omfg rate my Falco?

[Afro_Ninja]

You guys love these threads right??

Ok so here's the deal. I main captain falcon, jigglypuff, and doc. After attending FC last year and seeing the overwhelming number of space animals, I finally decided to try picking one up. Nothing like hopping the bandwagon. Fox is a little too high-maintenence for me, so I went with falco. Plus I much prefer his shl.

Anyway, I've been playing falco for about a month or two now. here's a vid of me from last week:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8JE09UoH5do

I could probably say right now that my biggest improvement needs to be wd out of my shines, for better combos. I'm working on that, but I HATE falco's wavedash. I can wd around with doc and falcon pretty **** consistently, but falco's wd seems to require twice the delay between hitting X and R.

other advice?

 

[Leoneri]

Actually I do kind of love these threads, I get to help others, but not in the threads that ask how do I shl or waveshine and such that come up so often. I'm watching the video now so i'll edit with my rating.

1. You use fsmash a lot, you could've been punished a lot more for that.
2. Your SHLs are high a lot of the time.
3. You don't fastfall your dairs a lot of the time it appears.
4. You stood there for about a second or two just spotdodging.
5. You became obvious in your approach, especially with the dtilt.
6. If that Mario was competent, at about 1:30ish he could've dropped on to the ledge and you would've been dead.
7. When you tried to edge hog you made no attempt to renew your invincibilty frames, which allowed the Mario back onto the stage.
8. You airdodged off the stage.

 

[Somasu]

It's alright. You seem to be around my level with Falco, actually. About the only two things I think I can do just a bit better than you is my wavedashing with Falco and I'm a bit faster with SHLing.

I'll just give you the advice I've both heard from others and found from experience.

You need to work on SHLing a lot faster than what you're doing now. It's good that you know how to do it, so all you need to do now is pretty much train your fingers to move faster in order to allow quicker, more effective SHLs. Also, try and get your lasers lower to the ground. The way you're doing it now seems to make them way too high and easily avoidable.

I noticed how in some points (e.g. 1:51), you double jumped out of your shine in order to reach your opponent to D-Air him back down when you didn't really need to. Be very careful of that. At low percentages, you usually can use just a single jump in order to reach your opponent to follow up. Double jumping out of your shines like that could really get you punished if someone were to catch you and knock you out, leaving you with no extra jump to get back. Trust me, I've actually had this happen when I had this habit.

You already know about needing to wavedash, so I don't really need to mention that. All I can say is practice, practice, practice. I used to think I couldn't wavedash, and now i can do it near perfectly, so just keep trying until you get it.


You also really need to be more aggressive. I've noticed that Falco is a character that can create really big combos and do lots of damage really quickly. You really have to be on your opponent at all times to keep them on their toes. Spam the hell out of your SHLs to give your opponent something to worry about, and once you spot an opening (Like if they're shielding, or for Mario's case, trying to cape your lasers), jump in and try for a grab or shine (grabs, preferably, if they're shielding). Be aggressive, but not so aggressive as to make yourself predictable.


And the biggest piece of advice I can say for you is to find some better opponents. Playing more, better people really helps you learn new things really fast. Your opponent in this video seemed to be okay, but there's no harm in finding more opponents. If you don't know anyone else, then the best place to find people is at tournaments. You can find plenty of tournaments listed here at the boards, so try and find one closest to you, and see if you can get there.


That's pretty much all I can think to say. I do hope I help out some, but I wouldn't trust my words too much because I am nowhere near the best Falco out there. I know some general information about the character, but I may be wrong in some areas, and if I am, feel free to correct me. Either way, I still say that I see a bit of potential in your Falco. Just work on your tech skill, find some more opponents, and you'll get there soon enough.

 

[Afro_Ninja]

Thanks guys. Various quotes and responses:

You use fsmash a lot, you could've been punished a lot more for that.
You became obvious in your approach, especially with the dtilt.

these moves have been drilled into my head because they work more often that not.. but I agree, I have to force myself to mix it up

You stood there for about a second or two just spotdodging.
You airdodged off the stage.

yeah, the airdodge was just a messed up wd. If I remember correctly during the spotdodges I was really trying to do something else, but I was pressing buttons too fast- IE pressing the buttons I wanted during the dodge, by the time the dodge was over I was tapping the control stick again to make me dodge. Usually doesn't happen but I seemed to get caught up in it at least twice that match

7. When you tried to edge hog you made no attempt to renew your invincibilty frames, which allowed the Mario back onto the stage.

I usually stick with pressing L or R to get up from the ledge, I was just trying to be an *** and fall+bair him. What's the best way to renew invincibility frames? up+b stalling will give them an extra jump if they come into contact with it, and dropping/hopping opens up the ledge for a grab inbetween

Your SHLs are high a lot of the time.

You need to work on SHLing a lot faster than what you're doing now. It's good that you know how to do it, so all you need to do now is pretty much train your fingers to move faster in order to allow quicker, more effective SHLs. Also, try and get your lasers lower to the ground. The way you're doing it now seems to make them way too high and easily avoidable.

