Captain Falcon (SSBB)

Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	F-Zero
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Blue Falcon
Tier	F (34)

Captain Falcon (キャプテン・ファルコン, Captain Falcon), commonly known as Falcon or C. Falcon, appears as an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He was confirmed on February 22, 2008 on the Smash. DOJO!!

Ryō Horikawa reprises his role as Captain Falcon in Brawl, albeit via recycled voice clips from Super Smash Bros. Melee, along with new, previously unused voice clips.

Captain Falcon is ranked 34th on the tier list in the bottom tier, thus being the third lowest unlockable character and the lowest ranked sole fighter from a series, a gargantuan drop from his 6th position in the current Melee tier list and making Brawl his only appearance in the series where he is bottom-tier rather than high-tier or high mid-tier, and by far his worst placement in the series. Captain Falcon has his trademark speed-and-power combo, in addition to great mobility, great momentum cancelling and overall survivability, an all-purpose attack in his up aerial, and one of the best jabs. However, his combo and KOing power were nerfed from Super Smash Bros. Melee, with his finishers either being weakened (such as forward smash), or significantly more difficult to land (such as his Knee Smash). In addition to this, most of Falcon's attacks have poor hitbox placement, making safe approaches and spacing difficult, especially when considering his lack of projectiles. The impact of the new Brawl physics arguably hit Captain Falcon the hardest; the ability to act out of hitstun hurt the combo abilities of Falcon more than other characters, since his higher knockback attacks no longer keep opponents in longer periods of hitstun, and a less effective dashdance and inability to moonwalk give him even fewer approaching options. He also has fairly poor out of shield options due to his short grabbing reach and possessing either slow and/or poor reaching attacks. In addition, a predictable recovery, vulnerability to chain grabbing, and the general inability to pressure opponents or escape opposing pressure are also cited as problems for Falcon's metagame. As a result, he has terrible matchups as well as terrible overall tournament results.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play 70 VS. matches.
• Complete Classic Mode on Normal difficulty or higher in under twelve minutes.
• Have Captain Falcon join the player's party in the Subspace Emissary (Outside the Ancient Ruins).

With the exception of the third method, Captain Falcon must then be defeated on Port Town Aero Dive.

Attributes

Captain Falcon is a heavy character with great momentum canceling, especially vertically due his very fast falling speed, with strong attacks, and has the second fastest running speed, second to Sonic. However, though his speed is useful, his dash has very low traction, causing him to trip more often than other characters, although he has the shortest tripping animation in the game. His attacks mostly consist of kicks and punches, including the famed Falcon Punch, which is one of the most powerful moves knockback wise in the game. However, it is a very situational move because it has a very slow start-up and high amount of ending lag. He is also capable of performing wall jumps. He has the second fastest falling speed, but his air speed is one of the best in the game.

Many of his moves have high knockback and damage, lending him considerable power, but they also have considerable startup time and small sweetspots. His standard special, the Falcon Punch, deals high damage, can KO at early percentages, and can be reversed in direction after start-up, but its extremely slow start-up makes it extremely situational in a competitive situation. Raptor Boost makes him rush forward, then do a quick fiery uppercut that launches opponents upwards opponents in the air, but the abysmal shieldstun and slow start-up makes it very easy to block or shield and if he misses it he falls with considerable ending lag. When used in the air, he will instead swing downward, meteor smashing targets. This makes it useful when recovering, since it can meteor smash edge-guarders and even edgehoggers, but the attack is slow, predictable, and leaves Captain Falcon more vulnerable than the Falcon Dive. Raptor Boost also has the ability to cut through most projectiles, but Captain Falcon lacks a projectile himself. Falcon Kick sends him rocketing forward when used on the ground, and downward and slightly forward when used in mid-air. It deals decent damage and knockback, but it has below-average start-up and the hitbox is rather small, making it only good at surprise, quickly get downward or punish laggy moves. Contrary to the name, Falcon Dive sends him upwards with a little horizontal movement, which gives him a great horizontal recovery when combining it with great air speed. If the Falcon Dive connects, it will deal damage to an opponent and Captain Falcon will jump off from them (sometimes stage spiking when used against edge-guarders, although it can be teched to prevent that) and he will be able to use Falcon Dive again. Falcon Dive can also grab edgehoggers if they are within its grab range. In terms of recovery, though, Falcon Dive is a slow move, cannot auto-sweetspot ledges if he is using it in the opposite direction of the edge and it is easy to edgeguard because it has no grab box directly above him. Although Captain Falcon has a very big ledge sweetspot range, Falcon Dive is easily edge hogged, and if he still manages to get to the stage, his recovery leaves him in a fairly high landing lag, high enough to often allow the edgehogger to get up in time to punish it. Although it is a minor problem, Captain Falcon suffers from the landing lag glitch. Captain Falcon's very fast falling speed makes recovery problems even worse.

