Falco (PM)

Falco in Project M and Project+
Universe	Star Fox
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Falco (SSBM)
Alternate costume	Classic Falco

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Falco is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. He was remade to be nearly identical to his Melee counterpart in terms of attack hitboxes and animations.

Overview

Falco Lombardi is a very respected and equally feared name among the competitive Smash community, so it's no surprise that expectations for him are high going into Project M. He was one of the most changed characters from Melee to Brawl, losing many of his tricks and techniques that defined him in the previous game. Project M sees the return of the old bird of prey though, with his technical prowess restored in its entirety.

Falco's greatest strength is his fantastic on-stage game. All of his attacks come out very quick and have a short cooldown time, and most of Falco's aerial attacks are even safe on shield when he applies the proper advanced techniques. Falco's Blaster was one of Falco's greatest tools in Melee, and it comes back with all of its glory. Combine all his Blaster tricks with his finishing attacks, and it's easy to see why Falco is so dominating on the stage. His weaknesses lie in the fact that he has one of the fastest falling speeds in the game. He's also a light character, though not as light as Fox. However, what hurts Falco even more than his relative ease of being comboed due to his fastfall speed and how easy it is to knock him off the stage towards the side boundaries, is his recovery. Falco's recovery was notoriously bad in Melee and continues to be so in Project M. All of these together make Falco's survivability incredibly low, so he must take great care to avoid getting hit, even at lower percents.

It is this style of high-risk/high-reward play along with his high learning curve and technical skill required to play him at high levels that made Falco such a dynamic and memorable character in Melee. It is with that in mind that the Project M development team is proud to welcome back this re-imagining of Falco.

Restoration

As one of Melee's well-known Top Tier characters, great care was taken to recreate Falco's Melee-styled gameplay. Most of Falco's attacks that he lost in the transition from Melee to Brawl are back. Up-Tilt, Forward-Smash, Neutral-Air, and Forward-Air have all been reverted to their Melee counterparts. Use them in the same way that they were used them in Melee.

Specials

Falco's special attacks in Melee defined the character for better or for worse and Project M returns all of Falco's special attacks to how they were in Melee. His Blaster can no longer fire two lasers in a single short hop anymore, but they can be fast fallen at the peak of his jump, and they even regain ability to control Falco's horizontal movement. Falco holds his Reflector once again and is able to jump cancel it as well, creating many pressure opportunities in addition to reflecting projectiles. While those two specials were the cornerstone to Falco's metagame, his two other specials defined Falco in a different way: his lackluster recovery. His Falco Phantasm has been reduced to Melee length and priority, making it much easier to intercept Falco when he is coming back onstage. Firebird also loses the start-up flames that it gained in Brawl, but regains momentum after the move is completed and can grab the ledge during its start-up frames. In addition, it is no longer a multiple hit attack, but a single hit move like it was in Melee – complete with decent kill potential.

Pressure

With his old tools returning, Falco's pressure game from Melee returns as well. Down-Air is usually the better of the two because of greater shieldstun, but if the extra range is needed Neutral-Air will do in a pinch. The crux of Falco's pressure, however, lies in the Reflector. Like Fox's, Falco's Reflector is jump cancelable on the fourth frame which opens up a wide array of follow ups depending on what you think the opponent will do. One of the most common actions to perform out of a Reflector is a Down-Air, which has enough hitstun to link back into another Reflector. If timed properly, there are a very few number frames the opponent can act out of, and unless the opponent knows the blockstring precisely, he or she will either get hit by the Reflector or the Down-Air, or alternatively they will be trapped in their shield. This technique was known as Pillaring in Melee. Pillaring isn't a true shield lock however, but there are many other options out of the shine than simply Pillaring. Falco can jump cancel his shine into a grab, Wavedash behind the opponent and use Reflector again to limit their options (Wavedashing in general is a good option if Falco predicts a roll), or even jump cancel his Reflector into another Reflector.

Attributes

Falco's Melee-based alternate costume.

Changes from Melee to PM

Falco was reverted to become a clone of Fox again, rather than a semi-clone (as he was in Brawl). While he gained situational options from his Brawl incarnation, he lost a fair amount of his camping prowess due to the damage decay of lasers.

• Falco retains the ability to use the DACUS from Brawl.
• Falco retains his Brawl jab combo, which is better for racking up damage than his Melee jab combo.
• Blaster shots decay in damage based on distance.
• Reflector no longer has intangibility on the first frame of activation.
• Down aerial's strong initial hit duration was decreased to 4 frames, and late hit does slightly less damage.
• Has Brawl's running animation.
• Falco uses SFXs from Melee for certain moves, such as his down aerial and Reflector.

