WTF How did you guys learn falco?

[francois]

Hey guys I'm an avid IC player who likes to dabble w/ lots of other characters. After seeing some crazy *** falco videos I want to make him my secondary character.

WTF!

Most of his advanced moves are so hard to pull off. Did you guys spend hours everyday learning how to do all those short hop/shine combinations? I'm not sure if it's worth the effort I almost lost to my buddies Bowser, (he just started playing him last week). Is the humiliation of getting owned in the begining worth it? I mean I had to go through that w/ the ICs but their grabs combos seem easier.

If you can perform falco's top moves can you could play any character amazingly well?

 

[Kada]

Well... I learned falco basically by first spending 2 hours watching combo videos and reading guides (JiH and Bam's combo video, go watch it!) and then basically running around like a moron in training mode for the rest of the day just getting a feel for all his moves. I'm actually just leaving the "get destroyed by all your friends" stage myself, after about 3-4 weeks. (That could partially be because I only get to face a real person once a week...) I think that every new character you pick up goes through that, but eventually you break out, and start really becoming good.

Learning Falco probably CAN help your L-cancelling, and just all around finger speed, and alot of skills you acquire carry onto other characters. So it would be safe to assume that learning how to play a good Falco could probably improve your game, or at least help your mental game along.

 

[vericz]

Practice!! It's the best way. When you pick up a new character you aren't supposed to be good right then (unless it's sheik ) Once you get the hang of it, it will get easier.

 

[xelad1]

Lol I remember the first time I saw advanced tactics being used with falco (and marth for that matter)... it was those JGT videos with Ken and Bombsoldier. I was like WTFINHELLISGOINGONOMGJESUS. After I read some guides I got past that stage of utter disbelief and to the stage you are at which is the: "holy crap how the hell do you shl constantly waveshine yadda yadda".

It really is just practice practice practice, I mean his wavedash was a pain in my butt right from the getgo just because of the awkward timing. Then there was properly moving with the shl, pillaring etc. Just go down his list of techniques and practice one until you get frustrated then move on to another. Pay attention to what you are doing wrong/right. After doing 10 wrong wavedashes/waveshines with him you are bound to do one right, so what are you doing right/wrong? Mastering or at least becoming proficient in the technical abilities of fox and falco really makes every other character very playable. Of course you won't be great with marth just because you are good with falco his playstyle grab game spacing are all different techniques, HOWEVER I found that becoming proficient with the space animals make the advanced techniques of other characters seem juvenile by comparison which lets you jump into the good stuff like how to use the other characters effectively in a match without having to worry about screwing up a wavedash or something.

Chances are if you become good with falco your abilities with ice climbers will improve as well.

 

[invertigo]

step by step. this is how i learned to do everything

learn SHL
learn to wavedash
learn to shffl (nair, dair especially)
learn to l-cancel everything else

after that i learned to rshl
then lhdl, lightshield edgehod, firebird stall, other edge tricks

basically once you learn something, you have to be able to do these really comfortably.

-like after you learn to shl, you have to do it so well that you basically shl everywhere you go.
-after you learn to wavedash, learn to wavedash out of shine
-after you learn to shffl, learn to immediately follow it up with a shine or utilt. be able to do this so well that you can pillar and stuff.

etc etc etc


but then again im not that good. me and infinite gxt got destroyed at the ucla tourney.

 

[flaco]

well falco is a hard character to master and learn all you need is practice thats all the same for fox but falco is a little bit harder for the timeming of the shl or other combos like pillar and all the basicks.

 

[GamerGuitarist7]

yeah, i just practiced for a few hours a day at first lol. but trust me its worth it, falco is too good. i'd give a more detailed answer with tips right now but i got stuff to do lol. good luck and i'll get back to you later on good tips. (invertigo had some good tips though)

 

[Shai Hulud]

Falco isn't that hard to use IMO. Not as difficult as Fox, Captain Falcon, or even Ice Climbers.

His only difficult techs are RSHL and infinite JC shines, the latter of which is not necessary. And with Falco you don't really have to think. You can win on tech skill alone against many opponents (not against very good opponents obviously).

 

[o2good4dat]

There's no real shortcut to learning any character, and falco is no exception. He's difficult at first, especially learning how to SHL well, but once you start to get a flow with him he's so much fun. In terms of order of skills to learn, I think SHL should definitely come first, and then before you learn how to wavedash you should learn how to l-cancel things. I spent a long time learning how to wavedash consistently with falco before I learned how l-cancel, and it was a big waste of time. Learning how to shffl his attacks will make you much better than being able to wavedash. After that it's all gravy, just learning the timing of things like shine combos. Watching vids helps, but nothing is better than actually playing against people.

