As mentioned time and again, Falco's primary strengths are definitely his lasers and CG. Even without these, his air AND ground game are both excellent, making it very difficult to keep his strengths in check. Take his melee game, for example.
In melee range, Falco has ludicrous priority which sets him ahead of all but a select few (namely those with completely disjointed hitboxes, bar Olimar). His dash attack, while slow, can be cancelled into an up-smash, which at low percentages leads to 20%+ damage chains (this can often be done in lieu of chain grabbing based on the situation/opponent's character). Like Snake, the Boost Smash results in a fairly long slide which provides Falco's u-smash with even greater situational utility. The d-smash is quick, and if used carefully it will leave your enemy too far out of range to be punished for lag. Miss or get blocked and you're in trouble, but better Falco's shouldn't find this to be a problem. Utilt has amazing range that extends deceptively far on Falco's sides. Obviously, there's a decent hitbox above him, too. The utilt can be executed out of almost any move and can be used multiple times at low percents to rack up some serious damage. After that's all done with, he can lead into a bair, uair, or nair for further comboing (or pseudo comboing, based on percents). Dtilt is great for spacing or tossing your opponent into the air where Falco has a few reliable kill/combo moves (bair and uair come to mind). Having the highest initial jump in the game also lends itself to allowing Falco to chase even if he knocks his opponents too fair into the air. Ftilt also has great range and great spacing capacity. F-smash is a devastating killer, also with great range (though it's misleading for SSBM Falco mains at first, as he no longer moves quite as much). The jab combo is also an insane utility move which allows for spacing, stalling for some time to think and plan, and steady accumulation of damage. Overall, there's no finding a weak point in Falco's ground melee game. The priority on all of the aforementioned moves is excellent, even despite the fact that Falco's hitboxes are largely not disjointed. On the ground, it's a matter of overpowering Falco's melee moves, not trying to limit them.
His aerial approach is also phenomenal. To illustrate this, I'll use Olimar as a hypothetical opponent. Olimar has exceptional priority above and in front of him. The Pikmin afford him a disjointed hitbox which generally outprioritizes all characters who don't also have a disjointed hitbox (even Marth stands to see some difficulty approaching in the case of Olimar). Falco, however, can approach in a number of ways. His lasers can force Olimar out of his position if shorthopped while moving forward. Once Falco gets within aerial range, he can fall in on Olimar with a dair, nair, or turn around for a bair. The dair in particular shines here, as it can actually clash-cancel Olimar's insanely high-priority u-smash/utilt and leave him open for a follow-up attack. This also applies to other characters with disjointed hitboxes, such as Marth, Ike, Link, etc. Those without disjointed hitboxes or defense against Falco's lasers suffer from Falco's ability to approach without question. Thusly, his air->ground game shows great promise (though compared to his ground game, there are a few weaknesses, say Wolf and GW).
He also shines in his air-to-air combat. Bair has great range, knockback, and damaging ability. Couple that with its great priority and extended (though non-sweetspotish) hitbox time, and this easily gives Falco confidence when going toe-to-toe with anyone in the air. His insane jump height typically leaves him the option of dair, as the jumps will put you above your opponent more often than not (and since the dair is still a great move, even when you don't get the spike, this gives Falco even further utility while fighting in the air). Nair gives Falco great priority on both sides of his body and, while not particularly damaging, leads well into combos that are relatively close to the ground (particularly ones that end in his uair or bair, both of which are excellent kill moves). The landing lag on the nair is close to nothing, thus reinforcing the combo potential of this move. Furthermore, Falco's uair has improved significantly in this game, and if sweetspottted it can afford easy kills and/or damage. It also has reasonable landing lag and leaves decent room for some pseudo-combo followups. The only move in Falco's moveset that isn't at all viable is his fair. It has decent knockback when the fourth hit connects and can be used to kill near the edges, but the range, priority, and landing lag are all so terrible that the fair really lacks much function in Falco's play style. This, along with Falco's mediocre air acceleration, are perhaps the two greatest (if not only) drawbacks to Falco's air game. (Note: the fair is usable in select few situations, though generally these do not include anything that requires Falco to land after doing an fair). However, it's unfair to say that Falco's air acceleration is really any detriment, because one can't really expect him to accelerate like Wario and Jigglypuff. That would be broken.
Mind, everything I've said thusfar spells and confirms that Falco is a good character. I have barely mentioned combining these strategies with his special attack arsenal. The stuff above is enough to put Falco into the upper tiers, but the integration of his special moves is what really pushes him into the top.
That said, the incorporation of the laser is the first step toward making Falco top-tier material. Lasers are generally too slow to camp for more than the first few shots, so they're best used to approach or quickly force your enemy to approach. When firing the second laser (or first, pending on your preference and situation with the enemy) near the ground, if you've closed enough space you can lead into any of Falco's ground moves, bar F-smash. Utilt, ftilt, jab combo, and SH nair/dair are all great followups to a low laser. The key is to become confident in using and aiming your lasers at point blank range. If you're only using them to approach briefly and then dashing the rest of the way, you aren't maximizing the potential of the laser. Its critical that a good Falco player learns how to control this move in close quarters.
Also, apart from being an excellent recovery, the phantasm is great for offense. If spaced properly, it can lead fluidly into utilts, which themselves can lead into aerial followups and/or u/fsmash. It makes for an excellent approach and is somewhat difficult to counter. SH Phantasm is excellent for reducing the finishing lag and makes this move almost spammable, as does running or jumping off the ledge and phantasming back on. Ledgehopping this affords a good camp and recover strategy and can, again, start some decent combos.
The shine is a decent move, but I'm not as learned on this as I am on the others, so I won't offer comment.
Firebird isn't combat viable, and it's an easily gimpable recovery. This among the last of Falco's already few drawbacks. It's lost the knockback ability that it had in the previous game, and the range is still balls, so there's not much promise in this move.
I won't waste my breath reiterating what's been said about the CG, as Seth seems to have covered all the bases. The only thing that I can think to add is that there is a general rule of thumb for how long people can be CG'd by Falco, and that is this:
Lighter characters generally last up to 20-35%
Midweights last up to about 30-45%
Heavyweights last up to about 50%
And floaty characters generally can't be chain grabbed at all. (Luigi and Samus come to mind. I forget if they're actually able to break out on the first grab. I'm pretty sure they and Peach can, though).
Anyway, that is what makes Falco a deadly character. Even then, this was only a rough synopsis of the depth and potential that he has. In future tournaments, Falco will most definitely become an annoying adversary. The progression of his metagame will be among the more interesting ones.
. Standing on the ground and spamming lasors is easily punishable. Any character can jump through the lasor-spam and F-Air falco while he's putting his gun away. In fact, a good MetaKnight will take advantage of Falco's prone position and rack up a lot of damage. But when SHing, his lasor becomes nearly unpunishable. It is slower, but that's hardly a problem when the lasors work into easy combos. In fact, most opponents expect falco to attack in the air, but he can instead Lasor a person twice to stun them once they hit the ground. Then it builds into a quick AAA combo, a shine combo, or a smash. (Sometimes even a grab.)
), his smashes : His Usmash can be used both to rack up damages (after a CG, after a dash...), his Dsmash is a very good OoS move, and his FSmash is a great finisher. It is slow, but after a Powershield (something that will be mastered with the time), it is really great.