Many of his moves also make for powerful finishers. His forward aerial (informally known by many different names, of which "Knee of Justice" is probably the most popular) is known for having extreme knockback, but it is hard to sweetspot and has fairly slow start-up (the first frames of it are not avoidable on reaction but are still predictable). His back aerial has good startup and knockback, his down aerial is a powerful meteor smash, and his forward smash deals high damage and has very high knockback scaling.

Even though most of his attacks have high power and damage output, they have considerable startup and unfavorable hitboxes (which make it difficult to land his attacks), and his small amount of disjoints is a severe issue when against characters with disjoints that outrange him, especially the faster ones. His throws chain well, but Captain Falcon himself is an easy target for chain grabbing and comboing (like Ike's jab canceling) due to his heavy weight, large size, and fast falling speed. His poor, small hitboxes in his aerials and fast falling speed additionally make it difficult for him to hit grounded characters from the air. Falcon is also very easily outcamped due to his below average attack speed, unfavorable hitboxes, and unremarkable attack range. All of this, combined with his abysmal shieldstun (one of his biggest flaws), lack of a projectile, and slow ground attack speed, results in a very poor approach, though Falcon's high mobility slightly alleviates this. Captain Falcon also has a difficult time handling small characters, as most of his attacks have no low hitboxes. Captain Falcon's low tiering despite his speed and power is derived from his inability to combo characters effectively.

In the end, Captain Falcon relies on his weight, survivability, power, decent range, and mobility to make up for his abysmal approach options, poor amount of disjointed hitboxes, barren combo tree, and his often sluggish attacks. He can KO and rack up damage quite easily when the opportunity presents itself, though he lacks a quick ground finisher.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

Captain Falcon has been heavily nerfed from Melee to Brawl. The vast change in physics removes many of his options while also significantly inhibiting his mobility, mixup options, and ability to play offensively. Additionally, his overall frame data is worse and his KO power was considerably toned down as many of his moves have reduced KO power, while his prominent finisher Knee Smash was nerfed to be rendered situational as its sweetspot has a shorter duration, a smaller hitbox and increased hitlag making it much harder to land and even if he does land it, his opponents have ample time to DI and SDI the move. The changes to hitstun and falling speeds, as well as changes to his moves that increased their lag or altered their angle, also harm Captain Falcon's hitstun-heavy combos. On top of this, none of Captain Falcon's major issues from Melee have been addressed: despite generally better aerial mobility, his recovery has been shortened and weakened even further elsewhere as Falcon Dive is more reliant on momentum while Falcon Kick no longer restores his double jump.

Captain Falcon has received a few buffs however. His specials have seen a few improvements as Falcon Punch can now be reversed giving it some extra power, Raptor Boost is far more useful off stage no longer being an instant death sentence and Falcon Dive can grab opponents hanging onto the ledge. Despite how much Brawl's mechanics have harmed him, Falcon does benefit from a few of the changes. As well as being harder to combo, he notably benefits from the changes to aerial grab releases which gives him some followups out of a grab even if the game's new mechanics have severely harmed his grab game overall.

Overall, Captain Falcon fares significantly worse off in Brawl than Melee as the handful of buffs he received do not make up for the nerfs to his kill power combined with the game's mechanics drastically harming him overall. While he still has great mobility and has a handful of solid moves such as his jab and up aerial, he lacks any remotely oppressive options to challenge his opponents and he overall has poor defensive capabilities. As a result, his tournament representation and results are significantly worse than they were in Melee resulting in him being a contender as one of the worst in the game.

Aesthetics

• Captain Falcon has a new design primarily based on F-Zero GX, although he has his scarf from F-Zero GP Legend (with the tip hanging out the front as opposed to completely tucked in), has hair coming out from the back of his helmet, has new kneeguards and a redesigned shoulder pad, and his belt buckle is now blue with his insignia and his initials adorned at the bottom . His helmet and chest buttons keep their Melee design.
• He has a new "toppling" animation.
• His previous taunt has been moved to his down taunt. Additionally, it now uses the same voice clip as Smash 64.
• Captain Falcon no longer vocalizes during any of his victory poses, although a set of unused voice clips implies it was originally going to have one.
  • The voice clip from his up-inputted victory pose in Melee has been moved to his Wii Remote selection sound.
• Captain Falcon no longer uses his stun voice clip when waking out of sleep status.