 

[Giggidax]

performing falco at his best isnt gonna make u the best with every other character. wat makes u get that idea? lol. but yea once u learn how to do falcos shl ur be addicted to him from there.
learning all his techniques is a must and it might take awhile for u to get them down perfect but just keep practicing and practicing

 

[Endless Nightmares]

Well I'm pretty sure I learned Falco differently than most people. I learned how to play Falco by getting owned repeatedly for months by skilled Falco players at tournaments and smashfests. One day I was Smashing with my friend and I told myself, oh what the hell, I'll go Falco. I started the match with an SHL approach followed by a 0-death shine combo. The rest was history. I had been ***** by Falco so often that I knew exactly how he worked. I would just think to myself, What did [insert Falco player] do to my Game & Watch? Then I repeated it mostly from memory and with a little improvisation.

 

[Stryk9]

step by step. this is how i learned to do everything

learn SHL
learn to wavedash
learn to shffl (nair, dair especially)
learn to l-cancel everything else

after that i learned to rshl
then lhdl, lightshield edgehod, firebird stall, other edge tricks

basically once you learn something, you have to be able to do these really comfortably.

-like after you learn to shl, you have to do it so well that you basically shl everywhere you go.
-after you learn to wavedash, learn to wavedash out of shine
-after you learn to shffl, learn to immediately follow it up with a shine or utilt. be able to do this so well that you can pillar and stuff.

etc etc etc


but then again im not that good. me and infinite gxt got destroyed at the ucla tourney.

this was very well put


I'd like to add, that yes Falco is quite difficult to learn

I picked him up like 2-3 months ago after seeing shiz's combo video and realizing how his fun combos must be, but you have to practice, alot


ive gotten to the point where i can shl constantly and comfortably and rshl and sorta lhdl

the pilaring is going but remember dont only learn to shine out of a dair, be good at shining out of nairs and bairs as well (which i wasnt) cuz their exceptionally good combo starters.




but yea it is really hard, proly one of the hardest characters

the waveshine is friging soooooooo hard with falco doing it back forth i cant even do it well yet



BUUUUUT, its all worth it cuz once you get the hang of it you realize falco is too good and then you bring the onslaught on your poor poor buddies

 

[FalconFlames]

I practice hard but I can't get falco good enough
you all speak about playing other people but I can't
I don't know anyone who can beat me (and I'm a HUGE noob >< serious)
so all I do is watching vids and train in training mode or against comps
but I'm pretty good at those tricks & stuff...
only thing I still can't is a good wavedash (falco jumps to fast ><)

 

[Pye]

only thing I still can't is a good wavedash (falco jumps to fast ><)

I apologize if this is a huge bump, but I just thought I'd mention that Falco's jump is SLOW, not fast. The reason you aren't wavedashing is because you're doing it too QUICKLY, not too late.

Falco jump (among a few others, including Link and Ganon) = 6 frames
Everyone else's jump = 4 frames

Falco's WD timing is acualy a little slower then everyone else's.

 

[Shai Hulud]

I apologize if this is a huge bump, but I just thought I'd mention that Falco's jump is SLOW, not fast. The reason you aren't wavedashing is because you're doing it too QUICKLY, not too late.

Falco jump (among a few others, including Link and Ganon) = 6 frames
Everyone else's jump = 4 frames

Falco's WD timing is acualy a little slower then everyone else's.

No it isn't.

4 frames - Fox / Ice Climbers / Kirby / Pichu / Pikachu / Samus / Sheik

5 frames - Captain Falcon / Dr. Mario / Luigi / Mario / Marth / Mr. Game & Watch / Ness / Young Link

6 frames - DK / Falco / Jigglypuff / Mewtwo / Peach / Roy / Yoshi

7 frames - Ganondorf / Link / Zelda

-

9 frames - Bowser

Not even close.

Characters are on the ground for one fewer frames, meaning for Falco you need to wait five frames before air-dodging.

 

[Eternal phoenix Fire]

Play with Fox alot...Then pick up Falco,you'll master hit technical aspects in about 5 min.(Note: TECHNICAL aspects).

I did...

 

[flaco]

Well he is right my friends try it also work om shl alot it helps

 

[Giggidax]

bowsers jump is so late O_O

 

[KazeOfTheWind]

Once you get it down, the timing will just come to you by itself. Once I got SHL, I mastered it within minutes, approaching and fleeing. It's really easy once you understand how to do it. I used to do LHDL alot differently, but once someone walked me through it, It's almost as easy as if I was doing SHL. Listen to everyone else, Practice is all it takes ^_^. Good luck on making Falco your secondary.

 

[falco_4_life]

Play with Fox alot...Then pick up Falco,you'll master hit technical aspects in about 5 min.(Note: TECHNICAL aspects).

