sides.
Edge attack (fast)			9%	Captain Falcon pulls himself up and kicks forward.
Edge attack (slow)			10%	Captain Falcon slowly climbs up does an uppercut.
Neutral special		Falcon Punch	27% (close), 25% (mid), 23% (far) +1% damage when reversed	Captain Falcon winds up and releases his iconic fiery punch. Can be reversed up to four times, with the attack's power increasing only on the first turn. Captain Falcon's momentum will be halted the moment he unleashes the punch while airborne.
Side special		Raptor Boost	7%	Captain Falcon dashes forward. If he doesn't hit an opponent, he falls over, leaving him wide open for an enemy attack. If he hits an opponent on the ground, he launches a fiery uppercut, knocking them into the air. If he hits an opponent while in midair, he punches downward, meteor smashing them. This move can be used to edgehog, and works as a leapfrog recovery in midair.
Up special		Falcon Dive	5% (grab), 12% (release), 8% (escape)	Captain Falcon grabs his opponent and releases them with a fiery explosion. Goes into helpless if he misses but if the move connect, he's free to use the same move again without landing.
Down special		Falcon Kick	15%/12%/9% (ground), 15%/13%/11% (air), 10% (landing)	Captain Falcon rushes forward with a flaming high-speed kick. If he goes off a ledge, he continues dashing forward. If started in midair, he kicks down at a diagonal angle. Restores his midair jump, making it a useful move for horizontal recovery at long distances.
Final Smash		Blue Falcon	10% (car), 20% (ram), 10% (release)	Captain Falcon calls in his F-Zero racer, the Blue Falcon. The opponent is hit by the vehicle as it zooms past, sending them to an unknown F-Zero track. Captain Falcon proceeds to run them down in the Blue Falcon, resulting in high knockback.

In competitive play

Most historically significant players

See also: Category:Captain Falcon players (PM)

•  Bongo - Ranked 18th on PMRank 2023.
•  Chaloopy - Considered the best active Falcon in the world. Ranked #16 on PMRank 2023.
•  Darc - One of the best Falcon players in the world.
•  ORLY - Ranked #21 on PMRank 2023.
•  ThundeRzReiGN - Uses Captain Falcon as a secondary; won Cashed Out using primarily Falcon.
•  Venom - The best Captain Falcon player in SoCal. Ranked 25th on the PMRank 2016.

Alternate costumes

Project M

Captain Falcon's set of alternate costumes now includes a purple outfit with a tucked in scarf based off of his appearance in the original Super Smash Bros. and his appearance from F-Zero X, and a retro version inspired by his initial F-Zero appearance seen in the original SNES F-Zero.

Captain Falcon's alternate costumes in PM

Project+

Captain Falcon's default costume now includes a reference to Dr. Stewart from the F-Zero series; in addition, his gray palette is altered to be a black-and-silver costume with a blue scarf. His retro costume includes team colors, as well as a reference to Phoenix, a driver who resembles Captain Falcon in F-Zero GX. Lastly, he has a new costume based on the clothes he wears while piloting the Super Falcon introduced in the F-Zero X Expansion Kit. His Red Super Falcon costume is based on the colors of Ultraman, the alien superhero and namesake of the Ultraman series. Green Super Falcon resembles the colors of Kamen Rider, in particular the classic outfits known for teal and black suits with red eyes. Brown Super Falcon is based on the colors of Super Arrow from F-Zero X. The final recolor is based on Captain Falcon's classic Blue Falcon color scheme with a full face visor and additional helmet details.

Captain Falcon's alternate costumes in P+

Z-Secret Costume: Mach Rider

R-Secret Costume: Helmetless Captain Falcon

Trivia

• Captain Falcon's artwork in Project+ bears a striking resemblance to his pose in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate panoramic artwork.

External links

• Captain Falcon's page at the Project M website
• Labbing Discord Tech Post