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This article is about Falco's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Falco Lombardi.

Falco (ファルコ Faruko?) is a returning character from the Star Fox series appearing in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He was confirmed to return as a playable character on February 20th, 2008.

Falco currently clocks in at the 7th position on the tier list, at the bottom of the A- tier, a minor fall from his Melee placement at 4th, but higher than the other Star Fox representatives. Falco possesses a strong combo and juggling game due to his high vertical movement, fast aerials, and powerful throws, as well as a powerful zoning option in Blaster. However, his horizontal mobility and KO options are sub-par when compared to the rest of the cast, and his recovery is extremely predictable.

How to unlock[]

In the first two cases, the player must defeat Falco on Lylat Cruise after meeting the required criteria to unlock him.

Attributes[]

Falco is a lightweight, and combining this with his fast falling speed makes his endurance and recovery problematic, and his horizontal mobility makes it difficult to approach opponents close to him. To compensate, Falco possesses incredible vertical mobility with his high jumps and fast air speed.

Falco's attacks are very effective at racking up damage due to his fast attack speed, as seen in his jab and throws, which can launch opponents at good angles that Falco can take advantage of.

Falco possesses few KO options, but can effectively serve as combo finishers. Forward Smash is a good option for knocking opponents beyond the side blast lines, and his up smash is a quick option for knocking opponents upward. Falco's back aerial is a powerful option close to blast lines, up aerial is a solid option for juggling, and down aerial is very powerful due to its Meteor Smash capability, serving as an effective combo finisher.

Falco's grab game is a very potent option. Though his grab range is short, he compensates with a very fast pummel and powerful throws, as Falco shoots his Blaster for additional damage. His most viable option is his down throw, which can easily chaingrab, and follow up with numerous options, such as his powerful down aerial if used off stage.

Falco's Special Moves are very essential parts to his playstyle. Blaster is Falco's most powerful tool due to its speed, range, and transcendent priority, allowing Falco to easily punish approaches and effectively rack up damage at a distance. Falco Phantasm is a very fast mobility option, as it can knock opponents upward, creating numerous combo opportunities, as well as pass through most attacks, making him a very difficult target to pin down. Fire Bird provides Falco his only means of vertical recovery, and can hit the opponent multiple times. Reflector is Falco's most defensive option, possessing solid range, the ability to pass through other objects, and the chance to trip, making the move useful for setups.

However, Falco has numerous flaws, which primarily lie in his subpar horizontal mobility, making it difficult to directly approach opponents on the ground due to his slow dashing speed, his KO options, which are weak when compared to others, and his recovery, which can easily be intercepted and gimped. Furthermore, his lightweight status and fast falling speed make his endurance problematic, making him easy to launch and subsequently KO.

Overall, players must be able to respond quickly with Falco, taking advantage of his fast attacks for inflicting damage and his good vertical mobility to escape certain situations. Players must also rely on Falco's powerful Blaster for zoning and his down throw for setups to ensure that the opponent is sufficiently damaged enough to be effectively KO'd by Falco's KO options, which should be used scarcely and with caution.

Changes from Melee[]

Falco received numerous changes that better differentiate him from Fox, which has resulted him buffed in certain areas and nerfed in others. In general his endurance is worse due to the changes in knockback formula and slow falling speed. The changes in Reflector had also resulted in it being an ineffective starter for aerial combos, and the changes in hitstun had weakened his KO potential considerably.

However, Falco's grab game was improved, granting him more options for setups. His recovery has also improved due to his slightly better aerial mobility and the increased distance gained from Falco Phantasm. The changes in his Reflector does hinder its combo capacity, but has more horizontal range and disrupt approaches uninterrupted.

Cosmetically, Falco's design combines his appearance from Star Fox: Assault and Star Fox: Command. Falco had received new animations for attacks to better suit his fearless nature, and his Blaster shots are colored blue to differentiate them from Fox. Hisao Egawa reprises his role in the Japanese version from Melee, providing new voice clips, he is now voiced by Dex Manley in the NTSC version of Brawl.

Attributes[]

  • Heavier than in Melee.
  • Slower walk and dash.
  • Higher air speed.
  • Lower traction.

Ground Attacks[]

  • New Neutral Attack has better hitbox placement and less end lag, and first two hits have set knockback.
  • Forward Tilt has less hitbox duration.
  • New Up Tilt has longer reach, faster startup, and deals more damage, though it has more end lag and less knockback.
  • Down Tilt deals less knockback, now being incapable of KO'ing.
  • New Forward Smash has more startup and end lag, deals less damage, can is difficult to sweetspot.
  • Up Smash deals less knockback.
  • Down Smash executes slower, deals less damage, has less range, and no longer possesses intangibility frames while charging.

