Finally, a character that I actually feel extremely competent discussing.
First, off, I'd like to acknowledge and agree with the general consensus that Falcon is bottom tier, and, perhaps, the worst character in the game. That said, the next point on my agenda would be one of Falcon's greatest issues, if not THE greatest issue: approach game.
Falcon's approach game suffers for numerous reasons, among which are priority, range, short hop height, and speed (both running speed and attack speed. While the former may seem strange to note, bear with me until I explain).
First off, his priority is balls. Save perhaps Falcon Kick, Falcon Dive, his Uair, and his Utilt, his priority is balls. Absolute balls. Most of the time you're lucky to see one of Falcon's moves clink. Many of his moves, which at first seem like reasonable methods of approach, are made useless by their crap priority. Raptor Boost, for example, suffers greatly from this. Sometimes you'll get a double hit. Rarely will you get a clink. Most of the time you end up just getting knocked back by whatever your opponent haphazardly throws out in retaliation. What's more, a well timed dodge or shield will leave you standing there helpless after the Raptor Boost animation. Makes for a garbage approach. Nair, which used to be an excellent approach/combo method in melee, is also hampered by a lack of priority. Whats more, the hitbox is all but useless now that his shorthop is so **** high. It sails over most of the characters in the game right out of the short hop, so what you're left with is a largely telegraphed, falling aerial. All of his aerial moves soar over shorter opponents, making an aerial approach impossible. Couple this with a ground approach game which is largely limited to Falcon Kicking , VERY sparse Raptor Boosting, and throwing, Falcon really has no method of attacking his opponent. Starting a good combo on an opponent relies heavily on luring the opponent into the airspace near and directly above Falcon.
I think I missed the bit about priority in that paragraph. I've learned, as this post went by, that it's really hard to categorize Falcon's flaws into any one aspect of the game. Core aspects (approach game, combo game, other such things) seem to be riddled by several extremely specific problems, so I'll be detailing my thoughts on Falcon without much sense of structure from here on out. I apologize for this, but it's the easiest way to get my thoughts out there.
More approach game business: I've found that Falcon's approach game is limited to only a few strategies which are generally very difficult to apply. A cautious opponent will usually be able to work around these....easily, even. Allow me to detail a few strategies I've found at least viable, though:
Dash grab>dthrow>utilt/spotdodge>further followup seems to be a good approach for opponents who just landed or are caught off guard.
RAR'ing a FF'd bair seems to work well, or even landing on the backside of a shield with a bair.
Running autocanceled dairs are another decent way of launching the opponent into the air, where Falcon basically needs his opponent to be to succeed. Depending on the situation, this can be followed up with jabs, uairs, and a few other situational moves such as grabs, tilts, smashes, and knees. Dair and dthrow seem to be among the most versatile approach tools. Don't let this give you the impression that this is a foolproof or even decent approach in the grand scheme of things, though. The priority on dair is still balls and could easily be buggered up by things like Olimar's U-smash (C.Falcon's bane) and MK's jab combo. Moreover, it's one of his highly telegraphed moves. It's really not hard to block this one when they see it coming. Fortunately, if you're decent at autocancelling, you'll be able to use the inertia from Captain Falcon's jump to land beyond the opponent and escape any retaliating attacks.
Let me take a commercial break to make a comment about Falcon's new speed. The inertia which he maintains when he takes off from the ground after dashing seems to have been dorked at least a little bit since Melee. Maybe it's just me and how I feel switching between the two games, but honestly I feel like he slows down just a tad from his dashing speed once he takes off into the air. This makes aiming attacks like the dair really, really weird. I'm not fond of it. It makes comboing a little more difficult. I feel like his "catapulting" range has been significantly lowered since the previous installment.
Back to approach games:
Properly spaced Falcon Kicks are an excellent way of approaching ranged opponents, since they erase or clink most projectiles. However, if spaced improperly, you're up for an easy shield grab or retaliating smash from, say, Marth. This is perhaps Falcon's most dispensable tool for approaching, because at least it helps rack up some initial damage and provides some airtime for Falcon to get his uair action in.
I generally find that these are the best if not only approach options Falcon has. Sure, you can mix up with a few Raptor Boosts here and there, but that's not reliable. The rest of Falcon's methods to rack up damage on his opponent generally involve luring, shieldgrabbing, and other campy things. Verily, Falcon has become a largely defensive character since the previous installment. He can't approach the enemy, so his goal is to do little things that make the enemy approach him.
Let's see...what else makes Falcon as bad as he currently is. Right. Speed. While Falcon's speed admittedly does come with its perks (following characters across the stage quickly, obviously) it does give him issues with spacing. His sliding stop is extremely long because of how fast he moves, so it makes it really difficult to get precise spacing out of his ground movement. His walking speed does help fine tune it, but it's still slow enough that it's hard to reach precise locations in proper time. I find that it's really difficult to get myself in range to Ftilt or Utilt without sliding headlong into the opponent. Maybe it's just me.
