Ness (SSBM): Difference between revisions

Outside of his poor approach, Ness also suffers from an easily gimpable recovery. Ness's recovery has its merits; he has the second highest midair jump in the game (second to only Yoshi) and his midair jump has unusual properties in its trajectory; PK Thunder 2 also grants a rather long distance, with a moderately large sweetspot and a long period of invincibility frames. The move is also very risky to block due to possessing KO power that reliably KOs at 90%. Despite these benefits, however, Ness's recovery still is cited as arguably the worst in the game, in spite of its long length, due to possessing many notable flaws. If Ness uses an aerial to fend off edgeguarders, his double jump is cancelled and can prevent him from recovering if unable to act soon enough. PK Thunder's projectile instantly disappears upon hitting opponents, and this is very easily abusable by edgeguarders, further worsened by PK Thunder 2's slow startup. In the process of having to start PK Thunder 2, characters with good recoveries (such as {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}} or {{SSBM|Samus}}) can merely jump into the projectile and take minor knockback and damage, immediately sending Ness into a state of [[helplessness]], though this is a risky strategy. Projectiles such as {{SSBM|Link}}'s Boomerangs and the {{SSBM|Ice Climbers}}' [[Ice Shot]] can easily disrupt the projectile as well, and in these cases, damage is not even inflicted to the opponent. PK Thunder 2 also suffers from a number of problems. Notably, it is difficult to angle correctly, and it can easily curve under lips of stages, most notably on {{SSBM|Battlefield}}. Its linear nature can also make it easy to read and edgeguard for many characters, despite the invincibility frames found within it, and attacks like Mario's [[Cape]] or Link's [[Spin Attack]] can easily intercept the attack as Ness charges to the stage. Finally, PK Thunder 2 has significant ending lag, and if Ness recovers directly onto the stage after using it, opponents can easily capitalize on this ending lag by landing a powerful hit on Ness that he cannot hope to counter.

While Ness is considered to be a low tier in ''Smash 64'' owing to his poor range, mobility and most notably; his terrible recovery, he was initially considered to be top tier character in the game's early meta due to the strength of his [[double jump cancel]] which gave him a powerful combo game as well as giving him excellent [[shield]] pressuring potential. Likely as a result of this, Ness received a mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition from ''Smash 64'' to ''Melee'' but was ultimately [[nerf]]ed overall.