Revisions

2.5

• Falco's Jab 1 reduced SDIability corrected to be normal.
• Falco's back throw and up throw lasers work like in Melee.
• Falco's down throw now has an animation for the victim while being lasered and no longer freezes them in place before being thrown.
• Reflector's initial graphical effects sized down to match the hitbox, and the hitbox made clankable.
• Falco's hurtboxes adjusted.

2.6

• Lasers decay in damage based on distance.
• Shine invincibility removed.
• Forward Smash animation adjusted to match Melee.
• Up aerial animation adjusted to match Melee.
• Fire Bird's distance ported from Melee.

3.0

• Shine start-up animation has been improved.

3.0.1

• Forward smash charge graphical effects moved from his hands to his feet.

3.5

• Fire Bird now matches Melee's version of the move. It travels a greater distance and Falco falls later into the move.
• Down aerial's clean hit window has been reduced from 10 frames to 4. Its late hit is also slightly weaker in damage.
• Can no longer jump cancel Reflector's recovery frames after reflecting a projectile.
• Can no longer Gatling Combo due to the DACUS window shortening to 2 frames.
• AI is more intelligent when using Falco, utilizing his down special, but is very prone to SD's.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.0.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack	Jab, Straight, 100-Slash Attack	4%, 4%, 1% Each Slash	A 3 Hit Combo that leads up to a continuous attack that can be held by holding the Attack Button.
Forward tilt	Bird Kick	9%	A swift kick that can be angled.
Up tilt	Back Kick	9%	A quick back kick that can be useful for juggling opponents.
Down tilt	Bird Sweep	13%	Falco sweeps the ground with his tail feathers.
Dash attack	Jumping Side Kick	9% going down to 6%	Falco makes a dash kick that loses power the longer it is out.
Forward smash	Roundhouse Kick	17% (clean) 14% (late)	A swift kick with a lot of knockback. Similar to Fox's.
Up smash	Flip Kick	14% Initial, 12% Ending	Falco does a full kick to the air.
Down smash	Falco Split	16% (legs) 13% (body)	Falco does a split to hit both sides of him.
Neutral aerial	Flying Kick	12% going down to 9%	A Sex Kick that loses power the longer it is out.
Forward aerial	Cyclone Kick	9%, 8%, 7%, 5%, 3%	A 5 kick attack that is fast, but does not have much knockback.
Back aerial	Reverse Spin Kick	15% going down to 9%	Falco does a kick to the back of him. Loses power the longer it is out, but great for combos.
Up aerial	Falco Flip	6% First kick, 10% Second kick	Falco does a flip kick into the air. Hits twice and is a great finisher.
Down aerial	Air Drill	12% (clean) 9% (late)	An attack that, while has one hit, acts as a spike if done correctly.
Grab		Grab	Grabs the opponent.
Pummel	Knee	3%	A fairly quick knee pummel.
Forward throw	Elbow Bash	7%	Falco bashes the opponent forward.
Back throw	Skeet Blaster	8%	Falco throws the foe backwards and then blasts them with his blaster.
Up throw	Star Blaster	8%	Falco throws the foe upwards and shoots at them.
Down throw	Floor Blaster	5%	The opponent is thrown on the ground and shot. They land at the place they were thrown at, taking away Falco's Chain grab ability.
Floor attack (front)	Double Kick	6%	Falco lunges and kicks backwards and forwards.
Floor attack (back)	Stretch and Hit	6%	Falco extends to attack in front and in back.
Floor attack (trip)	Spinning Kick	5%	Falco spins around, kicking those who are near.
Edge attack (fast)	Twirl Kick	8%	Falco lunges at the opponent with a kick.
Edge attack (slow)	Slow Hammer kick	9%	Falco slowly gets up and hammers the ground with a kick.
Neutral special	Blaster	1-3% Each Blast	Falco fires his blaster. Unlike Fox's Blaster, it is slow but does stun the opponent. The lasers lose power as they travel.
Side special	Falco Phantasm	7%	Falco becomes invisible and suddenly dashes through opponents, leaving behind after-images.
Up special	Fire Bird	16%	Falco charges up and suddenly fires himself in one of eight directions, depending on what direction is held.
Down special	Reflector	8% Shine Effect	Falco activates his relector around him. When activated, it can do damage to opponents. Any projectiles are reversed back at opponents and do more damage than normal.
Final Smash	Landmaster	Varies	Falco summons his Landmaster. It has more air speed than Fox's, but has a much weaker blast and slower ground movement.

In competitive play

Notable players

•  Axe
•  DEHF
•  Mango
•  Porkchops
•  SFAT
•  Westballz

Alternate costumes

Falco now has an alternative costume based off of his appearance in Melee, and Star Fox 64. There are four variations of this costume: the original and the three team colors used in Melee.

Falco's alternate costumes in PM

External links

• Project M character page