I. Introduction
In the past 2 weeks, I played exclusively PAL falcon in my awesome trip in Australia. After logging in about 50 hours of playtime and playing 2 full melee tournaments, I feel I am qualified to explain the differences of Falcon between NTSC and PAL beyond the scope of free gentlemans.
This article aims to explore the buffs/nerfs/ and overall implications of Pal falcon compared to NTSC falcon against the rest of the cast. I hope people who play falcon in one version exclusively can use this article to note some key differences as they switch from their core version of the game.
*Certain things that appear as buffs to me may simply be due to change of weight, regardless, they still are better in PAL than in NTSC*
II. Buffs
A. Direct Buffs:
1. Weaker, but better Up-air
Up-air appears to be marginally weaker in Pal in terms of knockback. Either that or character weight changes make it easier to connect. This is a good thing. Already a great combo move for Falcon, up-air being weaker makes it even easier to link together up-air wheel of fortune strings or linking them to other aerials. This alone makes his already outstanding combo game on floaties even better. In some situations where you are forced to up-air and they are at mid-high percents. A PAL up-air can sometimes lead to a strong knee that would never happen in NTSC.
Sidenote, it appears some of the hitboxes, especially the later ones appear to have different knockback properties compared to NTSC.
2. Free Gentlemans (A+A+A)
A lot of people know this fact, but there is 0 risk of rapid jabs in PAL.
For those not in the know about Gentleman, it’s an outstanding 3rd hit jab that is ruined by bad rapid jabs if you do the 3 jabs “incorrectly” in NTSC.
Quoted from SmashWiki:
To time the Gentleman, one must delay the third neutral jab. Alternately, the player can perform the third punch by pressing Z and A at the same time (Isai’s preferred method) or L/R and A at the same time. Some have stated that they can perform the technique with X and A as well. In the NTSC version, a Gentleman will be performed if the animation of each jab is allowed to complete before linking the next jab (i.e. there was idle time between each of the first three hits). S2J’s preferred method is to hold down on the control stick after the initial jab and continuing the rest of the combo. In the PAL version of Melee, though, it’s easier to perform, since the rapid jab doesn’t follow the gentleman by default
Magus420 Post from Smashboards that completely dissect Gentlemans:
If you don’t hit anything you should also do the hold A method, but you do need to slow down the timing a bit to make up for not having the added hitlag. Holding A (or Z which also acts as an A input) on the 3rd hit until after you IASA out of the jab sequence will always be beneficial since rapid punches are triggered by comparing your total A input duration vs total time. The reason holding the 3rd input helps is because each A input duration is only determined on release, so if you never actually release the 3rd A input and IASA while still holding it that 3rd one doesn’t get included in the total at all.
Gentlemans are made easier by keeping your total A input duration low (releasing the A button faster when doing the 1st and 2nd punches and holding the 3rd input to omit it), and your total time high (spacing one or more of the punches farther apart and hitting something which adds hitlag to the total time). As the total A input becomes shorter and/or more hitlag is added, the time between punches can be shorter while still getting the gentleman. When the total A input becomes longer and/or less or no hitlag is added you will need to space the punches out more.
Total Frame Inputs allowed:
Tl;dr: gentleman’s are tough/ conditional in NTSC. You don’t have to do shit in PAL.
So, besides having free gentlemans, you don’t have to do an additional input or set up timing conditions to prevent the jabs. This leads to more creative options with gentleman. You have more leniency in timing your 3 hits without any possibility of rapid jabs. You can even gentleman → gentleman spam that is difficult to pull off in NTSC.
2. D-throw
D-throw connectivity on a decent range of characters are generally easier/ almost guaranteed with knee/ up-air.
B: Indirect Buffs: In general, the other top tiers are nerfed and/or have weight properties that are slightly different in PAL.
III. Matchup Changes
1. Fox
a. Smaller up-B range: Fox’s up-B range is now shorter so that it is in between Fox NTSC up-b and Falco up-b. This is obviously good especially if you suck ass at edgeguarding like me.
b. Fox’s weight: Fox’s weight seems to be different in a manner that he is both easier to combo and tech chase. He appears to fall slower to the floor after a d-throw, giving you MORE time to react or set up an ideal position.
In my opinion, this suggests that the optimal tech chase style you should use in PAL vs Fox is reaction based tech chases over hard reads because reaction-based re-grabbing is easier.
c. Weaker up-smash: Fox’s upsmash does not kill you as early as it does in NTSC. It may lead to some combos that may not exist in NTSC simply because they are weaker though.
Fox in my opinion is Falcon’s worst matchup in NTSC. The nerfs in PAL make it noticably easier to play vs Fox, but a strong Fox player will still fuck you up. The neutral is still insanely difficult. It doesn’t fundamentally change the matchup too much but it helps in that you won’t die as quick.
2. Sheik
a. OP d-throw changed into somewhat shitty d-throw: Sheik’s NTSC d-throw popped people up in front of her, setting up retardedly easy tech chases… Fuck Sheik.
