Falco (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

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

“	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!	”
—Description from the Super Smash Blog.

Falco is a veteran fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, first playable in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He was confirmed to return on June 12, 2018 during E3 2018.

When unlocked, he is fought at Corneria.

Attributes

Strengths

Very high jumps and double jumps.
Can wall jump.
Very fast attacks overall.
Excellent combo ability.
High falling speed. This helps Falco due to his proficiency in the air.

Many attacks have multi-hit properties, increasing his combo potential, as most of these can be ground cancelled, allowing Falco to string attacks together without knocking the opponent away with the final hit.

Many of his attacks can auto-cancel in short hops.
Great horizontal and vertical recoveries, with Falco Phantasm and Fire Bird, respectively. Falco Phantasm can be used twice in the air, greatly increasing his horizontal recovery.

Has a projectile, Blaster, which inflicts considerable hit-stun, having a great poke potential.
Falco Phantasm can be used to quickly get in and out of combat and it can Meteor Smash airborne opponents.
Reflector has good range when kicked and has very low startup lag, being very useful as a surprise attack and it can also trip opponents.

Forward Aerial ("landing" hitbox), Down Aerial (when sweetspotted) and Falco Phantasm (if hits enemies in the air) can Meteor Smash if they connect at the right moment.

Weaknesses

Light weight makes him easy to launch.
Considerably slow running speed, which hinders direct approaches.

Many of his best attacks have sweetspots close to his body, which forces Falco to get closer to his opponents when finishing them off.

Predictable recovery.

Falco Phantasm has no hitbox in Falco himself; rather in the after-image after him.
Fire Bird is quite slow and easy to intercept as a recovery and it has very low priority, not being reliable enough to be used offensively.

Summary

Changes from SSBWU/3DS

Attributes

Falco's design has been updated to match his appearance in Star Fox Zero.

Ground Attacks

Falco's jab finisher has been changed from an outwards wing swipe to an axe kick.

Aerial Attacks

Grabs and Throws

Special Attacks

Falco's Blaster's firing rate is faster and is identical when used on the ground and in midair.
Falco's new Final Smash has been changed to be an Arwing attack, described as being wilder than Fox's.

Moveset

Ground Attacks

Normal

Neutral Attack: Falco swipes forth with one arm, then the other, and then enters a wild spinning maneuver in which he rapidly swings his arms; the infinite jab then finishes with an axe kick.
Forward Tilt: Falco performs a side kick; can be angled up and down.
Up Tilt: Falco swipes overhead with both arms.
Down Tilt (Tail Cutter): Falco sweeps his tail feathers across the ground.
Dash Attack: Falco leaps forwards and throws a kick.

Smash Attacks

Forward Smash: Falco lunges forth while swinging both arms in a downwards arc in front of himself.
Up Smash: Falco does a backflip, kicking overhead with both legs, hitting twice.
Down Smash: Falco does a splits kick, hitting to each side.

Other attacks

Floor Attack (Front):
Floor Attack (Back):
Floor Attack (Trip):
Ledge Attack:

Aerial Attacks

Neutral aerial (Spinning Falco Chop): Falco spins around with his arms outstretched.
Forward aerial: Falco spins around, hitting with his whole body, and then finished with an outward sweep of his arms.
Back aerial: Falco kicks backwards with one leg.
Up aerial: Falco does a backflip, kicking overhead.
Down aerial (Corkscrew Meteor): Falco does a drill stomp downwards.

Grabs and Throws

Pummel: Falco throws a knee into the grabbed opponent.
Forward Throw: Falco punches the opponent away.
Back Throw: Falco hurls the opponent back and then fires a laser at them.
Up Throw: Falco hurls the opponent skywards and then fires a laser up at them.
Down Throw: Falco tosses the opponent to the floor and fires a laser into them.

Special Moves

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

Taunts

Up Taunt: Kicks his reflector around and says, “Piece of cake!” While catching his reflector after.
Down Taunt: Spins in a circle and says, “Hands off my prey!” While swinging his hand.
Side Taunt: Pulls his hand out and says, “Come on!”

On-Screen Appearance

Idle Poses

Victory Poses

In competitive play

Before release, many players immediately took notice of Falco's drastic improvements from the previous game. This was thanks to several factors, such as the mechanics of the game being greatly in his favor, the improvements to his already potent combo game, and his improved neutral game due to his improved blaster and speed. In addition, some of Falco's worst matchups in Smash 4 (most notably Sheik, Bayonetta, Luigi, and Cloud) were nerfed and made less problematic for him. Due to this, Falco was greatly anticipated to be a very strong character in Ultimate, with many top professionals stating that he could potentially be a top-tier character.

Unfortunately, opinions on Falco quickly dwindled when the game released as the buffs he received were seen to be "overhyped." On the other hand, players believed Falco's fellow spacies Fox and Wolf were significantly better, seemingly worsening Falco value to other players as they believed one could play a rather similar character with better success. As such, Falco initially saw low results, with his dedicated players failing to obtain notable results with the character, leading the general consensus to assess him as a mid or low-tier character.

As the metagame progressed, however, opinions of Falco began to improve thanks to the efforts of players such as Kofi, Ismon, and, most notably, Juice, all of whom saw great placements at national tournaments. His improved representation led to a small but positive shift in perception: although several players such as ESAM maintained that Falco was at best mid-tier, others believed that Falco had potential to be high-tier. This perception only continued to improve thanks to the buffs Falco received in patch 8.0.0, which improved his combo and kill potential, as well as the efforts of Tilde and MASA, both of whom have placed highly in several major tournaments since the return of offline competitive play. As of now, Falco's overall viability remains debatable, but it is widely agreed upon that he is much better than his Smash 4 counterpart.

Classic Mode: Soar Above the Darkness

All of Falco's battles are against "dark" forms of main characters. Completing Falco’s Classic Mode route will give the player the chance to unlock Daisy.

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

Final	Crazy Hand	Final Destination	Crazy Hand	On Intensity 7.0 and 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 recruits a teammate on said planet if they were shot down in certain levels. The player must have 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.