Editing Ness (SSBB)

'''Ness''' ({{ja|ネス|Nesu}}, ''Ness'') is a playable character in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''. He was confirmed on February 1st, 2008 on the ''Smash Dojo'' website. He is once again voiced by Makiko Ōmoto, with mostly recycled voice clips from ''Melee'', while providing some new ones.  

Ness is currently ranked 26th out of 38 on the [[tier list]], a vast improvement from his placement in Melee, where he was ranked 23rd out of 26 characters. Ness possesses a strong aerial game with very useful [[aerial attack]]s, as well as effective [[tilt]]s, effective [[throw]]s, a projectile with great trapping and damage potential in [[PK Fire]], a versatile projectile capable of very early KOs and [[mindgame]]s in [[PK Thunder]], and multiple powerful, reliable finishers (such as his back throw and back aerial). Ness is greatly hindered however, by his limited and easily disruptable recovery, the rather poor [[reach]] in most of his attacks, possessing a lackluster set of [[smash attack]]s, and by the 10 additional frames of [[lag]] he suffers when [[grab release]]d, leaving him vulnerable to grab release followups from almost every character, as well as [[infinite]] and zero to death grab release [[chain grab]]s (most infamously from {{SSBB|Marth}} and {{SSBB|Donkey Kong}}, but also {{SSBB|Charizard}} and {{SSBB|Squirtle}}). Ness overall has poor matchups with several [[Counter (matchup)|counters]], and he has had average [[tournament]] results.

*Play five [[VS. match]]es.

*Reflect ten projectiles.

*Have Ness join the player's party in the [[Subspace Emissary]] ([[Subspace (Part I)]]).

Generalizing Ness is difficult. He generally runs a unique, versatile role, employing three different projectiles with differing purposes. Generally, the moves have modest lag and decent knockback, his [[PK Fire]] leads well into other attacks, and his PK Thunder can trap opponents and lead into [[PK Thunder 2]], one of the strongest attacks in the game. Also, PK Thunder and PK Flash both leave Ness very vulnerable because he can't move or attack when controlling these projectiles. Ness can use his [[PSI Magnet]] to absorb any energy projectile. The best for Ness, however, are his powerful throws, most notably his back throw, the only throw in Brawl that can reliably KO under 150% without relying on being on the edge and bad DI. Combining these with proper projectile use and appropriate Smash timing, and Ness can be a powerful foe. Shield grabs tend to be a problem for Ness because of his below average standing grab range. Ness is fairly balanced in the areas of weight, falling speed, and air speed with none of them being particularly good nor particularly bad.

Ness' true game can be found by utilizing his aerials. Ness is one of the very few characters in the game who can perform two aerials in one shorthop (Double Aerial Shuffle). This requires practice though because one needs to do the aerial immediately when one jumps off the ground. Looking at his aerials individually, his neutral aerial is fast and a great combo move. His forward aerial can set up into itself, making it good at damage-racking. His back aerial deals powerful knockback when sweetspotted, making it his best aerial finisher,  while it can be used for a wall of pain when sourspotted. His up aerial is a very strong vertical KO move with a decent amount of range. Lastly, his clean down aerial is among the best meteor smashes in the game, and when hit late, it has strong horizontal knockback, making it good for edgeguarding.  

His ground game is decent but not great. With slow dash speed and short range tilts, he suffers in matchups against characters with disjointed hitboxes such as Ike or Marth. The only upside of his tilts are that they come out very quickly, which can be used to rack up damage. His forward smash, although powerful, is slow. His up smash, though weak in terms of knockback, is very versatile when used properly, being one of the only two smash attacks able to damage people while charging, the other being Ness's down smash. All of Ness's smashes also give Ness some much needed range in his ground game.

Ness's major problems are his poor ground grab release and recovery. He and {{SSBB|Lucas}} both suffer from having extremely long grab release animations. Most characters have some sort of ground grab release on Ness, and/or Lucas, leading to chaingrabs, infinities in walls, and other moderate to major problems. Two examples of this would be {{SSBB|Marth}} and {{SSBB|Donkey Kong}}'s 0-death on Ness and Lucas. Another example is {{SSBB|Wario}} using his forward smash out of the grab release, which Ness can't avoid. As mentioned above, Ness's other major problem is his using of PK Thunder 2 as a recovery move. Although Ness has a very large 2nd jump (second only to Yoshi's in terms of height), his PK Thunder, though faster than Lucas' PK Thunder, has a much wider turning angle, thus requiring more room for Ness to recover than Lucas. Its PK Thunder 2 also travels less distance than Lucas' version. In addition, his PK Thunder will stop in its tracks when it hits most projectiles, walls, or a character. As such, some opponents may take a risk and jump in front of PK Thunder's path to intercept Ness's recovery, giving Ness little to no hope of making it back onstage, which is easier with disjointed moves. However, this is a risky way of intercepting Ness's recovery, due to his recovery move having an extreme amount of knockback, KOing below 50% in most situations, although a projectile could still be used to halt his recovery, especially if it's controllable.