Attributes

• The universal changes to the physics in Brawl make his dashdance less effective (on top of increasing the chances of randomly tripping), and moonwalking and L-canceling have been removed, giving him fewer options to approach. In addition, Captain Falcon no longer carries momentum from his dash when he jumps, and the ability to act out of hitstun hurts him more than other veterans by making his finishing moves (all of which have been nerfed, as outlined below) harder to combo into and land.
• Captain Falcon's dashes slower (2.3 → 2.18).
• Captain Falcon's air speed was increased (1.12 → 1.18).
• As with the returning veterans, Captain Falcon's falling speed was significantly reduced (2.9 → 1.837). Compared to the returning veterans, however, Captain Falcon falls slower (although it is still the second highest in the game). While this worsens his vertical endurance, it improves his recovery and makes him less vulnerable to combos.
• Captain Falcon's gravity was decreased (0.13 → 0.1027).
• Captain Falcon's traction is significantly lower (0.08 → 0.05), especially when comparing with the returning veterans, now being one of the lowest (from being tied for 3rd best in Melee to 9th worst in Brawl). Given the lack of wavedashing in the game, the few benefits it provides are far less significant, and is exacerbated by a character's out of shield game being more important than in Melee. This also makes it harder for him to punish out of shield.
• Captain Falcon's jumpsquat is longer (4 frames → 5).
• Captain Falcon is now able to swing the Home-Run Bat like other characters can. Because of this, he can now properly use a Home-Run Bat for the Home-Run Contest.
• Spot dodge has less startup lag, a longer duration (frames 3-20 → 2-20) and less ending lag (FAF 33 → 26).
• Captain Falcon's backwards glide toss covers more distance.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Rapid jabs of his neutral attack combo are faster, making them safer to use. The Gentleman (third hit of neutral attack) is also easier to perform without performing Falcon's rapid jab and the universally decreased falling speeds combined with the removal of DI against moves which do not put opponents into tumble has improved the first two hit's jab cancel followup potential. The loop hits also deal more damage (1% → 2%/1%) and have reduced knockback scaling (70 → 50/20) making it connect more reliably.
  • The damage on the first two hits of neutral attack was swapped.
  • The Gentleman has reduced damage (8%/6% → 6%/5%) and significantly reduced knockback for the purpose of reliably linking to the rapid jabs (20 (base), 100 (scaling) → 10/50 (clean), 0/100 → 0/70 (late)). While this may result in more damage from using the full jab combo, the Gentleman itself does not allow for any followups to his finishing moves; therefore, it is considered to have much less utility overall (despite this, it is still one of the best jabs in Brawl). The second hit also has more startup (frame 4 → 5) and ending lag (FAF 18 → 19).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt can now lock opponents.
  • Forward tilt deals less damage on all angles (up: 12% (leg), 11% (body)/forward: 11%/down: 10% (leg), 11% (body) → 11%, 10%/10%, 9% (foot)/10%, 9%). It also has slightly less reach (despite now moving with it and having a larger hitbox), and increased ending lag on all angles (FAF 29 → 37 (non angled), 32 (angled)).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has has more reach (due to it moving Falcon forward slightly) and lasts one frame longer (frames 17-21 → 17-22).
  • Up tilt has increased ending lag (FAF 38 → 40).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt deals 2% less damage (12% → 10%) and has increased start-up, a shorter duration (frames 10-15 → 11-15) and ending lag (FAF 35 → 36). The hitboxes closest to Falcon have had their angles lowered (70°/60° → 40°/20°). In addition, due to the changes in hitstun, down tilt has drastically reduced combo ability.
  • Down tilt's altered angles have granted it edgeguarding potential.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has significantly increased knockback (22 (base), 90 (scaling) → 80/40), making much safer to use at very low percentages.
  • Dash attack deals less damage (10%/7% → 8%/6%).
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash deals significantly less knockback (24 (base), 100 (scaling) → 20/85) and slightly less damage (21%/20%/19% → 20%/19%/18%). It now has only slightly above-average knockback, compared from being the 3rd most powerful forward smash in Melee. It also lasts one frame shorter (frames 18-21 → 18-20).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has more horizontal reach. Due to Falcon having much lower traction, it covers significantly more distance when performed out of a dash improving its approach potential (he can also DACUS to make it cover a shorter distance).
  • Both hits of up smash has increased start-up (frame 21 (hit 1), frame 27 (hit 2) → 22/28), the first hit's sweetspots deal less damage (14% → 11%) and the second hit has reduced knockback scaling (128/126/110 → 102/103/110). Up smash also has increased ending lag (FAF 40 → 53).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has less knockback scaling (100 (both kicks) → 85 (first kick)/90 (second kick)) and both kicks have slightly shorter durations (4 frames → 3 ). It also has increased ending lag (FAF 45 → 50).
  • Down smash gained a new hitbox on his body for both kicks (not including the weak sourspot that deals 6% damage, which may or may not lead into the second kick), making it easier to connect on smaller characters. Its hitbox sizes are larger as well (4u/4u (front)/3.6u/3.6u (back) → 6u/5u/4u/3.5u, 5u/4.5u/4u).

