Falco Lombardi

Falco Lombardi^[a] is a character and a primary protagonist of Nintendo's Star Fox series. He is an anthropomorphic avian created by Shigeru Miyamoto and designed by Takaya Imamura. He was introduced as a teammate and non-playable character in the original 1993 video game Star Fox. From each game, to varying extents depending on the entry, the player usually can’t control Falco in his Arwing. He is the cocky and self-assured ace pilot of the Star Fox Team, but deep down he cares deeply for his teammates.

Falco is a protagonist of several Star Fox games, comics, and other media. He has been featured in several other game franchises, including as a playable character in every installment of the Super Smash Bros. series, with the exception of the original Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64. Falco has received a positive critical response, though his portrayal in the Super Smash Bros. series divided critics.

Falco Lombardi is an anthropomorphic avian with blue feathers, with bright red dots around his eyes, he has a sharp blue tail, which, much like Fox, appears to be very short in Star Fox 64 and Command. His eyes are consistently shown to be green. He will occasionally wear large tanker boots over his legs when fighting on the ground.^[6] Takaya Imamura from the Star Fox development team noted that the anthropomorphic styling was to help players feel empathy towards the characters in Star Fox.^[7] Falco’s outfit has changed in every game he appears in, but generally includes an orange or red jumpsuit under a pale gray flight jacket or combat vest and a headset. Nintendo has never officially cited Falco’s age or height in a game manual, but Nintendo Power released a card featuring Falco, which stated that during Star Fox 64 he is 19 years old, his height is 1.88 SM and his weight is 74.84 SK.^[8] The SNES Star Fox soundtrack booklet stated that Falco’s height is 175 centimetres (5.74 ft) and his weight is 46 kilograms (101 lb).^[9] Falco would be 27 in Adventures (as Adventures takes place just 8 years after the events of Star Fox 64), 28 in Assault (the game manual stated 1 year had passed since the conclusion of Adventures), and 30 to 31 in Command (exactly three years right after the conclusion of Assault).^[10]

Unlike the voice actor consistency with other Nintendo characters, such as Mario, several different individuals have contributed their vocals for Falco. He was first voiced by Daniel Owsen in Star Fox, in both the English and Japanese versions of the game. His most consistent English voice actor has been Bill Johns, who first portrayed the character in the localized release of Star Fox 64 and Star Fox 64 3D. He has since then consistently voiced Fox, supplying the character with his voice for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Star Fox Zero, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In both the Japanese release of Star Fox 64 and Super Smash Bros. Melee, Falco was voiced by Hisao Egawa.

Falco first appears in Star Fox for the Super NES as the ace pilot of Team Star Fox, alongside Fox, Slippy, and Peppy. He and his allies face off against Andross and his empire. They also appear in Star Fox 2, a cancelled games released decades later. He and his allies later appear in Star Fox 64, fighting against Andross as well as Star Wolf, consisting of Wolf O'Donnell and notably Falco’s rival, Leon Powalski. In the game Star Fox Adventures, Falco is absent throughout most of the game, allegedly leaving to pursue being a freelance pilot. During the final boss against Andross, Falco comes back to assist Fox by shooting down Andross with Smart Bombs.

In Star Fox: Assault, Falco and his allies are hired to defeat Andross' nephew, Andrew Oikonny, who started a rebellion. They also face off against the Aparoid race, led by the Aparoid Queen, with assistance from Star Wolf.

Outside of Star Fox series. Falco Lombardi has appeared in four of the five Super Smash Bros. games as an unlockable playable character. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he is light and has the best jumping height in the game, surpassing Luigi and Zero Suit Samus, and has fairly weak attacks that allow for a number of combos. His attacks include a blaster, a dash attack, a hexagonal reflector (informally called the "shine"), the "Falco Phantasm” attack, and the Landmaster tank as a "Final Smash". Fox McCloud and Wolf O'Donnell, also from the Star Fox series, have similar movesets. In competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee, Falco is considered to be one of the best characters in the game, utilized by a lot of top players, such asAdam "Armada" Lindgren and Joseph "Mango" Marquez, although his slower movements compared to Fox make him a little tricky to handle without practice.^[11] Falco also re-appears alongside the rest of the Super Smash Bros. cast in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and is based on his Star Fox Zero design. Unlike in Brawl, Falco’s "Final Smash" makes use of the Arwing vehicle instead.^[12] He also makes a playable appearance in the Nintendo Switch version of Starlink: Battle for Atlas.^[13]

Since the release of the original Star Fox, Falco Lombardi has received generally mixed reception. ^[14] While being a fan-favorite character for most Star Fox fans, however most critics weren’t a fan of his “douchebag” personality, but critics did think he was a more useful character than Peppy Hare and Slippy Toad, and thought his appearance was a little bit stale compared to the others. However, he was praised by critics for being far less annoying than most other Star Fox characters, such as Slippy Toad, as well as IGN praising Falco for being a “cool character” in that game.

His appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee was also met with mixed reception, with a bunch of critics stating that he is “way too similar” to Fox in terms of how they play.