Falcon is slept on.

[DelugeFGC]

Sure, you see the guy with a Falcon Punch avatar and the string of Helmet icons under his name, you get the idea of my bias. Getting that out of the way now.

I think Falcon is totally slept on in the current meta, and because people weren't immediately able to pick him up and do super well with right away.. people just assumed he was a mid-tier. I feel people also made a lot of preemptively negative assumptions about Cloud as well. As time has went on and I kept coming back to the character over and over, despite telling myself Cloud was ALWAYS gonna be a way better pick and I was stupid for doing this.. stuff changed. All those whiffed combos started linking, especially when I learned more buffer tech like attack cancel RAR's to aid combo game, you can do sickening **** with his UAir and it's still one of the most spammable aerials in the game. His BAir is nice, not as nice as it could be, but still very nice. The knee is fine, despite what some say. Falcon's 'completely neutered' combo game has blossomed into something beautiful the more I've stuck with him, and he's starting to feel very familiar to another iteration of Falcon I played, but I won't get into that as it's totally beside the point.

Don't get me wrong, I do think Falcon could use a few buffs.. but right now I'm starting to agree with what Fatality has said about him recently. He's more execution / mechanically intensive than most other characters, and a LOT of what constitutes being able to do consistently well with him is MU experience, hours of labbing, getting out there and playing.. etc. I know you will improve with any character, even low tiers, if you stick with them.. I'm no fool.. but I still can't help but feel like we've been a little too hard on the Cap'n the past few months. I don't think he's a glorious top tier slayer or anything, but I do think he's sitting around the lower end of High Tier and has definite room for growth in the meta, especially with buffs.


Buffs Falcon could use:

His dash being tweaked a bit
Raptor boost hitbox fixed
Rockcrocking removed
More kill power on BAir
Slightly further range on dash grab

 

[Wunderwaft]

I kind of agree. A friend of mine mained him in previous Smash games, and when Ultimate came out he told me Falcon isn't necessarily weaker, but rather he's changed enough to alienate the people who previously played him. I think as time passes and Falcon players get used to his changes we'll start seeing the Captain shine better.

 

[DelugeFGC]

I kind of agree. A friend of mine mained him in previous Smash games, and when Ultimate came out he told me Falcon isn't necessarily weaker, but rather he's changed enough to alienate the people who previously played him. I think as time passes and Falcon players get used to his changes we'll start seeing the Captain shine better.

I agree with your friend full-stop. I think a lot of Sm4sh Falcon players picked him up going into Ultimate and made a lot of negative assumptions. He's very mechanically demanding, especially with his timing. His combo lord potential is all still there in spades, you just REALLY have to work on executing it to get consistent. Falcon can also kill you disgustingly early (I've had 0 kill knees on the ledge when people had bad DI) and lives quite long himself, though his fast falling, big-bodied nature does make him combo food. He's not a character that does any carrying of his player at all, but if combined with the proper skill the player and the Cap'n can go quite far together.

 

[MalanoMan]

I think Cap is one of those characters with a high skill ceiling that people haven't really reached yet. He is a very difficult character to play well at the casual competitive skill level (me), but I can see how he could do really well at the professional level too.

I think the knee needs to be buffed though. Its fairly difficult to land the strong knee, and it fails to KO at lower %'s like 55 - 75% ish where a simple Ganon Fsmash would obliterate the opponent.

 

[DelugeFGC]

Considering how quickly Falcon can rack up a metric ****-ton of damage out of one, MAYBE two combo strings out of one instance of winning neutral, I haven't had too much of an issue with landing knee kills because it has so many setups and confirms.. that on top with CF's burst output I think it's fine personally. That said I'm not opposed to a better knee.

My main focus of what needs to be fixed is the hitbox on Raptor Boost (it whiffs a lot when it shouldn't) and rockcrocking his Up-B. His dash and dash grab getting better wouldn't be the worst thing either. That all said, I still think he's a viable high-tier (call him A-, at the lower end of A-) with growth potential. With the right buffs, he could even become a top tier if grown properly.

He can get explosive results and go a long way, the floor to get there is just a fair bit higher than it is with other characters and he isn't a character one just picks up and starts doing well with after a few games. I wouldn't recommend him to a new player at all.

 

[MalanoMan]

I probably just need to get gud. Then I'd probably have an easier time with the knee.

The rockcrocking definitely needs to change too. Can't agree with you more there.

 

[DelugeFGC]

Try Peach / Daisy or Olimar if you want the ultimate taste of a heavy execution / skill floor character. They're almost daunting to pick up if you've never played with them much before, even for more experienced players. Just doing regular stuff with them requires a lot more effort than it does other characters, but good god can they get results if you put in the work.

 

[MalanoMan]

I actually consider myself a fairly decent Peach / Daisy player without any tech skill and Olimar is pretty fun too, but I have much less experience with him.

 

[DelugeFGC]

I'd say they're some of the hardest characters in the game to pick up, but they give amazing results once you get there with them.

 

[MalanoMan]

I'd say they're some of the hardest characters in the game to pick up, but they give amazing results once you get there with them.

So you're saying Peach / Daisy and Olimar have a higher skill floor and require greater execution that falcon, but falcon has the higher skill ceiling?

If so, then I agree.

