The Captain Falcon Topic (Post Away!!)

Hi guys! I'm Mask-o-Sheik, and despite my name I'm a Captain Falcon player. This is a topic to discuss all things Captain Falcon: woes and worries, trials and triumphs, matchup analyses, strategies, anything! Do you need help beating that nasty Peach player with Captain Falcon? Do you want to share with the world your wonderful Captain Falcon strategies against the likes of Marth and Sheik? Then this is for you!

I'll start us off with a little essay on basic techniques every Falcon player should know. This will help familiarize you with just how famed Falcon players Isai and Darkrain work their magic . Before I begin, I should note that this post assumes that you can utilize and recognize the so-called "advanced techniques" - techniques practically nobody learns about on his or her own, because they use the game's mechanics so cleverly. If the terms wave-dash, l-cancel and short hop are not in your standard Melee vocabulary, you really ought to learn what they are, because they can elevate your game to a much higher level of play! Read all about them in the Newbie Guide, which has been posted here, I think.

Anyways, onto Falcon! Even an inexperienced player knows two things about Falcon: he's strong and he's speedy. Think with those terms when you play as Captain Falcon - if you lack confidence in his strengths, you're already lost. Falcon runs the fastest in the game and moves very quickly in mid-air after a dash jump, making the sheer speed of his approach absolutely deadly. Combine this with his lethal short hop aerial attacks, and you?ve got an approach to be proud of! Of course, dash short hop aerials aren?t going to win you the match, and you?ve got to play to your situation, but they are an approach option essential to playing Captain Falcon. Remember, don?t doubt your speed - you can reach those faraway foes much quicker than you think!

Summarizing Captain Falcon?s approach (or anybody?s approach) is difficult, but I?ll try. You have several aerial attacks you can fly in with (via a dash short hop): forward aerial, known as the knee, is the most killer and often the best choice of attack when the opponent is at fairly high damages (this can be as early as 50%!); neutral aerial hits twice, thwarting enemy sidesteps, and launches non fast-fallers (anybody besides Fox, Falco or Falcon himself) forwards and slightly upwards, in position to be attacked again; down aerial launches pretty much anyone wonderfully, straight upwards; up aerial is quick to come out and launches in about the same direction as neutral aerial; back aerial is hard to fly in with but also sends in a similar direction. That was a mouthful! If you aren?t familiar with Falcon, don?t worry about knowing the stuff in this paragraph too thoroughly just yet - just know that you?ll always want to use the aerial best suited for the situation. I?ll discuss launchers and such a little further on. Of course, as I said earlier, there are many ways to come in with aerials - don?t always muscle your way at your foe with dash short hop aerials! Coming in from above and using platforms to help aim attacks are just two ways to throw a little variety into your game, which is important when you don?t have any projectiles to come in behind.

Another important aspect in Falcon?s approach is his limited but useful ground game. Most of his ground attacks are fairly slow, exploitable and useless for most situations, but he does have several attacks usable in your everyday approach. For instance, Falcon?s jab (neutral a) is a very quick attack usually used to interrupt an oncoming opponent and possibly land a grab (watch out for crouch-cancellers - those meanies can eat your jab and hit you before you can respond!). Speaking of which, Falcon?s grab and throws are very dangerous weapons too. Grab an opponent, and you can probably deal them quite a bit of damage before they can even react! I?ll deal with his options from grab a little later as well. Another nice attack from the ground is Falcon?s down tilt attack. It isn?t terribly fast, but it isn?t slow enough to be exploited if used correctly (usually). Down tilt has a lot of range, so hit foes with the tip of your feet! The attack sends enemies upward as well, which is very useful. Forward B, Raptor Boost, is a great launcher if you connect with it - use a few a match for good measure. One last attack - down smash can be used in some cases to punish side-steps and rolls, but don?t use it too often, or your opponent will punish your lag!

Of course, hitting the opponent isn?t enough - you need to rack up your foe?s damage. That?s what combos are for. If you?re looking for the promised information on launchers and grabs, it?s here. Captain Falcon doesn?t have too much variation in his combos, but that?s all right, because all you need is a bunch of good launchers and attacks to perpetuate the combo and you?re set!