Aerial Attacks[]

  • New Neutral Aerial is weaker, and is less effective for pressuring and approaching.
  • New Forward Aerial has more landing lag.
  • Back Aerial has more knockback growth, but is weaker.
  • New Up Aerial hits once, dealing consistent damage and knockback, but is weaker.
  • Down Aerial deals more damage and has less landing lag, but now Meteor Smashes in the first part of duration, and deals less damage and knockback.

Grabs and Throws[]

  • Throws are no longer influenced by weight.
  • Down throw cannot be teched out of and can now chaingrab

Special Moves[]

  • Blaster no longer causes Falco to fastfall, but now enables him to fire two lasers in a short hop.
  • Falco Phantasm travels further, but Meteor Smash is weaker.
  • Fire Bird travels a smaller distance and forces Falco to lose all momentum after finishing, but has hitboxes while charging and can hit multiple times.
  • Reflector is now kicked away from Falco before returning to him. While it no longer possesses the ability to stall in the air or remain stationary around Falco, it greatly increases its horizontal range, can pass through walls, and can trip opponents.

Moveset[]

Ground Attacks[]

Normal[]

  • Neutral Attack: Performs a jab, another jab, before tilting himself diagonally and spinning in place while arms are outstretched. 4% first hit, 2% second hit, 1% subsequent hits.
  • Forward Tilt: Kicks outwards. Can be angled. 9% regardless if angled or not.
  • Up Tilt: Swings his wings above him while turning. 4% first hit, 3% first hit on tip, 5% second hit.
  • Down Tilt: Performs a tail swipe close to the ground. 12% if close, 9% if far.
  • Dash Attack: Performs a flying kick. 9% clean, 6% late.

Smash Attacks[]

  • Forward Smash: Performs and overhead chop forward with both wings. 15-21% clean, 10-14% late.
  • Up Smash: Performs a bicycle kick. 14-19% clean, 12-16% late.
  • Down Smash: Performs a split kick, covering both sides simultaneously. 15-21% feet, 13-18% legs.

Aerial Attacks[]

  • Neutral Aerial: Swipes his wings around him. 3% first and second hit, 2% third hit, 4% final hit.
  • Forward Aerial: Spins horizontally in a corkscrew motion. 2% first through fourth hit, 3% final hit.
  • Back Aerial: Does a backwards kick. 13% clean sweetspot, 9% clean sourspot, 7% late.
  • Up Aerial: Performs a flip kick. 11%.
  • Down Aerial: Does a drilling kick downward. 13% clean, 8% late.

Grabs and Throws[]

  • Pummel: Knees the opponent. 2%.
  • Forward Throw: Punches the opponent forward. 4% punch, 3% throw.
  • Back Throw: Tosses the opponent backwards while firing off three lasers. 2% throw and lasers.
  • Up Throw: Tosses the opponent upward while firing off three lasers. 2% throw and lasers.
  • Down Throw: Slams the opponent into the ground while firing four lasers. 1% throw, 2% lasers.

Special Moves[]

Falco's Special Moves
Melee Brawl 3DS/Wii U Ultimate
Standard Special Blaster
Side Special Falco Phantasm
Up Special Fire Bird
Down Special Reflector
Final Smash Landmaster Team Star Fox

Taunts[]

  • Up: Kicks his reflector around like a hackey sack, and says "Piece of cake."
  • Side: Stands on one foot and raises a wing while saying "Don't try me."
  • Down: Spins once and poses, and says "Hands off my prey".

Smash Taunt: When fighting as Falco on the Lylat Cruise stage or Corneria stage, quickly tap down on the directional pad once and he will kneel down and seem as though he's trying to communicate with someone through a device, and then stand back up and salute, at which point a conversation will begin with another character from the Star Fox universe.

On-Screen Appearance[]

Ejects from an upside-down Arwing

Idle Poses[]

  • Slightly turns to the side.
  • Waves his left wing in front of his face.

Victory Poses[]

  • Crosses arms, turns his head to the side, and says "You aren't worth the trouble".
  • Jumps extremely high and lands kneeling. He then looks up at the camera.
  • Rapidly kicks and says "Had enough already?". Then puts his foot down and crosses his body over to look at the camera.
    • If Falco wins a battle against Fox, he does this position, but his line is changed to: "You're off your game, Fox".