Aerial attacks

• Due to his lower fall speed, Captain Falcon can once again auto-cancel all of his aerials in a short hop as opposed to just his back and up aerials.
• Weak Knee Smash, back aerial and up aerial can now all lock opponents at lower percents.
• Weak Knee Smash and down aerial can now trip opponents.
• All aerials except Knee Smash have less landing lag (15 frames → 9 (neutral/up), 18 frames → 12 (back), 24 frames → 21 (down)) however due to the removal of L-canceling, their landing lag was not fully compensated.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial's second kick has significantly increased knockback (40 (base), 100 (scaling) → 45/125). It also auto-cancels earlier (frame 34 → 32).
  • Neutral aerial deals less damage (6%/5% → 4% (hit 1), 7% → 6% (hit 2)). Both kicks have much shorter durations as well (6/10 frames → 2 frames each). It also has a smaller hitbox size.
• Forward aerial:
  • Knee Smash deals 1% more damage on a clean hit (18% → 19%), making it stronger despite dealing slightly less knockback (24 (base)/100 (growth) → 30/93). Its new sourspot hitboxes enable it Wall of pain potential.
  • Knee Smash now requires a sweet spot (the hitbox on his knee) to land a clean hit. The clean hitbox duration additionally has been lowered (frames 14-16 → 14), now requiring it to land on the very first active frame. It also has a much smaller hitbox size (5.2u → 3u). The late hit deals 3% much like in the PAL version of Melee with severely reduced knockback, and the initial hitbox behind his knee deals 6% damage with similar properties to NTSC Melee's late hit. The clean hit additionally has significantly increased freeze frames upon connecting (1x → 1.2x, especially for Captain Falcon due to electric hitlag properties being slightly altered to where both the attacker and the victim suffer the same amount of hitlag as opposed to just the victim taking the extra hitlag), allowing the opponent to DI and SDI the hit to lessen its knockback, which was altered (as aforementioned above). Knee Smash also has more landing lag (19 frames → 22).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial's clean hit has a shorter duration (4 frames → 2) without proper compensation on the moves entire duration (frames 10-17 → 10-15). It also has increased ending lag (FAF 29 → FAF 36), no longer having the least amount of ending lag among his aerials.
    • However, due to its hitbox duration being shortened, his back aerial autocancels two frames earlier (frame 21 → 19).
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has slightly more ending lag (FAF 30 → 34) and a shorter duration (frames 6-13 → 6-12).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial's higher hitbox sends opponents at a different angle (290° → 361°). This hinders its edgeguarding potential as the Nipple spike was removed but it can now get reliable onstage KOs.
  • Down aerial now has smaller hitboxes (6.8/6/5.6 → 4.5/6) and its sweetspot has much less base knockback (40 → 10) meaning that he has a harder time meteor smashing and utilizing the move in general. Its duration was shortened as well (frames 16-20 → 16-18), it auto-cancels 3 frames later (frame 36 → 39), and it has more ending lag (FAF 38 → 45).

Throws/other attacks

• Grabs:
  • Grabs have slightly less ending lag (FAF 31 → 30 (standing), FAF 41 → 40 (dash).
  • Grabs have less range with Captain Falcon now having the second shortest grab range.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel has less end lag (FAF 25 → 16).
  • Pummel deals less damage (3% → 2%).
• The changes to aerial grab releases benefit Captain Falcon more than most other veterans as his speed gives him multiple followups against various characters. He can force smaller characters into an air release and he can air release most of the cast if he grabs them while they are in mid-air which he can set up with the first hit of his neutral aerial.
• Due to universally decreased fall speeds and the introduction of hitstun canceling, up and down throws can no longer combo or chaingrab opponents. Down throw can also no longer be used for tech chasing severely harming its utility.

