Captain Falcon (SSBB)

Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	F-Zero
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in SSB4
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. Originating from the F-Zero universe, Captain Falcon returns once again to compete in Brawl.

Captain Falcon is currently ranked 34th on the tier list in the low tier (making him the third lowest unlockable character), a significant drop from his 7th position in the current Melee tier list and making Brawl his only appearance in the series where he is low-tier rather than high-tier. 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 start-up 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 actual play. Raptor Boost makes him rush forward, then do a quick fiery uppercut that pops 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 midown aerial. 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 and 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 edge-hogger 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 start-up 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 start-up lag 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 only decent 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.

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, 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.

Captain Falcon enters the battlefield in Brawl

Changes from Melee to Brawl

Captain Falcon was heavily nerfed from Melee to Brawl (being one of the biggest nerfs between the two games, despite having some good buffs).

Aesthetics

• Captain Falcon has a new design primarily based on F-Zero GX, although he has his scarf from F-Zero GP Legend, has hair coming out from the back of his helmet, and has new kneeguards and a redesigned shoulder pad. His helmet and chest buttons keep their Melee design.
• His victory theme changed to the finish from F-Zero GX/AX.
• He has a new "toppling" animation.

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, while his air speed is slightly improved, it no longer carries momentum from his dash, and the ability to act out of hitstun hurts him more than other veterans by making his finishing moves (which, aside from his down smash, have been nerfed, as outlined below) harder to combo into and land.
• Dashing speed is slightly slower.
• Traction is significantly lower, 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, it does not provide any benefits whatsoever, and is exacerbated by a character's out of shield game being more important than in Melee.
• 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.

Ground attacks

• Rapid jabs of his jab combo are faster, making them safer to use.
• The Gentleman (neutral attack 3) has significantly reduced knockback for the purpose of reliably linking to the rapid jabs. 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.
• Forward smash has been weakened significantly (it now has only slightly above-average knockback, compared from being the 3rd most powerful forward smash in Melee).
• His down smash is slightly stronger in terms of knockback.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial deals less damage.
• Knee Smash deals 1% more damage on a clean hit. It can also auto-cancel if performed at the beginning of a short hop.
• 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 (from 3 frames to 1 frame), now requiring it to land on the very first active frame. The late hit deals 3% less damage than PAL 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, allowing the opponent to DI and SDI the hit to lessen its knockback.
• Down aerial now has a smaller hitbox, is weaker, and the Nipple spike was replaced with a hitbox that sends opponents at a horizontal angle, meaning that he has a harder time meteor smashing and utilizing the move in general.

Special moves

• 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.
• Falcon Punch has less knockback.
• 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.
• Falcon Dive can now grab edge-hoggers, the grab hitbox is larger, and it grabs onto the edge earlier into the move, making Captain Falcon harder to edge-hog.
• 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. It also produces significantly less knockback to where it can no longer KO at realistic percentages.
• 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.
• Aerial Falcon Kick no longer restores Captain Falcon's midair jump.

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Punches twice then knees the opponent, which is followed by a series of punches.
			2%
			6% (clean), 5% (late)
			1-2%
Forward tilt	↗		11% (foot), 10% (leg)	Captain Falcon does a roundhouse kick.
	→		10% (foot), 9% (leg)
	↘		10% (foot), 9% (leg)
Up tilt			13%	An axe 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.
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 sweespotted.
Back aerial			14% (clean), 8% (late)	Captain Falcon does a quick backhand.
Up aerial			13%/12% (clean), 12%/10% (mid), 8%/6% (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%	Captain Falcon stomps downward. Deals horizontal knockback when sourspotted and meteor smashes when sweetspotted.
Grab			—
Pummel			2%	Captain Falcon knees opponent.
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.
Side special		Raptor Boost	7%	Captain Falcon dashes forward and follows up with an uppercut. Meteor smashes opponents if used in midair.
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%/17% (ground), 15%/13%/11% (air), 9% (landing)	Captain Falcon bursts forward with a flaming high-speed kick. If used in the air, Captain Falcon 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.

File:Captain Falcon On-Screen Appearance Brawl.gif

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
File:CaptainFalconUpTauntBrawl.gif	File:CaptainFalconSideTauntBrawl.gif	File:CaptainFalconDownTauntBrawl.gif

Idle poses

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

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer	File:Captain Falcon Cheer NTSC Brawl.ogg
Description	Cap-tain! Fal-con!	Cap-tain! Fal-con!
Pitch	High female, then deep male	High female, then deep male

Wii Remote selection sound

• 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.

• Performs two jump kicks, then strikes a pose.
• Charges up red energy, similar to one of his Melee poses, but with fire added.
• Does three consecutive roundhouse kicks, then poses.

File:Captain Falcon VPs.png

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Notable players

See also: Category:Captain Falcon professionals (SSBB)

•  Ally
•  Lordy
•  Stroumbert

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. Shortly after this, players realised Falcon was not as terrible as first thought; players realised Falcon's "low priority" was a myth and he had no issues with priority. 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 has since consistently hovered around the 33rd-34th spot.

While Captain Falcon is no longer seen as a candidate for worst character in the game, the stigma from his previous last placings still holds today, and thus he is commonly seen as a joke character on the level of Ganondorf. With this, Falcon has barely any serious players; nearly everyone who can play Falcon at a competent competitive level only use 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 is barren even by low tier standards, and only Jigglypuff has 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.

Trophy descriptions

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

Captain Falcon's alternate costumes in Brawl

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 two characters that has a two hit forward smash with battering items. He shares this ability with Sheik.
  • 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.
• 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.
• Samus, Captain Falcon, and Yoshi are the only "perfect attendees" that remain the only playable character to represent their own series in Brawl.

External links

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