Other features[]

  • Wii Remote selection sound: Falco says "Piece of cake."
  • Cheer: Crowd yells "Fal-co" a repeated number of times.

In competitive play[]

Falco has great matchups in Brawl. According to the current SmashBoards matchup chart, Falco's matchup spread has the fourth highest unweighted rank, fourth highest total (tied with Marth), and sixth highest weighted total. Falco is countered in two matchups, soft countered by one matchup, and has seven even matchups. He soft counters ten characters, counters nine characters, hard counters six characters, and has one close-to-unloseable matchup. He does have trouble against some other top/high tiers, being countered by Ice Climbers, whom Falco lacks safe options to approach without getting grabbed (allowing their 0-death chaingrab), and Pikachu, who can take advantage of his fast falling speed acceleration attribute by chaingrabbing him (if started at 20%, which can be reached with two forward throws, it can also buffer down throws and finish with a Thunderspike, as a 0-death combo). Falco is one of the few characters to have an arguably even matchup against Meta Knight, due to his ability to projectile camp against him, though this is stage specific, with him only coming close on neutral stages, specifically Final Destination. One major disadvantage against said character is that he can easily be gimped and edgeguarded.


Role in the Subspace Emissary[]

Subspace falco

Falco's in the Subspace Emissary.

Falco SSE

Falco, using two Blasters to destroy the Dark Cannon

Ejecting from his Arwing, Falco shows up in the nick of time to rescue Fox from trophy-ization at the hands of Bowser and a Shadow Bug clone of Diddy by flip-kicking the Dark Cannon from Bowser's hands and destroying it with dual lasergun fire, forcing Bowser to flee and spare the duet. He is shown to use two blasters, but only uses one when he is used in-game. This makes Falco the only character who destroys a Dark Cannon in the SSE regardless of the princess rescued. The Diddy clone begins to absorb more Shadow Bugs, becoming gigantic, and after Fox revives the real Diddy, the three fight the giant clone. Falco then turns to leave, but is dragged back by Diddy and reluctantly comes along. A stupefied Fox shrugs his shoulders and walks off after them, as he received the same treatment from Diddy earlier. The three of them later see Donkey Kong going to a foloting island. Flaco brings his airwing and lets Diddy in.

As Captain Falcon and Captain Olimar look down at the ship carrying Donkey Kong's trophy, Falco's Arwing shows up, ejecting Diddy Kong from the cockpit. Diddy then activates his Rocket Barrel Jet Pack and shoots the ship with his Peanut Popguns. Landing on the ship, he quickly de-trophifies DK, and after DK, Diddy, Captain Falcon, and Olimar defeat the Primids that board the ship, Falco gives Diddy and Donkey Kong a thumbs up as he leaves.

He makes his next appearance in the battle against Duon on the Halberd, where he teams up with Fox, Peach, Zelda, Snake, and Lucario. When it is defeated, Peach revives Mr. Game and Watch, just as Meta Knight takes back control of his ship. He uses his Arwing during the attack on the Subspace Gunship and maneuvers effectively to avoid the cannons. He enters Subspace and stands loftily, as if he is above this. When he is turned into a trophy, he is rescued by Luigi, Ness and Dedede, and joins them in the Great Maze. He aids them in the fight against Tabuu.


Playable appearances After Outside the Ancient Ruins is finished, Falco will be removed from the player's team until the Duon battle in Battleship Halberd Bridge. The Swamp Battleship Halberd Bridge Entrance to Subspace The Great Maze - If he's rescued in Subspace (Part I)


Exclusive stickers These stickers can only be used by Falco or a select few including him. Andrew: Launch Resistance +7 Arwing: [Leg] Attack +6 Falco (Star Fox 64): [Weapon] Attack +11 Falco (Star Fox Adventures): [Specials: Indirect] Attack +11 Falco (Star Fox Command): [Energy] Attack +14 Falco (Star Fox: Assault): [Tail] Attack +20 Fox (Star Fox 64): [Energy] Attack +18 Fox (Star Fox Adventures): [Arm, Leg] Attack +15 Fox (Star Fox Assault): [Energy] Attack +33 Krystal (Star Fox Adventures): [Electric] Attack +28 Krystal (Star Fox Command): [Energy] Attack +12 Krystal (Star Fox: Assault): [Tail] Attack +17 Miniature Dachshund: [Tail] Attack +28 Panther: [Tail] Attack +18 Pigma: [Arm] Attack +7 ROB: [Electric] Resistance +15 Wolf: [Arm, Leg] Attack +15 Wolfen (Star Fox 64): [Tail] Attack +16 Wolfen (Star Fox: Assault): [Tail] Attack +30