Special moves

• Falcon Punch:
  • Falcon Punch can now be reversed for a short time during the startup, slightly increasing damage and knockback at the cost of increased startup lag.
  • It has slightly more startup lag (frame 52 → 53) and has less knockback scaling (102 → 93), making it slightly weaker KOing around 10% later. The aerial version is also weaker dealing less damage (27%/25%/23% → 26%/23%/22%) and knockback (40 (base), 102 (scaling) → 30/93).
  • It now uses a charging sound effect during its startup. Captain Falcon also gains a slight increase in height if he uses Falcon Punch and a jump at the same time although not enough to be hugely impactful (Kirby on the other hand gains a huge amount of height if he performs the same trick with Falcon Punch. The knockback on Kirby's Falcon Punch was also unchanged from Melee making it stronger although it has less range than Falcon's).
• Raptor Boost:
  • Raptor Boost is easier to use and makes a "leapfrog" effect when the attack connects in the air. Additionally, it can now edge sweet spot, making it much safer to use in the air and for recovery.
  • It has more startup lag (frame 15 (grounded), frame 17 (aerial) → 20 (grounded), 23 (aerial)).
  • Its knockback has been altered (78 (base), 80 (scaling) → 100/52).
• Falcon Dive:
  • Falcon Dive can now grab edge-hoggers, the grab hitbox is larger, its furthest grabbox has more reach (12.93u → 13.65u), and it grabs onto the edge earlier into the move, making Captain Falcon harder to edge-hog. Due to the changes in the stale-move negation, Falcon Dive deals more damage (15% → 17%).
  • Falcon Dive relies more on his horizontal momentum to gain any horizontal distance and controls erratically just when Captain Falcon is about to fall, requiring more precise control from the player to properly space his recovery.
• Falcon Kick:
  • Grounded Falcon Kick no longer has a chance of blasting Captain Falcon off diagonally downwards when he travels towards an edge near the end of the move.
  • The aerial version no longer restores Captain Falcon's midair jump. The grounded version also deals less damage (15% (clean), 12% (mid), 9% (late) → 13%/11%/7%). While the late hit had its knockback compensated (50 (base), 50 (scaling) → 50/60), the clean hit did not and the mid hit deals less knockback (50 (base), 60 (scaling) → 62/40).
• Blue Falcon:
  • Captain Falcon now has a Final Smash: Blue Falcon. Captain Falcon calls his Blue Falcon which drives in front of him. If it catches an opponent, they will fall on a race track and Falcon will ram into them in his Blue Falcon. It has very slow startup lag (frame 28) giving him no guaranteed methods to set up into it (not even his aerial grab release).

