GhostM
Phantom
This is about how you guys feel about Falcon in his current state, with the latest patch being 4.0. Patch 3.1.0 did fix and tweak some minor issues with Falcon, but I feel like there is much more issues to fix to really help him excel in top level play.
For me personally, I will always play and main falcon in every single smash title, even in Brawl. I enjoy his fluent air and ground speed which helps excel with his already decent combo game. My problem with Falcon derive from issues that surround him in Ultimate that aren’t present in older smash titles, including Smash 4. I understand that his playstyle is a lot more different from what Smash 4 has to offer, but I feel like Falcon is a mid-tier character, lower from his normal placements in older smash titles excluding brawl, where he would normally be a B-tier character. I decided to compromise a list of issues that I personally have with Falcon in the current state of patch 4.0.
Issues with Falcon:
*These videos are not mine. Credit is given to gng_ssb via twitter and others on the hashtag #FixFalcon. I knew about these problems but these clips are great examples of the problems that were listed on my list. Credit to FatalityFalcon for the visual hitbox display of UTilt, easy for anyone to read.
In all honesty I have no idea why Falcon has these issues in Ultimate. I never once had any issues like the ones on the list using him in Smash 4, well except maybe rock-crocking since it's been in the game since Melee, but it was never a prevalent issue for Falcon. I just hope that maybe one day all of these issues will be fixed, since it's really hindering Falcon's performance and holding him in mid-tier. If all of these problems were fixed, Falcon would be a much better character, but us Falcon mains for now will have to live with these issues.
For me personally, I will always play and main falcon in every single smash title, even in Brawl. I enjoy his fluent air and ground speed which helps excel with his already decent combo game. My problem with Falcon derive from issues that surround him in Ultimate that aren’t present in older smash titles, including Smash 4. I understand that his playstyle is a lot more different from what Smash 4 has to offer, but I feel like Falcon is a mid-tier character, lower from his normal placements in older smash titles excluding brawl, where he would normally be a B-tier character. I decided to compromise a list of issues that I personally have with Falcon in the current state of patch 4.0.
Issues with Falcon:
For a character like Falcon who is designed to rely on his ground speed and overall speed, Falcon has a short initial dash and one of the worst turnarounds in the entire game. His dash barely even helps to avoid getting hit, especially his turnaround speed being 13 frames long. His dash is overall worse than characters who were designed to be slow. Apparently when beginning the turnaround, he is the only one to have the problem where his model is pushed in the wrong direction for the first couple of frames.
Rockcrocking is when a Falcon player gets punished for landing their recovery move on another person since it sends Falcon at a weird angle that can be used to hit him. It’s not only Falcon that has this issue, but Ganondorf as well. You shouldn’t be punished simply because you landed your recovery move on an opponent. Falcon’s recovery has a huge emphasis on vertical movement, which is why his recovery is very linear and susceptible to gimps. Rockcrocking is just another weakness that hinders his already exploitable recovery. There are videos by FatalityFalcon that explain Rockcrocking in depth, but this screenshot should be able to sum it up easily.
Falcon’s Kick is a great kill move ever since patch 3.1.0, but his hitbox placement means that any characters who low profile or crouch can avoid the move entirely with correct positioning.
Up Tilt is a great anti aerial move and more faster ever since the 3.1.0 patch, but the bad thing about it is that Falcon’s leg is intangible, but places his hand in front of his leg which has a hitbox that can be used to still hit him, which doesn’t make any sense. The first screenshot shows his intangible leg hitbox, and the second one shows the hitbox of his hand which makes the intangibility useless.
Jab is a decent move for falcon, coming out on frame 7 which can be used to rack up % alongside his other moves. The problem comes in when his jab doesn’t really connect in a fluent matter, causing it to whiff and allowing him to be punished for using one of his fastest tools for attacking. It especially whiffs with smaller characters such as Pichu for this instance, and can whiff with normal characters who are the same height as falcon.
Even with patch 3.1.0 in place that makes Raptor Boost come out faster, I still find it whiffing from time to time, and sometimes even seeing the fire come out of Raptor Boost but doing absolutely nothing.
Sometimes when you Up B and try to land on your opponent, it will miss even though you are directing it right next to them. This will also happen if your opponent is shielding.
*These videos are not mine. Credit is given to gng_ssb via twitter and others on the hashtag #FixFalcon. I knew about these problems but these clips are great examples of the problems that were listed on my list. Credit to FatalityFalcon for the visual hitbox display of UTilt, easy for anyone to read.
In all honesty I have no idea why Falcon has these issues in Ultimate. I never once had any issues like the ones on the list using him in Smash 4, well except maybe rock-crocking since it's been in the game since Melee, but it was never a prevalent issue for Falcon. I just hope that maybe one day all of these issues will be fixed, since it's really hindering Falcon's performance and holding him in mid-tier. If all of these problems were fixed, Falcon would be a much better character, but us Falcon mains for now will have to live with these issues.
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