His attack speed, as well, has never been anything to boast about. Not since N64. The knee has always had a windup. His dair feels like it has significant windup as well. All of his smashes, all of his tilts, everything takes a decent amount of time to startup. Couple this with bad landing lag for almost all of his aerials (save nair and autocancelled attacks, both of which are useless from the ground with the further exception of dair) and you have a slow, clunky character who is easily punished for any minor mistakes he makes. Add that to his easily gimpable recovery and you begin to see why it is incredibly hard to survive as Falcon even despite his good weight disposition.
He can't combo because of lowered hitstun. That's been covered. I think it's about time I moved onto the few pros left for Captain Falcon
He has a few moves that are absolutely essential to his success: Falcon Kick, Falcon Dive, jab, uair, bair, dair, and his throws. That may seem like a formidably versatile arsenal, but in reality there are only a few situations in which any of these moves is suitable.
Let's attempt a move by move analysis:
Falcon Kick is an all around excellent approach. It gets through most attacks successfully, and when it doesn't, it clinks. From the front, it's pretty hard to break the Falcon Kick. Successful Falcons will generally use this move sparsely because of the lag induced by the ending and by collision. However, against ranged opponents, you'll see this move a lot more often. It's basically what keeps him in the game against anyone with a decent projectile.
Falcon Dive is a great offensive move. Its greatest asset is that it can be performed out of a shield. The range has a peculiar warping snap effect: it reaches for a bizarre amount of length and is fairly good at outprioritizing moves. Whats more, it can't be countered. It's a good combo finisher and provides a fair amount of knockback AND damage. This move has become much more important to Falcon's success now than in Melee.
Jab. This has been mentioned before. Jab is basically a brief interrupter. Sort of like a shine. This is crucial to ALL of Falcon's matchups. The infinite jab actually provides a fair amount of damage before the opponent breaks out, too, actually. Excellent move.
Uair is one of Falcon's few saving graces. It's a move that actually has great range, speed, and priority. That makes it good enough to spam. The x-factor here is that it can get absurd angles depending on how you space and time it. It's one probably his most sensible killer in the air and definitely the easiest to execute. As long as the opponent is above you, this move is excellent. The only trouble is getting your opponent above you. Then keeping him there.
Bair is an excellent approach move and a decent killer. It's got a lot of knockback and it opens fast. Landing lag is bearable. You'll generally want to reserve this and the uair toward the end of your opponents life so that you have easy kill outlets. Diminishing returns will greatly hurt the knockback here.
Dair is excellent at killing from the nipples (though connecting this hitbox is awkward). Otherwise, it's a pretty important approach/situational combo move when autocancelled. Dair>Knee is an excellent way to take advantage of an opponent's mistake. Moreover, that works on anyone. It's also a good way to lift the opponent off the ground, and when it's autocancelled, it's hard to punish. Again, though, its priority makes it very situational.
The throws are probably Falcon's best options for getting his opponent off the ground. They can be very spontaneous due to how fast he runs. The range is still kind of balls, especially against short opponents, but as long as you're careful , most any of his moves are great ways to get and keep your opponent in Falcon's favorite spot: above him.
I suppose his dash attack is a good startup move as well. It provides decent damage and can be very spontaneous due to his speed, much like his throws. Should not be spammed by any means, though, as the priority is still balls.
That about covers his strong points. He does have some good traits about him, but none of them scream "I WIN" like, say, Snake, Metaknight, ROB, Marth, etc. Moreover, when Falcon has a bad matchup, it is REALLY bad. I have not found a way to win against Olimar AT ALL except by fluke. Honestly, the Pikmin + Olimar's throw will outprioritize Falcon on every front. Metaknight is another impossible case. A barely COMPETANT player for either of these characters should have a relatively easy time with defeating even the best Falcons.
Disjointed hitboxes aside, short characters in general destroy Falcon. His high short hop makes them really hard to hit and even grab. Anyone about Kirby's height (Squirtle, Kirby, Olimar, MK, Diddy, Ness, Lucas, etc) has an extremely lopsided advantage against Falcon. This is mostly because they give him so few options (you'll probably have about only half the options I listed above, or less. People like Olimar and MK GROSSLY outprioritize Falcon and are so short that it becomes nigh impossible to land a hit of any variety. It's disgusting). The ridiculous gap between Falcon and his opponent in his worst matchups is what keeps him from doing well in tournaments. He simply cannot endure the variety he'll face in a tournament bracket. There number of bad matchups is just too high (There are a lot of short characters and characters with disjointed hitboxes, or a combination of both) and the lopsidedness of battles in which Falcon is at a disadvantage is just cruel. When matchups are bad for him (and I'd say at least half of them are) they're really bad for him.
Don't get me wrong. I love Falcon. But Falcon for bottom tier. Worse than Peach. Worse than Ivysaur's recovery options. Worse than everyone. I'd pin him up for absolute bottom, even though he's the character that I've played more than any other.