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Punches twice then knees the opponent, which is followed by a series of punches. It is effective at racking damage.
			2%
			6% (clean), 5% (late)
			1-2% (loop)
Forward tilt	↗		11% (foot), 10% (leg)	A roundhouse kick. Can be angled.
	→		10% (foot), 9% (leg)
	↘		10% (foot), 9% (leg)
Up tilt			13%	An axe-handle kick with good horizontal knockback. This move's hitbox stretches from above Falcon, giving it some anti-air properties, to dropping in front of him.
Down tilt			10%	Does a sweep kick with vertical knockback. It is a fast semi-spike.
Dash attack			8% (clean), 6% (late)	Captain Falcon rams a shoulder into the opponent.
Forward smash	↗		20%	Captain Falcon leans back and jabs an elbow forward, making a fire effect on contact.
	→		19%
	↘		18%
Up smash			11%/8% (hit 1), 13%/12% (hit 2)	Captain Falcon performs a spinning double-kick. Has good vertical range but poor horizontal reach.
Down smash			18%/6% (hit 1), 16% (hit 2)	Captain Falcon kicks forward and then backward. Has great reach and very high horizontal knockback.
Neutral aerial			4% (hit 1), 6% (hit 2)	Captain Falcon kicks forward twice. The first kick has set knockback which easily connects into the second kick.
Forward aerial		Knee Smash	19% (clean sweetspot), 6% (clean sourspot), 3% (late)	Captain Falcon jabs a knee forward. Deals high knockback when sweetspotted.
Back aerial			14% (clean), 8% (late)	Captain Falcon does a quick backhand.
Up aerial			13%/12% (clean), 12%/10% (late)	Captain Falcon does a flip kick with fast start-up and good all-around range. One of his best moves and can easily juggle into another aerial.
Down aerial			14%	Stomps downward. Deals horizontal knockback when sourspotted and meteor smashes when sweetspotted.
Grab			—	Reaches out with his right hand. Despite his tall stature, Captain Falcon's grab range is extremely short (the second-shortest behind that of Ganondorf), and his pivot grab has absurdly slow startup for a non-tether pivot grab (the slowest to be precise).
Pummel			2%	Knees the opponent. A fairly fast pummel.
Forward throw			5% (hit), 4% (throw) (9% total)	Captain Falcon punches his enemy forward.
Back throw			5% (hit), 4% (throw) (9% total)	Captain Falcon puts the enemy behind him and kicks.
Up throw			4% (hit), 3% (throw) (7% total)	Captain Falcon holds the enemy up and punches them upwards.
Down throw			7%	Captain Falcon flips the opponent and slams them on the ground.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Captain Falcon does a spin on the ground to kick both sides.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Captain Falcon spins around to do a double kick.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Captain Falcon punches both sides.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			10%	Captain Falcon does a flip-kick to the opponent.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			8%	Captain Falcon does a slow uppercut.
Neutral special		Falcon Punch	27%/25%/23% (ground), 28%/26%/24% (ground reverse), 26%/23%/22% (air), 27%/24%/23% (air reverse)	Captain Falcon winds up and releases his iconic fiery punch. Can be reversed which deals more damage. KOs at 63% at the far edge of Final Destination.
Side special		Raptor Boost	7%	Captain Falcon dashes forward and follows up with an uppercut if he touches a character. Punishable on shield. In midair, the strike is a dashing overhand that can meteor smash.
Up special		Falcon Dive	5% (grab), 12% (release)	Captain Falcon grabs his opponent and releases them with an explosion. Goes into helpless if he misses but if the move connect, he's free to use the same move again.
Down special		Falcon Kick	13%/11%/7% (ground), 15%/13%/11% (air), 9% (landing)	Captain Falcon bursts forward with a flaming high-speed kick. If used in the air, he will plunge downwards at a diagonal angle.
Final Smash		Blue Falcon	10% (car), 20% (ram), 10% (release)	Captain Falcon calls in his F-Zero racer, the Blue Falcon. The opponent is hit by the vehicle as it zooms past, sending them to an unknown F-Zero track. Captain Falcon proceeds to run them down in the Blue Falcon, resulting in high knockback.

On-screen appearance

• The Blue Falcon appears then Captain Falcon jumps out of it as it speeds off.

Taunts

• Up taunt: Clenches his fists while surrounded by a fiery aura.
• Side taunt: Jumps back, extends his hand out, and says "Come on!"
• Down taunt: Gives a salute to his right side while saying "Show me your moves!" When facing left, Captain Falcon extends his saluting arm behind him; this also shortens the taunt.

Up taunt	Side taunt	Down taunt

Idle poses

• Does a battle pose.
• Does a battle pose slightly different from the first one.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Cap-tain! Fal-con!	Cap-tain! Fal-con!
Pitch	High female, then deep male	High female, then deep male

Wii Remote selection sound

• Captain Falcon says "yeeeeAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!", similar to a victory pose from previous games.

Captain Falcon's selection sound

Victory poses

An electric guitar-based cover of the music that plays whenever a character finishes a race in F-Zero GX.

• Up: Two jump kicks.
• Left: Charges up red energy, similar to one of his Melee poses but with fire added.
• Right: Does three consecutive roundhouse kicks, then poses.

Up	Left	Right

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Captain Falcon has abysmal matchups in Brawl. The only character he soft counters is Ganondorf, and goes even with six characters. However, he gets hard countered by six characters, countered by 16 matchups, and soft countered by seven. While he can take advantage of Ness and Wario’s grab release into a forward air, most other characters can easily gimp his recovery (such as Meta Knight or Sheik), camp him (Snake, Olimar, and Falco), or chaingrab him to death (Ice Climbers, Pikachu and King Dedede). In conclusion, almost every character in the game beyond low tier can negate his trademark speed-and-power playstyle.

Notable players

See also: Category:Captain Falcon professionals (SSBB)

•  Ally - While Ally never used Captain Falcon in serious tournament matches against legitimately threatening opponents, it became perhaps the most famous "low tier main" of a top player in Brawl, with Ally being able to beat high level players with Falcon and dominate low tier tournaments. As such, Ally was considered to have the best Falcon for a long time, and only Stroumbert would contend with him for this title near the end of Brawl.
•  Champ - Formerly Power Ranked 13th in SoCal.
•  Lee Martin - With Captain Falcon, he achieved wins over Hyro, JNig, and Li-D
•  Lordy - One of the very few genuine competitive Captain Falcon mains, and the only one to have achieved any real notability beyond his region. Was considered the third best Falcon player under Ally and Stroumbert.
•  Stroumbert - Like Ally, he didn't actually main Captain Falcon, but he became known for having an especially competent Captain Falcon, and would end up competing with Ally for the title of best Falcon in Brawl by the end of its competitive life.