Pal D-throw shoots them down and away from Sheik, Sheik still has a means to follow up but it is not nearly as good as it was in NTSC. She still seems to have a slight advantage in neutral game IMO.
3. Falco:
a. Falco’s late d-air changed: Falco’s late d-air was a very good spike in NTSC. It was changed in PAL to shoot people up and away. It is an interesting change, but it is almost impossible to follow it up with literally anything so it is a nerf. Might have potential in teams.
Falco’s combo game on Falcon is still very strong and I didn’t notice many other changes, but I have not played top notch Falco’s in PAL yet.
4. Marth:
a. Marth’s Sweetspot D-air Spike is now a meteor: You can no longer Ken combo for kills unless they do not know it’s a meteor or they fuck up the meteor cancel.
However, PAL Marths simply substitute a reverse up-b for mostly the same end result.
IV. Nerfs
1. Falcon’s Weak Knee:
Falcon’s weak knee is nerfed in that it has now pathetic knockback and hitstun. It is much worse than its NTSC counterpart. It is almost impossible to weak knee → strong knee on floaties, a valuable combo in NTSC. It is also a worse idea to consider using weak knee on purpose in neutral game even as a mixup because it is literally a mid-air jab.
With weak knee → strong knee virtually gone, you have to do weak knee → up-air 98% of the time for off stage combos.
Using weak knee as an offstage gimp is viable about 50% as effective as it used to be. If you use it on space animals and they are too high, the weakness of the weak knee can make them up-b and hit you, possibly killing you
It is still usable as a gimp if they are beneath the stage situationally.
So Falcon’s weak knee is worse than NTSC definitively. I don’t know what went through the developers’ minds when they chose to nerf this specific move. It puts a slight damper on his neutral game and it hurts his offstage game.
V. Conclusion
Falcon is better in PAL by a decent amount. His one nerf is nothing compared the buffs he received as well as the other character’s nerfs. However, I would not change the tier list. Matchups are generally easier across the board BUT the fundamental aspects of each matchup still exist. No matchup that falcon loses in NTSC is suddenly in Falcon’s favor.
As mentioned previously, the games have different weight properties. People who are naturally adaptive will quickly change to having to slightly adjust their game even for moves that have no difference in themselves between versions. However, those who aren’t may want to consider playing using the new 20xx to account for the differences before going to a tournament with a different version of the game if they want optimal results.
Twitter: @s2jFALCON 
Spot on, Mr. Kim! The only detail I’d add would be about Marth’s Dair becoming a much more useful combo move on Falcon!
Please make more of these! The CaptainNation thanks you! :3
1. Fox’s up-air is not different in PAL.
2. Falcon’s up-air is not different in PAL.
3. Falcon’s down-throw is not different in PAL.
Fox and Marth have different weights, this might explain some of the differences that S2J was perceiving.
There’s a lot of misinformation in this article
The only changes Falcon has received in PAL are the late knee damage and knockback reduction, and the auto-Gentleman.
Falcon’s up air is the same (if anything it should seem to have higher knockback, not lower, since Fox and Marth are lighter and the other top/high tiers are the same).
Falcon’s down throw is the same.
Fox’s up air is the same.
Of the top 8 characters on the current tier list, only Marth and Fox have had their weights changed. Unless S2j is talking about one of those characters (or rare characters like Kirby and Yoshi) when he says comboing is different, he’s wrong. Regardless, the weight differences are very small so even in the cases of those characters combos and kill percentages will be pretty much the same, though possibly still significant; for example, point-blank Falcon Punch from the very edge of Battlefield kills Fox off the side blastline at 19% in PAL and 20% in NTSC (assuming the Fox doesn’t jump or wiggle out of tumble).
S2j says that Fox hits the ground faster after up and down throw in PAL, when it’s exactly the same (the distance Fox gets sent is also the same, or so similar its not possible to tell visually). However, Falcon is able to act 1 frame faster after down throwing PAL Fox than NTSC Fox. There is no difference with the up throw. I don’t think a 1 frame longer reaction window on down throw is not enough to make reaction tech chasing optimal in PAL but not NTSC (as the article implies).
Falcon doesn’t act out of down throw any faster or slower when throwing PAL Marth. Mario is the same, and every other character but Fox (who lets Falcon act 1 frame sooner in PAL) would either allow Falcon to act later or at the same time in PAL. Therefore down throw to knee or up air doesn’t connects any easier against floaties (or any character but Fox) in PAL like the article says.
I was wrong in my previous comment. Falcon can act 1 frame sooner after down throwing PAL Fox, but Fox also hits the ground 1 frame sooner (not at the same time like I said). This means that tech chasing PAL Fox is just as easy as tech chasing NTSC Fox (up throw is the same).
Jeapie said Falcon’s raptor boost is different too at Super NEBs…although I’m not sure if he knows enough about NTSC Falcon to be correct on that one.
I think this whole article was based off of S2J’s personal experienced with PAL vs NTSC Falcon. It makes sense that some of the information is not quite correct, like Stride is saying.