==Changes from ''Melee'' to ''Brawl''==

Ness has received a mix of buffs and nerfs, but was noticeably buffed overall in the transition from ''Melee'' to ''Brawl'', given that he was one of the worst characters. While he has seen relatively few direct changes compared to other characters, he has nevertheless seen improvements. His aerial game has seen noticeable improvements as his aerial mobility has improved, most of his aerials have less landing lag, his forward aerial while weaker connects more reliably making it a more effective spacing tool and his up and down aerials have more range and are overall more effective KO moves due to the changes to ''Brawl'''s mechanics. His recovery while still poor has also improved due to his higher air speed and lower falling speed and the removal of [[double jump cancel]]ing makes his recovery overall more versatile and reliable. He also overall has superior KO power especially when relative to the cast due to his aforementioned up and down aerials benefiting from ''Brawl''s universal changes and [[PK Thunder]] 2 is significantly stronger making it a much more powerful tool.

However, he also received several noticeable nerfs, the most significant of which being the 10 extra frames added to his grounded grab release animation. This is detrimental for Ness as it makes him vulnerable to inescapable kill confirms and even infinite [[chain grab]]s from some characters. His combo potential is also significantly lower due to the introduction of [[hitstun canceling]], the universally decreased falling speeds and the removal of double jump cancelling. He also lost his powerful yo-yo glitch.

Overall, he is considered to be improved from his ''Melee'' incarnation, but his longer grounded grab release in particular keeps him from moving into the higher tiers.

*{{change|Ness has recieved two new alternate costumes

*{{change|The removal of double jump cancelling greatly hinders his already poor approach and slightly weakens his combo ability, but significantly improves his recovery's safety.}}

**{{buff|Both up and down smashes are stronger, have greater knockback and are able to KO at very high percentages (though the former is still among the weakest up smashes, while down smash is now a down smash of average power). They also have a longer duration (frames 12-31 → 13-35 (down), 13-36 (up)). Down smash also has less end lag (FAF 62 → 57).}}

**{{buff|Grab range improved, no longer being the second shortest, and dash grab also has better range and a new, faster animation giving it less startup (frame 10 → 8) and end lag (FAF 41 → 36). Standing grab also has less startup lag (frame 8 → 6) and Ness now possesses a frame 6 pivot grab which is the fastest in the game.}}

**{{buff|Pummel has less ending lag (FAF 27 → 10).}}

*[[Throw]]s:

**{{nerf|The universally decreased fall speeds and changes to hitstun remove [[up throw]] and down throw's ability to combo and chaingrab.}}

**{{buff|PSI Magnet now has a push effect when released.}}

**{{nerf|PSI Magnet heals less damage (x2.0 → x1.6) and it can now only heal up to 30% damage.}}

|neutralname= 

|ftiltname= 

|utiltname= 

|dtiltname= 

|dashname= 

|fsmashname= 

|fsmashdmg={{ChargedSmashDmgSSBB|24}} sweet, {{ChargedSmashDmgSSBB|18}} sour

|usmashname= 

|usmashdesc=Ness sends his yo-yo forward and performs "around-the-world" over himself. Interestingly, when it's 'charging', it doesn't increase in damage or knockback.

|dsmashname= 

|dsmashdesc=Ness sends his yo-yo backwards and "walks-the-dog" with it before pulling the yo-yo back. Similar to his up smash, the yo-yo doesn't increase in damage or in knockback when it's "charging".

|nairname= 

|fairname= 

|bairname= 

|uairname= 

|dairname= 

|grabname= 

|pummelname= 

|fthrowname= 

|bthrowname= 

|uthrowname= 

|dthrowname= 

|usdesc=Ness creates a stream of lightning that can be aimed into opponents to deal damage with the head and stun with the tail. Aiming the head into Ness himself will launch him in a trajectory opposite to the side he was hit on, which is referred to as [[PK Thunder 2]]. PK Thunder 2 has invincibility frames during the first half of the move.  

|desc-side=Ness points his bat outward and says "Huah!"

|desc-down=Ness creates PSI sparkles on his fingers while saying "Hah!"}}

{{Crowd

|char=Ness

|game=Brawl

|desc-us=Ness Ness Ness OOOO!

|desc-jp=Ness Ness Ne-su!

|pitch-us=Group chant

|pitch-jp=Group chant}}

 

===[[Wii Remote selection sound]]===

{{SelectSound|char=Ness|desc=Ness says "Okay." like his up taunt.}}

:''See also: [[:Category:Ness professionals (SSBB)]]

*{{sm|FOW|USA}} - Considered one of the best Ness mains in the world before switching to {{SSBB|Meta Knight}}.