Tier placement and history

Captain Falcon was initially seen as the worst character in Brawl; right away players noticed the severe nerfs to Falcon's key traits (such as his Knee, his goto finisher in Melee, becoming extremely difficult to land), and that Falcon got adversely affected to a severe degree by the physics changes. It was additionally widely believed at the time that Falcon had "terrible priority" and would thus be unable to win any exchanges with opposing characters. As such, despite Falcon's still very fast movement speed and powerful attacks, players at the time did not believe Falcon could do anything to any competent degree in competitive matches. A year after Brawl's release, it was realised Ganondorf and Link were even worse characters than Falcon; as such, on the third tier list, Falcon rose up from last place and has never ranked there since. Players also began recognising some of the significant caveats Falcon had, such as his access to one of the best jabs, his still rather strong effectiveness at punishing, his still great mobility, and his incredible endurance potential while having a capable recovery that does not compromise it. Additionally, with Ally's tremendous success with Falcon in low tier tournaments, it was seen that Falcon had some clear advantages over his low tier brethren. With this, Falcon shot up to 32nd on the fourth tier list, and then consistently hovered around the 33rd-34th spot. However, he was still crippled by his remaining flaws; although Falcon's attacks enjoy the same amount of priority as any other characters', he still suffered from a lack of disjointed range that could not compete with other longer-ranged characters.

While Captain Falcon was no longer seen as a candidate for worst character in the game, the stigma from his previous last placings still held on, and thus he was commonly seen as a joke character on the level of Ganondorf. With this, Falcon had barely any serious players; nearly everyone who could play Falcon at a competent competitive level only used Falcon as a "low tier main" or "fun character", including his best players Ally and Stroumbert, leaving true competitive Captain Falcon mains very rare even at the local level. As such, Falcon's tournament representation was barren even by low tier standards, and only Jigglypuff saw even worse representation in Brawl tournaments, leaving Falcon's capability to perform beyond low tier play rarely seen in practice.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

Captain Falcon in the SSE

In Subspace Emissary, Captain Falcon will team up with Captain Olimar and his Pikmin. When Olimar sends his Pikmin to attack a giant R.O.B., it wakes up the robot, causing it to shake off the Pikmin. Luckily, Captain Falcon drives his F-Zero machine straight towards them, jumps out in mid-motion, and Falcon Punches the ROB, thus destroying it, but upon landing, Olimar's remaining Pikmin (except for the red Pikmin beside Olimar) were killed when he slid into them. Once the two get out of the forest, they find a Primid transport platform, otherwise known as the Smash Skiff, that is holding the trophied Donkey Kong hostage. The two watch as Diddy Kong falls from Falco's Arwing, and fires peanuts at the ship. After Diddy Kong revives DK, Captain Falcon grabs Olimar, and jumps off the ledge and onto the ship. Then the four must fight off a horde of Primids. Afterwards, the ship will take them into the secret Subspace HQ, where they will meet up with Samus, Pikachu, and, eventually, a friendly R.O.B.

After fighting off a large army comprising of various Subspace troops with the others, the heroes are unable to stop the ROBs which arm the last remaining Subspace bombs. Captain Falcon seemed to be analyzing the power of the Subspace Bombs, because afterwards, he motions to everyone to leave quickly. Captain Falcon presses a few buttons on his wrist, summoning his ship, the Falcon Flyer. Everyone piles into the ship and prepares to escape the doomed base when they are attacked from behind by Meta Ridley. After defeating the monster, they escape the floating island where a massive number of Subspace Bombs destroy the island. Captain Falcon joins the other heroes and uses his ship to help in the assault on the Subspace Gunship. He also helps in The Great Maze.

Towards the end, Captain Falcon and everyone else confront Tabuu. In a single, devastating act, Tabuu turns everyone into trophies. All are brought back to life due to the Dedede Badges and the efforts of Kirby, Luigi, Ness, and Dedede. With the aid of Sonic, Tabuu becomes vulnerable, and a final battle between the characters and Tabuu begins. The player may pick Captain Falcon to fight Tabuu, if the player has collected the Captain Falcon trophy in Subspace.