In Event Matches[edit][]

Solo Events[edit][]

  • Event 32: Bird in Darkest Night: As Falco (with a dark alternative costume), the player must defeat Mr. Game & Watch on Brinstar. The stage gets dark very frequently throughout the match.
  • Event 34: All-Star Battle Melee: Falco is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are newcomers from Super Smash Bros Melee.
  • Event 38: The Wolf Hunts the Fox: As Wolf, the player must defeat Fox and Falco on Lylat Cruise.

Co-op Events[edit][]

  • Co-Op Event 19: Shadow of Andross: Fox and Falco team up to defeat Wolf on Lylat Cruise while an Andross assist trophy is used against them.
  • Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Costume Gallery[]

Falco's changeable clothing in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Trophy description[]

RSBE01-199

The Falco Trophy

A Team Star Fox pilot whose real name is Falco Lombardi. He once roamed the starways as the head of a galactic gang, and his piloting skills are superb. He affects an air of cool disdain and is sometimes uncooperative, but in reality his passion for the Star Fox team is second to none. He once left the team to fly solo for a time.

  • Star Fox (Super Nintendo)
  • Star Fox: Command (Nintendo DS)

Trivia[]

  • Falco holds the world record for Level 2 Target Smash, by completing it in 3.95 seconds. He also holds the Co-op Target Smash world record for Level 1 with Toon Link (2.66 seconds), and holds the top two records in Level 2 (Co-op) with Pit (3.30 seconds) and R.O.B. (3.55 seconds).
  • Falco is the highest character in the tiers for the Star Fox series (both Fox and Wolf are C+-tier).
  • The lasers fired during Falco's Up, Down and Back Throws can be reflected if his opponent is wearing a Franklin Badge. Because of this, they can damage Falco instead.
  • All of Falco's Smash Attacks can hit both sides.
  • Falco is the same shade of blue in all his alternate color schemes (his uniform changes as opposed to his "skin") except for his final costume, in which he is known to some as "Black Falco".
  • When shooting Falco's blaster in mid-air, Falco fires quicker than when using his blaster on the ground.
  • In the cutscene where he comes to Fox’s rescue during the Subspace Emissary, Falco is shown to have two blasters, but in-game he only uses one.
  • Falco is the only character to keep one of the same prerequisites in order to unlock him from Super Smash Bros. Melee.
  • Falco is one of only four characters to speak in all three taunts in Brawl, the others being Zero Suit Samus, Peach and Pikachu (though Peach uses real words in only one of her taunts, and Pikachu, like most Pokémon, only ever says variations of its name). Additionally, in the English version, Falco speaks in his taunts with a Brooklynese Italian-American accent (his surname, Lombardi, is Italian).
  • People thought that he said "Hands off my bread," for his down taunt. This led to an online meme.
  • Falco is the only character who has a codec conversation that does not feature Colonel Roy Campbell, Otacon, or Mei Ling; instead, his Codec Conversation features Slippy, who is implied to have hacked onto Colonel's channel.
  • Interesting fact, the number on the Codec screen during his codec conversation is 140.85, meaning Snake was eventually trying to call Colonel Roy to talk about Falco.



External links[]

StarFoxSymbol Star Fox universe
Characters Fox McCloud (64  · Melee  · Brawl  · 3DS/Wii U  · Ultimate)
Falco Lombardi (Melee  · Brawl  · 3DS/Wii U  · Ultimate)
Wolf O'Donnell (Brawl · Ultimate)
Side Characters Assist Trophies Andross  · Krystal
Mii Fighter Costume Fox McCloud
Background characters Fox McCloud  · Falco Lombardi  · Slippy Toad  · Peppy Hare  · Krystal  · ROB 64  · Wolf O'Donnell  · Leon Powalski  · Panther Caroso
Miscellaneous Arwing  · Wolfen  · Great Fox
Stages Sector Z  · Corneria  · Venom  · Lylat Cruise  · Orbital Gate Assault
Item Smart Bomb
Music List of Music (Star Fox series)
Collectibles Trophies Melee Trophies  · Brawl Trophies  · 3DS Trophies  · Wii U Trophies
Stickers List of Stickers (Star Fox series)
Spirits List of spirits (Star Fox series)
Masterpieces Star Fox 64
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