I never really noticed but you guys are definitely right on that

I noticed how in some points (e.g. 1:51), you double jumped out of your shine in order to reach your opponent to D-Air him back down when you didn't really need to. Be very careful of that. At low percentages, you usually can use just a single jump in order to reach your opponent to follow up. Double jumping out of your shines like that could really get you punished if someone were to catch you and knock you out, leaving you with no extra jump to get back. Trust me, I've actually had this happen when I had this habit.

double jumping is a bad habit of mine that carries over from captain falcon play. I don't know why but I feel the need to execute things as fast as I can, including using up my second jump to get into dair position better

And the biggest piece of advice I can say for you is to find some better opponents. Playing more, better people really helps you learn new things really fast. Your opponent in this video seemed to be okay, but there's no harm in finding more opponents. If you don't know anyone else, then the best place to find people is at tournaments. You can find plenty of tournaments listed here at the boards, so try and find one closest to you, and see if you can get there.

my friends and I went and destroyed a local tourney.. but then we went to one that C.O.K. hosted and got blown away ourselves. Not much of a middle ground unfortunately : )

 

[James Sparrow]

4/10 SHL lower, edgegaurding, and being more oppressive with your aerials is what my advice would be in a nutshell.

 

[Somasu]

I usually stick with pressing L or R to get up from the ledge, I was just trying to be an *** and fall+bair him. What's the best way to renew invincibility frames? up+b stalling will give them an extra jump if they come into contact with it, and dropping/hopping opens up the ledge for a grab inbetween

Up+B stalling is usually what I do to renew invincibility frames. Sure, there is the risk of them using the Up B to get themselves back on the stage, but even if they do that, they should have a bit of lagtime out of their next Up+B for you to get back on the stage and knock them back off again. Also, if you stall fast enough, then you should grab onto the ledge quick enough as to not allow them to use it to their advantage.

 

[xelad1]

Um I know this isn't very comprehensive but work on your tech skill basically is the best advice I can give you right now. Practice your waveshines on a level 1 fox or something. Also your shl should be coming out faster.... but yeah just get the essential techs down you seem like you are on your way there. Heh and I totally agree with you about the wavedash, it killed me when I tried playing falco with advanced techs for the first time like almost 2 years ago... One thing that helped me was wavedashing with bowser or ganondorf, or practicing falcos wavedash in slow-mo mode. I would practice it there and then it would seem easier to do on normal speed. Essentially though its just a matter of timing, now it feels natural to me, it will come with time.

 

[Leoneri]

For the edgehogging, if you are worried firestall will hurt them and give them their third jump back the just wait just long enough so that you jump on the edge right before they can grab it.

 

[Volrec]

Work on the waveshine out of shield, very good for **** combos.
You need to learn to SHL lower, like Sparrow said. Espiecially with Char's like Mario who arent exactly basketball players. You also become faster when you SHL Lower.

Overall, your falco needs work.

Dude, you've improved since "The Knee"

 

[Afro_Ninja]

Dude, you've improved since "The Knee"

heh, thanks. I need to re-edit that with some better stuff in it....

 

[Driz]

5/10
As mentioned you gottta fast fall those SHL so you can get them lower and keep them faster and you didn't seem to shine to often. Work on your edge game too, when returning either use a dodge roll to the stage or jump onto the stage with a dair or nair, possibly work on ehdl
When your opponent has a crappy recovery such as Mario then punish him by edgehogging if hes trying to sweetspot like his last life instead of using a dair and getting a cool but risky kill just use R/L and make a safe recovery to the stage leaving the edge un-grabable and definately use less foward smashes, you hit often but against a more aware opponent you'll get punished alot more. Still you play a decent Falco about the same lvl of play as myself

 

[Deleted member]

3/10

relearn the basics
and every other faults previously mentioned.
obvious, you were

 

[Jem.]

You need to really short hop fast fall ALL your aerials too. You can really get punished, ESPECIALLY on FD, if you aren't doing that with L cancel or going through. That mario could have done tons if all he did was shield grab into up throw up tilt up A combos.

 

[Leoneri]

Okay, all the posts now are restating the same thing. Don't restate what has been said 4 times already (Not pointing this at anyone in particular.

 

[Jem.]

I said he needs to short hop fast fall and L Cancel all aerials.
I don't recall seeing that >_>

 

[Insane-Contrast]

You have a nice style of Falco, believe me. You just need to be a little more aggressive. Falco is best played aggressive.

 

[d_shep04]

you falco is slightly above average, but you should definetly l-cancel when your trying to pillar. and one rule of thumb. never fight on the edge when fighting against doc or mario unless the tides is in your favor b/c you can get caped easily as you almost did twice. but still good falco

 

[Glowfisch]

nice style

but don't forget this at 2:17 u grabbed mario but u didn’t atk.. him after u throw him down
some good advice try to use shines ore D-smash after u throw someone down it really works

about your shl maybe if you try practicing SHLing dairs in to shine on a lv 1 cpu ore something.
This will really improve your finger speed making it easy to learn a good shl

(I prefer to plug in a second controller and set damage ratio to 0.5 + handicap 1 vs 9 and then beat the hell out of your dummy)