I did...

i hear this alot, but i mained fox before i mained falco n i find playin fox didn't help wit ****. i had to practice my *** off, i still am. The best way to learn falco good is to watch other falcos, n it never hurts to hav someone close by to teach u the stuff u need help on. Thats how i learned to l-cancel

n IC's r wayyyyyy harder to play witht then falco. desynch is so hard its ridicolous. i would love to know how to play with IC's though. they are such a good character

 

[InfiniteGXT]

Like some of my brothers in falco here :D I fist stumbled upon MasterWumpuss' Soldier of Fortune on a site not even related to SSBM. I decided I wanted to get like BS and I re-bought the game. It took me a couple months just to get down the standard stuff like wd and shffling. After I pulled off my first successful shine combo (at the time a very simple shine>Dair X2) the joy I felt was incredible.

I practised 2-3 hours a day trying to perfect my tech skill. I watched thousands(litterally) of videos and watched Soldier of Fortune and the JGT videos countless times. I thought I was freaking insane until I went to my first tournament and got whopped. I comboed people like crazy, but I still didnt KNOW how to play. I just knew how to combo. So I went to 1 or 2 other tournaments and played friends a bunch of times. I am still very early in my tournament life. But quite frankly like every n00b (Ive been trained to be a noob on GFAQs lol) I ran my mouth off way too much and still get bashed when I dont win tournaments. But I digress.

Falco is all about practice. It takes months to perfect his combos. I have been playing fro a year and 2 months and still havent mastered some of his play(Im talking 2 hours EVERY DAY). But thats probably because I train alone against a computer mostly.

Sorry for rambling!

 

[Sinz]

I went to the bathroom to learn how.

 

[falco_4_life]

Like some of my brothers in falco here :D I fist stumbled upon MasterWumpuss' Soldier of Fortune on a site not even related to SSBM. I decided I wanted to get like BS and I re-bought the game. It took me a couple months just to get down the standard stuff like wd and shffling. After I pulled off my first successful shine combo (at the time a very simple shine>Dair X2) the joy I felt was incredible.

I practised 2-3 hours a day trying to perfect my tech skill. I watched thousands(litterally) of videos and watched Soldier of Fortune and the JGT videos countless times. I thought I was freaking insane until I went to my first tournament and got whopped. I comboed people like crazy, but I still didnt KNOW how to play. I just knew how to combo. So I went to 1 or 2 other tournaments and played friends a bunch of times. I am still very early in my tournament life. But quite frankly like every n00b (Ive been trained to be a noob on GFAQs lol) I ran my mouth off way too much and still get bashed when I dont win tournaments. But I digress.

Falco is all about practice. It takes months to perfect his combos. I have been playing fro a year and 2 months and still havent mastered some of his play(Im talking 2 hours EVERY DAY). But thats probably because I train alone against a computer mostly.

Sorry for rambling!

now thats what i'm tlkin bout. thats how u learn falco, cold hard PRACTICE. thats about how long i used to practice when i 1st started learnin him

 

[Miharu]

I picked up Falco about 1 1/2 years ago. And my Falco still sucks. You can never get enough practice. Once you get basic techskill down, which should take about 2-3 months to really solidify it, from there on out it's just all tourney EXP and friendlies. Implementing new tactics in real-game situations really makes the tactics stick. And try to play consistently (timewise), at least a few times a week to develop muscle memory for certain techs.

It doesn't hurt to watch matches and combo vids to see what works and what doesn't, and pick up some new stuff. Experimenting on your own is quite useful as well.

 

[francois]

Thanks Guys this has been encouraging. Getting that l-cancel down everytime took a while, just because it slips your mind and it's not too bad if you don't always get it with IC. Now it's become instinct press down to fast fall and right and L right after.

No kidding practice is all it takes. I made a goal for myself to do the technique 10 times in a row w/o making a mistake. I started easy, 10 short hops, then 10 SHff, then i would add nairs and bairs, then i added l cancel and then i did it moving. I 10 times in a row w/o a mistake it fun.

IC aren't that hard but I really wanted to learn them because their grab combos are flashy. By the way to desynch you just spot dodge and hold the move you want to do next, typically b for ice block and then spam it.


Next up is the pillar, sometimes my shine comes out so fast after I land and other seems like it takes ages so I want to master that : ) SHL is still coming along but I don't know how long that will take.

 

[JesiahTEG]

If you think Falco is hard to use, play fox. Also, his grabs are not nearly as good as Ice Climbers, that's why their combos seem easier to you. But if you are doing the combos i'm thinking about with Ice Climbers, all of Falco's abilities that require tech skill should be a piece of friggin cake to you. And to invertigo... ... ... Why did you have to tell him to learn how to light shield edgehog?

 

[Shai Hulud]

IC aren't that hard but I really wanted to learn them because their grab combos are flashy. By the way to desynch you just spot dodge and hold the move you want to do next, typically b for ice block and then spam it.

You must be really bad with ICs if that's all you do. Desynchs from spot-dodge are very predictable. Desynch from pivot, desynch from dash dance, and desynch from wavedodge are much better.