Playable appearances

• Outside the Ancient Ruins
• The Subspace Bomb Factory (Part II)
• Entrance to Subspace
• The Great Maze - If rescued in Subspace (Part I)

Exclusive stickers

The following stickers can only be used by Captain Falcon:

• Blue Falcon: [Specials: Direct] Attack + 3
• Capt. Falcon (F-Zero): [Slash] Resistance +23
• Capt. Falcon (F-Zero GX): [Arm, Leg] Attack + 8
• Capt. Falcon (F-Zero X): [Specials: Direct] Attack +19
• Gomar & Shioh: [Specials: Direct] Attack +10
• Samurai Goroh: [Arm] Attack +18
• Black Shadow (F-Zero GX):[Flame] Attack +25

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• Event 23: Molten Norfair: Samus must retreat into the safety capsule when it appears. Captain Falcon and Fox are featured in this event, who will try and prevent the player from entering the capsule.
• Event 24: Come On! Blue Falcon!: Captain Falcon must must use his Final Smash, Blue Falcon, to defeat two R.O.B.s before one lap on Port Town Aero Dive is complete.
• Event 29: All-Star Semifinal Regulars: Captain Falcon is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are characters that were unlockable from the original Super Smash Bros. game.
• Event 36: High-Tech Special Forces: Captain Falcon is one of the three bounty hunters along with Samus and Wolf that Snake must defeat.

Co-op Events

• Co-Op Event 6: Unwanted Suitors: Zelda and Zero Suit Samus must defeat an invisible Captain Falcon and Luigi on Port Town Aero Dive..
• Co-Op Event 12: Come Back! Falcon Flyer: Captain Falcon and Olimar must defeat two Samuses in under 30 seconds.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Trophies

Captain Falcon's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing Classic Mode and All-Star mode respectively with Captain Falcon.

Captain Falcon

A skilled F-Zero pilot and resourceful bounty hunter. All that's known of his past is that he hails from Port Town. He's won fame and fortune outracing his opponents in his beloved Blue Falcon. His incredible athleticism and never-say-die attitude makes him the pilot to turn to in times of trouble.

: F-Zero

: F-Zero GX

Blue Falcon

Captain Falcon's Final Smash. His beloved ship, the Blue Falcon, roars onto the screen once he touches a foe in front of him. The enemy gets sent to a racetrack, at which point the Blue Falcon screams down at a ridiculous speed and launches the unlucky victim. What track is it? Where did the machine come from? This is one technique that's an utter mystery.

: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

• 

  Classic Mode trophy

• 

  Blue Falcon trophy

Alternate costumes

Trivia

• Captain Falcon is one of the few characters to speak during The Subspace Emissary. He yells out "Falcon Punch!" while using the move on a giant R.O.B., and he says "Come on!" following with a snap to summon the Falcon Flyer.
• Captain Falcon is one of four characters that have a two-hit forward smash with battering items. He shares this ability with Sheik, Ike and Marth.
  • In addition, Captain Falcon only does 10% with both forward smash hits with the Star Rod in Brawl instead of 18% like the rest of the characters.
• Captain Falcon is one of the few characters that says something meaningful when teetering; he will say "Whoops".
• Despite being an unlockable character, Captain Falcon can be seen in the "How to Play" video in the game; he can be seen sleeping on Delfino Plaza at the end of the video as a result of Peach's Peach Blossom.
• Captain Falcon and Yoshi are the only members of the perfect-attendence crew that remain the only playable characters to represent their own series in Brawl. This carries on to future instalments of the series.
• Captain Falcon's official artwork greatly resembles his F-Zero GX artwork, as well as his down taunt.

• If one clips through Captain Falcon's head with a hacked camera, they will find a blue eye.
  • This is likely a remnant of an unused feature where characters would show visible damage during battle, as other characters like Meta Knight and Marth have unused textures for their armor or weapons being damaged. Presumably, Falcon's visor was supposed to crack, showing one of his eyes underneath, but as this feature was never implemented, the now-vestigial modeled eye region is all that remains.
• Interestingly, size changing items affect Captain Falcon's damage multiplier differently than with most other fighters. For an example, acquiring a Super Mushroom causes Captain Falcon's direct attacks to deal around 1.8x their normal damage, instead of the usual 1.56x. He shares this trait with Wario, Wario-Man, Samus, Fox, Falco, Wolf, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Lucario, and Snake.
• Interestingly, Captain Falcon's up aerial has a very late hitbox that will load, but will then be deleted at the same time it appears. The hitbox deals 8%/6% damage. This is also the case in Melee.

External links

• Dojo page
• Screenshots of Captain Falcon and the rest of the Subspace Emissary characters
• Captain Falcon Guide on SmashBoards
• Captain Falcon's hitbox size of each of his moves