First, the launchers (before I say anything else, let me make it clear that this paragraph applies only to non-fast-fallers.) Falcon has two types of launchers - those that send mostly horizontally, and those that send mostly vertically. The latter are down aerial (on a grounded foe), raptor boost, up throw and down tilt - the attacks that don?t require Falcon to move too far horizontally to continue comboing. The others are pretty much any of his aerials (besides the knee, usually) and down throw - attacks that send the opponent away from Falcon so he must move quickly to keep up. But that?s no problem for the fastest character in the game, now is it? What?s really nice about these attacks is that they combo with themselves! Falcon can combo multiple dash short hop up aerials or chain throw enemies with his down throw. If you want to combo like the greats, it?s important to learn how to use these launchers and perpetuators to your advantage! What?s even nicer about these attacks, by the way, is that they all combo into the deadly knee, Falcon?s forward aerial and remarkable killer, which makes 0% to death combos very feasible.

Watch out though, because these combos only work on foes besides Falco, Fox and Captain Falcon himself! Fate would have it that a good Fox or Falco is a real nightmare to Falcon, but you can?t combo them conventionally. You aren?t hopeless here, though. Fox and Falco are susceptible to tech chasing, and Captain Falcon?s up and down throws are perfect tools to put those fast-fallers in their place. For those of you in the dark on tech chasing, basically it goes like this: Falcon uses up throw, sees the enemy DI and predicts where and how the opponent will react upon hitting the ground. When the opponent lands, Falcon should have ready an attack or attacks that punish the enemy on many of his or her possible options. For instance, if the enemy does not DI your up throw, you could try using down smash, an attack that would crush him or her if s/he techs in place or backwards (or not at all), but doesn?t cover a forward tech (none of your options will be perfect - this one is very good because it covers many of the opponent?s defensive options). Jabs (quick enough for you to dash grab the enemy should s/he tech backwards or forwards) can lead to a grab, but that isn?t foolproof. If the enemy does DI, you can try a short hop aerial to cover several of the opponent?s options, or down tilt to lead to another grab. Speaking of which - you can just go for the grab after your up throw to perpetuate the tech chasing game. This is Falcon?s best damage-racking tactic against Fox, Falco and Falcon, so it is very important to know if you want to survive competitively.

Of course, you aren?t going to be the only one doing the combos. Your opponent should have some nasty combos in store for you, and they should be doubly nasty because Captain Falcon is a fast-faller, and most characters have pretty big combos on fast-fallers like you. Falcon and his fast-falling brethren are most bothered by attacks that send upwards, so the best way to prevent a great combo at your expense is to DI to the side, so that you?re harder to reach. With some characters, even this measure won?t do, but in the long run it?ll greatly reduce the amount of damage you eat.

Another one of Captain Falcon?s annoying weaknesses is that he is very easily edge-guarded. Falcon Dive, his up B attack, leaves him wide open to all kinds of edge-guarding attacks and is nearly impossible to sweet-spot the ledge with. There are a few things (but a few?) you can do to elude edge-guarders. One is using the flexibility of your up B - you can move horizontally pretty quickly and you can do little fake-outs to get the opponent to expect you?re going for the edge when you?re not, or vice-verse. Another is using forward B above the stage or a plat former to fake out foes. Be very, very careful when doing this though, because if you hit the enemy with this attack while recovering, you?ll pay with your life!

On the upside, Falcon isn?t really too bad when he is the one edge-guarding. Of course, you can always edge-hog - I won?t explain that. His main edge-guarding asset is being able to jump a long ways away and hit the enemy with an aerial attack. You can venture off the edge very far, and if you?re familiar with Falcon?s recovery possibilities you can make daring edge-guards that are quite impressive. If the foe is too close to the edge for such a maneuver to be feasible, he can also use his up tilt attack to push enemies away, or use the up aerial (facing the opponent or facing away - both have different uses). As fake-out options, you can hang onto the edge, fall off, double jump and use back aerial, or pretend to be going for that back aerial and instead get the ledge again. Edge-guarding is simple and not very character-specific, so I won?t dwell on it long.

The nice thing about Captain Falcon is that he can get the enemy off the edge are such low damages (after a knee) that very quick KO?s can be delivered if you play a good stock. This can only be done, of course, if you are fluent in approaching, comboing and KOing , and you can defend against an opponent fluent in each of these aspects. This essay, hopefully, has improved your knowledge on how Captain Falcon should be used, and if he isn?t already, I recommend you use him as a primary or secondary character, because he?s a lot of fun to use. I?ve used him as my main character for over a year, and I can tell you that he really is the bee?s knees .

famous Isai killer shown to me by lambchops... painfully:

(when they are out of the stage)

Jump out, knee, if not sweet spotted, follow up with an aerial up A.

;_;

Captain Falcon used to be my favourite SSBM character.

Hes pretty good. Add some Bunny Ears and Lightning Mode and see how many times he falls off the edge.