And desynching itself isn't hard. Finding appropriate times to desynch, performing the desynch, and adapting it to the specific situation at hand is difficult. This is usually more complicated than spamming ice blocks, which even when desynched don't come out that fast.

ICs are harder to use than Falco.

 

[gkrackerr]

yea, along with other people in this thread, it truely is just practice
I started off fox because I once saw a zelgadis combo video and thought OMFG I want to do that.
The I realised I sucked, and tried the other space animal, falco, and the rest is history.

Ohh.. and to what the other people have said regarding using fox before falco. It can help in some areas, like I learned originally to short hop with fox, and along with that to shdl with him as well. That skilled transfered over to falco. I am sure there are other skills, but that is the one specific to me

 

[tw0 side]

There is an excellent Falco guide stickied on this forum. I suggest you use it.

 

[chlor0form]

performing falco at his best isnt gonna make u the best with every other character. wat makes u get that idea? lol. but yea once u learn how to do falcos shl ur be addicted to him from there.

Lol. That's so true. Man, falco is fun to use. Anyways, advanced techniques just require practice. It might be tedious at first, but you'll find that the game gets more enjoyable the more you play (learning these techniques).

 

[cyberdemon]

I was inspired to learn Falco after seeing many combo videos.
And it's true, he doesn't need uber mindgames to win, it's mostly technical skill.
I have learned most tricks with Falco, except the multishining thingie. It's too hard and innecesary to Falco's game IMO.
BTW, falco's waveshine is easy compared to fox's

 

[FalconFlames]

I didn't take SSBM that seriously until a few months ago
before that I played a lot with any character
falco suits me best

 

[King Mel]

Ive pretty much learned him in the last 2 hours...im not great but i know how to do most moves and combos i jsut cant pull them off every time yet...i still have some trouble with the shl tho

 

[Stryk9]

Like some of my brothers in falco here :D I fist stumbled upon MasterWumpuss' Soldier of Fortune on a site not even related to SSBM. I decided I wanted to get like BS and I re-bought the game. It took me a couple months just to get down the standard stuff like wd and shffling. After I pulled off my first successful shine combo (at the time a very simple shine>Dair X2) the joy I felt was incredible.

I practised 2-3 hours a day trying to perfect my tech skill. I watched thousands(litterally) of videos and watched Soldier of Fortune and the JGT videos countless times. I thought I was freaking insane until I went to my first tournament and got whopped. I comboed people like crazy, but I still didnt KNOW how to play. I just knew how to combo. So I went to 1 or 2 other tournaments and played friends a bunch of times. I am still very early in my tournament life. But quite frankly like every n00b (Ive been trained to be a noob on GFAQs lol) I ran my mouth off way too much and still get bashed when I dont win tournaments. But I digress.

Falco is all about practice. It takes months to perfect his combos. I have been playing fro a year and 2 months and still havent mastered some of his play(Im talking 2 hours EVERY DAY). But thats probably because I train alone against a computer mostly.

Sorry for rambling!

yeah those first couple shine combos are great moments, i agree

 

[UCbizerkeley]

Ive pretty much learned him in the last 2 hours...im not great but i know how to do most moves and combos i jsut cant pull them off every time yet...i still have some trouble with the shl tho

lol. I haven't been around too long either, but I find this first post hilarious. I JUST migrated from SSB64, have poured over 20 hours of pure training into Falco this week, read, took notes and implemented the Guide multiple times and STILL have no idea "how the bird moves"

Looking forward to this grueling journey

 

[invertigo]

you can learn technical skill all you want doesnt mean you are good. me and infinite gxt are almost masters of falco's tech aspect and both of us couldnt make it out of pools at the ucla tourney. so id say its a huge misconception that falco is easy or he is only technical.

 

[Volrec]

Jump. Press down on the cstick. press R button. Press down b. Repeat.

 

[Mars-]

First learn how to short hop. Then learn how to L-cancel. Then learn how to shorthop dair shine shorthop. Then you need to learn how to shorthop laser. Just mix it up a bit. Combos aren't that hard. Try some shorthop nair juggles on fastfallers. Dair to shine is the most important thing to learn, but you also have to learn that you can only do that at lower percents. After the shine it really depends on where they got hit. Fox at lower percents you can follow up the shine with a bair. You really just gotta figure out all the shine combos from videos, and by accident/testing. The most important thing though is making sure you l-cancel the dair, otherwise you have no chance of hitting the shine.

 

[RandomRalph]

All the things I learned I learned on my own and from watching local fox players. I saw them hop out of shine so I did and took alot of things from them and added it to my game....kinda lame but like watchign falco matches doesnt help me anymore

 

[vericz]

jumping out of the shine was just as easy as SHL for me. Learning falco and all his combos take some practice though.