Falco (PM)

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

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.

Attributes

See Falco (SSBM)

Falco's Melee-based alternate costume.

Falco retains his strength of having an above-average on-stage game, as he possesses a rather powerful and formidable comboing game in his repertoire.

However, Falco has some major issues with his survivability, which compose most of his weaknesses. He is among the lightest characters in the game (he weighs as much as Lucas, Pikachu, and Pit), and is therefore easy to knock off the stage horizontally. Additionally, his recovery continues to be one of the worst in the game; this is due to a few factors, including a very low air speed, an extremely fast falling speed, and his two recovery options, Fire Bird and Falco Phantasm, not providing enough distance.

In addition, other characters have been buffed in Project M to the point where Falco's matchups are not as favorable as they were in Melee.

Given that Falco was among the best characters in Melee however, and has transitioned better than other Melee top tier characters (such as Jigglypuff) he remains a significant threat to most of the roster.

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.

Aesthetics

• Has Brawl's running animation.
• Falco uses SFXs from Melee for certain moves, such as his down aerial and Reflector.

Ground Attacks

• 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.

Aerial Attacks

• Down aerial's strong initial hit duration was decreased to 4 frames, and late hit does slightly less damage.

Special Moves

• Blaster shots decay in damage based on distance.
• Reflector no longer has intangibility on the first frame of activation.

Revisions

v2.5

• 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.

v2.6

• 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.

v3.0

• Shine start-up animation has been improved.

v3.0.1

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

v3.5

• Fire Bird now matches Melee's version of the move. It travels a slightly greater distance and Falco falls later into the move.
• First hit of up aerial deals slightly less damage.
• Down aerial's clean hit window has been reduced from 10 frames to 4. Its late hit does 1% less 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.
• Ending Landmaster in the air now puts Falco in a helpless state.
• AI is more intelligent when using Falco, utilizing his down special, but is very prone to SD's.

v3.6 Beta

• Side Special no longer slides during startup, preventing a bug related to a sliding off and down of platforms.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.6 Beta.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		4% (hits 1-2), 1% (hit 3 loop)	A 3-hit Combo that leads up to a continuous attack that can be held by holding the attack button.
Forward tilt		9%	A swift kick that can be angled.
Up tilt		9%	A quick back kick that can be useful for juggling opponents.
Down tilt		13%	Falco sweeps the ground with his tail feathers.
Dash attack		9% (clean), 6% (late)	Falco makes a dash kick that loses power the longer it is out.
Forward smash		17% (clean), 14% (late)	A swift kick with a lot of knockback. Similar to Fox's.
Up smash		14% (clean), 12% (late)	Falco does a flip kick to the air.
Down smash		16% (legs), 13% (body)	Falco does a split kick that hits both sides of him.
Neutral aerial		12% (clean), 9% (late)	A Sex Kick that loses power the longer it's out.
Forward aerial		9% (hit 1), 8% (hit 2), 7% (hit 3), 5% (hit 4), 3% (hit 5) (32% total)	A 5 kick attack that is fast, but does not have much knockback.
Back aerial		15% (clean), 9% (late)	Falco does a back sex kick. Loses power the longer it is out, but great for combos.
Up aerial		5% (hit 1), 10% (hit 2) (15% total)	Falco does a flip kick into the air. Hits twice and is a great finisher.
Down aerial		12% (clean), 8% (late)	A downwards drill kick. Acts as a spike if done correctly.
Grab		—	Grabs the opponent.
Pummel		3%	A fairly quick knee pummel.
Forward throw		4% (hit), 3% (throw)	Falco bashes the opponent forward.
Back throw		2% (throw), 2% (laser)	Falco throws the foe backwards and then blasts them with his blaster.
Up throw		2% (throw), 2% (laser)	Falco throws the foe upwards and shoots at them.
Down throw		1% (laser shots 1-5) (5% total)	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)		6%	Falco lunges and kicks backwards and forwards.
Floor attack (back)		6%	Falco extends to attack in front and in back.
Floor attack (trip)		5%	Falco spins around, kicking those who are near.
Edge attack (fast)		8% (legs), 6% (head)	Falco lunges at the opponent with a kick.
Edge attack (slow)		9%	Falco slowly gets up and hammers the ground with a kick.
Neutral special	Blaster	1-3% (laser)	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), 1.5x damage for reflected projectiles	Falco activates his Reflector 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
•  Catnip
•  Larry Lurr
•  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

Trivia

• Oddly, Falco's Melee portrait in the Character Selection screen is mirrored, with his reflector and holster being on the wrong positions, and he faces right. Whenever any of his costumes is used in battle, his portrait shows him facing left, which is the correct position.

External links

• Project M character page