*{{sm|Fsann|Japan}} - Japan's top Ness player.

*{{sm|Shaky|USA}} - Considered the undisputed best Ness following FOW's switch to Meta Knight.

Ness' standing in the metagame has not changed much. He was originally seen as a low tier character, lying at the low tier at 31st. He did increase to 27th by the third tier list as new Ness professionals were discovered, and he stayed there for every single tier list in ''Brawl'', until the last one, where he was slightly bolstered by one tier.

 

Ness shows up saving {{SSBB|Lucas}} from the giant [[Pig King Statue]], which is soon revealed to be their mutual nemesis, [[Porky Minch]]. Lucas and Ness team up to defeat Porky and his machine. Afterward, {{SSBB|Wario}} attacks him with his [[Dark Cannon]], but Ness successfully dodges each shot. Wario, however, then aims at Lucas, forcing Ness to push Lucas out of harm's way and take the arrow from the Dark Cannon, which turns him into a trophy. As Lucas is too scared to face Wario, he leaves Ness behind as Wario cackles in the rain. Most of Lucas's story in SSE involves getting revenge on Wario and trying to find Ness.

 

As Wario is driving his [[Cargo]] with Ness' and Peach/Zelda's trophies on board, he finds {{SSBB|Luigi}}'s trophy and prepares to take it until he is ambushed by an army of [[Waddle Dee]]s, who throw Luigi's trophy into the cargo, which is stolen by {{SSBB|King Dedede}}. At his hideout, Dedede puts a [[Dedede Badge|badge]] on Luigi's, Ness', and Peach/Zelda's trophies before the roof collapses on them, turning Dedede into a trophy in the process, and {{SSBB|Bowser}} takes Peach/Zelda's trophy. Soon afterward the Ancient Minister detonates a Subspace Bomb that consumes Dedede's castle along with Ness', Luigi's and Dedede's trophies by Subspace.  

Ness is not seen again until much later in the story, where he and Luigi are revived thanks to the Dedede Badges. Upon inspecting Luigi's badge, he notices that it looks like Dedede, and, assuming that Dedede made them, proceeds to revive him. Upon being revived, King Dedede gives both of them a hug before they team up and rescue Lucas, along with most of the other characters. Kirby, who was revived by the Dedede brooch he swallowed earlier, revives whatever characters that Ness' group did not come across, including Wario. Wario then bashes Dedede in the head as revenge for Dedede stealing his cargo and trophies. He is then surprised to see Ness and Luigi on Dedede's side. They offer to let Wario join them, and he agrees and rides his bike up to the entrance of The Great Maze. Ness, along with {{SSBB|Sonic}} and the other characters team up to defeat [[Tabuu]].

===Playable appearances===

Ness was captured by {{SSBB|Wario}} during [[The Ruined Zoo]], and he is brought into {{SSBB|King Dedede}}'s castle after he previously stole Wario's trophy cart. But after [[The Cave]], a Subspace Bomb was detonated near his castle, bringing Ness into Subspace.

 

==In [[Event Matches]]==

===Solo Events===

===Co-op Events===

==Trophies==

Ness's main and [[Final Smash]] trophies can be obtained by clearing {{SSBB|Classic Mode}} and [[All-Star]] mode respectively with Ness.

:'''Ness'''

::''An average boy whose life changed when he found a meteor and an alien on a nearby mountain. The alien warned him of a future threat, and adventure ensued. He can use psychic energy known as PSI and also wields a bat and yo-yo. This brave youth gives his all to defeat the evil Giygas.''

{{Trophy games|console1=SNES|game1=[[EarthBound (game)|EarthBound]] ''(Japan and US Only)''|console2=N64|game2=[[Super Smash Bros.]]}}

::''Ness as he calls down a host of damage-dealing stars in his Final Smash. Everyone on the screen must dodge like crazy to avoid getting hurt, but that's no easy task. This attack appeared in the Mother series, but it was Poo, not Ness, who wielded it. Perhaps Poo taught Ness the secret of the attack for use in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.''

{{Trophy games|console1=Wii|game1=Super Smash Bros. Brawl}}

Ness - Brawl Trophy.png|Classic Mode

PK Starstorm (Ness) - Brawl Trophy.png|[[PK Starstorm]]

*Despite being the first character unlocked through playing Brawls, Ness is one of the last characters unlocked by playing ''Subspace Emissary''. He is also the first unlockable character to be playable in the Subspace Emissary, despite not joining the player's team until near the end of the game.

*Strangely, Ness has visible teeth during the cutscenes of the Subspace Emissary, but not during the actual gameplay. {{SSBB|Lucas}} has this distinction as well.