Is this Falcon's best or second best Smash game?

[Naisora]

I was using Falcon other day, and I really feel that they buffed him a lot. I use to main Mario you see, and while he was a bad character in pretty much the last two games, in brawl even he was better than Falcon. Now I feel like the reduced air mobility and long-ass survivability in this game worked against his favor, as now he struggles for kills even more, and can't utilize his aerials as much. But Falcon is still fast, and looks like he has a lot better moves now, at-least compared to the last game. Maybe its me but i feel like even obscure rare hitting moves such as Falcon Punch got buffed in speed, making them a lot more possible to hit with compared to back then. Even though I feel like his melee counterpart is still king, I can't help but feel as if this is the one where he shines most in the period of the last few years. I'm really starting to like him a lot, and thinking about picking him up seriously.

Well, you guys tell me. I haven't been following the scene lately since the game's release. I kind of just picked it up and then dropped it after a couple of weeks. Is Falcon doing well in this game? In tournaments and all that jazz? Would be interesting to know. Sorry for rambling on.

 

[Ree301]

Falcon does very well. A player named ZeRo won the last major WiiU tournament (APEX 2015), and while he didn't win using Falcon, he plays a very strong one. For reference, he plays against another competitive smash player named Nairo and his Zero Suit Samus. I'll link it so you can watch the set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrAsEdAudy4

He's not melee Falcon, but there's not really any character that could go toe to toe with their melee counterpart (maybe Kirby?). But he's certainly the strongest he's been, ranking in WiiU nearly where he ended up in melee as far as tier lists go.

 

[Kyussbm]

I think relative to the rest of the casts in each game, this Falcon is either strongest or second strongest behind 64's Falcon. Melee Falcon is the best technically, but he's flawed in that game and is more of a threat in SSB4 and 64, imo.

 

[Crazc]

Melee is falcon is technically the best falcon. It's close between 64 and sm4sh falcon, but I prefer to play sm4sh falcon.

 

[Darky-Sama]

#1: Melee
#2: N64
#3: Smash 4
#4: Brawl

Similar to what people said above, Melee Falcon possessed the vast amount of techskill that the other games paled in comparison too. But it was also the game where he could capitalize off everything. He had superior pressure, combos, reliable kill potential and a number of ATs that made his already absurd ground and air momentum more difficult to deal with. The amount of hitstun provided in the game was what made him shine though. The horror of being knocked all the way across a stage - near the blast zone - only to know that potentially, Falcon's combo hasn't ended. That's enough to damage many players psychologically.

In N64, Falcon is considered one of the best characters. Almost everyone played in a similar fashion where zero-to-deaths were possible in most circumstances, but it came down to who had the better tools for actually starting them. Pikachu, Fox and Kirby are easily the most notorious for that, but Falcon is still relatively high in that regard.

Smash 4 has given Falcon a crafty grab game and kill potential that makes him significantly well in a game that relies heavily on mid percent combos and hard reads. Falcon doesn't have any currently discovered zero to deaths like in N64, nor does he have the low percentage regrabs which could lead into death combos like in Melee. But Falcon's options are still significantly useful despite the change in game mechanics.

There really isn't much to say about Brawl Falcon. He was a character that had fallen from grace. The changes to the game mechanics from Melee to Brawl made him terrible. Not only did he suffer various character-specific nerfs, he lost the ability to combo due to the lack of hitstun. Occasionally, it was possible to get hard reads on an inexperienced players, but it was always an uphill battle for 90% of his match-ups.

 

[stancosmos]

In 64 he was good, but so were a lot of characters, he was still a contender though.
He was good in melee, but in the meta game he doesn't really touch fox/marth/falco.
Brawl... Brawl can never atone for what it did to falcon.
In Smash 4 he seems to be very solid, but not on the shiek/rosa/diddy tier.

Relative to the number of players in each game, i'd say smash 4 he is the most viable. Mostly because being top 5 in a game is more impressive when there's 50 characters than when there was 12. Also he's considered good in melee, but none of the top level pros would really touch him outside of teams. That being said it's a bit too early in smash 4s meta to determine just how viable he is, but he does make a lot of tournament appearances. But as a falcon main myself, I can see his skill cap being a little lower than some other characters.

But if we're talking which falcon would win in some weird smash mash up game? Melee. Melee falcon was a beast, the only thing he did wrong was exist in a game where there was some pretty unbalanced characters who can pretty much do away with the rest of the cast.