Time to play the devil's advocate again (lol):
I'm hearing a lot of things about
not being very good/having a lot of problematic match-ups on paper, yet I'm seeing a much different story in practice:
1. He's currently ranked #23 on OrionStats, just above
and just below
.
2. He had 2 strong performances at both Super Smash Con (Fatality and Nick C placed 25th and 17th respectively) and Shine (NickC placed 13th).
So what exactly is going on? To answer a few rebuttals:
-
"It's just NickC and Fatality that are very good"
NickC and Fatality are very good players, but couldn't this be said for other characters? "
It's not that's good, it's just Rivers that's really good, it's not that's good, it's just Cosmos that's really good, it's not that's good, it's just Tea/Sinji are really good, it's not that's good, it's just ESAM that's really good, etc...." When exactly does a characters' success become completely attributed to just the player and not the character? Where do we draw the line? If the rule is that he needs at least more than one player to prove his worth, then Falcon's got that more than covered with Fatality and NickC backing him up. I feel like in instances like these, I think it's best to give credit to both the player and the character: The player is very strong, but they're also proving the character has it what it takes to make it far.
-
"He didn't run into his problematic match-ups"
Given that we're almost a year into the game now, I find it hard to believe that
hasn't run into at least a few bad match-ups. In fact, out of all the sets I've seen with Fatality/NickC, the only two I can actually see being big problems for him are
and
, and even in the latter's case, a lot of it could be chalked up to NickC's lack of experience in the match-up against Maister. This isn't to say he only has 2 losing match-ups, but even if he did have other losing match-ups, I feel like they're all manageable and not actually impactful enough to make much a difference in high level play.
So what exactly is bad about Captain Falcon?
- His disadvantage state, as stated earlier, isn't very good; he doesn't have very many fast aerial options to land with, his big size, heavyweight, and fall speed make him easy combo fodder against characters like
, and his recovery is exploitable thanks to the rockcrocking technique (although I actually haven't seen this be much of an issue thanks to how Captain Falcon can mix-up the timing of his Falcon Dive). However, because of Falcon Dive's distance, I actually haven't seen instances of Falcon's recovery being gimped that often.
- His hitboxes and range aren't the exactly the stuff of kings; a lot of his attacks lack either horizontal reach (DAir, USmash) or vertical reach (NAir, BAir). I feel like this isn't actually that much of an issue as the extent of its impact is just requiring Captain Falcon players to be more precise with their movement, something that is mostly mitigated by Captain Falcon's phenomenal attributes (though his initial dash could be better), somewhat like
. This does become a bigger problem against smaller characters like
or
, however.
- He does have random technical issues that most characters seem to have; aside from his turnaround dash, his Raptor Boost is kinda broken..? Even after the buffs, the move apparently has a very hard time actually connecting properly with enemies; I'm not sure if this was as much of a problem as in SSB4, but either way, I can see why NickC has used the move far less than before.
So what is good about Captain Falcon?
- Well, for a character that is a combo-reffic Speedy Gonzales, the dude's got a very solid weight stat of 104 units, the same as
and 6 units above
. While this can nip him in the butt sometimes as it makes him even easier to combo, it becomes a life saver at higher percents, especially against characters that struggle to land the finishing blow like
or
, which in turn allows him to take full advantage of rage. This sort of leads me into my second point...
- He can take stocks. Like STUPID early. I know it may sound like a meme to overhype it, but watching NickC's recent sets will continue to remind me on just how integral NAir Hit 1 has become to Captain Falcon as far as getting a lead and dishing out as much pain as possible is concerned. The thing is, the move wouldn't even be that great on most other characters, but for someone as good mobility as Falcon, the confirm gives him such a generous window to take stocks with, setting up kills as early as 60% with a Knee Smash, all the way towards still continuing to confirm as high as 140% with stuff like a BAir or sourspotted DAir. The best part? It's only -4 on block, which is amazing, especially considering how Captain Falcon's improved air mobility allows him to cross-up with it relatively easily.
Speaking of confirms, DAir is pretty nutty too; not quite as good as NAir, given that it's more laggy compared to the latter, but again, it gives Captain Falcon such a strong confirm at low percents; the thing is, even without landing the sweetspot, the sourspot's got mad KO potential, capable of taking stocks at surprisingly low percents. It helps to serve in making the move a consistently strong option to land with, and unless you have a strong OoS like
or
, it can be very hard to punish. This is the part where you have to take into account that both these attacks are tacked on the same character, and that's not even the half of it.
Because even without his confirms, he really doesn't have much problems KOing outside of that: BAir is strong and spammable, Dash Attack is a fast burst option, the Gentleman is great at the ledge due to Jab 1's ability to cancel into itself, Falcon Kick covers landings very well, and there's probably something else I'm missing, but you get the picture. When you take into account his own weight versus the fact that almost all of his attacks start becoming kill options at high percents - whether it's a DTilt by the ledge, a DAir 2-frame, or heck, even an UAir/Falcon Dive snipe from off the top - it's pretty easy to start feeling like you're under major pressure by the dude.
- What I think gels all of his power together is his phenomenal movement. While his initial dash isn't exactly great, everything else is top notch, and he's definitely feeling the above average buff he got to his air speed, which is now on par with
's and
's; like
, it gives him a powerful neutral as well as some very strong mix-up and cross-up options with both NAir and DAir, but it's also a part of why NickC is able to land confirms so consistently with stuff like the Knee of Justice or why he's able to be so precise in his movement in times where he needs to be. It almost kind of gives Falcon the ability to be everywhere you don't want him to be, and when you take this into account along with everything else, it sort of makes me relieved he has such a bad disadvantage state; he feels like
(except obviously not as good) where his terrible disadvantage is the one major thing holding back what's otherwise a juggernaut of a character who gets a massive reward off of his advantage states.
- On a side note, Falcon Dive is surprisingly decent as an OoS; it functions less like an immediate answer like
's Super Jump Punch, and more like
's Soaring Slash, where Captain Falcon's drift and the move's surprisingly large grabboxes make it a strong option for punishing laggier options, even ones that are well spaced out; it's also great for catching rising hop aerial cross-ups, like how NickC used it against Dark Wizzy's rising BAirs during their sets at Shine.
That pretty much sums up my
ramblings thoughts on Falcon: He's got a really good punish game that's only really held back by a poor disadvantage state; to me, I don't think it's enough to peg him down below upper mid tier.
