Project V/Captain Falcon



Captain Falcon (F-Zero) "Show me your moves!"

Captain Falcon is one of the twenty-eight main selectable fighters in Project V, representing the F-Zero franchise. He had been selected for experimental reasons, with the development team wanting to see how a mostly unaltered character from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U / 3DS would work in the landscape of Project V. As such, Captain Falcon retains the exact same statistics he had as of the most recent patches to his most recent appearance, working in almost the exact same way too. The only difference is that he now benefits off of the special attack charging system, adding priority to each of his four special moves. Because of his playstyle remaining pretty much the same, he retains being the rushdown character he's always been known for in Smash.

Captain Falcon ranks 6th on the tier list, putting him at the bottom of A tier. His quick mobility earns him a strong neutral game and good approach options, and allows him to have effective combo games against his opponents. With a great number of strong KO options, Captain Falcon can KO opponents within a variety of percentages starting from at least 75%. His knee smash and smash attacks all have extreme knockback, while his down aerial is an extremely strong meteor smash that only places below Ganondorf's. He does have his weaknesses, however: his recovery is linear, covers little distance, and can easily be interrupted. Some of his stronger attacks also have quite a bit of lag, which can make it easy to punish him. But despite these flaws, his strengths outnumber his disadvantages and keep him strong.

Attributes
Captain Falcon has a very offensive rushdown game, with his priority being to quickly whittle down opponents and knock them off stage with a powerful finisher. His moves generally come out fast; while they may have some notable end lag, they knock foes back quite a distance and make it hard for his foes to approach him assuming they're slower than he is. Even though he has no projectile, he has good approaching options and can knock his foes into the air easily, using his low-knockback up aerial to trap opponents temporarily and rack up damage before following up with more powerful attacks. Captain Falcon has a slow walking speed, very fast dashing speed, high falling speed, good air speed, and average jumps. All of Captain Falcon's special attacks have amazing utility as well; Falcon Punch is fast, reversable, and deals quite a bit of damage and knockback, Raptor Boost and Falcon Dive have low start-up frames, and Falcon Kick covers a long distance.

Falcon has quite a few flaws, however. While his recovery is somewhat aided by his fast aerial speed and his decent jumps, Falcon Dive does not climb a high distance and can be interrupted or pushed too far away from the ledge. Falcon Kick is useful for getting off of the stage, but if used in the air, he will go diagonally downwards, preventing the move from actually having any good utility off the stage other than for sacrificial KOs. While his moves are generally very strong, they tend to have quite a bit of lag if they miss or if they happen to be his smash attacks, which can leave him open for punishments. Captain Falcon has been noted for his low learning curve, however, and his slew of different strengths, which make him very popular in tournaments and give him high representation, resulting in his current high tier ranking.

Moveset
Like in Smash, Captain Falcon is a very fast character with powerful offensive options, able to rack up combos and land KOs within short periods of time without a problem. With a super fast dashing speed, he can use his dash attack to start up combos or grab them to start chain attacks that can deal devastating amounts of damage. His aerials all come out fast and can chain into each other, and can potentially end with his super powerful knee smash (forward aerial), which can KO at ~50%.
 * Neutral Special: Falcon Punch. Captain Falcon winds up and pulls his fist back before shoving it forward as a fiery fist, an eagle-like image emitting from his fist. This deals a lot of damage and knockback and even comes out fast, but it can be punished and easily avoided if the opponent is careful. It can also be reversed, which gains it more power and knockback growth. If Falcon Punch is charged, it will come out faster and push Falcon forward a large distance.
 * Forward Special: Raptor Boost. Falcon rushes forward with an uppercut, falling on his face if he misses. The uppercut is very strong and KOs at around 110% on middleweights. In the air, he shoves his fist downwards in an arc, which can meteor smash if it sweetspots, but the aerial version also leaves him helpless. Should Raptor Boost be charged, it covers more distance and doesn't grant helplessness, and KOs at around 90% instead.
 * Recovery Special: Falcon Dive.  Falcon will rise up into the air with his fists, trying to grab his opponent. If he succeeds, he will cry out "YESSS!!!" before tossing them diagonally upwards. If he fails, he will just do a harmless flip, but can still grab the ledge in this fashion. If Falcon Dive is charged, it will go up a considerably longer distance. Should he grab the opponent whilst this attack is charged, he can use it again with the same charged jump height.
 * Crouch Special: Falcon Kick. Captain Falcon will burst forward with a high-speed flaming kick. It deals some damage if it connects with opponents. If used at the beginning of the move, it has significantly more knockback growth, making it a reliable KO option around 120%. In the air, he plummets diagonally downwards, and the impact of his landing can KO opponents around 100%. If charged, the move will go a longer distance in general.

In competitive play
Due to time constraints, this is incomplete.