On 20-Jun-2005 XIF said:

famous Isai killer shown to me by lambchops... painfully:

(when they are out of the stage)

Jump out, knee, if not sweet spotted, follow up with an aerial up A.

;_;

Indeed. Isai killed me just like that too. I couldn't forget it. ;_;

Note, however, that he uses his second jump for that U-air, then DI's back to the stage for his Falcon Dive.

well... i kinda thought that was obvious <_<

Oh, I know. It's just that you didn't mention it.

People reading about it for the first time will probably try it, fall because they didn't jump the second time, and whine about it here.

Well, you can sometimes make it back after two aerial attacks (w/o djing the uair) - the *length* of Falcon's recovery really isn't too bad, especially if there's no-one around to shorten it ;). You can sometimes go for two knees if the opponent's at low damage. Always good for those quick kills! The backside of uair is also quite effective...

Capt. Falcon is the strongest,quickest and the 1 that i know all of the moves for. C.F. Rulez!!! Lets talk C.F.

well, i wanted it to be a comprehensive introduction to captain falcon. if you take the time to read it, you'll find lots of useful stuff

anyways, let's talk about one of falcon's more annoying enemies: peach. most people consider falcon vs. peach to be an advantage to peach, and there's a compelling argument in her favor - once she gets turnips she can plain out shut down falcon's approach, and attacks like down smash and up throw are killer. i think falcon has more options than is apparent, though. he can keep pressure on peach to prevent her from getting turnips, and he has various methods of prying her into the air, where he has an advantage. not to mention his own combos work quite nicely against peach.

i won't say too much more - i will mention though that any vids of darkrain's falcon and vidjo's peach are very instructive and good to watch. he knows falcon vs. peach quite well, i think.

I don't use nair all that often...and I see it used a lot in high level of play, and I'm trying to use it more(out of a shield, perhaps)

Should I?

oh definitely. nair has the range falcon needs to approach and the attack itself is chock-full of uses, one of which is being a deadly comboer. keep your foe at your feet though - most good cf'ers bend back their short hops and move away from the opponent in mid-air when using falcon's nair. also, an l-cancelled first hit can lead to a grab which is always good for Falcon (second hit can too, but not at all damages). and nair's generally side-step-proof.

Yeah, I keep using dashed shffl'd Nairs when I shouldn't be: not because I want to, but its out of habit by using Fox. I realize that dashing it is kinda useless, since you'll be getting in the first hit, but completely bypass your opponent by the second hit.

I need to learn to start still or even short hop backwards when using Nair.

Err. Actually, dashing shfflc nairs work really well. Just hold back before you fastfall... and obviously you need to space correctly. In any case, though, it's totally possible to get both hits as well as all the combo benefits when dashing into nair.

i dont mean to spoil your fun but Ganondawf is way way better

The poor spelling and lack of any logical explanation in your post, and the quality of the competion are going to doom you.

zarona & helsing: yeah, pretty much what helsing said. you can fly in with nair, but usually it's best to take advantage of falcon's longish legs and, again, try to keep the foe at your feet, where it would be very hard for anyone but marth or roy to shield-grab you.

jirachi: falcon's usually considered a little better than ganon....in any case i'm the only dedicated falcon user that posts here regularly and none of us are cf fanboys trying to justify his being the best in the game or anything. he isn't. we're just discussing captain falcon in general.

I started trying to play Falcon yesterday. My aim really sucks with his fairs though, so I can never knee anybody. I want to learn to do the extra jumps by using his falcon kick. Can you explain how to do that?

Captain Falcon has the coolest moves. They look better than Ganondorf's, really.

dn2627: if you're off the stage and rather high up, you can double jump and then falcon kick. the advantage is that you get another double jump . you can continue doing this to gain more double jumps, but it's usually impossible to recover properly after more than one. even then, you usually have to be knocked high as well as far. so suppose you're knocked off the stage like this:

***

------------------------------------------------------CF <- "I've been knocked high and far!"







______Peach :(_

***

you would double jump, falcon kick, double jump again and then use up B (or something else if you're close enough, of course). now if it's more like this:

***

----------------------------------------------------------------CF <- "I've been knocked low and far!"

________Peach :(__

***

then you'd just jump and up B to the edge, because you don't have enough vertical room to use falcon kick.

with a bit of practice it's usually easy to tell how much room you have to use falcon kick. usually you don't have enough because falcon gets knocked low from most attacks.

edit: in terms of knee-ing people, that comes with time. of course, if you want immediate results, use dash short hop fairs a lot. they're not too hard to land and they're especially fun to do. of course, you won't *always* want to try to dash sh the opponent, but it's an option that works well with falcon.