 

[DelugeFGC]

So you're saying Peach / Daisy and Olimar have a higher skill floor and require greater execution that falcon, but falcon has the higher skill ceiling?

If so, then I agree.

Olimar might have one of the highest ceilings in the game, I'm not quite sure yet.

 

[LSDX]

Side Taunt -> Falcon Kick is a true combo.

 

[SJMistery]

He has the same problem Greninja and Corrin have. Some key traits have changed considerably, and vets have trouble readjusting the muscle memory to accomodate to them. Once people get more used to them all three will shine again (in fact, some japanese pros have already started shredding tournaments with Greninja, Fatality is as flashy and destructive as always, and time will tell what happens once Cosmos and company decide to give Corrin another chance).

 

[Turk Injaydii]

I agree with the premise that Falcon is slept on. Too many top players pumping out tier lists consider him low tier, and I just don't see that. He has reliable, varied setups into Knee; great grab follow-ups thanks largely to ac Bair; has improved recovery distance from Sm4sh; Falcon Dive is a GREAT kill tool; his edge guarding is top notch thanks to lingering weak Knee, Bair, rising Nair, reverse Up Air's, reverse Falcon Dive, etc (the list is so long tbh, Falcon has tons of tools and mix-ups to consistently edge guard for a player that has the MU knowledge and read on the opponent); and his combo game continues to grow as the loyal Falcon mains push the character.

That all being said, he certainly has his flaws and I would place him high-end of mid tier at best. Rockcrocking, an inconsistent Raptor Boost, mediocre movement due to his horrendous turnaround animation and painstakingly average initial dash speed, change to Up-Tilt that disallows hitting opponents at ledge/ground level, loss of sliding dash grab, and loss of Dash Attack as a combo starter at low/mid percents all definitely hurt him. And I'm sure more could be added to explain his flaws.

I like Fatality's most recent video in which he explains a lot of Falcon's issues that are inconsistent with the rest of the cast and seem like design oversights. Examples include: his leg is invincible during Up-Tilt, but he sticks a hand up in the same general area that has a hurtbox; other Side B's that operate similar to Raptor Boost activate their hitbox on frame 2, but Raptor Boost's activates on frame 6; quite a few characters consistently fall out of his jab; and more can be named.

If Falcon had all these design flaws fixed (I won't even call them buffs because they're flaws that are just arbitrary and shouldn't exist), that alone would be a godsend. That being said, I'd also love to see Rockcrocking removed and his movement improved so it felt great to dash dance and just move around with him. Melee and Sm4sh Falcon have such fluid movement, but Ultimate Falcon feels clunky. He's second fastest in the game for run speed, but his initial dash is slower than Bowser's... That's criminal. He definitely needs his turnaround animation cut in half and his initial dash should at least be in the top 15.

Anywho, that's my 2 cents and then some about ol' Douglas J. Falcon. I'm gonna stick with him and hope he gets at least some of the changes he deserves.

 

[~?~]

Sure, you see the guy with a Falcon Punch avatar and the string of Helmet icons under his name, you get the idea of my bias. Getting that out of the way now.

I think Falcon is totally slept on in the current meta, and because people weren't immediately able to pick him up and do super well with right away.. people just assumed he was a mid-tier. I feel people also made a lot of preemptively negative assumptions about Cloud as well. As time has went on and I kept coming back to the character over and over, despite telling myself Cloud was ALWAYS gonna be a way better pick and I was stupid for doing this.. stuff changed. All those whiffed combos started linking, especially when I learned more buffer tech like attack cancel RAR's to aid combo game, you can do sickening **** with his UAir and it's still one of the most spammable aerials in the game. His BAir is nice, not as nice as it could be, but still very nice. The knee is fine, despite what some say. Falcon's 'completely neutered' combo game has blossomed into something beautiful the more I've stuck with him, and he's starting to feel very familiar to another iteration of Falcon I played, but I won't get into that as it's totally beside the point.

Don't get me wrong, I do think Falcon could use a few buffs.. but right now I'm starting to agree with what Fatality has said about him recently. He's more execution / mechanically intensive than most other characters, and a LOT of what constitutes being able to do consistently well with him is MU experience, hours of labbing, getting out there and playing.. etc. I know you will improve with any character, even low tiers, if you stick with them.. I'm no fool.. but I still can't help but feel like we've been a little too hard on the Cap'n the past few months. I don't think he's a glorious top tier slayer or anything, but I do think he's sitting around the lower end of High Tier and has definite room for growth in the meta, especially with buffs.


Buffs Falcon could use:

His dash being tweaked a bit
Raptor boost hitbox fixed
Rockcrocking removed
More kill power on BAir
Slightly further range on dash grab

Other than grab down throw nair/upair strings, falcon has no reliable top level combo game that can't be stopped by DI. That's why people call him a mid tier, that an because his recovery is actual ****

I think he's a mid tier. I don't sleep on him tho. I personally put him just shy of high tier. The only reason I dont sleep on him is because I main Link, tho, and that's because, as all Falcons should know, Link loses to rush down characters, and Falcon has no problem getting in on him.

 

[Vincey_Boi]

Lowkey everyone says he is some low tier trash but i digress i actually think he is super good in the right hands with some nice kill moves and Combos Just watch NickC and Fatality play there character amazingly.