C. Falcon Criticism Appreciated (Videos Included)

[Vividity]

I guess you could consider this one of the "rate my ____" threads, although the emphasis is really more on constructive tips from people who know a lot more about the game (specifically this character) than I do.

I only have a couple videos, but I guess they'll have to do. Basically, I'm a Falco main (never competed big time, but won a few convention tournaments around PA, nothing to brag about) who always had C. Falcon as his secondary. A little while back I just kind of stopped having fun playing with Falco and began having more fun playing C.Falcon, so I tried to make him surpass my Falco.

I'm still trying, some friends say I've finally made the transition, but I'm not sure myself. Anyway, here I am, Id appreciate if some of the vets here could watch the videos (they're not long) and give me some Falcon tips to help my game, whether they be more reliable combos or things to generally avoid.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vFBIVr4taZU I'm Yes!, my friend is the Fox.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4QKhg-C-D-w Once again, I'm Yes!, my friend is the Link

By the way, I did say Criticism Appreciated, but I mean constructive criticism. I respect the pros and watch their vids all the time, so trust me, I know Im not ANYWHERE near pro level and Im not that great of a player, so if thats what you're going to post you can save yourself the time; I'm aware.

 

[Roman.]

Your falcon seems pretty decent. You could have put some gentlemens here and there. They help a lot.

Work on combos with falcon. Especially against a fox for he is a fastfaller. I hope you can play on levels with platforms as well because it looks to me that you only play friendlys on FD. That's a good stage for falcon but in tournaments you'll be playing with more platforms.

 

[Vividity]

Me and my friends play in a friendly ranking list at our school, when we play we use the main tournament levels (most of which have platforms) so I have a lot of experience on them. Most of them dont make my game suffer one bit except for Yoshi's Island, it's very small and I dont feel my maneuverability is at its best on there.

Anyway, I watch a lot of videos and try to learn, but Im afraid Im not completely up to par with the lingo. I'll probably sound like a total noob but I'm not particularly sure what a Gentlemen is... I'll have to look that up.

Thanks. =)

 

[abit_rusty]

The Gentleman is when you hit A repeatedly on the ground but before you start doing the rapid punch animation, you stop at the third attack (punch, punch, knee)

Conveniently, you can look at "The Gentlegabe" thread here to see all the ways to do the gentleman summed up nicely.

So about your Falcon, you played him well but here's a few tips to improve. First off, I don't know if everyone will necessarily agree with me, but you should tone down the use of side b. Sure its a great combo starter, but soon opponents can catch on and/or see it coming easily, and you can just get shielded and/or shield grabbed. (Fox can easily spot-dodge and still have less lag from the dodge than you have from your side b missing to punish you). So try not to overuse side b to the point where you become predictable or leave yourself for openings. I'm guessing you're still working on fine-tuning your L-cancels, so keep it up there because SHFFLing is essential to many(all?) Falcon combos.

Some character specifics that I can think of on the spot (if your friend mains Fox) are...use down throw immediately early on (even if they have zero dmg) and follow it up with a SHFFL'ed knee. You'd be surprised how many times the knee will connect, because many players don't expect an immediate down throw at a low percent to tech out of it. So that's a given 35ish% on your opponent right off the bat. Follow up with a lot of dash dancing to a grab, and mix up throws and down throws, while following his tech and chain grabbing, in order to rack up damage. Just shrug off any laser spam because you can simply run and grab them before they can even put the laser away. One thing to note is that when doing a running grab, it's best to jump cancel (if you don't already know what this is: you run and press Z+X or Y. The jump "cancels" the laggy animation of the running grab and makes it look like you do a standing grab. You can tell the difference with and without jump-cancelling a grab (bit harder to tell with c.falcon), but usually JC grabs are bestto use any/every time)

A good way to finish him off is knee-ing him in the air. You can knee after a successful side b or an up throw around 80-90%, you may have to SHFFL the knee. You can also try up throw to side smash attack since Fox will fall fast enough to get hit (I saw you did this once ) Then of course there's also the good old dair to knee or falcon punch finish. If he's recovering with up B, you can edgehog and if necessary ledge hop to a bair. Usually the bair out-prioritizes Fox's up B and will guarantee a KO. If he tries recovering with a side b illusion fox, time your up tilt or down tilt attacks to intercept him. Down tilt-ing him at a high enough percent can also lead to a knee.

If you're trying to recover vs a Fox's shine, and you still have a second jump and are below the stage, jump back once far enough to know that you can still sweet spot the ledge with your up+b, then use up+b towards the ledge to sweetspot it. This is to avoid that nasty reflector because the Fox may likely jump below the ledge to shine you and jump back up (perfect time to have used this method is at 55 seconds in the first vid). I play against a Fox all the time and he's pretty agressive with the shine edeguarding, so I know it gets frustrating being killed at a low %. Just watch him carefully and you should naturally gain the insight to see the best way to recover and avoid getting shined.

Actually you did pretty well vs. that Fox, but those are still good tips to follow for better Foxes out there.

 

[Vividity]

Thanks a lot for all the tips, they all helped a lot.

The side B one is one I'll definitely have to work on. Being relatively new to C. Falcon (having spent a few too many years on Falco x_x) I don't really know all his best combos and combo linkers just yet. Also, I haven't had the chance to read up on him much, so I've been relying on the Raptor Boost since i knew it worked.

I know what you mean though, abusing it will get me into trouble so I'll definitely try some of the alternatives you've suggested.]

Thanks again.