Falcon's Forward-B (Raptor Boost)- One of the most versatile recovery moves in Brawl

[The King]

So D.B.R. has had Brawl for a few days now, and while I've been trying to figure out how to unlock Jigglypuff, I've been messing around a lot with Falcon. From everything I've seen so far with Falcon's movesets, the Raptor Boost is probably one of the most versatile recovery moves, both for offensive and defensive properties, in this entire game.

--First off: Raptor Boost will now sweet-spot the edge if you're recovering from off the stage! Gone are the days when Falcon would simply fall to his death unless he boosted miles above the edge; Falcon's Raptor Boost now has properties similar to that of Fox's forward-B, with nearly just as much range but stronger priority.

--Also, say goodbye to the days that Falcon would be guaranteed to die if his Raptor Boost made contact with someone while off-stage! Falcon will still be able to grab the ledge after connecting with a Raptor Boost, and to top it off, he still keeps some forward momentum after doing so. This makes for not only a solid horizontal recovery option, but a great offensive-recovery option as well. BTW, it can also still act as a spike if they're airborne, capable of completely turning the tables of recovery.

--Here's where it gets really cool! If any of you haven't heard of Hugging, it's basically the technique of all the characters in Brawl being able to grab the ledge while facing away from it. I.e., if you were to walk off the stage with a character, you'd be able to grab the ledge from behind. Some characters are able to run off and fastfall and still perform this technique, but sadly Falcon's horizontal momentum is too much for this.

Here's where the Raptor Boost comes in:

--Falcon is able to run off the stage even at full speed, fastfall as soon as he leaves the stage, then the moment he is parallel with or slightly below the lip of the edge, he performs a Raptor Boost sideways back toward the ledge. This will INSTANTLY sweetspot the ledge without even beginning the Raptor Boost animation, and is easily Falcon's fastest way to steal the ledge while on the stage. In comparison to Melee, this is done even faster than Wavedashing backwards off the ledge, then fastfalling down until sweetspotting the edge!

Also, in contrast to one of his melee recovery options, Falcon Kick while off-stage will no longer reset Falcon's 2nd jump if Falcon had previously used it while airborne (i.e. 2nd Jump, Falcon Kick downwards, 2nd Jump, Up-B is no longer possible). This makes the versatility of Raptor Boost as a recovery option all the better, especially considering the greater ease of DI in Brawl.

That's all for now on this, just thought I'd get it out there.

King Out

[S2]

For some reason the move's new properties remind me of how Falco's Illusion worked in Melee.

Glad they made this move useful in the air now. In Melee it was basically a punishment if you didn't use it on the ground.

[WFL]

It's really nice to get a some what in-depth examination of this game from someone who knows what he's talking about. Hopefully you can give us more information while those who didn't import the game wait. I would also like to know more about R.O.B. while on the subject of recovery because I saw a video where R.O.B. lived forever because of his rocket feet.

[T-major]

YES!! this was the main thing I wanted fixed about Falcon! I'm SO happy that they made it better!

looks like I'm sticking with my old main for Brawl! :D

also, is it just me, or does his Up B look a lot better now? from the few videos of it I've seen, it looks like it has more hight, and more horizontal distance.

[mattc1231]

nicce i was just about to post a topic asking about this, thanks for the info!

[EdSam]

What happens if you're on the ground and you raptor boost off the stage?

[that 1 guy]

It's nice to know being of the stage =/= death anymore.

[Y34HDUD3!!!]

Now you spike them and you don't die with them, YAAAAY!!!

Really, I like this move alot more now.

[The King]

As far as the Up-B move goes, it's really easy to sweet-spot the edge with it now, and can sweet-spot from below the ledge at nearly any point during the Up-B animation. The move seems to actually be faster than it was in Melee, with Falcon gaining height and covering the amount of distance a little faster than in Melee. Relatively, it does seem as though the Up-B goes a bit higher now, too.

Also, if you reverse-Up-B from beneath the ledge, it doesn't interrupt the animation to sweet-spot the edge, but Falcon can actually generate enough momentum as he nears the top of the arch to actually land atop the stage if need be. Once Falcon nears the top of the Up-B animation, his movement becomes really jerky, and can create quite a bit of spontaneous momentum in either direction.

And lol, forgot to add this in my first post. Raptor Boosting towards the edge while on-stage will still result in an SD... =(

Still waiting to figure out how to unlock ROB and Jigglypuff. I dunno why it's all over the internet that you just need to beat classic on normal, I've done it 6 times now with different chars and still no puff. =/

King Out

[Waka_Waka_do_do_yea]

Does it act like a pure spike or like a meteor? Actually, I don't know if either spikes or meteors are still in the game, but I guess they are.

Hope you get hold of puff soon :)

[Vortok]

I saw one guy post that he got Jiggles from doing a few Event matches.

This is pretty good news for Falcon. The move was, as someone else said, all but worthless in the air. Now Falcon actually has more than one recovery option. Yay!