Falco (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)

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

Falco
Universe	Star Fox
Also appears in	Melee SSBWU/3DS
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Landmaster
Tier	A- (7)
Character Statistics
Number of Jumps	2
Can Wall Jump	Yes
Can Wall Cling	No
Can Crawl	No
Can Glide	No
Has a Tether	No
Voice Actors
Voiced by (English)	Dex Manley
Voiced by (Japanese)	Hisao Egawa

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 20, 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 2nd, but is still higher than the other Star Fox representatives. Falco possesses many damage rackers and approach options in the form of his aerials (particularly his back and down aerial), throws, and Blaster, and possesses good attack speed and vertical mobility. 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

• Play 50 matches.
• Beat 100-Man Brawl.
• Have Falco join the party in the Subspace Emissary.

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's Smash attacks, while lackluster, are effective at spacing, as they cover both sides of Falco.

Falco's aerials are very potent options, with all of them autocancelling in a short hop: his neutral and forward aerials are good for racking up damage, and his back, up, and down aerials are good options for spacing and KO. Down aerial in particular is a powerful option due to its fast startup and Meteor Smash capability, making it a very effective combo finisher for Falco.

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. While his endurance was worsened due to the changed knockback formula and his KO options were weakened, his grab game is significantly better, the removal of certain mobility options makes Blaster difficult to escape from, and the introduction of advanced techniques give Falco significant approach options and reliable damage racker. Overall, Falco's changes have nerfed him considerably, but was less affected by the change in physics than other character.

Cosmeticallyl, 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. Falco 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 goes a longer distance, 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.
• Moves 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

 

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Role in the Subspace Emissary

Falco's in the Subspace Emissary.

Falco, using two Blasters to destroy the Dark Cannon

Ejecting from his Arwing, Falco shows up in the nick of time to save 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 leave. 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.

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 Kirby and Dedede, and joins them in the Great Maze. He aids them in the fight against Tabuu.

Costume Gallery

Trophy description

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 a cutscene 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.

External links

• Falco's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!!.
• Falco Character Guide at SWF
• Falco's hitbox size of each of his moves